Article by Andrei Niculescu – Published Sunday, April 19, 2026, 4:32 p.m. / Updated Sunday, April 19, 2026, 4:32 p.m.
When a final, a match contested with a trophy on the table, goes past the 90th minute, past extra time and into penalty kicks, any neutral spectator begins to develop a feeling of regret directed towards the team that will lose that lottery. And especially to the fans who traveled in such large numbers, carrying millions of illusions in their luggage, which they will later replace with millions of other disillusions. That's how it is in sports, not just in football, there can't be two winners.
Saturday night's Copa del Rey final was a case in point. A match that passed the initial 90 minutes, passed the additional 30 minutes, and reached the time of penalties. And the images that followed after the decisive moment, when it was known that Real Sociedad was the winner, offered enough moments to cry, with Atletico Madrid supporters, younger or older, consuming their frustration in tears.
While beyond, in the Basque camp, the tears were sweet, of satisfaction, because, yes, one can complain of happiness. In a way, Real Sociedad fans were given a squared-off joy on Saturday night, as they could not be with their favorites in 2021, when the San Sebastian outfit won the Spanish Cup also in Seville, but in an empty stadium, for reasons we all know.
It was supposed to be Cholo Simeone's big week. But it was Pellegrino Matarazzo's, the first American coach to win a major trophy in European soccer that counts.
Pellegrino Matarazzo / PHOTO: GettyImages
Graduated in applied mathematics at Columbia University, Matarazzo managed to put together all the unknowns in Real Sociedad's locker room and solve an equation that was too difficult for those before him, but also for Cholo.
Simeone found himself dressing for this final in an outfit that visibly corseted him, his favorite. Accustomed for so long to a rhetoric that no one outside Atletico fans believes anymore, namely that he sits on the bench of a popular team, which must work hard for great results, possibly resorting to classic heroism, the Argentine coach hit the reality that he is preparing for many rivals.
It seems that he understood now how complicated it is to build, how difficult it is to have the initiative, to find color through the forest of legs in front of you, how difficult it is to swim against the current and to have in front of you a tough opponent, extremely motivated, much fresher from a physical point of view and extremely threatening on the counterattack. You'd say, going through the last lines, that it's about Atletico, right? But that's how Real Sociedad was for the most part on Saturday night.
These matches lost on penalties are already part of Cholo Simeone's life. As are the ones won in his favorite, heroic manner. I think that the Argentine cannot live otherwise, his life would be completely boring on the bench of a team that aims to attack non-stop.
On Saturday, when Atletico drew level at two, I think everyone would have expected the Madrid side to attack the goal of a team that had suffered a mental blow. They did, indeed, in the few remaining minutes of the original 90, including extra time. But then, in overtime, Real Sociedad was the more dangerous team, closer to the goal. You can't help but put that down to the coach's philosophy.
Atletico turned, for this reason, into a team disliked to the point of hostility. Obviously, I'm not referring here to his supporters, who have an extraordinary attachment to their beloved colors and who, well, deserve a better fate. We have often asked ourselves what this Atletico team would look like with a different coach.
Diego Simeone / PHOTO: GettyImages
Probably good, given what the locker room has to offer, but any attempt to move forward with conjecture stops there. Because, like it or not, this team cannot be conceived without Simeone. And, consequently, she cannot be conceived without this elevator that takes her down to hell and then brings her back to earth, sometimes taking her up to the 9th heaven.
We can blame Simeone for a lot. But we can't help but admire his ability to find unsuspected energies and get up after the blows received, to start over. He will do it this time too, I have no doubt.
Next is the “double” with Arsenal, against a coach who learned a lot from Guardiola, but it seems that even more recently he took Cholo as his model. A confrontation in which Simeone will once again wear his favorite outfit, that of the outsider.
P.S
I'm finally going back to Real Sociedad. A team, unlike Atletico, very sympathetic for the philosophy it conveys. And, of course, because it represents one of the most beautiful cities in Spain. The story of a final like that could only be told by a worthy representative of this philosophy, the goalkeeper Unai Marrero, born in San Sebastian and promoted to the first team from the academy.
With only four games in La Liga, but with total confidence from coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, who went with him because it was right and logical, although he had Remiro, a Spanish international, with options to go to the World Cup. Sometimes the quality of a coach also starts from such gestures.
