In what was expected to be an affordable November, Sporting has once again stumbled over the same rock as every season. The monthly calendar welcomed him with a visit to two complicated fiefdoms, but with much-needed teams, as was the case of Mirandés and Huesca. Similarities that are also noticeable on the rival benches, with recently arrived coaches and with the rush to form a team as soon as possible. The most difficult thing in football. Borja Jiménez experienced it firsthand when he caught Sporting in a spin and was able to give it a face lift to compete face to face against rivals such as Racing, Valladolid or the same day in Las Palmas, where the shortcomings of the squad due to injuries were made up for with a great approach. However, Schröedinger’s Sporting appears when you least expect it.
What happened with Eibar was not a scare, it was confirmation that there is no trace left of the brave and strong team that began the games dominating. In the first ten minutes at El Alcoraz, Jiménez’s team received two shots on goal and another three that were deflected or blocked. Five occasions when many in Gijón had not connected the game and La Mareona was settling in the stands.
It was not until the quarter of an hour that the team woke up with a cross from Guille that brushed Amadou and the first shot on goal from distance and in the middle, of the two that Sporting made in the entire match, by the Senegalese. The adrenaline rush lasted as long as it took for the team to make a new damning error with an innocent handball that put Huesca ahead.
This was the section in which Sporting suffered the most danger and, on the other hand, in the remaining 15 minutes the team did try to achieve the tie, but that is where the lack of success appeared again. The arrivals were numerous, up to five shots in ten minutes, but only the one from Perrin that Jiménez saved was able to hit the goal. In the second half, Justin once again had the tie with a header. It went up. And after another five shots in which Dani Jiménez did not have to intervene, again an error, again a handball, again a penalty, sentenced Sporting.
Sporting’s problem does not come from generating, they have had 35 clear chances, one less than Deportivo, but from the difficulty of them ending in a goal. Two goals, both from penalties, in the last four days are the perfect example that the team knows how to approach the opponent’s area, but ends up being harmless. In a game like the one at El Alcoraz where shots were fired up to twelve times, only two were on goal. It is true that Justin saw his goal disallowed by his forefoot and his excessive desire led him to head wide in the clearest shot. In one of the shortest weeks of the season, with the Andorra game in three days, it is a good time to get our heads up in front of goal and make up for the November results. The dynamics, in any case, demand reaction. At this point, Sporting has five points less than last year and seven than the previous year.