Professional soccer started in Vallecas on Wednesday with a game, the longest in LaLiga history , which had started 178 days earlier. A Rayo-Albacete, only 45 minutes long and resolved with a formidable left-handed goal by Luis Advíncula, as an appetizer for a very busy schedule. No less than 110 duels in First and 121 more in Second tightened in five weeks, until July 19. A torrent of football, initially behind closed doors, to return to something similar to normal. [1-0: Narration and statistics]

Although it is still hard to believe, it was the third scheduled date in Vallecas, due to the incidents of last December 15 , when the chants against Roman Zozulya triggered the first suspension of a match in our professional football. LaLiga had defended that those xenophobic and racist expressions against the Albacete striker could not consent to one of their stadiums. However, Vallecas this time again showed its total rejection against the Ukrainian.

From early in the morning, Peña Bukaneros had tiled the neighborhood with hundreds of stickers: "Zozulya was and still is a fucking Nazi . " And the slogans did not end there. In Arroyo del Olivar street a banner played with the most famous motto of Javier Tebas. "It is not soccer, it is the League," they warned about this business model with which they do not seem willing to compromise. A more idealistic message was reserved to the side of Avenida de la Albufera: "Your greed has swallowed up all the good that football had. You are killing the only pure thing that was left in this sport."

Albacete, escorted

Three hours before the initial whistle of the Cantabrian López Toca , the fences already delimited the access of traffic on Avenida Payaso Fofó. About twenty agents from the Prevention and Reaction Unit (UPR) had escorted Albacete from his concentration hotel, near what still remains of Vicente Calderón. At half past six, the two buses from the La Mancha club parked a few meters from the Restaurante La Franja. For the first time in LaLiga history, to meet health requirements, a team had to resort to two vehicles to reach a stadium.

A little earlier, a handful of onlookers and a swirl of journalists pointed their cameras at the arrival of the Rayo players, who had to access the facilities in their private vehicles . All of them did not exceed the number of National Police officers, strategically distributed, on foot and on horseback, in the four corners of the compound. The goal of avoiding any crowding had been fully accomplished. In fact, the only uncontrolled focus was to be mobilized in the rear, next to the bottom without stands.

The Vallecas stadium, like Ipurua in Eibar or the Ciutat de Valencia, headquarters of Levante, allows some privileged people to enjoy soccer from their balconies. The most coveted are located on Teniente Muñoz Díaz street . From one of those terraces, when five minutes of the game had not yet been completed, the Bukaneros fought against the wind to unfold another of their banners: "Without fans there is no football."

This dialectical battle between the Rayo fans and their leaders had been going on throughout the week. Raúl Martín Presa , the owner of the club, had worked closely with Thebes for a heartfelt tribute to the victims of the Covid-19. The minute of silence had been settled between LaLiga and the Federation. Yesterday's flower offering also paid tribute to Presa's father, one of the thousands who died of the coronavirus. And in the stands of the Paseo de la Albufera, just where the television broadcast pointed, Presa had and Thebes had chosen an immense banner. "We will never forget you." To organize everything, they came working or almost against the clock, even at night.

Three points from the promotion posts

Prea, after a few months in unknown whereabouts, reoccupied her chair in the box, the most glossy space in a home that threatens ruin. Luis Yáñez , his trusted man in the not too distant past, is still on leave due to depression. Rayo's institutional reality, with a terrible social fracture, is perceived in the rust and the abandonment of a stadium where a misfortune can happen any day.

On a delicious spring afternoon, Paco Jémez's team forgot his anguish to add a victory that leaves him three points from sixth place, the last to grant him a place in the promotion playoff. Zozulya started at Albacete, sentenced to play with 10 due to the expulsion of Eddy Silvestre on December 15. As soon as the quarter of an hour was up, Advíncula resolved with a tremendous shot to the squad and the visitors, despite the effort of the Ukrainian, were left without answers. "We have not enjoyed it as we would have liked," said Jémez afterwards, always out of control at the microphones. "You go out into the field thinking that everything will be heard, but then you immediately forget when you get to the bench," he admitted. On the other side, Lucas Alcaraz, who replaced Luis Miguel Ramis, will still have to work with an Albacete who, with the same points as Deportivo, only thinks of avoiding the descent.

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  • Albacete
  • Vallecas
  • Javier Thebes
  • National Police
  • Valencia
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