Joaquín's most atypical challenge

It will be the derby of uncertainty. There are no favorites, because it will be played on ash. Soccer returns at the strangest moment of our lives and it will be like throwing confetti after a heartbreaking funeral. Farewells and dismissals, fear of the future, few certainties. The empty stands will make the meeting even more unreal. Sevilla and Betis return to the pitch because the League commands it , but it is difficult to concentrate on the ball, in that spherical dream. How the muscles will respond. How will be the battle between the thick silence.

Joaquín Sánchez (El Puerto de Santa María, 1981) has played 544 league games , but few more shocking than this one. Betis caught the virus with the taste of victory on his lips. And not just any triumph. That match on March 8 was played at home, against Real Madrid and with Rubi on the scaffold. The 2-1 was frozen in time. Then the confinement, the extraordinary measures, and this harsh return.

Aduriz's hip did not overcome this pause and, after his recent retirement, Joaquín has gone on to occupy the honor of being the youngest footballer in the competition . There is a Chinese vase in the locker room. He is not maintained for what he was, but for what he is. His talent deserves a prominent position on the campus and he is a non-negotiable presence in his club.

Betis have played 27 games this season and Joaquín has spotted his boots in 26. In 20 he did so as a starter. He has eight goals scored, including a hat-trick against Athletic , and two assists. The eighth player with the most minutes in the squad, ahead of Borja Iglesias, Loren, Guardado or Feddal. His performance after the break, still, is a mystery. Time is a silent executioner. With the new regulation, five changes will be allowed in these last meetings. Honey for the muscles, oxygen for the bones. As a shock or to tempt the start game, Joaquín's work will be crucial for Rubi who, with a bottled 4-1-4-1, needs air on the sides and an associative nose. A very closed system to protect a defense that suffers in the open field and that entrusts its attack to the specific genius of the Portuense, Fekir or Canales.

Privileged physicist

Joaquín will be 39 in just over a month. Few footballers have extended their careers so long. "You don't need much to stay in shape," said teammate Canales recently. A privileged physique that allows him to bear the stakes of the game and a very competitive mentality, far from the shameless image that he usually gives in networks and the media. He is no longer the electric footballer he was, but he has managed to recycle his virtues . His role has changed with age and Rubi uses it, not to find the bottom line, but to partner in the hot spots of the game. It conserves gold in its toes. Joaquín directs in the field, pushes and poisons. This will be his 19 derby in Primera. A reunion with football that will start cold. Sevilla, which looks to Europe and starts with a 14 point advantage over Betis, hopes that the absence of the public does not benefit the rival. "These circumstances were unimaginable three months ago," emphasizes Lopetegui.

The "new normal" will be empty stands, soccer bordering midnight and Joaquín marking with the outstretched palm one of his precise passes. Everything has changed, or almost.

In accordance with the criteria of The Trust Project

• Seville
• March 8
• Real Madrid
• Europe
• sports

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