It’s one thing to see your first match at a given stadium. It’s a whole different thing to see Real Club Deportivo La Coruña’s first match back in Primera División after eight years of relegation, on an August night at Abanca Riazor with the sunset still approaching 10pm.
Gata Sports Tours traveled to A Coruña in August, and caught Dépor’s first match of the season. It was not our first time in Galicia, but was our first time in A Coruña, and it was delightful. Summer is an optimal time to be in one of the cooler parts of Spain, even if it was abnormally warm for the region. Also, the setting for Riazor is near-perfect. It’s the only stadium of a LaLiga team that’s literally right on the beach (Racing Santander’s El Sardinero is very close).
The stadium is intimate and loud, with steeply vertical seats. We got tickets online when they opened up to non-socios, though if you want to secure tickets further in advance, you could spring for VIP seats. Being the first match of the season with the transfer window still open, Dépor was still busy making additions to its team, given a much bigger budget with the move up to Primera. It had a banger of an offseason, with pick-ups including Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Auba), Adama Traoré, Marc Casadó on a year-old loan from Barça, Jose Gimenez from Atlético, and Angeliño. We saw Auba make a splash from the start with a screamer of a goal, followed by his trademark flip. It looked like that would deliver a victory to Dépor, but Elche’s Marc Aguado equalized and the game ended up 1-1.
A part of the fan base protested new conditions for members (an agreement was reached between the club and fans later in the month) by wearing orange and muting celebrations. Even so, it was a special experience to be present for Dépor’s return to Primera. Many fans in attendance were emotional, even tearing up, with joy. It was a feeling not replicable without living it live. We had goosebumps. We didn’t know that Auba would go on to score in each of the next three matches, leading sports newspaper Marca to run the cover “Vuelve SuperDépor”!
It unfortunately didn’t work, scheduling-wise, to catch both a men’s and a women’s match, while in A Coruña. We did do a tour of Riazor and the Dépor Museum, though. We’ve been fortunate enough to do tours with a few teams, and this tour guide was one of the best. She was knowledgeable and pithy.
One thing we hadn’t fully realized is that Dépor has been a pioneer of women in soccer in Spain. In the 1920s, the goalkeeper Irene was the first professional female soccer player in Spain, and she had her own team. The club also plays the Trofeo Teresa Herrera, named for a philanthropist. They had their first professional women’s team in 1984, which didn’t manage to stick around, but the women now play in Liga F and Dépor is unmatched in Spain in that its men’s and women’s clubs have same level of clubhouse (whoever is at home uses it) and travel in same mode.
RC Deportivo has a rich history. It has won La Liga once, the Copa del Rey twice, the Supercopa three times and was semifinalist in the Champions League once (2003-04). It lived a golden age of sorts in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That’s when all the above standout bits of history happened, including its one LaLiga championship (1999-2000) and it pulling off “El Centenariazo” victory over Real Madrid in 2002 on the 100th anniversary of Real Madrid’s founding to win the Copa del Rey - AT Madrid’s Bernabéu Stadium.
If you head to A Coruña for a match, you must take advantage of stellar eats (seafood, of course, such as pulpo a feira and tortilla de Betanzos) and sights around the city. The city is stylish (hello, Inditex headquarters just outside the city) with literary and art haunts that abound. It’s a cyclist’s dream as well, with BiciCoruña passes €10 for a month and cycling lanes all over. And if you have time to explore beyond the city, such as Praia as Catedrais (pictured below), you absolutely should!
