Average Play

Someone wrote about sports that when the game is played well, with pace and skill, the spectacle is both wrenchingly gladiatorial and pleasing to the eye. If the game is a close contest, even better, for then art and theater combine. Sorry to say that last Tuesday at Durango the spectacle offered by Egiguren II and Felix vs. Lander and Alliez was not a gladiatorial neither pleasing to the eye. It was a close contest because Egi and Felix won by three points. That was all. Besides that let me talk about average play played by late game quiniela players that would not qualified for a World Championship in another time or another context. No the way they played Tuesday, at least.
Egiguren II and Felix were the clear favorites to win the partido, so far in this Championship they had won all of their games. I wanted to see Egi playing aggressive, eager to show that after Goikoetxea he is the man, the second seeded frontcourter. A combination of a mature player and a carefree champion. Capable to command the game and make a present to the 47 years old veteran leading him into the Final coming Friday. What I saw was another kind of play. Since the beginning of the game a nervous Egiguren afraid of taking part, awaiting for the opponent`s mistakes instead, the worst it can happen to you when the ticket for the final is at stake.
A succession of mistakes by both teams were predominant along the whole partido. Art missing drama seemed to menace the favorites Egi and eternal Felix. The overall low quality of the game gave breath to Egi and Felix allowing us to see a close contest that maintained at least the curiosity to find out the final score. Lander and Alliez even though did not performed outstandingly, their late-games-quiniela style play was good enough to keep the suspense. When the final victory appeared in jeopardize for the favorites. When Egi, chocking down incapable to command the partido, the old veteran, the shadow of once a great superstar, said enough and appeared on scene. Three or four right-hand of once simulacra punches thrown by Felix were good enough to score in the crucial moments and guaranty their pass to the Final partido coming Friday. The veteran "boxer" still shining to win the game. What a paradox! His job was suppose to be covering the chula for Egiguren and wait and see how, the only remaining frontcourter star on competition, the one who was supposed to breathe new life to the Championship, who took care of Lander And Alliez, the two late games quiniela players facing him, and knocked them out... Sorry to say the old "boxer" did the job for him.
Both teams tied at 30 on the scoreboard and not a clear sign of victory for neither team, finally, fortune allied with the favorite team and took away the game by three points.
This coming Friday in Markina, according to the general belief Foronda and Lopez won't have mercy on Egi and Felix. Lopez is too much Lopez, a truly superstar. To beat them it takes more than a late-games-quiniela kind of play. It takes a lot more than three or four right-hand punches and two or three costados to the back wall. It takes guts. Anyways, I do not lose the hope to see Egiguren playing the way he is suppose to play, the way he should play. Aggressive, valiant, eager to demonstrate that he is above average play, after Goiko the player to beat. A duel with Lopez.