A report by Andrés Arencibia, journalist of “El Nuevo Insular”
On October 19, 1977 and later on November 2 of that same year, UD Las Palmas played its last official tie in European competition. The canary team did it against t the fierce Ipswich Town. The English team was managed by Bobby Robson, who would later leave for Barcelona, and led by the striker Paul Mariner.
Almost 50 years after the historic confrontation, two legends of the Canary Islands team speak for BBC Radio Suffolk. They are Roque Díaz, grancanarian defender who had to fight against the powerful Paul in both games -the 1-0 at Portmand Road and the 3-3 at the Insular – and Carlos Morete, legendary argentine forward, formerly of River Plate and Boca Juniors, who scored two of the three goals that day against Ipswich, but they were not enough to overcome the tie.
Morete, known in football as “El Puma” and with 99 goals dressed in UD Las Palmas yellow, perfectly defines what Ipswich was at that time. For him, Ipswich were a great team that was in a good moment. And it was. Just before the game at El Insular, Ipswich were eleventh in the English First Division, ahead of teams like Chelsea and Newcastle, and just one point behind Manchester United. “We knew Ipswich Town were in a good moment. Very difficult match, very fought. They played soccer very well. The game at El Insular was a great game. We gave everything, absolutely everything. A great team and a great coach beat us”, said.
Regarding what surprised him most about the English team, Carlos Morete praised Bobby Robson and his way of uniting the group: “What caught my attention was that Ipswich was a very compact team, which played very well as a block. The block had to be dismantled…”.
Of the 13 league games prior to playing this tie, Ipswich had conceded 15 goals. A powerful defensive line that Morete, remembering the 3-3, believes they did overthrow. “In the Insular we achieved it, but we also risked too much. So they scored three goals against us, but nothing to blame. We had a spectacular tie”.
Meanwhile, defender Roque Díaz, who played 376 games with the UD Las Palmas shirt and is now President of the Association of Former Players, remembers that he had to defend the burly Paul Mariner. Of course, in a somewhat special way… “Yes, I had to defend Paul Mariner, one of the best forwards of the time, with a shoulder dislocation. “My partner Páez knew how to make up for that physical deficiency perfectly” Ipswich’s only danger was not the English striker. “Apart from Paul Mariner, Brian Talbot and Clive Woods really surprised me”.
Díaz also highlights several aspects of the English team. “Ipswich played very good football. Also that in Spain, due to the violence in the fields, there were fences in the countryside. When we went to Portmand Road these fences did not exist. «The English fans treated us great, wonderful.»
In the hypothetical case that he were the owner of UD and they gave him the choice between that money to sign, or seeing UD Las Palmas again against Ipswich in UEFA, Díaz is clear. “Maybe I sound like a liar, but if they give me 130 million euros or the possibility of playing those two UEFA matches again, I will choose the latter. «Yes, it is true that football now cannot be understood without the word money”.
The enthusiasm to play a match of these characteristics was evident and could not be hidden in the UD Las Palmas players, many of them from humble families. “I am a boy from La isleta. Going to England to play in a competition like UEFA was an indelible illusion. They started as favorites, but the final result was not so great. Playing at Portmand Road are sensations in which you feel proud to be a Canary Islander”.
The tie between two high-level football teams will always remain in the memory of the most nostalgic. Maybe, one day, they will meet again in the UEFA Cup and give us another spectacle on par with very few teams in the world. For the moment, we are left to enjoy Ipswich Town and UD Las Palmas in the place where they deserve to be for many years: in the First Division.