After being behind 2-1 to Seville on aggregate soccer club Atletico Bilbao (who are the major club in the Basque Country) won 3-0 last night. This win puts them up 4-2 on the aggregate and now into the final where the will meet Barcelona. Barcelona has the most Copa del Rey wins in the history of Spanish Football with 24 but Bilbao is actually second with only one less win than Barcelona with 23. The final will not be until May but that will just give this already intriguing matchup more time for the suspense to build. Bilbao is currently 10th in the La Liga table with Barcelona on top but having struggled in it's last 3 league games.
Bilbao winning and moving into the final is a bright spot for some Basques. With recent elections seeing Basque Nationalists lose power and making it harder for ETA and its followers to gain freedom there hasn't been much good news for them. Imagine if the final were to be Madrid vs. Bilbao. With tensions between Madrid and the Basque Country being extremly high a Madrid Bilbao final would be a game with much more than just soccer on the line.
Atletico Bilbao is a very unique team in that it only signs players that are natives of the Basque Country. This is incredible because Bilbao is a very competitive team in La Liga and yet they only recruit players from their small Basque region. This also shows how much pride Basques have and also a tribute to the Basque footballers that they can play as well as they do with only Basque natives.
When I was in Spain last year a Basque Socialist, Isaías Carrasco, was shot and killed right before presidential elections. I then saw on television a moment of silence dedicated to Carrasco at the Atletico Bilbao that weekend. During this moment of silence ETA members and supporters cheered as loud as they could which is something I could not believe. This was when I realized just how serious ETA and its supporters are. Vamos Bilbao!
Catalunya libre
6 years ago
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