The city of Bilbao has been gripped by cup final fever with the streets and buildings in the capital of Biscay decked out in red/white flags and a gigantic banner placed on the facade of the City Hall.
They’re even on the brink of sorting out their 20,728 ticket allocation for the final with 50,000 fans going into a draw to decide who’s lucky enough to get into the match in Seville on April 6.
It’s also rumoured that 10,000 plus will make the long trip to Andalucia without tickets just to savour the atmosphere.
Mallorca, on the other hand, seem to have a “couldn’t care less” attitude and were slow in giving out information about ticketing, when Bilbao had already closed registration for fans wanting to buy tickets. In the meantime, Mallorca seem to have drawn the short straw and will play in their third-choice turquoise ensemble with Bilbao in their normal red and white stripes.
Having been to Bilbao twice on match days, I can verify that every street has flags flying in anticipation of upcoming games, while in Palma there is a distinct lack of visibility to indicate that Mallorca have even made it to the cup final for only the fourth time in their 108-year history (it’s Bilbao’s 44th).
Fans here have taken to social media to suggest that we should be more like Bilbao with flags flying in Jaime III, El Borne, Plaza España, Plaza Cort and the Consulat de Mar, and loads of other locations on the island. Long before the last cup final in 1998 in Valencia, Palma buses and taxis were flying flags and apartment balconies were covered in Real Mallorca paraphernalia.
Before going to Valencia we queued up outside the old Luis Sitjar ground to collect our match-day red chubasqueros (raincoats) donated by the Consell de Mallorca. It brought a tear to a glass eye to see 15,000 Mallorquinistas wearing their coats at the Mestalla North End. The Consell de Mallorca should be leading by example again to get behind the team, as it’s great publicity for the island.
The club has announced that tickets will be available to season ticket holders (only) online from 10:00am on Tuesday, March 19 until March 26.
After that, if tickets remain, season ticket holders can buy an extra one for a friend. All tickets will be digital, not printed, and non-transferable from the name given on it. I made my mind up early on that I’m not going to the final, having been to three of them, including the last ever Cup Winners Cup final in Birmingham, and it was easy getting to them all.
However, this time it’s not so straightforward, with the distances and lack of infrastructure involved. There were little or no direct scheduled flight seats or accommodation available before the semifinals had even taken place. As I’m of a certain age, I don’t want the hassle of hanging around airports for an unspecified time, and I most certainly don’t want a 7-hour trip each way by boat (to Denia or Valencia) and then another 7 hours by coach.
The hierarchy of the club have done a magnificent job with the refurbished ground, sorting out the finances and setting a record for season ticket sales, and American ownership has helped to achieve all this, but fans are puzzled by the apparent indifference and lack of understanding that reaching the Spanish Cup Final is something huge to be celebrated, about which fans are proud and passionate but the owners seemingly less so.
Many of those going to the final weren’t even born when we were in the last two (in 2003 and 1998), so it’s a novelty for them. There’s a feeling that the club is losing its identity, and fans have proposed bringing in a Mallorca-born retired ex-player (such as Miguel Angel Nadal or Pep Luis Marti) as a figurehead to promote the club and give it a more “Bermellon” identity.
Meanwhile back to the nitty gritty – Real Mallorca, with ten games left to play, reach the business end of a pretty average league season with a home game tomorrow (Saturday 16th) at 2pm in Son Moix against almost-relegated Granada.
There’s a saying in Spanish football that objectives are fulfilled in the last 10 games. We reach this stage in 15th place on 27 points, five above the relegation zone. Granada have only won twice all season, one of them against us (3-2) last August. They also inflicted one of our heaviest home defeats ever, winning 2-6 in May 2022.
Once again our biggest problem this season has been our lack of fire power upfront. We’re good in goal with two top ’keepers, serious in defence, competent in midfield but up top the lights go out. Scoring goals looks mission impossible. In 12 of our 28 games played, we’ve failed to score and only once in our last 11 games have we kept a clean sheet.
Vedat Muriqi has missed a big part of the season through injury and still doesn’t look 100%. Local hero Abdon Prats is the player for the big occasion but he’s been used sparingly of late. Canadian Cyle Larin is our enigma. There’s no doubt he puts himself about a lot and is super fast but when he gets in front of goal it just doesn’t happen. His repertoire of missed one-on-ones with the opposing goalkeeper has almost reached double figures. So far he hasn’t lived up to his high price tag (for us) of seven million euros. Two goals in 26 starts isn’t good enough. Personally, I would start tomorrow with new loanee Nemanja Radonjic just behind Muriqi then bring Larin on later.
The club have officially tied down their charismatic 35-year-old attacking midfielder Dani Rodriguez for another year (with an optional 12 months extension). Born in Galicia, “El Tigre de Betanzos” arrived from Albacete in 2018 and quickly became a huge fans’ favourite. He’s now scored 27 goals with 32 assists in 230 appearances. In my opinion Dani is one of the best box-to-box players we’ve ever had and continues to play a pivotal role for Real Mallorca.
AND FINALLY, the other day on BBC daytime TV show “The Tournament,” a contestant was asked “From which final port on the South coast did Titanic sail on her maiden voyage ?” (A) “Leeds” she replied. They walk amongst us !