With seven teams (which could be nine if we take into account that both Athletic Club and FC Barcelona have played one less game to date) on just six points, Real Sociedad's solitary leadership is confirmation of the maturity of a project based on the same principles of a club with more than 110 years of history: youth and love of colors. And that promises many more joys in the not too distant future. The situation seems new, but it is not.
“In the last three campaigns, Real Sociedad has been the leader at some point during the season,” remembers Roberto Olabe in statements to LaLiga. For the sports director of the San Sebastian club, the leadership is nothing more than a “consequence” of the work well done “from Monday to Friday” by the technical staff headed by Imanol Alguacil and a “still growing” group, which must use its position privilege to learn to handle situations of “added pressure in a complicated world” like LaLiga Santander.
The former Txuri Urdin goalkeeper, Olabe not only coincided with Imanol as an active footballer, but was also one of the architects of the runners-up finish in the 2002/03 season, when the team then led by the Norman Raynald Denoueix achieved a league title that began to slip away with a tight defeat in Vigo (3-2) on the penultimate matchday. An also exciting end to the season that confirms that LaLiga Santander is always synonymous with pure spectacle.
Things of fate, the numbers of that team in which the Serbian Darko Kovacevic and the Turkish Nihat Kahveçi stood out, at the top (without detracting from the work of internationals such as Javi de Pedro, Aitor López Rekarte, Agustín Aranzábal or the Russian Valeri Karpin) turn out very similar to the current ones: seven victories in 12 matches marked by equality and with a difference of only 9 points between them, who are leaders, and Valencia CF, which is tenth.
Memories that, surely, remain in the retina of the most veterans of a squad with 12 youth players and that, far from conditioning the current block, should also serve as experience for the future. Because, at the same time that they learn to “enjoy the journey”, as Olabe assures, Real Sociedad boasts of a future and a subsidiary: a Sanse (the Real Sociedad B that this season plays in LaLiga SmartBank), led from the bench by a legend of Zubieta, who lived as an undisputed starter and was barely 21 years old that 2002/03 season. Because, what better mirror than a myth like Xabi Alonso to look at before facing the last step towards the highest category of Spanish football?
From the San Sebastian academy, its manager Luki Iriarte maintains that for everyone who works at Zubieta, “it is a source of pride” to be the only LaLiga Santander club whose subsidiary plays in LaLiga SmartBank. In statements to LaLiga, Iriarte highlights, above all, “the involvement of all the technicians” and the almost hundred “clubs agreed upon” by the club's foundation to preserve a century-old trajectory, which continues to be based on the comprehensive training of the young people “and who are also capable of keeping the first team at the top for a long time.”
The experience of the past and the excitement for the future come together in a momentum, which has also coincided with the return of the public to the Reale Arena. The expansion of the old Anoeta has given way to 8,000 new seats, which has allowed the brand new San Sebastian stadium to register the best attendance in its history (37,066 spectators) last day, in the latest edition of ElDerbi Vasco. Record figures to savor a present that the Gipuzkoan entity insists on living with caution, as a learning process, but without giving up anything. Especially, in a competition, “which is once again very close” and “we'll see where it puts us,” Olabe concludes.
With the return of the public to stadiums like the Reale Arena, LaLiga Santander has recovered the last – and possibly the most important – of the ingredients it needed to confirm itself as the most exciting championship among the major leagues in Europe: passion and heat of the fans. So much so, that just as it happened just before the pandemic, emotion is once again the general trend after 12 days of competition.
Looking back, in the 2018/19 season, clubs such as D. Alavés, RCD Espanyol de Barcelona were discussing the leadership of FC Barcelona after 12 days, with Real Valladolid CF, Girona FC, Levante UD, Getafe CF, Real Sociedad and Real Betis, comfortably installed eight or fewer points from the lead. Meanwhile, in the 19/20 season, Real Sociedad, Granada CF, Getafe CF, CA Osasuna, Villarreal CF, Levante UD, Valencia CF, Athletic Club and Real Valladolid CF were six or less points behind the co-leaders FC Barcelona and Real Madrid.
The cliché of “there is no small rival” makes sense again now, just at the moment when the LaLiga Santander stadiums once again wear their best clothes. So much so that the distance between the first and sixth places, Real Sociedad and Rayo Vallecano, is barely five points (eight in the Premier League, nine in the Bundesliga or twelve and thirteen in the Ligue 1 and Serie A, respectively). While, in terms of goal difference, Real Madrid not only has the best goal average in the championship (14) but can also boast a lower ratio than its counterparts in Germany (Bayern, 28), England (Chelsea, 23), Italy (Napoli, 20) and France (PSG, 15).
These figures are not the result of chance. The new normality of LaLiga Santander has returned all its excitement on and off the playing fields to the competition. And clubs like CA Osasuna, Rayo Vallecano, Real Betis and, of course, the leader, Real Sociedad have been willing to show that they have the level of play and ambition necessary to stand up to any opponent. And this is good news for LaLiga Santander, since greater equality between the teams translates into greater rivalry, a better level of competition and, of course, greater excitement for the fans.
