In a Single Moment, Jose Gimenez Sums Up Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid

Pablo Sarabia held his arms out. Like he was ready to raise them in celebration. Or as another way of saying, "surely this is it?"

The Getafe midfielder, from the left wing, had just played a delightful, defence-splitting ball into striker Alvaro Vazquez. Though the No. 9 was facing the wrong way, he managed to lay it off nicely to Fredy Hinestroza. 

The forward, ball on his boot, was well inside the box. On the edge of the six-yard one. Staring at the goalkeeper. 

The first opening was right there. He passed it up. A second opening immediately followed. He passed that one up, too. 

Then a third opening came.

Hinestroza was still just as close to the goal. Still on the edge of the six-yard box. Two defenders were already on the ground from missed challenges. The keeper, Jan Oblak, was wrong-footed. Scrambling Atletico Madrid players were all that stood in his way. The Getafe man just had to pick his gap. Any one among a number of them. 

"Surely this is it?"

---

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press

When Diego Simeone was unveiled as Atletico Madrid's manager in December 2011, he spoke of wanting to create an "aggressive team," one that was "strong, committed."

Three years later, it's unquestionable that he's succeeded. In fact, Simeone has almost redefined such terms. His team has transcended previous benchmarks of commitment. Of strength. Of aggression. 

According to the Atleti boss, they have to. There isn't a choice.

"We know that we've got worse players than other teams on paper. We know that's the case," he told Canal+ earlier this year, per Marca. "That's our strength: the day we think we're better than them, they'll put four past us."

For Atletico, the sum of the team's parts is irrelevant; it's the collective sum of each man's will to fight that counts. 

It's why players can come and go, but the ethos remains. The coach, not anyone on the pitch, is the star. Simeone is the individual an entire club is built around. 

As such, it's either buy into his mentality or don't play. Just ask Alessio Cerci.

But those who do embrace Simeone's philosophy—and the overwhelming majority of them do—become complete converts.  

"For us, for all the club, he is like a god," Atletico midfielder Tiago said of Simeone prior to last season's Champions League final in Lisbon, per Jason Burt of The Telegraph. 

"We follow him—if he asked us to go and jump off the bridge. We jump."

The manager, Atleti's "god," knows it, too.

"My players are not afraid of death," he said in January, ahead of his club's Copa del Rey meeting with Real Madrid. 

Quite a statement. 

But it's hard to disagree. 

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

---

"Surely this is it?"

Getafe, at 1-0 down, had their chance. An opportunity to get to 1-1. Against an outfit with a recent history of struggles immediately after Champions League outings. 

Hinestroza was the man the chance fell to. In normal circumstances, against most opponents, he probably could have placed it in the net with nonchalance. Once the defenders are on the ground, it's almost a certainty, isn't it? Particularly from that close?

But circumstances are rarely normal when playing against Atletico. The men from the Vicente Calderon aren't most opponents. 

And Getafe manager Pablo Franco had acknowledged exactly that prior to Saturday's clash: "His [Simeone's] players go to death with his ideas," he'd said on Friday, per Jamie Kemp of Inside Spanish Football. 

Hinestroza found that out the hard way. He'd passed up two openings to seize upon a third, perhaps the best one. Then, as he struck his shot, he watched Jose Gimenez, already on the ground, dive in front of his boot. 

With his head. 

Gimenez risked a broken nose. Risked a concussion. Possibly a fractured cheekbone.

It could have been even worse than that. It could, had it gone wrong, have been horrific. 

And he did it just to block a shot. Just to save a single goal. To follow his manager "off the bridge."

That, summed up in a single moment, is Simeone's Atletico Madrid. 

Follow @TimDCollins