Kubo lights up a polar night

Takefusa Kubo emulated his friend Doraemon against Villarreal. The famous cartoon character is characterized by taking out a lot of gadgets from his belly pocket and inventing countless magical tricks to help his friends. It seems that Kubo asked for it for this first game of 2025 at the Reale Arena and thus pulled out of his hat a wonderful goal, with a Maradonian look, which served to unevent a match that was being soporific and give a very important victory to Real Sociedad .

Nothing more was needed, nor was it necessary. With such a play, superb, wonderful, incredible, it was enough. An unforgettable goal, a flagship goal, a candidate for both of the season, and one that defines the Japanese. The fourth of the year. An imaginative and differential footballer, a potential star, the star of this Real team, but who sometimes errs on the side of individualism. But when inspired he is unstoppable. He threatened in the first half, but only with timid threats. And in the second half, in the 50th minute, he unleashed himself and was enough to make a good clearance that turned into an assist from Oyarzabal and to dismantle the entire Villarreal defense.

And that’s it. With Kubo. With his game. With his great goal. That alone explains the triumph of Real Sociedad against the Yellow Submarine. Because it was what unbalanced the match and defined the result. The rest was mere company that in many cases did not live up to the spectacle that the Japanese gave. And with Kubo at that level, Real can dream of Europe. A great goal that also served to finally beat Marcelino in Anoeta. It had to be Kubo and with such a specular goal. Otherwise it seemed impossible.

The first half of the Reale Arena match will not go down in football history. In the middle of freezing cold in San Sebastián, and with the stands showing a soulless appearance due to the wonderful schedules that football has today, the players of both teams took in the atmosphere and staged a spectacle unworthy of a battle for the European places in the League. The only one who was saved was Take Kubo, who without doing anything out of this world, at least gave him some spice on the right wing and generated the only dangerous chances in the soporific first half, although they always ended the same, with imprecise crosses that ended in Junior’s hands.

Barry also tried it at Villarrealalthough in a very different way, using his speed and his corpulence, to put the realistic rearguard in some trouble, but without worrying Remiro in the least. The only shot between the three sticks was from Suçic, who grabbed a divided ball inside the area and crashed the ball into Villarreal’s right post. And that’s it. The show was so poor that Soto Grado decided not to add more suffering to the staff and did not lengthen the first half at all.

Luckily, as soon as the second half began, Take Kubo, who if not, decided to definitively uncover his jar of essences and pulled out one of those plays that will remain in the memory of Txuri-Urdin fans for a long time. time. With Real being not very forceful in disputes, Their defense finally managed to clear a lateral center from Villarreal, and the clearance was turned into an assist by Mikel Oyarzabal with a very committed pass behind the yellow defense. But the Japanese did much better with a run to goal glory. He won the fight first against Parejo, who was very soft on the ball, and then he put the turbo towards the Villarreal area to pause his career at the right moment to throw a shot at Kiko Femenía with as much mastery as finesse and lodge the ball in the back of Junior’s goal, adjusting it to the post. A great goal that already It served to justify the effort of going to the Reale Arena on a Monday night with barely two degrees of temperature.

The goal woke up Villarreal, who activated in search of an equalizer. And in the process he encouraged the game, which opened up as close as it had been until then. Because against Real Sociedad they also generated danger, with Marcelino’s team taking the obligatory and necessary step forward that the situation demanded. Remiro had to appear twice to save his team with two very worthwhile saves, from shots by Gerard Moreno and Sergi Cardona. And Junior also had to stretch to clear Suçic’s shot from the edge of the area. Of course, the match was finally what was expected of a duel between two contenders for Europe.

There was more intention and more intensity. And uncertainty was evident in both areas. Although Villarreal lacked the drive to arrive with more guarantees, because it is inevitable not to miss as many players as those missing due to injury. Imanol decided to remove Oyarzabal and Kubo in the final stretch, and without the Japanese the magic on the grass was lost a little. The intrigue of the short result remained, with a Villarreal that at least with more heart than head tried until the end to avoid defeat at the Reale Arena. But La Real has already become an expert in achieving clean sheets and holding on to a 1-0 lead. And Oskarsson did not take advantage of the spaces behind Villarreal’s advanced defense to seal the score. The yellow submarine pushed until the end, but was unsuccessful. And Marcelino lost his first match at the Reale Arena. La Real adds three vital points and ends the first round absolutely hooked on the European fight.

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