The Juniors, League Champions

The Junior Honour team were proclaimed League Champions after winning their last match by 1-2 (Kortabitarte and Lander) against Leioa, whereas Real Sociedad could only reach a nil-all draw. Resulting in the Juniors being able to dispute the Champions stage.

Coach Bingen Arostegi evaluated the title achieved in this way: ‘I would put it down to work, work and more work. It’s a reward for the consistency of the half without having lost a single match. We had a thorn in our side for not having sealed the title in the match played in Donostia that we let slip away for several reasons’. Bingen pointed out that ‘this is one of the occasions in which we can talk about justice, although the two teams had competed very well and we both deserved it, we hadn’t lost a match since November and they hadn’t lost one since October’.

He admits that reaching the last round would depend on the rival, ‘the satisfaction was even greater because things not only depended on us winning’. Furthermore, the Champions stage will mean some changes to the schedule: ‘It’s a very nice competition to play and we really want to win it and get the monkey of the last two editions off our back, in which we had reached the semi-finals of these last two seasons’.

The players celebrated their triumph by way of a dinner in Bilbao and were also paid a visit by President Fernando García Macua and the Board of directors’ Accountant, Juan Antonio Zarate.