Ander Herrera, the day of his debut with Athletic, in a pre-season match against Alzira. /
“They have everything to gain and nothing to lose, just the opposite of us”, Valverde pointed out in his analysis of the pairing
Athletic will begin its journey in the 2022-23 Cup in Alzira, a Valencian football classic that plays in the Second Federation. It will be on November 12 or 13 when the rojiblanco club faces the first round against the Valencian entity, which has celebrated in style the match against an Athletic that has 24 titles in the KO tournament in its museum and begins a new attempt to end its historic drought that lasts 38 years. A draw where the rojiblancos were not paired with one of the ten regional category teams that entered this first round, and finally they will face one of the highest level teams they could find, since Alzira plays in the fourth national football division.
The Luis Suñer will be the stage that the rojiblanco club will visit to face Alzira who lived their best moment in 1988, when they were promoted to the Second Division, a category in which they played for one season. Since then, it lost steam until it fell to the Valencian Regional. After stabilizing in the Third Division, Alzira took advantage of the restructuring of categories to make the leap to the Second Federation, where they are in their second year and currently occupy the relegation zone in Group III, with seven points in eight games.
The Valencian formation has earned its place in the Copa del Rey thanks to its performance in the Federation Cup, where it reached the semifinals that gave place to the four teams that reached that round. In fact, before playing against Athletic, Alzira will have the chance to win the title, since they will play against Arenteiro in the final of the tournament on November 2.
With the draw for the first round, Athletic will begin its new journey on November 12 or 13 in search of that Cup that has resisted so much since Dani raised the trophy to the sky in Madrid in 1984. The last three attempts count for two lost finals -Real Sociedad and Barça- and a semifinal, the one from last season when Valencia ruined the hopes of the rojiblancos by drawing at San Mamés and winning 1-0 at Mestalla.
In this new Cup format where the First Division clubs face the most modest in the first round, you have to go back to the 2019-20 season to find the precedent in which the rojiblancos started their way to the final from the bottom of the ladder. It was Intercity from San Juan (Alicante), then in the Third Division, the first rival of the Bilbao club, then coached by Gaizka Garitano, who were thrashed 0-3 at the Martínez Valero in Elche because the local field did not meet the conditions to host a high level match. After eliminating Sestao in the second round, Athletic returned to Martínez Valero to suffer even penalties in their efforts to overcome the tie. After another hard-fought qualification against Tenerife, came the victory against Barça in the quarterfinals and another agonizing tie against Granada to reach the final against Real, who had to wait a year due to the pandemic.
The following two seasons, Athletic avoided the first rounds by qualifying for the Super Cup. In this way, in the 2020-21 campaign, the first Cup match was played in Ibiza (1-2), to later eliminate Alcoyano in the round of 16, Betis in the quarterfinals and Levante in the semifinals. Barça, once again, was the executioner in the final. And last year the rojiblancos began their journey in Mancha Real (0-2), to later eliminate Barça and Real Madrid in two big games in San Mamés. Bordalás’ Valencia ruined the dream of the third consecutive final in the semifinals.
The debut of Ander Herrera and with Bielsa on the bench
It will not be the first time that Athletic plays at the Luis Suñer Picó, because Alzira was the rojiblancos’ first pre-season rival on July 20, 2011. It was the first opportunity to see Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic in action, something that They did not want to lose 4,000 fans, the vast majority of whom were Atletico fans who were vacationing in the Valencian Community and who turned Suñer into an Atletico stadium.
That Athletic was doing its preseason in Oliva, so it was a comfortable journey of just over 50 kilometers and against a rival who was then a member of the Third Division. The friendly ended 0-3 in favor of Athletic, after the first half ended goalless. But in the second half, Bielsa brought his heavyweights onto the pitch, with Fernando Llorente, Toquero, Gabilondo, Iraizoz, Iraola, Castillo, San José, Amorebieta, David López and Ruiz de Galarreta. In 10 minutes Fernando Llorente scored two goals, while Gurpegui completed the scoring.
Who will remember the friendly will be Ander Herrera, since it was his debut as an Athletic footballer after being signed that summer from Zaragoza. Now, 11 years later, he has the opportunity, if he recovers from the injury he suffered yesterday in Barcelona, to set foot again on the pitch where he donned the red and white shirt for the first time.
