Press conference
Rubi: 'The Spanish Cup tie against Sanse motivates me and worries me'
The UD Almería head coach emphasises that this is a tournament with incentives that he wants to fight for. 'Sanse are very well worked and are going to cause us a lot of difficulties,' he says. The gaffer wants to avoid an early defeat because, as he acknowledges: 'The CD Arenteiro match hurt me a lot.'
UD Almería head coach Rubi has spoken to the media as he looked ahead to the Spanish Cup first round against UD San Sebastián de los Reyes. He has made it clear that it is a tournament that he wants to fight for: 'I'm passionate about this competition. It's an incentive to play against teams that you have never taken on. You discover other clubs and I think it's a fortune to be able to meet Sanse.'
On that note, the Catalan head coach recognised: 'It's true that the first rounds have the risk that if you're eliminated, it seems like it's a more traumatic situation than normal.' Rubi looked back and revealed that he feels gutted about the previous Cup ties from his previous stage at UD Almería since the Rojiblancos were knocked out in the first round: 'The match against CD Arenteiro hurt me loads. That's why tomorrow's test motivates me, but it also worries me because I want to try to avoid another early tournament exit. Our emphasis is going to be totally on the clash.'
The Vilassar de Mar native explained his perception of the Madrid-based side: 'I think they're a very well-worked team, with peculiarities in the game system and application of automation that no rivals we've faced this season have. They press well, they're good at 1v1 duels, they can play the ball or play direct football... In addition, they're going to come out with that extra motivation of knowing that they're playing at home and they're going to create a lot of difficulties for us.'
Another of the topics of interest in the run-up to the Copa del Rey match against Sanse was the squad list, since in this competition more prominence is usually given to those who are not having it: 'The squad list is going to be unpredictable because we already started with the seasonal colds and flu, in addition to some players who have some muscle discomfort following the SD Huesca game, which will not prevent them from making it in shape the weekend.'
Finally, Rubi insisted on the importance of the Spanish Cup for him. The head coach has made it very clear that he is eager to fight for this competition, therefore the player who plays tomorrow has to have enough motivation to try not to fail. It's also a way of knocking on the door, of redeeming themselves for previous Cup exits.'