Some matches are worth three points and some are worth a season. Today's against Sevilla is one of the latter. We arrive with nine points from ten games, five league matches without a win and the wound from San Mamés still open, that 4-0 after which Bordalás himself admitted the team had "hit rock bottom". The thing about hitting rock bottom is that the only way from there is up. And today is the day to start.
Let's not kid ourselves: the feeling is not good. The squad is thin for three competitions, the fatigue is showing, the red cards are taking their toll and in front of us is a Sevilla side sitting sixth, on 17 points and in high spirits after beating Osasuna. Today we are without Mario Martín and Mojica. All of that is true. But something else is also true, and it is worth remembering now that things look bleak: at the Coliseum we are strong.
This season nobody has beaten us at home in the league: two wins and three draws. You have to go further back to find our last league defeat at our ground: the 0-2 against Rayo on 3 May. Since then came the 3-1 over Mallorca and the 1-0 over Osasuna to close last season, and nothing so far this one. That is seven matches and almost six months in which the Coliseum has been ours. Yes, there was the Lugano night. That 2-5 in the Conference League hurt and there is no point hiding it, but it was an exception in another competition, with seven changes at half-time and minds set on the league. Here, in the league, which as the boss says is what puts food on the table, the Coliseum is still a fortress.
And that is no coincidence. It is what Getafe have always been.
This club has not spent so many years in the top flight because it has the biggest budget or the most expensive squad. It has spent so many years there because it has known how to be a unit. A team that defends together, suffers together and, when things go wrong, pulls tighter instead of falling apart. A dressing room that sticks together, a bench that does not hide and a crowd that does not walk away. That has always been Getafe's recipe: all pulling together.
That is why today is no day for doubts or blame. There will be time to analyse what is not working, but not this afternoon. This afternoon the team needs to feel the whole club behind them: the players, the coaching staff, the board, the employees, the supporters' clubs and every fan in their seat at the Coliseum or watching from home, here in Getafe or thousands of kilometres away. Sevilla must feel from the first minute that they are not playing against eleven, but against an entire club.
Bad runs are broken like this: with a hard-fought win, the kind you celebrate through gritted teeth. We do not need a perfect performance. We need a performance that is ours, the kind Getafe have won so many times when nobody gave them a chance.
Today is the day to change the dynamic. And at the Coliseum, where we have gone half a year unbeaten in the league, there is no better place to do it.
All together! As always.
Come on, Geta!