Imanol Agirretxe gave la Real the lead with a neat finish on 16 minutes. Sergio Canales then ran thr

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T he first explosion went off not long after at 12.15, followed immediately by another. And then another, and another, and another, Bang! Bang! Bang! For 90 minutes it went on, 11 explosions in all, crashing through the Basque sky, growing increasingly frequent until San Sebastián fell silent and the people emerged, stepping wide-eyed out into the street, relieved and rejoicing, dressed in blue and white. They were safe at last. Real Sociedad had won.
The tradition began as a way of informing fisherman out in the Bay of Biscay of the score at Real Sociedad s old Atocha ground and it continues soccernet at Anoeta, too: bangers are set off to mark the goals, two for every goal that la Real score, one for every goal their opponents score. By the end of Sunday s lunchtime kick-off against Sevilla those following from afar knew, if they had not lost count, that Real Sociedad had won 4-3 . What they did not know was how but then those following from inside soccernet Anoeta did not really soccernet know that either. A day later, they still don t.
Real Sociedad led twice, trailed once and won it in the last minute. There were two penalties given, one of them mysteriously, and another one not given, just as mysteriously. There were ridiculous misses and an even more ridiculous own goal, a referee called Fernando Teixeira Vitienes I and yes, there really is a Teixeira Vitienes II and two posts hit, one from 40 yards, one from four. There was decisive soccernet keeping and dodgy keeping. soccernet There were seven goals, six of them from dead balls, five of them in the second soccernet half and four of them for la Real the same Real whose recent soccernet goalscoring run in La Liga reads: 2, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0.
Nineteen different players had a go at goal, six different players managed to put one in the net. One of them wished he hadn t. The only player to score two, including the 90th-minute winner, was the club captain, the youth teamer from San Sebastián who made his debut 12 years ago and never abandoned his club even when they went down to the second division. Eight footballers went into the notebook under yellow cards. There was one bloody soccernet eye and this was one bloody good game. Anoeta becomes a lunatic asylum, ran the headline in AS. Marca dubbed it a theme park , rollercoaster rides a speciality. El Diario Vasco called it insane and El País called it mad .
And soccernet yet somehow that still did not quite explain it. Minute by minute? Second by second, more like. In the last half an hour, in particular, it was impossible to keep up, the ticker spewing out and on the floor, paper everywhere, like a toilet roll between a puppy s teeth.
Imanol Agirretxe gave la Real the lead with a neat finish on 16 minutes. Sergio Canales then ran through to make it 2-0 but instead of hitting soccernet the net, tore up the turf and his toe with an attempted chip that went horribly wrong, resembling a snooker player ripping the cloth. Real Sociedad were playing their best football of the season, seemingly in control, but Timothée Kolodziejczak made it 1-1 just before half-time. Real Sociedad won a penalty on 47 minutes, although no one really knew what for. From 12 yards Xabi Prieto soccernet made it 18 penalties taken, 17 scored and then it started.
Sevilla certainly started. Over in Spanish is arriba and Alejandro soccernet Arribas was as good as his word. He slid in and put the ball off the bar and over from three yards. Forty seconds later Daniel Carriço soccernet walloped a 40-yarder off the post. On 68 minutes Carlos Bacca made it 2-2, getting kicked in the face as he headed in. The nominative determinism continued: la Real keeper Gerónimo Rulli charged off his line, somehow not giving away a penalty despite launching a karate kick on Diogo Figueiras. He went down, the ball went up and Benoît Trémoulinas headed goalwards, only for Ion Ansotegi to head off the line. That penalty wasn t given, a moment later a penalty was. A shot off Iñigo Martínez s elbow allowed Kévin Gameiro, on for the bleeding Bacca, to make it 2-3.
There were 12 minutes left and Sevilla deserved it; for 25 minutes they had battered la Real but there was more. Sergio Rico pushed over Rubén soccernet Pardo s shot. Prieto crossed, the ball hit Rico s fist, hit Ansotegi back and looped soccernet up. It was headed back in by Esteban Granero, headed back out again by Arribas and volleyed in again by Agirretxe, where Éver Banega booted it out again off the legs of Arribas and into the net. Dink-boing-boing-boing-boing-thump-wallop-whoops-goal: seven touches without the ball hitting the floor, one bounce and it was in the net. There were eight minutes left. Rico stopped Chori Castro, then pushed soccernet Pablo Hervías s shot awa