ESPN.com · Jan 3, 2023
Spain's beautiful, unpredictable Copa del Rey deserves our love
Real Betis coach Manuel Pellegrini brought Copa del Rey success in 2022. David S. Bustamante/Soccrates/Getty ImagesThis is an unashamed love letter to Spain's Copa del Rey which picks up speed with the round of 32 this week and which, if not for you and I sending it some amor, will be subconsciously tainted in the media with stock phrases like "gruelling," "squad rotation," "cold, inhospitable stadium" and "embarrassing elimination."
The truth is that the Copa is a shimmering, tantalising, beautiful shock-fest of a competition which, like delicate flowers and buds on trees, determinedly rouses itself around this time each year to haul us through brutal winter and into spring.