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my limitations and me

2022-03-04T03:58:12.682Z


Seeing what happened to Kepa in the League Cup final and to De Gea before, I think they only criticized me for not saving penalties, but never for not scoring them.


Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga misses the last penalty of the shootout against Liverpool in the League Cup final. JUSTIN TALLIS (AFP)

The unknown has been cleared up and Athletic will no longer challenge the Copa del Rey finalist statistics to appear for the third time in a row, and it will be Valencia who visit the Cartuja Stadium, the one that will bring bright memories of a final wonderful win over Atlético de Madrid with a dream goal from Gaizka Mendieta and two magnificent goals from a Piojo López unleashed from those happy times.

And just as I knew that a red and white tide would invade Seville if Athletic reached the final, I am sure, very sure, that orange and white will dress the streets of Seville in the hope that those Valencian fans, who suffer so much and who care so much his club hurts, pay homage to this hard-fought, hard-fought final and to which he arrives with that great goal by Gonçalo Guedes, one of those players called to make a difference in this kind of challenge.

Meanwhile, Athletic worked, fought and struggled as much as its rival to come face to face with its own limitations, those that always appear to us at the least appropriate moment.

What am I going to tell you about those issues of limitations when I have been so many times in the quarterfinals, be it the European Championship or the World Cup, many times feeling that we deserved something more, feeling that something great was slipping out of our hands.

Sometimes because the game had minutes left over, others because exhausting those minutes gained from elimination led us to that heads and tails of penalties.

And you know how the matter ended: cross, always cross.

Those limitations that became more apparent the day you most wanted to overcome them.

Some of you with a good memory will think that the penalties and the one who writes this were like oil and water, come on, we lived together but we didn't just become friends, hardly even acquaintances.

Of course, in that football the limitation, the blocking, could come to you because your mastery in stopping maximum penalties was, statistically, limited, but in this new football it would be said that the challenge has overcome that difficulty and the thing can have more edges than the traditional ones .

And if they don't tell Kepa Arrizabalaga, Chelsea goalkeeper, who had become decisive for his team to reach the final of the EFL Cup, our old League Cup, and who lived through the entire game, and the extra time, on the bench until his coach turned when added time was over to give him entry at the last minute and leave him, there is nothing, only in the face of danger, in front of the challenge of maximum penalties.

What Kepa and his coach, Thomas Tuchel, did not know

My memory brought back De Gea, again De Gea, and the shootout in the Europa League final against Villareal and his penalty saved by Rulli and how complicated it is to be a goalkeeper since for me, at least, They only criticized me for not stopping them and a small voice remained in me telling me that although it was true that I had not stopped them, it was also true that one of my colleagues had damaged theirs and that, in any case, it was a shared guilt, but It never, never, never happened that I was criticized for not stopping and, on top of that, for not scoring.

That never, that is the total culprit.

Not Agatha Christie.

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Source: elparis

All sports articles on 2022-03-04

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