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SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — It’s raining in San Sebastian. It’s nearly always raining here, or has just stopped raining, or is about to rain. Set around a curl of beach on Spain’s northern coast, the compact city of elegant promenades is one of Europe’s loveliest settings and has some of the world’s finest restaurants. But nobody goes there for the weather.
The official statistics report that San Sebastian gets around 150 days of sunshine annually, less than half the national average. When I arrive at Real Sociedad’s training grounds, which climb a hillside in the nearby town of Lasarte, a drizzle drips from a sky the color of chimney smoke. It’s early-December, and it’s the region’s 18th straight day of precipitation.
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The following day, when Real Sociedad will host PSV Eindhoven in a game that will eliminate one of them from the UEFA Europa League, will surely be the 19th. My quick and unscientific survey of the changing room reveals that precisely nobody minds. “The fact is, it’s an advantage for us,” says Mikel Oyarzabal, who was born a short distance away in Eibar. “We’re accustomed to it and the other teams aren’t.”
Oyarzabal has spent his entire professional career at Real Sociedad. He shrugs when asked how he and his teammates cope with the perpetually somber skies. “I prefer it when the weather is bad,” he says. “I don’t know why. It just makes me feel comfortable.”
By the time the players start walking up a hillside path in twos and threes, heading for a field of green so iridescent that it looks unreal, the rain is falling harder. Darker clouds are massing. Somewhere else, the training session might be moved indoors. Instead, nobody glances…
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Source : espn
