Real Sociedad steal a march on Barcelona to get city’s party started early | La Liga

“There was a little magic in the atmosphere,” Pellegrino Matarazzo said. Real Sociedad’s new coach could feel it; he could hear it too, the sound of drums beating on every street of the city he has embraced and into the stadium that has embraced him back already. When he and his players arrived at Anoeta on Sunday evening, they entered through a guard of honour, a band of soldiers and chefs lined up in the rain, hammering out the club anthem and hoping. By the time they departed around midnight, following 35,346 supporters out into San Sebastián, it had actually happened. La Real had beaten Barcelona 2-1. Celebrations, his captain Mikel Oyarzabal said, had come a day early.

This week is tamborrada, the San Sebastian festival where, at midnight on 20 January, the city flag is raised and marching bands parade through its streets in napoleonic uniforms and cooks’ costumes grasping sticks, batons and giant cutlery, routes mapped out in loving detail and special supplements. Initially a popular pastiche of a military procession, a prelude to carnival, practice runs echoing round in the days before, kids go first, adults next. An expression of civic pride, they sing of “spreading joy,” being “always happy,” and God knows they were happy now. What better way to begin it all than this? What better way to become one of them?

It had started with the first bands setting off towards the ground at 7pm, the guard of honour, and a 300-strong orchestra on the pitch for kick-off, the tenor and the festival’s “golden drum” winner Xabier Anduaga belting out the anthems, a 300-strong city symphonic accompanying him. It began too with Mikel Oyarzabal, “golden drum” in 2024, scoring the opening goal after 24 seconds, with the place exploding. And although that goal was ruled out, Oyarzabal got another on 31 minutes, volleying past Joan García, and it ended with la Real ending Barcelona’s 11-game winning run. “This was a special night,” Matarazzo said.

It was also pretty silly. Barcelona had won their last 11 games, their best run in a decade. In none of them did they play better this. “There’s no scientific reason for la Real leading at half time,” El Diario Vasco reported and the second began with Dani Olmo hitting the post twice inside 97 seconds. When Marcus Rashford equalised on 69 minutes, the shot count read 20-3, xG said 3.07-0.20, and it felt like logic had been imposed at last, a first step towards another, inevitable victory; instead, 59 seconds later la Real led again, through Gonçalo Guedes. After the qualities that saw Sociedad win were reeled off to Oyarzabal afterwards, he replied: “and luck, lots and lots of luck.” We have to say that too.”

“Let’s be honest: Barcelona were very dominant; all in all, it was a bit lucky,” Matarazzo admitted. “We played a great game,” Hansi Flick said, and but for the 15 minutes after the Guedes goal when la Real could have extended the lead, he was right. “Sometimes football has these games: once a season it might happen,” Frenkie De Jong said, and it wasn’t easy to explain. Or perhaps it was: in the hat-trick that Olmo could have had the two he definitely should have had. Pedri also should have scored. Barcelona had given two goals and one penalty away and taken one away again by the VAR, Flick said afterwards that he didn’t want to “waste time talking about this guy”. The five posts. And the eight saves from Álex Remiro.

“There are some things that we cannot explain …” Matarazzo said, looking up to the sky, “… or we explain them with other things. The quality of the goalkeeper is not luck. Being sharp is not luck. To throw yourself in front of the ball: that’s awareness. We had to withstand a lot of opportunities, but we played with a lot of heart and if there is a game when we were lucky, then it is only today. We have to do everything we can to raise the probability of winning the game.”

Well, if anyone knows probability it is the man with a degree in Applied Mathematics from Columbia University One local paper admitted “to win like this approaches mysticism,” while another called this a “miracle that even the greatest believers can’t assimilate” Beyond Barcelona there is something shifting.

When he was little, Matarazzo would watch Diego Maradona play for Napoli on the small television in his parents’ room. Raised in New Jersey, the son of an Italian mechanic and the first American to coach a La Liga club, he built his career in Germany, first as a player then a coach at Hoffenheim – where Flick was manager – and Stuttgart, who he brought up to the Bundesliga. Methodical, idealistic and ambitious, there is a depth and a calm conviction in the way he talks, a willingness to discuss his tactical ideas. When he took over from Sergio Francisco, Real Sociedad had 16 points in 16 games. Since then there has been a penalty shootout win against Osasuna in the Copa del Rey, a 1-1 draw with Atlético Madrid, a 2-1 win at Getafe, now a victory over Barcelona.

Asked if he could imagine a better start than seven points from nine, Matarazzo replied: “Yes, nine.” But no one expected this, an intensity and adaptability, a personality, about them that wasn’t there before. This was more than just three points too, because of who it was against and when, something Matarazzo had embraced. “One of the most important days of the year is coming up,” he said. “We felt it: we connected very well to each other, to the fans. What a night, what a result.”

Every paper ran with some variation on the tamborrada, lyrics taken from the marching song. “Bakarra munduan”, unique in the world, cheered the cover of Diario Vasco. “Saint Sebastian came a day early.” El Mundo Deportivo led on Bagera: roughly, “may we be”, and this is what they want to be. Although he replied “no, no, no,” when it was put to him that he’s an idol already, he has, in his captain’s words, landed on his feet, built a connection, sought empathy. For all the drums, one Donosti paper called likened him to the Pied Piper.

“Since we have been with Rino things have changed,” Remiro said, and it wasn’t even what the goalkeeper said that stayed with you: it was the way he said it, a kind of light in his eye, something almost reverential in his tone. “We believe more in ourselves, no one shirks any effort now, we’re playing with more confidence. The last three games? Brutal, truly. Brutal. “Shake the tree and see what falls. Everyone is committed, everyone goes in the same direction. He’s clearer, we’re working more and better. The dressing room is tuned in, committed: the whole team. He’s very clear despite the language [barrier] and we believe in him. The first day he prepared a speech in Spanish, he always tries to use Spanish words, he’s very smart. He speaks English slowly and he does his talks with subtitles in every language. He makes everything easy for us.”

“It’s all at once [the tactical and emotional],” Matarazzo explained. “You begin with the first tactical steps, first principles, not just on the pitch but off it: talking about values, who do we want to be, what our character is and you grow one step at a time. If we didn’t have a team that was open, ready for this input, it would not happen. It is a lot about the players’ mentality. The team is very, very special. I am enjoying this club: the players, the staff. Good characters, great values that I can identify myself with and the city is beautiful too; it’s not a bad place to be right now.”

“The first day he came in, the first impression was a bit scary: he’s 6ft 2in and frightening,” Oyarzabal said. “But he has brought good energy, intensity. We’re on the right path now. He has embraced Donostia, la Real, the Basque country from here; coming from the outside, that’s important.”

“I’ve already seen how important the tamborrada is and that could be an advantage,” Matarazzo had said on Saturday, a smile stretching across his face as he passed the chefs and soldiers the following evening. Now, somehow, they had beaten Barcelona, carried by some energy, the fiesta brought forward. His players, departed the stadium with blue neckerchiefs on, happy and looking forward to the two days off he had given them. They had earned it, he understood. As for him, he was going to enjoy it too, an expression of his new home. First, though, he had something to do. “I’m going to watch the game, probably tonight,” Rino Materazzo said. “And then I can look forward to a special day in San Sebastián. I love rhythm, I love drums, so it’s very fitting.”