Since Eduardo Coudet took over, no one in La Liga has won more, scored more or conceded fewer. It is a new dawn
Eduardo Coudet was pissed off, getting angrier and more drunk by the minute. That Rosario Central had been beaten 4-0 in the first leg of the Copa Conmebol final was bad enough, but it was past two in the morning and he was still stuck inside an empty stadium, unable to escape the humiliation, left with nothing to do but dwell on it. That and drink. His name came up with Pablo Sánchez, sent to the anti-doping room together. But however hard they tried, however much beer they downed – and it was a lot – they couldn’t provide a sample. Time passed and Coudet got increasingly agitated: he was going to have them.
This wasn’t the place and certainly wasn’t the time so Sánchez tried to calm him down. Let’s make a promise, he said: if we turn this round, we’ll spend the night inside the ground, our ground. Incredibly, Rosario won the second leg 4-0, claiming their first international trophy on penalties. And, as the players celebrated in the dressing room, preparing to hit the town, Sánchez reminded Coudet they had a promise to fulfil. He went home and came back with a pizza, a torch and a radio. Together they sat in the centre circle wondering why they hadn’t thought up a better promise than this and waiting for the sun to rise, which it always does.
