Chus Mateo vs Roger Grimau: two beatings, two debuts in the final and already many pending accounts

This afternoon (6.30 p.m., Movistar Plus+) at Martín Carpena, Real Madrid or Barça, Barça or Real Madrid, will win back the Copa del Rey. The trend of the 'no surprises' tournament returns, which Unicaja rescued from routine a year ago in Badalona. Of the last 10 finals, 15 were classics and the last four fell on the culé side. A final in which the Blaugrana will seek to equal the whites in the historical record, 27 cups for one, 28 for the other.

But it was Jasikevicius' Barça that. And Pablo Laso's Real Madrid. This Sunday a coach will debut in the cup winner's list. Chus Mateo or Roger Grimau, who were already champions, one as an assistant and the other as a player. Two technicians so different in their careers, perhaps so similar in manners, the low profile and the shouts not too loud either.. One of those who are better at convincing than imposing.

“These players take away a lot of my problems and the credit goes to them.”. “They have ambition, they have desire, they are hungry, they convey to their teammates that they want to win and it is a job that helps me a lot,” the Madrid native conceded on Saturday to his pupils after the beating of Valencia, just turned 55, a lifetime in the benches from the Agustinianos school. “We have had good dynamics and good play in recent weeks,” admitted the Catalan after fleecing Lenovo Tenerife with that second quarter for history (40-8), a decade younger than his rival, a lifetime on the fields until his retirement in 2015, making his debut in the club of his life and with an opportunity to make history the first time: if he wins the title he would enter the list of those chosen who achieved it as a player and coach along with names as legendary as Clifford Luyk (10), Lolo Sainz (8), Pablo Laso and Eduardo Kucharski (7), Fernando Font (6), Jasikevicius (5), Freddy Borrás and Ignacio Pinedo (3) and Velimir Perasovic (2). For Grimau, three on the field, it would be the fourth Copa del Rey.

Before coaching Madrid, Chus Mateo had already made his debut in the Cup as the main. But his only game had been a defeat. It was at Sant Jordi in Barcelona in 2011. His Unicaja, in which he lasted a few months – his only other experiences in charge were in Fuenlabrada and in the Shanxi Zhongyu of China -, fell in the quarterfinals against Joan Plaza's Cajasol, in the same edition that was going to be the great Rubicón of the Laso era, since Carroll, Llull and company then broke a 19-year streak for Real Madrid to reconquer the title.

Last year was also bitter. Although they defeated Valencia in the quarterfinals in Badalona, in the semifinals they ended up losing – and drawing criticism – against them in Unicaja.

It will be the fifth time that Mateo and Grimau see each other's faces, all this year. In the final of the Endesa Super Cup, in Murcia, back in September, Real Madrid triumphed (80-90). As he also did on the following two occasions, both in October, both at WiZink. 86-79 in the Endesa League and 65-64 in the Euroleague. But the fourth time was the charm for the Barcelonan, again in Europe, when in January he finally defeated Real Madrid (83-78), the last precedent.

And, in short, it will be a duel with a lot of morbidity. With Willy Hernangómez against his former team and against the power of Tavares and Poirier. The same Hezonja but in reverse. Or Laprovittola. So many pending accounts. All in a final. The last time of both of them at Carpena, Llull decided on the horn. Nothing less.