There are few football clubs that more easily intertwine drama and bliss. Deportivo has been in his blood since that afternoon of 91 that opened his contemporary history ascending to Primera in the middle of a fire in Riazor. Party and scare, a warning.
Then he has been facing episodes of the novel, because the same loses a League for failing a penalty in the last minute that then wins a Cup in a final played in two acts because of a storm of biblical tone. Or he is able to snatch a title at the Bernabéu from Madrid on the day of his Centenary to later ruin a Champions League semifinal for a joke kick (Andrade a Deco). Vertigo in the elite and in Segunda, where without going any further in a few months, last year, touched the return to Primera in Mallorca (header from Marí in 94) to see in December nine points of permanence in the category of silver.
This is how Fernando Vázquez arrived on the bench on the eve of the last New Year's Eve, with the team and the city assuming that Deportivo would pay for his sins in Second B next season. "These same players will be considered phenomena if they win six straight games," he said on the day of his presentation, perhaps with the crystal ball under the table. Today his team sports a streak of six consecutive wins and their fans, instead of cruelly counting on the day they would mathematically descend, begin to look at the temperate zone of the table, with four mattress points on the red spots .
To them, to the followers of Deportivo, the coach addressed his first press conference, before talking about footballers, the winter market or tactics. Salvation went from being a chimera to a real goal. «As impossible as it may seem, it is possible. The fans have to take a step forward, ”he interjected in Galician to a runaway fan from Riazor , not wanting to see the sinking of his beloved shield live. At that conference he stressed the importance of the social mass, especially in critical situations. "If you are in Tercera and 8,000 people are going to see you, you are a great man," he recalled before almost kneeling at the microphone. "Please, please, that hobby that does not come to the stadium, come, we need it to save us," he pleaded. This Saturday, the victory against Las Palmas was applauded by 27,000 spectators , an almost full.
The streets, with the team
«The city lives a revolution. Its connection with the stands is being key », analyzes Carlos Alberto Fernández, sports chronicler for the EFE agency and the DXT newspaper. The flags have returned to the balconies and people take to the street to receive the team, as in the great afternoons. On Saturday, the coach of Corunna got off the bus to distribute hugs and sign autographs while his players marched towards the locker room, before the game. Then, with the three points, he spent another good time on the grass thanking the public.
"It's an hour and a half signing autographs and taking selfies in the parking lot," they reveal from the club, impacted by the force of the Vázquez effect. He was signed as the last bullet, in search of that magical point claimed by the impossible feats, but he did not expect the new directive such a reaction. In fact, in his contract he spoke with resignation of the Second B , something that he himself commented naturally on his first day. Misfortune and the miracle, again hand in hand in the life of Deportivo.
The players welcomed him with his soul on his feet. Even the crude confession of one of them on Instagram went viral. "We did not win even the ONCE," Nolaskoain said . An unknown technician arrived for most of the staff and had hardly worked in the last decade. An old high school teacher who gained fame 25 years ago for his careers for the San Lázaro band, in that Compostela de Primera. And that he left Riazor with the general affection after being fired in the summer of 2014, shortly after he took out the Second team.
Away from the benches
He arrived for him then days of kilometers by bike and walks through the old area of Santiago, where he lives. «Soccer is going fast, new people come up and they stop calling you. I dedicated myself to continue learning my trade, to read a lot, ”he says, owner of a library of books on football that impresses visitors. In six years he only trained 11 months in Mallorca in 2016, until the desperate call of the new Deportivo board.
In his first training, 500 fans came to welcome him. There were scarves and flares. The dressing room began to understand that in addition to a new technician, the third of the season, they had a symbol in front of them. A new time began, animated in the treasury of the entity by the intervention of Abanca, the Galician banking entity that acts as both the largest shareholder and the largest creditor. He expanded the loan he gave Deportivo two years ago by five million more, promising to become the owner of 33% of the club in the medium term. The cash booster allowed the winter market to come with power (seven signings; among them Sabin Merino , who has four goals in four days).
«Fernando is a very good psychologist. He knows how to manage the players' heads, ”explains Alberto Lopo , central in his first stage on the blue and white bench, to this newspaper. "And he knows how the Depor fan works," he emphasizes. Vázquez pulled the topic of player number 12, convinced that the fan's breath was indispensable. On the board, he regained a good memory system in Riazor.
"We had to stop the bleeding," justifies his emergency defense with five defenses, which Arsenio Iglesias used to put Deportivo to fight the Leagues to the Dream Team of Cruyff. The scheme has a history, because it was exported to La Coruña Boronat from the Royal Society, where he worked as a Toshack second. «The energy is positive», recognizes Vázquez prudently, with a promise made if he achieves salvation: to complete again at the age of 66 the Great Ézaro Fund , a 100-kilometer cycling race with 30% ramps. "We have won six games, and we have to win seven more," he asks, with very clear accounts.
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