Fierce, bloody: This is the label of the Basque, and as a typical Basque, 39-year-old Andoni Ilola interprets these two points vividly.
Andoni Irola spent much of her career as a player dedicated to Athletic Bilbao. In this team, Irola played 510 games of all kinds for the team as the team's main right-back, and he spent 12 years sweating on the team here.
As a full-back, Irola has both attack and defense, and he can deliver accurate direct passes in the attack, and the ball he sends crosses the opponent's defender line to find the bald uncle Togro inserted in the back row to score easily. In the Basque Derby in January 2007, Athletic Bilbao, who was slipping towards the relegation zone, defeated Real Sociedad twice with Ilola's score. After the match he was named the best player of the round.
In May 2015, in Bilbao's final match, Ilola put on the captain's armband and led the team against Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey. After the game, the veteran captain was indignant about Neymar's outstanding performance, believing that his actions would cause his own side to resent. Bloody and loyal, he did not bring a trophy to the club in the end. Last year, Bilbao fans voted for the best team of the past 10 years, and Yalaura was selected along with Aduris, Llorente and other famous players.
In the summer of 2015, Ilola left Spain and spent a year and a half in New York City. In January 2017, 35-year-old Iraola hung up her boots. Having made 400 appearances in La Liga, he is a hero in athletic Bilbao history. As a player, he also got 7 appearances in the fiercely competitive national team. Unfortunately, Irola has not played for Spain in major competitions such as the European Championship and the World Cup.
After retiring from the army, Ilola quickly entered a new role, where he served as coach of Antiguko, a prestigious youth training institution in the Basque Country. In June 2018, he became manager of Cypriot side Larnaca AEK.
Good at playing cup matches and winning strong with the weak is Iraura's label, and he can always lead the team to show good leadership strength in these games.
While coaching Larnaca AEK, he led the team to a close victory over Apol in Nicosia to win the Super Cup. In four league regular season and championship play-offs against this strong team, Larnaca remained unbeaten with 2 wins and 2 draws. And, in that season, Larnaca AEK reached the Europa League after six tough fights.
After finishing her trip to the island of Cyprus, Ilora spent 6 months at leisure. In July 2019, he picked up the coaching whip again, this time coaching La Liga promotion team Maminders. Few people may be optimistic about this team, but in the full season of Ilola's coaching, the team finally finished 11th with 56 points and completed the relegation task.
Even more commendable, the team made it all the way through the Copa del Rey that season, knocking out three La Liga teams in Celta, Sevilla and Villarreal to reach the final four. The team's official website is full of praise for the big victory won by Irora's team. The official website once used words such as "night that will never be forgotten" and "historic victory" to describe the victory of this game.
The little-known Brazilian Matthews Aias scored six goals in that tournament, and eventually finished second only to Isaac in the cup top scorers list.
That season, Mirandes was just three points less than the team's first-best record in the history of the La Liga season. The team also reached the semi-final four of the Copa del Rey for the second time in history.
It was a season that made Iraura famous. In August of last year, he received an olive branch from Vallecano. The team, nicknamed "Lightning", wants to return to the top flight after relegation, and they need such a bold young manager to coach. Sure enough, Iraura lived up to expectations.
That season, Rayo Vallecano finished sixth with 67 points in the league and they qualified for promotion to the play-offs. In the first round they played against leganes in third place. In the two-legged match, Vallecano won 5-2 on aggregate, and the team reached the final. In the two-legged final, the team took a 2-0 lead before the end of the first half of the second leg in the unfavorable situation of a 1-2 defeat at home in the first leg.
If the score is maintained until the end of the game, the team will eliminate Girona to enter La Liga next season.
In the 56th minute, The game suddenly changed, and Vallecano's centre-back Velázquez accumulated a yellow card. The opponent quickly switched to top scorer, Uruguay international Stuani stepped up his attack. Vallecano united to keep the score until the end. In the whole game, the opponent hit the goal frame with 9 shots and 6 shots, and Vallecano used his three military lives to win the overall score of 3-2.
The new season has begun, but La Liga matches don't seem to be very friendly to Rayo Vallecano, who has just returned to the top flight. In the 16th minute of the first round, starting goalkeeper Luca Zidane was sent off with a direct red card. Rayo Vallecano, who played one less man, eventually lost 0-3. In the second round, they lost a penalty to Oyazaval.
After losing consecutively, Vallecano adjusted his mentality in time, and the team quickly brushed up a wave of unbeaten records of 4 wins and 1 draw. Now the team is in sixth place with one more game, which is a rare achievement.
In the third round they defeated Granada 4-0. They won two more big wins in the 5th and 7th rounds. Against Levante and Bilbao, he stole four more points. After seven league games, the team has scored 13 points to finish fifth in the table. If it hadn't been for bad luck in the match against "Frog" Levante, the team could have had a better points record.
In the team's matches against Getafe, Granada and Cadiz and Bilbao, Vallecano scored in the first 10 minutes, and Irora's team was very good at grabbing the start. Under his tutelage, Falcao, a veteran who has moved away from the big five leagues, has been rejuvenated, and he has scored in three consecutive league rounds. Sergi Guardiola, who joined valladolid this season, has already contributed 1 goal and 2 assists as a substitute. Even Babe, who used to play for Manchester United, is incredibly technically rough but incredibly physically strong, has found confidence here, after all, he has delivered 2 assists this season.
Players who used to be seen as waste wood have found their value under his leadership. It is very rare for such a team of grassroots players to play in the bottom of the league in terms of total value, which shows the extraordinary level of coaching of Iraola.
Judging by the current record, it is too early to speculate on Vallecano's points and ranking this season. But with this stage of performance, we still do not hesitate to give the 39-year-old handsome man the title of "best young manager in La Liga". As a young marshal who has already shown his strength in Europe, he may one day get a contract with a strong team.