We are acclimating to one another. Little by little we are building something, something that lives, something that excites. Every summer, one after the other, we imagine the perfect season, the one that evades us, the one that does not require us to use our finger to slowly scan the table in search of the “RCDM” acronym. Nonetheless, the fans´ expectations are seemingly medium, like a love-song, they are floating in the air.
Even so, we know that a game comes every Sunday, and maybe by chance, our memory is very short, short enough that we forget that we clearly knew that the group´s initial energy and strength would soon and slowly subside. Already, the first symptoms of fatigue have set in after a long two-a-day. It seems to pass quickly, but there are four more hours of unforgiving physical exercise on joints and muscles that have already been firing, more than regularly, for the past two weeks. But these spells of pain are what makes up the life a professional athlete, the aches and pains, the bruises, the ice-baths, the massages, and the mental wear, the tired of being tired.
Vicente and César Mota, a physio and masseuse, respectively, did win over the dinner tonight, and the only incident of the day lead to Santamaría training individually, which he did not take kindly to. Miki Garro has become the fourth goalkeeper—because Jesus Cabrero will become a father in the coming hours—and has received rave reviews.
And after the sun had set, another joke was made: the group almost got a staffer to report that they did not have any more balls to use. The joke was complicated, but without much research or forethought. So, tonight we recuperate and repair, and wait for tomorrow, but there is not much time. On the bright side, we will have tomorrow afternoon free.
The Mole
