Europe Awaits the Best Levante
This Sunday at 8:00pm in Spain (2:00pm EST), La Liga will play its final round of games, with battles still wide open for european positions as well as salvation. Fates will be decided for many teams, including Levante, the darling little team that has hung around all year with the big boys. Nine months of effort, courage, pride, perserverance and glory come down to 90 minutes. Will Levante be able make the most of those 90 minutes and obtain a European spot?
4. Málaga 55 HOME versus Sporting de Gijón
5. Atlético Madrid 53 AWAY at Villarreal
6. Mallorca 52 AWAY at Real Madrid
7. Levante 52 HOME versus Athletic Bilbao
8. Osasuna 51 AWAY at Racing de Santander
9. Athletic Bilbao 49 AWAY at Levante
10. Sevilla 49 AWAY at Espanyol
Currently, Levante is not in a european position (Only top 6 go to Europe). Levante will need to win and hope that one of its European rivals (Málaga, Atlético Madrid and Mallorca) does not take full points. If Levante manages to beat Athletic Bilbao, fresh off a very dissapointing loss to Atlético Madrid in the Europa League final, one would believe that Levante should be able to obtain a European spot as its three opponents do not have easy tasks either. Málaga perhaps has the easiest test, a home bout with all but relegated Sporting. Mallorca has been able to beat Real Madrid in the Bernabéu in the past and will be looking to do it again, although Madrid will certainly not want to have a loss dampen the spirits of its La Liga title celebration (the trophy will be awarded to the team at the conclussion of the game). Atlético Madrid, fresh off the Europa League win, will be heading into El Madrigal, said to be a sellout, sea of yellow, as Villarreal will be fighting to avoid relegation. Osasuna should take 3 points away from already relegated Santander.
So much will be decided in such a short time span. The tables will surely be shuffling constantly with each goal that is scored this Sunday, and seemingly so will be the narratives that will be written and the histories that will be told about each team. However, for Levante, those narratives and histories should not be any less triumphant or proud of this team and this club if los granotas ultimately do not finish in the Top 6.
This has been a dream season. A first time manager (Juan Ignacio Martinez “JIM”), a forgotten face from Segunda (Barkero), a washed-up striker (Koné), yet another stellar campaign from a 36 year old Centre Back (Ballesteros), the emergence of arguably one of the best midfield tandems in all of La Liga, one a Málaga reject (Xavi Torres) and the other (Iborra), a humble, home-grown player, the Joker (Juanlu), a goalkeeper who ages like a fine uruguayan wine (Munua) and the subtle genius (Valdo), all came together like a perfectly strange puzzle, with all their oddities, years of experience and plenty of interesting story-lines.
In the last thirty-two La Liga fixtures, Levante has only been out of the top 5 in the league standings in two occasions, meaning missing out on Europe would seem like an injustice after such a long, consistent run. Yet, even if Levante does not end up qualifying for Europe, this season will go down as the best season in the history of the club and this team will most certainly be remembered as the best Levante. Los granotas have more than enough reasons to celebrate this season in The Four Stations fountain into the wee hours of the morning with or without Europe. ¡A la fuente!
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| Four Stations Fountain |
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