Filipe Luís Kasmirski in better times.

The use of war imagery for the headline may not be appropriate during these sensitive times, but it aptly describes Deportivo La Coruña’s predicament as they conclude the first half of their season tied for fourth place, the final UEFA Champions League spot, with Mallorca on thirty-four points (Mallorca holds the tiebreaker over Depor with their 2-0 win at the ONO Estadi).  Depor’s squad is not particularly deep, and they will not win any beauty contests with their brand of football, but the efficacy of their football cannot be questioned.

Depor has conceded only nineteen goals through nineteen matches, which ranks them fourth in the league defensively; however, the twenty-three goals they have scored means that they have little margin to walk away with the victory.  Six 1-0 wins and thirteen matches that have concluded with a one-goal margin or a draw show that the line among a win, draw, or loss runs fine for the Galicians.  A moment of inspiration or a vital defensive stop decides many of their games.

Before they hosted the Basques at El Riazor, the long injury list worried manager Miguel Ángel Lotina.  Sergio González, Riki, and Mista have been out since early January, and the dynamic winger Andrés Guardado was still a long-term injury concern after Osasuna’s Javad Nekounam chopped him down and tore Guardado’s MCL.  Lotina hopes to rely on Guardado’s services by the beginning of March, but until then, the creativity would fall into the legs of Filipe Luís Kasmirski.

With a clash between Deportivo La Coruña and Athletic Bilbao, most would expect physicality and full-blooded challenges, and the first forty-five minutes certainly did not disprove these assumptions.  Los Leones controlled the game on both sides of the pitch, and Fernando Llorente spoiled numerous opportunities that would be considered more than half-chances.  The assistant referee took a goal away from Gaizka Toquero for an offside call, but replays showed the call to be inconclusive at best, and Athletic was unlucky not to score the opening goal.

Depor had few extended spells of possession and did little to suggest that they would threaten Bilbao goalkeeper Gorka Iraizoz’s net.  The litany of absences began to manifest itself in Depor’s tedious play and demeanor.  Fortunate to be scoreless at halftime, that would be the only positive that Miguel Ángel Lotina could muster in his team talk.  Lotina would have been in his right to castigate his players with the most severe words in the Spanish language, and they could not have any response to him.  If nothing else, Los Blanquiazules have the uncanny ability to hang around when all else fails.

When Depor scored in the 49th minute to take the 1-0 lead, it was fully undeserved in the context of this match, but the wasted chances by Athletic Bilbao eventually came back to bite them.  From the left flank, Pablo Álvarez’s shot deflected to the right edge of the six-yard box and found Rodolfo Bodipo, who headed it across goal toward the surging Filipe Luís at the left post.  Filipe got the touch ahead of Gorka Iraizoz as he tried to slap the ball away and bundled it over the line from three yards out.

The celebration lasted a mere second as everyone on and off the pitch fully realized what occurred at the end of that sequence.  As Filipe touched the ball past Iraizoz, Iraizoz dove in a vain effort to divert the ball off its path to goal.  He landed on Filipe’s lower leg, and it was pinned underneath Iraizoz.  Not evident from the initial camera angle the extent of the injury, the second camera angle displayed the gruesome nature of Filipe’s disfigurement.  Sparing the gory details, Filipe Luís Kasmirski will not play for the rest of the season and will likely dash his chances of playing in the World Cup at South Africa for Brazil.  He only had one international cap to his name, a substitute appearance in a friendly against Estonia last August, but Dunga considered the possibility of adding Filipe to the squad.

Filipe’s teammate Zé Castro, looking on from the bench, needed to ask the team on the pitch what exactly transpired, and when he received the news, all he could do was put his hands on his mouth and stare with horror and concern for his fallen friend.  Lotina fought tears as he buried his face into his trembling hands, not the least bit concerned about the match while agonizing over the pain and suffering felt by Filipe.  Chairman and President Augusto César Lendoiro could hardly keep his emotions to a minimum as he rubbed his eyes and observed the ghastly complexion of the situation.  The fans respectfully chanted Filipe’s name, likely knowing that they would not see him on the field again this season.

To Depor’s credit, they channeled their sadness into productivity on the pitch.  They dominated the second half and won a whirlwind encounter 3-1 in a match where European places could be on the line at the end of the season.  The euphoria that Depor would feel after a victory over Athletic Bilbao was tempered by the news that Filipe Luís’ injury was a fractured and dislocated ankle.

Speaking after the match to AS, Augusto Lendoiro lent words of encouragement for Filipe: “Filipe is strong, fast and powerful.  We want a speedy recovery so that he can go to the World Cup.  We have to be strong, and we expect to see him play again this season.  We are only thinking about his misfortune, and not a possible replacement.”

Miguel Ángel Lotina, blunt by nature, spoke to AS about the impact of Filipe’s loss: “I would rather have just twenty points and Filipe fit.  Filipe is a great person and he was eager to go to the World Cup.  There is nothing to celebrate tonight.”

Stating how he would rather be near the relegation zone than have Filipe injured exhibits both the importance and the respect that Lotina has for the Brazilian fullback. With the loss of Filipe, their best and most valuable player this campaign, for the rest of the season, Deportivo La Coruña’s players will need to dig deeper into their souls to make up for his loss and maintain their position in the league.

The captain Manuel Pablo will likely move from his natural right back position to fill Filipe’s shoes at left back, and Laure will likely take the mantle at right back.  The four players with the most starts in the league for Depor have been the four defensive starters, and with this sudden change to the back line, the consistency and rhythm that the Depor defense displayed all season will take time to rebuild that same chemistry.  With the pillars crumbling down on the house of Deportivo La Coruña, a second-half slump would not surprise the most ardent of Depor supporters.

The city in which they play, however, has a history of winning despite tremendous odds.  When Napoléon Bonaparte and his invincible French army ran rampant throughout the Western world, his army descended upon A Coruña in the Peninsular War to seize Galicia and cut off British support sailing to the northwest of Spain.  Led by Sinforiano López, A Coruña became the only Galician city to fight off Napoléon’s army successfully, and the French eventually forsook Galicia later in the war.

If this relatively modest city defeated one of the most imperious leaders in human history, surely Deportivo La Coruña can find the inner strength necessary to carry on from their injury woes.  If Depor is able to seize that final Champions League spot, this team will be exalted to those “Super Depor” teams that consistently threatened to win La Liga and European titles.

An impressive 1-0 win by Deportivo La Coruña over Sevilla on Saturday raises Depor to a tie of third place with Sevilla at fifteen points, four points behind league leaders FC Barcelona.  Los blanquiazules have won five of their first seven matches this season, and their only two losses came at the hands of Espanyol 2-3 and Real Madrid 2-3.  Depor has built their success this season on their quick counter-attacking ability and their positional defense.  Besides their 0-3 drubbing of lowly Xerez at Chapín, Depor’s other four victories ended in 1-0 score lines in favor the Galician club.

The Depor – Sevilla match was a microcosm of how Deportivo La Coruña continued their solid form.  For the first fifteen minutes, Depor canceled out any semblance of a Sevilla attack.  Sevilla was somewhat handicapped by injuries and the previous week’s World Cup qualifiers.  A majority of Sevilla’s players performed in the international break, including their stalwart central defender Sébastien Squillaci, who missed the Depor match with a calf injury sustained while playing for France, and Luís Fabiano, who was not included in the match day squad because of his long travels from South America with the Seleção.  Andrés Palop, unrelated to the World Cup qualifiers, also had a calf injury and was forced to miss the clash with Depor.

The breakthrough came in the 38th minute when Juan Rodríguez absolutely uncorked a low-range missile from twenty-five yards that struck the frame and sneaked into goal to beat deputy goalkeeper Javi Varas on his near post.  From a long diagonal ball, Depor flicked it on towards goal, but with no teammate in the area, it was a simple clearance for the left back Fernando Navarro, but he scuffed it right into the direction of Rodríguez.  Rodríguez settled the ball, took one touch forward, and sent a lash of fury past a defenseless Javi Varas.

Rather than retreating into a shell after capturing the lead, Deportivo La Coruña actively sought after the second goal to seal the three points.  In the first minute of stoppage time to end the first half, Iván Pérez swung a free kick from near the edge of the penalty area, and Riki created space for himself to make contact on the free kick.  Riki struck his header cleanly, but Javi Varas exhibited his cat-like quickness and batted the ball wide of his left near post.  Even though Sevilla possessed the ball for 59% of the half, they hardly did anything with it.  They did not have a shot on goal, while Depor seemed to have more impetus in all phases of the game.  Depor deserved the 1-0 lead.  Whether Sevilla’s phlegmatic play and lack of vitality were due to injuries or general fatigue from World Cup qualifiers, they inexcusably ghosted through the first half.

Sevilla picked up their play in the second half and pinned Deportivo La Coruña in their own half of the pitch for a majority of the time, but Sevilla managed only one shot on target, and Daniel Aranzubia routinely tipped Álvaro Negredo’s shot over the crossbar.  At the end of the match, with Depor hanging on to their one-goal advantage, Mexican international Andrés Guardado exemplified his team’s unending work rate and fighting spirit.  Guardado did not have a particularly great game and did not influence the Depor attack in accordance with his usual high standards, but his mediocre performance was not due to a dearth of energy.

In the 93rd minute, Depor was eating the seconds away at this point, and Guardado was sent on a long run down the right wing.  The diagonal ball was well past Guardado, and it would have been excusable if he let the ball go into touch, but Guardado ran at full speed and slid to keep the ball in play.  That touch was a little heavy, and the ball headed toward the end line, but Guardado picked himself up and made another slide to prevent a goal kick.  At most, his efforts cost Sevilla five or six seconds, but those precious seconds were paramount with Sevilla trying to equalize late in the game, and this unselfish attitude was evident throughout the squad.

With Deportivo La Coruña’s inspiring start to this season’s campaign, there will be inevitable comparisons to the success of the Super Depor teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  One glaring difference between the two eras is the attacking talent and skill.  With “Das Phantom” Roy Makaay, Diego Tristán, and “El Rifle” Walter Pandiani up front, Deportivo La Coruña continually was one of the top scoring teams in La Liga.  No one will mistake Riki, Adrián, and Iván Pérez for the former trio, but they are capable of scoring the important goals if not necessarily a high quantity of goals.

Andrés Guardado is fast becoming a force in La Liga with his pace and skill, similar to former Depor wingers Albert Luque and Fran González.  Juan Rodríguez admirably fills the defensive midfielder role previously occupied by Aldo Duscher and Depor legend Mauro Silva.  The back line remains a strength as current right back and captain Manuel Pablo lends his leadership and skills to his defensive mates.  He was a main part of those former Depor teams, so he has the experience of witnessing Depor at their stratospheric heights.  The other two holdovers from the Super Depor days are box-to-box midfielder Sergio González and the midfield playmaker Juan Carlos Valerón.

With the limited budget that Deportivo La Coruña currently works under these days, they cannot afford to bring in expensive talent as they did ten years ago.  They have to rely more on industry and guile than the flair and style to what they became accustomed when Javier Irureta roamed the technical area.  Current entrenador Miguel Ángel Lotina keeps this modest squad in the top half of the table, and with the backing of club president Augusto Lendoiro, Lotina’s only worries pertain to the improvement of the team and its results rather than always looking behind his shoulder.  A renaissance to domestic and European glory is obviously premature, but the building blocks are currently in place for Depor to continue their slow and steady ascent toward their former perch as one of the leading lights of Spanish football.