Igualados, balanced. This is the "common line" regarding the quarter final games archived yesterday in Santiago De Compostela. All winners were the "supposed" ones, but in the pitch Caja Segovia, Sala 10 Zaragoza, Reale Cartagena and Marfil Santa Coloma proved to be more than worthy opponents, showing a great level of futsal and defeated just by the top talents of the "big" clubs and, in some cases (with special refer to the 3rd game between Barcelona and Reale Cartagena), through a peculiar way refereeing which seemed to be too generous with the biggest clubs.

Xacobeo 2010 Lobelle de Santiago - Caja Segovia
A minute of fire opened the 21st edition of the Spanish Cup. The Fontes do Sar hall was immediately shocked by the huge 1vs1 talent of the argentinean star Lucuix (or "Matias", as they call him in Spain), who was the real character of the "8 seconds goal" scored by the recently crowned european champion Lin. Some seconds of fear for the hosts Lobelle de Santiago but everything soon fixed through a great ball control by Pola completed by the winning shot of Rato (Rafael). Maybe you're wondering if the following 38 minutes of "no goals" were something boring, the answer is easy: not at all! Lobelle did the match with the usual skills of Alemao, while Leitao had no luck in finalizing the De Dios' roster actions. On the other side the young guns of Caja Segovia, namely "el burrito" David, Lucuix, Alvarito, Tobe and Keny (back from the Romanian club Design Construct Brasov), as well as some great saves by Cidao and the great experience of Nano Modrego, helped Jesus Velasco is offering a strong competition until the very last minute of the game. Lobelle needed a wonderful pivot masterpiece by Leitao in order to win the game: the brazilian (portuguese national team player) powerful show was so fast to make somebody thinking that the ball did not enter in the Segovian goal. Fortunately, in an unlucky period for referees all around Europe, the Veo7 cameras proved that everything was fine with the Lobelle's win! Deber cumplido" for Lobelle, many reasons to be proud for Caja Segovia.

Inter Movistar - Sala 10 Zaragoza
Definitely the worst match of the whole quarter finals schedule. Inter Movistar, after recovering the initial Zaragoza's advantage scored by Corvo (just a mere statistic: all clubs entering the semifinals went down in the score at the beginning of the match), seemed to be able to control the game destiny, through Borja (with some responsibility of Zaragoza's goalie Abel), Neto, Schumacher and Daniel. When everything seemed to be over for Zaragoza, and after some arguable decisions of whistles Cid Bragado and Martinez Torres, the Santi's guys had a magnificent final minute, scoring with again with Corvo and then with Victor Tejel. Not enough to force the extra time.
Inter Movistar still far from beeing the celebrated maquina verde, Sala 10 Zaragoza will have to focus on the league in order to keep their place in the play-off zone.

Barcelona - Reale Cartagena
Who was the big one? The Luis Fonseca's disappointment at the end of the match is easy to understand. No, it was not a "robo", but Cartagena has some reasons to complain (though complaining against referees decisions is quite unuseful, history says!), above all due to the fact that Sergio Lozano and mates showed a magnificent futsal. A double advantage signed by the former Las Rozas Boadilla and Spain Under 21 Lozano put Barcelona in serious troubles. The Marc Carmona's top level roster seemed to be unable to stay in the game, while the young guys of Fonseca (special mention for the young keeper Fabio, class 1990: a brilliant match with the exception of the second goal suffered by Saad), headed by the highly experienced Cobeta, the brazilian Messias and the legendary Javi Matia entertained the Fontes do Sar attendance. A discussed last minute foul allowed Ari to enter the vestuarios on a minimal 1-2 losing score. That was probably the key for a different second half, in which Cartagena could not repeat the brilliant first part performance, while Barcelona began to be more confident on their semifinal chances. Saad, Fernandao, Cristian (great goal and unusual mistake in the last minutes) and Ari moved the score in favour the blaugrana, but the albiazul side was still alive, Cobeta and an own goal by Chico sealed the definitive 5-4. Barcelona in semifinal, but maybe the "big one" was Cartagena yesterday.

ElPozo Murcia - Marfil Santa Coloma
Another hard battle to enter the cup semifinals. A proud Marfil Santa Coloma played 40 minutes of effective futsal, through a mix of "quite young" (Hector, Ruben, and Albert Segura) and experienced (Dani Salgado, Oscar Redondo, Rafa Munoz) athletes. ElPozo gave the idea of closing the game after the four goals following the Hector advantage for Marfil: Vinicius, Ciço, Saul and Wilde were the murcian heroes. An idea definitely not shared by Marfil, back in the game again with Hector and Dani Salgado. The final sequence of goals (Wilde, Héctor, Mauricio and Dani Salgado) characterized a breathless match ending with ElPozo finally securing their place in semifinal. Murcian side is now looking for a classic semis against Barcelona, enhorabuena Marfil for an unforgettable quarter final.

And now, is time for semifinals!


Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com