The King’s Cup

(5th January 2021)

The Spanish domestic cup, the Copa Del Rey, is a very prestigious competition and I was hoping that I’d have the chance to witness one of its matches this season. My local Segunda Division B Group 4 club, Marbella FC, entered the competition at the first round stage, where they were victorious against Segunda B Group 3’s Lleida Esportiu 1-0, with thanks to a penalty from their captain, Javi Añon. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a ticket to watch that game, with only 400 fans being able to attend due to the local Covid restrictions and the club quite rightly deciding that they would only be offered to the season ticket holders.

My chance to watch a cup game locally now rested on the hope they’d get a home draw for the second round. Thankfully, I was in luck, with them being drawn against La Liga’s Real Valladolid at home, who, coincidently, were the team that beat Marbella in last season’s competition, only narrowly by a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw. Another good piece of fortune was that the Covid restrictions had been eased by the time of second round tie, meaning that 800 fans would now be allowed to attend. Tickets went on sale at €20 to the general public, which we found to be a reasonable price, so, I snapped up one for me and my dad directly from the club.

The tie was scheduled for a 9pm kick-off during the first week of 2021, which wasn’t to my personal liking, with the only 9pm game I’ve attended previously being Cadiz vs Málaga (more on that here – https://adayinthelifeofafootballtherapist.sport.blog/2020/05/05/andalusian-adventures-birthday-present-ft-cadiz-jerez/) and it not being convenient for getting home after the match. A factor to consider was the weather, I know that many people have misconceptions about the typcial weather in the Costa Del Sol, but the winter months do still get bitterly cold and soaking wet at night. Another problem that presented itself was the date of the game, as it was being played on a local bank holiday know as the Three Kings Day, a big festival style celebration in Spain with carnivalesque processions and other events taking place across a range of locations. This meant that the main road running through the centre of Marbella was closed, causing delays to all traffic in the vicinity, with numerous diversions around the town. We didn’t expect it to cause as many problems as it did, however, it also meant that we had a dilemma with getting home after the game, which I’ll explain later…

We had originally intended on arriving into Marbella for around an hour before kick-off, but were held up in the traffic problems, meaning that we weren’t able to reach the ground until shortly after 8:30pm. Once we got there, we were greeted by a heavy police presence and a long queue of people waiting to enter. For some unknown reason, the doors hadn’t been opened at this point and, even when they were about 15 minutes later, it took a long amount of time to get everyone into the ground, due to the searching of persons and temperature checks taking place. The only positive about the long wait was that I ventured into the club shop and was able to get myself a teamsheet for the match, after politely asking the helpful club staff (which is now ruined by the rain). That actually happened to be the first souvenir that I’ve been able to get in Spain this season, as the lower-level club’s don’t produce programmes and haven’t had any merchandise on display for this season, due to the possible issues with Covid. We were finally allowed to enter the ground at 8:50pm, to discover that the match had been delayed by 15 minutes, presumably because of how long it was taking to get the fans in, which led to an even longer wait and more problems for getting home afterwards.

The match itself though was excellent, with it proving to be a very exciting and close affair. After having a reasonably poor run of results in the league, particularly when compared to their expectations ahead of the season, Marbella looked more than capable of causing a cup upset in this tie. Both teams created a couple of half-chances during the first-half, without either side being able to get the breakthrough, which set up for a tense second period. Real Valladolid came out strong after the interval and it seemed only a matter of time before they’d take the lead, which they did after 52 minutes played, when Zalazar converted a cut-back which was played to the front post, from the left hand-side of the penalty area. Marbella kept on pushing hard and were determined to get back on even-terms, with their chances being helped by the Valladolid goalkeeper, who took out winger Callejón whilst he was running through on goal, following a neat passing move by the hosts. The resulting penalty was cooly converted by Esteban Granero to level the scores with an hour of the game gone. After this point, it looked like the home side were beginning to tire and their tempo dropped, with the flow of the game being impacted by the substitutes that both sides were making. Eventually, the visitors were able regain the lead, in an almost identical fashion to how they scored their first goal, but this time Plano was able to get himself on the scoresheet, after another ball played across from the left hand-side into his path.

Marbella threw everything they had at Valladolid to force another equaliser, although at the same time they were starting to take more risks, often leaving their defence exposed, as the away side hit both the post and crossbar in quick succession late-on. In the dying moments of the game, the hosts were finally able clinch the all important leveller, when the visitors failed to clear the ball following a corner kick, Marbella substitute Gudiño was in the right place at the right time to lash the ball into the net, meaning that there’d be 30 minutes of extra-time to come.

At this point in the evening, the weather was getting worse and, after a heavy downpour, a number of those in attendance chose to leave, mainly due to there not being any cover available in the ground. The extra-time period wasn’t as notable as the first 90 minutes, with both teams mainly cancelling each other out but, the difference between the two sides came through a good piece of individual play, as Plano was able to skip past Marbella’s defenders to run through on goal and score his second of the night, to give Real Valladolid the lead for the third time. That proved to be the way the match finished, with Marbella having visibly fully exerted themselves and given everything that they had, but it remained an entertaining game until the end nonetheless.

Due to all of the delays we had incurred throughout the evening, it left me and my dad with a mad dash across Marbella to try and catch the last bus home, not being helped by the majority of the town centre still being closed-off. Now sopping wet, feeling tired and rather sweaty, we decided to have a rest at a bus stop on the way out of Marbella towards Puerto Banus, with us being confined to the fact that we’d have to walk home (approximately 10 Miles) having seen no signs of any buses or taxis on route. As luck would have it, the last bus turned up shorty after, running about 20 mins later than scheduled, meaning that we were at least able to get home for a cup of tea and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Somehow, despite the fact that everything that could have gone wrong, going wrong, and that Marbella lost the game, I’d say that it all worked out in the end for us!

That was a night with a wide range of emotions from the start to end, leaving us cold, wet and exhausted afterwards, but, I’d undoubtedly do it all again in a heartbeat.

Chris Sharp

(All photos are taken by me, please can you give me credit if you wish to use my photos)