San Sebastian rocking as Real Sociedad roll back the clock

Real Sociedad are capturing the imagination. They are doing so by playing some super football bearing the hallmarks of coach Eusebio Sacristan: a silky passing game featuring some exquisite combination play. The fans are loving it and the results aren't too shabby either. The Basques currently sit fifth in the table on 35 points, their best return at the midway mark since their swashbuckling first half of the 2002/03 season. Back then, they were runaway league leaders at this stage of the campaign, sitting pretty on 43 points and harbouring genuine hopes of claiming the crown.

Although they fought to the bitter end, the San Sebastian outfit fell just short of a fairy-tale title triumph. Nevertheless, the team earned themselves a special and enduring place in the hearts of the fans. The current crop, which features the likes of Willian Jose, Mikel Oyarzabal, Asier Illarramendi, David Zurutuza and Iñigo Martinez, are certainly doing a fine job of rekindling memories of those past glories.

Willian Jose's goalscoring prowess is highly reminiscent of the striking abilities of Serbian hitman Darko Kovacevic, whilst Oyarzabal's wand of a left foot is worthy of comparison with that of Javi de Pedro. In the middle third, the class of 2002/03 boasted the elegant quality of Xabi Alonso, the balance brought by Mikel Aranburu and all of Valeri Karpin's know-how. There are no shortage of similarities to be drawn with the personnel that make up La Real's current engine room, where Zurutuza's ability on the ball, Illarramendi's aptitude for breaking up the play and the considerable experience offered by Xabi Prieto ensure that the Basques rarely get overrun in the middle of the park.

However, it's not only these considerable parallels that would suggest that the San Sebastian outfit are set for a successful conclusion to the current campaign. Indeed, a look back at the statistics also offers room for optimism in that regard. By this stage of the 2002/03 campaign, Real Sociedad had hit the back of the net 36 times, not all that many more than the 31 goals registered by Eusebio's charges, whose entertaining, easy-on-the-eye football has propelled them up into the European qualification spots. Whilst the contemporary 4-3-3 system differs from the 4-4-2 formation employed under French coach Raynald Denoueix, the ambition of giving the Anoeta fan base something to get excited about still remains very much intact.