It wasn’t just that the Ciego de Ávila eleven dominated the game from the opening whistle, nor that the 2-0 success was resounding, nor even that their defence was super-tight; in football there are two details that are sometimes underestimated, but which are decisive: the power to anticipate every play and the collectivism that prevails in the team.

No more and no less than that is what the Tiburones showed this Saturday in the first game of the Opening Tournament of the 108th Cuban Football League against Sancti Spíritus, at the Sergio Alonso Grandal pitch in Morón.

They owned the pitch, not because their players were better technically, but because they didn’t let their opponents breathe in the contest for the ball and because the marking was one of those that leaves you with the feeling that the opponent’s legs are tied up.

The Sharks were masters of the midfield and then everything else was relatively easy. Attacks down the flanks followed one after the other and from the first moments of the match, it was clear that a goal was on the way. However, it did not fall in the first half, which ended in a goalless draw.

But if in those 45 minutes no goal was heard in the sparsely crowded stands, it was not because there was a lack of attempts, as Orisbel Leyva, on two occasions, with a set piece, almost put it into one of the corners, but the Yayabo goalkeeper, Ezequiel Jesús, prevented it with two saves worthy of another football.

The Avileños’ head coach, Rolando Ayón, gave a key recommendation at half-time to his boys: «Don’t despair and trust in the game you are developing. The goals will come».

And the goals came, the first of them after a counter-attack that resulted in a «molotera» of players in front of the goal and which Eliceo Manuel Calderón, who did not think twice when he saw the ball, pushed it into the net in the 50th minute.

It wasn’t five minutes after that goal before Eliceo himself, in an individual move, beat the goalkeeper again. The Avileños had more chances, but the score remained 2-0.

In the other match of the day in Group C, Camagüey defeated Las Tunas 1-0. Las Tunas will host Ciego de Avila next Saturday.