Furious and indignant. Roger Grimau, Barça coach, has rarely been seen like this. A slow and reflective man, he finished the match hot yesterday and could not contain himself in the subsequent press conference. The coach pointed directly to the referees. He declared Real Madrid the fair winner, but he also accused the referees of applying a different criterion when signaling fouls. He also reported that after pointing out a technique to Willy Hernángomez, a referee told him: “This is not the NBA, kid.”
Still on the court, the Blaugrana coach summarized the match in this way: “A good, very complete first half. The second they punished us excessively... [he paused] certain moments.” At that moment he bit his tongue. But when he arrived at the press conference he exploded. “In three minutes they expel a great player,” he began his argument. “Surely they were fouls and if you stop it frame by frame and touch here or there... But in three minutes you can't send a player off. And I'm sure you'll watch the video and see that yes, it's up to you here and so on, but that can't be the criterion. There are players who play 34 minutes on the other team and make three fouls,” he criticized. And he exemplified it with a white player whose name he did not say: “He is a player that I love and he has been pressing the entire game. Don't know. Things. Having a technical whistle on Willy, and having to hear 'this is not the NBA, kid'... Surely we didn't lose because of the referees, but I don't know," he lamented.
Grimau wanted to make it clear that these were not excuses and that Real Madrid had deserved the victory. “I'm not making excuses for myself or my team, it was a fair winner and they won and that's it, that's the result. Maybe today is the straw that breaks the camel's back. I don't know if you can see it from the outside. From within, when you are focused on something, maybe you see more things. There have been moments when we have been able to get involved and we have not been able to,” he summarized.
He also wanted to distance the role of the white team from his critical tone. “They have pushed us and they have done it at the level that they have allowed them to. Chapeau to them. I'm not messing with the club, Madrid, or the players. Maximum respect. We will have to learn or play differently, starting with my position. But at certain times we have not known how to play in the face of this toughness,” he said frustrated.
Despite the enormous anger, the coach wanted to see something positive in what happened in Malaga for the team's future. “Now we are screwed because we wanted to win, we are Barça and we want to win everything. But I hope this unites us even more than we are and we grow to be able to do so later,” he wished.
Álex Abrines joined the coach's speech, who despite making it clear that he did not believe they had lost because of the referees, “it is true that there were a couple of actions when we were coming back. Many times the criteria are not the same,” he explained.
With a similar eloquence although with a different prism, Tomas Satoransky gave voice better than anyone to the feeling of frustration in the locker room. “The usual,” he started. “One bad minute and we have ruined the game. We played badly for one minute and we lost. “I don't feel like talking, I want to be alone,” he said before taking refuge to experience the mourning of defeat in solitude. The Blaugrana point guard was referring to the 9-2 run that Barça conceded at the beginning of the last quarter. Three consecutive triples by Madrid upset the team, which was not able to counteract the defensive aggressiveness of the whites on Satoransky and Laprovittola. The attack also got stuck and the free throws didn't go in. Meanwhile, Madrid hit with quick transitions.
The image of the Barça bench was one of absolute desolation at the conclusion of the final. So close to victory and so far at the same time. Barça's game had been very complete until the beginning of the last quarter. There many illusions were distorted. Dreams were frustrated. Roger Grimau's Barça came face to face with reality. The Copa del Rey in Malaga did not give the expected happy ending
