El Miracle del Palma is the title of the documentary that IB3, the Balearic regional channel, broadcast days ago.
The miracle of Palma.
The piece reviews the 25 years of Palma Futsal history, a quarter of a century crowned by the 2023 continental title, the Champions League.
The piece is still warm, fresh out of the oven. However, it has already expired.
Perhaps it needs a review.
Or a new chapter.
The scriptwriters will have had to travel to Yerevan to recreate scenes and perceive atmospheres. Seven and a quarter hours of flight from Palma, scanning the Mediterranean and also the Black Sea, to land in the Armenian capital. At the Demyrchian Arena in Yerevan, another miracle.
At the Demyrchian Arena, Barça is never Barça, and that reality torments Jesús Velasco, their coach, who never shouts but this time he can’t take it anymore.
–We came out asleep, we came out asleep! We can’t defend them from three meters away, we can’t give them so much space – the coach shouts to his men during a time-out, still in the first half, with the score at 1-1, Palma playing around and Barça taking a nap.
Palma Futsal controls the keys of the match.
They have the ball and the offensive initiative, and the pressure from their first line stuns the Blaugrana, who have opened the scoring (Adolfo, after a quarter of an hour) but that’s it: their partial advantage is a mirage.
Barça, four-time Champions League champion (the last, in 2022), who plays shrunken, seems overwhelmed by the circumstances.
The lack of coordination sets a trap for him in the Balearic Islands’ tie, a tactical goal from Rómulo (18), and it definitively stuns him on the stroke of half-time, when Vilian surprises him.
In the belly of the pavilion, Jesús Velasco has ten minutes to correct more things to his men.
Antonio Vadillo, the coach of the Balearic Islands, also has them.
Velasco demands more possession and more pace. Vadillo proposes the catenaccio.
Both men respect the script.
Barça stretches on Luan Muller’s frame and the Balearic Islands back down. The match becomes an attack and a goal for Barça. The first blaugrana swords appear, Pito, Catela and Touré, and the opportunities follow one another.
Touré shoots the post
Catela is naive when he meekly takes a shot from point-blank range. Luan Muller ruins him.
With six minutes left, the game enters an unsustainable dynamic. Either Barça draws or, in a counterattack, the Balearic Islands will accelerate. This last thing happens: Neguinho scores the third and Barça is already desperate, with captain Sergio Lozano as goalkeeper-forward (he will end up sent off in the final stretch).
Wide is Castilla for Palma, who scores two more in the final moments, while it is reissued:
– Miraculously, nothing.
