Marc Bertrán, sixth player unable to play in the game against Granada.

Translated from Marca.es

Marc Bertrán, with acute tonsillitis is the sixth player not available for the game on Sunday in the Rodríguez López against Granada, a game that the team hope will help them finally abandon the relegation positions.
As well as the Catalan, both Ricardo & Natalio can't play for accumulation of yellow cards, whilst Julio Álvarez still has difficulties with his right adductor , Carlos Bellvís still hasn't recovered from a stretched ligament and Omar Ramos is a query as he has problems with his left hamstrings.
At the end of the training session on Thursday, basque mid fielder Mikel Alonso, in declarations to the press, recognised that Sunday, against Granada, will be a difficult game to achieve the third victory in a row.
"It will be hard, not including that we have won the last two games , they are a complicated rival who today are above us in the table added to that their players are strong and solid, so if we want to win we will have to tighten our game and play well”. He added, “The things are improving and that way results will come but we still need more points to step away from the relegation positions where we are right now. And for that we need to be solid on the field, work to score and do everything right. That way we will be on the way to win more games” he assured.

Journey Day

The team set off today on their journey to Huesca. The trip started with a bus journey to the airport, a plane to Madrid, the train to Huesca and a bus to the hotel. There were gripes on some of the forums that the players were not training enough this week but I personally can't see how anyone could have expected them to train today.

Players who were called to make the trip were; Luis García, Marc Bertrán, Bellvís, Hidalgo, Nino, Ricardo, Omar, Natalio, Beranger, Sergio Aragoneses, David Prieto, Juanlu Hens, Melli, Luna, Julio Álvarez, Míkel Alonso, Iriome, Dani Mederos y Josmar Zambrano. Although Sergio Aragoneses has not trained in full this week it is hoped he will be fit to play tomorrow afternoon. 

When interviewed before the trip Mikel Alonso stated that, "it is clear that tomorrows game is very important. We need to show intensity and play as well as we are able. Nobody likes to be in the lower end of the table". He went on to explain that he was "here for the team and the trainer, at his orders. It is good that there is a choice of players to play". When asked about himself he stated "I am not happy about the events this season neither indivdually or for the team because of the position we are in. Here we are a team and we are all unhappy. Lets see if we can start to gain the points we need to move up the table" he finished.

2-2 Draw in Cordoba leaves the team with hope.

 After being 2-0 down with a dubious penalty and a lapse of concentration Club Deportivo came back to score two goals to equalise and bring back a point from Andalucia. Goals by Mikel Alonso and Natalio.

CÓRDOBA CF        2          (0) CD TENERIFE        2          (0)   CÓRDOBA CF Raúl Navas; David de Coz, Fuentes, Alberto Aguilar, Tena; Usero, Luque, Flores, Arteaga (Callejón, 76’); Charles (Díaz de Cerio, 80’) & Pepe Díaz (Jonathan Sesma, 65’).   CD TENERIFE Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Bertrán, Beranger, Ezequiel Luna, David Prieto; Melli (Kome, 59’); Mikel Alonso, Ricardo; Juanlu Hens (Josmar Zambrano, 84’), Omar Ramos (Natalio, 59’); & Iriome.   REFEREE José Ramón Piñero Crespo, from Asturias. Yellow cards for local players  Usero, Raúl Navas, Javi Flores & Pepe Díaz; Also for  our players Beranger, Iriome, Natalio, Josmar Zambrano & Omar Ramos.   GOALS 1-0: (50’) Jorge Luque, from a penalty. 2-0: (59’) Charles. 2-1: (70’) Mikel Alonso. 2-2: (87’) Natalio.   INCIDENTS Played in the Nuevo Arcángel stadium. Aproximately 10.500 spectadores. The president of CD Tenerife, Miguel Concepción and Nino were live in the stadium.

Interview with Mikel Alonso.

Q. After your first few days of your holiday, how do you see the last season?

A. On one hand based on the fact we were relegated that is what counts. On the other hand we played well, there were all the games we won. But finally you are left with a bitter taste to return to the second division. We were in with a chance until the end we played really good football. It is a terrible shame.

Q. You are a player with experience in the elite division. Have you ever played a season which was a equal at the bottom as this year?

A. It is more or less normal. I can remember other years that were this close. People make mistakes and sometimes this causes problems and the other way around; teams who seem to have no hope and at the end manage to keep their head above water. The end of the league is always hard although perhaps not as hard as this year. We were in with a chance to the end.

Q. And personally, after a year and a half here, how do you see things?

A. I am very happy here in the group, with the club, with the trainers and the day by day training. I like the city and the island. When I arrived here the team were in the second division and I didn't manage to play a lot as the group was already formed. Then from the beginning of this season I started to play. This time has been great above all because of the great level of the team.

Q. How do you see the next season in the second division having been relegated?

A. I don't know. I can't tell how it will be next season. Right now my plan is to rest but I am sure as with every year we will be excited to start to play when the time comes.

Q.This year you have almost two months holidays. What sort of preparations will you take during this time?

A. In this sense I am very lucky, I don't tend to have any trouble with weight and I find it very easy to get fit again. This could be because I am always active. I try to enjoy my holidays like every normal person. Then with training little by little I start to get a rhythm.

Mikel Alonso expected to be fit for Xerez

Mikel Alonso: “Fue todo muy aparatoso, pero estoy bien”
El centrocampista donostiarra espera estar disponible para el Xerez

Mikel Alonso, who was taken off injured in the game against Espanyol, talked today Monday in the press room. The midfielder from Donostiarra, who suffered a trauma in the area surrounding his right with a cut said " I was in a lot of pain and it was a great shock but now I feel much better. There is nothing briken and therefore with all things taken into consideration I am fairly happy.”

The mid-fielder from CD Tenerife explained the play: “My rival came late to the ball . He was strong and hit me full on. It was very awakard. Tely told me he was asking if I was ok.”

With respect for the sporting plan, Mikel Alonso said that “colectively we areall very happy. Now we just need to add to this great triumph with more victories. Lets see if we can win more than one game in a row. I hope to be available for the game in Xerez, although I will need to be careful because of the stitches.”

Player interviews.

Culebras:" This is football. The referee was heavy handed in his calling of the tackle and sent me off. I tried to go around the player and perhaps touched him. He threw hinself on the floor. Maybe you could call penalty but not a red card. I am really hurt by the red card especially for the damage it did the team. No one should have this much bad luck. But we need to go on and win against Real Madrid"

Richi: “We always go out to try and win and more right now in the position we are in. Today we couldn't fight for the three points as everything was very complicated. The 4-1 leaves a bad image but if you analise the game the 2-0 after the penalty..... The circumstances were diffiuclt. With only ten players and attacking it leaves spaces behind. The team is fighting and we are going to give our all in every round.”

Sicilia: “I don't know if it was a penalty or not. I haven't talked to Culebras about the play. The start of the game left us damaged. We always go out to play our best but it doesn't always work out. Now we have a big game against Real Madrid and we need to join together to make something form this round."

Bertrán: “That one play marked the game. We were 10 men and 1-0 down from that moment they were superior to us. I don't know if it was a penalty. We know how much it costs us to make goals and with this president after a normal start you are left feeling down. Now we play Madrid and that will be a great week.”

Mikel: “Our rival was better than us. They did us grave damageAgain and again the resulats away are the same. Athletic knew how to make the most of their chances. The 4-1 says it all but the penalty was decisive. Maybe we could have recovered form a 1-0 but the 2-0 made everthing very complicated. Nothing matters now but the next game.

Strange feeling

It is a weird feeling. The weekend is over, back at work and we still haven't played. I guess we will get used to it but this first time it feels very odd.
The team are ready for tonights game and although rumor is that we always loos in Carnival this is not so. We certainly won last year and the AS newspaper calculated how many losses we had over the years and there were more wins than losses and draws.
In the interviews yesterday Mikel Alonso & Ezequiel Luna were the chosen pair.
They talked about the inportance of tonights game against Mallorca.


Alonso explained to the journalists that " we are being visited by a rival in the champions league zone, and this says everything. Mallorca has great dinamics and we really respect that.”
That said he then commented that "I see CD Tenerife doing well with a strong desire to do well, inspite of their position in the table. With a couple of good results everything will seem different. The fans are free to express their opinions"

"They are very important and they need to know they are important" added Alonso, who then commented "all the team want to do a good job so CD Tenerife can reach this seasons objective."

For his part Ezequiel Luna explained that " we need to end this bad run. We are in a difficult moment and need more stability. We need to be solid in defense and score in front."

"Mallorca will be a difficult rival but we need to find our best game to beat them" commented the Tenerife player. "The fans is responding well and a win needs to come soon"

Interviews after the Zaragoza game.

When Zaragoza went down two seasons ago I felt then it was an aberation. They have spent loads of money to stay up buying players left right and everywhere. In the last 15 minutes of the game last night it showed. The last 2 goals where scored by players bought in the winter break.
Last season Numancia came up and said they would buy no one new but just enjoy the season. If this was what our president had said I wouldn't be fed up now. BUT he allowed us to dream. He talked about three years and playing for the Europe league. Nothing wrong with dreaming but sometimes it needs to be followed through.
When all is said and done we will have had a year in the first division and earned 8 million euros which we wouldn't have earned without going up which will help the clubs accounts.

I have had my say and here is what our trainer and players had to say:

Jose Luis Oltra
"What hurts most is what might have been, because it is difficult to assume a loss like this one. We scored early and controlled the game. We played a good first half and inspite of that we were 0-0 at half time. I had the sensation that we could go to 2-0 in a counter attack. Our rival had no chances. But they penalty did us a lot of damage and without realising more goals arrived. In eight minutes they scored three goals. It is dificult to explain the result and that is the reality of it".


Ricardo: “The game escaped us after all our hard work. The changing room is destroyed. The team had the game under control, in front of a rival who had no chances. In an isolated play they received a penalty. But we had time to react. The second and third goals were terrible blows. We made an enormous effort to get in the lead and with nothing threw it all away. But we need to keep on trying”.

Mikel: “It is a very painful loss, a 1-3 more than clear. The 1-1 did us tremendous damage. CD Tenerife carried most of the game, but they were lucky, and that is what counts. The results say everything. After we scored we stepped back and had no more clear chances. Our rival reacted because theya re in a difficult situation too. This is why we stepped back. They were very acurate with their shos at goal”.

Juanlu: “The game got away from us in one single play. Then they made two more chances and both went in and we lost the game. We can get to the goal but have no luck when it com,es to scoring. We need to improve this. I scored a goal but it means nothing this time. We need to stay calm and try to put ourselves back together so we can move on to the next game. In the first half we should have scored we deserved to. I belive the penalty was a high price to pay as with that the whole game turned.”.

Last session of the year

Today the last session of 2009 Jose Luis Oltra will decide which players he is taking to Santander with him. The players will be travelling tomorrow so I guess there will be no late party for them tonight. We wish them all a Happy New Year and send thanks for the joy they have bought us all this year. And the wish that next year they will bring us as much joy by working for us to stay in the First Division.

Yesterday Míkel Alonso was interviewed by the press. His comments included the thought that the players know the need to gain 3 points in Santander. " At home the results are good but we still need to work on the away points. It would be a good game to have the 3 points to bring home."
He continued that they have a good chance against Racing, that they are going to Santander with the idea of working hard and bring home those magical 3 points. He commented that there have been other games where they were not bad but just didn't have that special something to win.
His last comments were about the style of play in CD Tenerife, " We have a style and work on this every day. This team has real football skills and with them have managed so far to keep us out of the last three teams who are going down to the second division"


His companion Marc Bertran was also interviewed in the press area in the Mundialito training ground,where he talked about his injury. “I feel better, but I am still missing the rhythm which comes from training every day. I can't say when I will start to play for the team again, this is the most difficult time of my recuperation”.

“I need to insist it is not good to fix a date for my coming back to play”, the Catalan player continued, he followed this thought by saying “I am with the team, but little by little”.

Bertran, lastly, indicated that “We need to improve the away points. Let's see if we can do this soon”, and when asked about the year as a whole he said, “It has been a great 2009 in every aspect. In total a special year a year to remember even if on a personal level there is that but from my accident in Real Madrid.

Preparation for Saturdays game.

After a Day off on Tuesday the team started work towards Saturdays game in Valladolid in the José Zorrilla stadium at 5pm (4pm Canarian and UK time.). The players trained yesterday for 90 minutes in the Mundialito training grounds.
After warming up the players did a round of circuit training with balls. Then they played a series of training games with groups of 4 players and a keeper. The keepers from Tenerife B Toño Ramírez y Dani Mederos were also present for training. The oly players from CDT who didn't train were Dani Kome and Marc Bertran.
Today the team will train in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López from 10 am.

In Interviews after the training


Carlos Bellvís comented that it was their turn to have some joy away, they know that they are visiting a difficult team but if all the lines do their part then a win is possible. " We are going with the idea of winning and don't think any further than the next game."


Míkel Alonso, stated that the team needed to continue inproving to win games "Valladolid if you look at the league tables is a comparable to us although they are playing at home." He also reminded the press that at this level all games are difficult and any rival can complicate things. That Valladolid could be a as difficult or more so to play than Sevilla.

Interviews

In an Interview after the game Jose Luis Oltra said " We knew Deportivo were an organised team and they had the last 2 games not received a goal. They are a solid group who hadn't received a goal. In the first half we had chances to score but in the second half we played more with our hearts than our heads and were less dangerous. We were not fluid and couldn't equalise. They won with very little effort, just the one play".

This was the first game lost at home this season. A game where we didn't play particularly well. Certainly not the way we have played in other games. When asked about the players changed after half time. He stated " I changed the players at more or less the same time because we were 0-1 down. It is true that I changed Omar and Dinei within 4 minutes of each other but then I saw now change in the play and then I decided to make another change risking a bit more. Sometimes change works and sometimes not. That is football"

He then continued, " In the first half we couldn't score, the ball came all the way to the goal but their defence were there and the players couldn't come through. We didn't get a rhythm going and were not consistent. In the second half their changes also influenced play. Perhaps we were not at our best football but I am not unhappy with the way the team played. I would like to send my congratulations to Depo. Now we need to think about the next game. I am grateful to the fans but we all knew this would be a year to suffer. We are all angry when we lose and more so a game where we really didn't deserve to. Nethertheless to talk of fair or not fair isn't football. You just have to go on, now we need to have confidence in the team and trust that goals will come.

The team members comments included:
Richi who commented that the team had played well in general in the first half but after the goal in the second half they were not so controlled.

Aitor Nuñez discussed the fact it was the first loss at home, he then commented on the fact the trainer always plays to win and often takes off defenders to put on more forwards. When asked about himself he replied that"I am happy to keep playing minutes though you never go home happy after a loss"

Finally Mikel Alonso spoke saying " This was the first loss at home and hurts more as we are not used to losing here. We were not lucky. The worst thing is after the goal we had the feeling that we could come back but their defenders stood back. We were around the goal area but couldn't come through"

Game time confirmed

Although the club has tried to have the time of Sundays game put back an hour so we start at the same time in time terms as the rest on the other games the Spanish federation have decided that we should play at the same phyisical time as the rest of the games. I hope it is not too hot and perhaps we can wish for a cloudy day like today.
Tickets for the game go on sale on Thursday morning and will be available in the stadium, in Bar Canario, in Puerto Cruz; and in Librería Papelería Raquel y Carla, in Playa de Las Américas.As previously mentioned prices are
Tribuna: 65 euros.
San Sebastián: 45 euros.
Herradura: 35 euros.
Popular: 20 euros.

Míkel Alonso stated in an interview today that if the fans support them he is sure the team will win on Sunday. We all hope this is the case.

It is still not clear who will play in Juanlu's place.
Juanlu and Culebras are the only players on the injured list and Culebras is expected to train with the rest of the team from next week.

CD Tenerife B had their first win in 2B this season beating Cerro Reyes 3-0. The away team ended up with 9 players on the field and missed a penalty which could have equalised them at 1-1

First win of the season

Sorry if you were planning to warch the game tonight but I couldn't resist looking at yesterday result. A 0-3 win against Tenisca was a great start to summer training. Mikel Alonso scored the first goal and Nino the other 2. Jose Luis Oltra was pleased with the way they played and the result. Luna stated he still has a way to go with his phyisical fitness but he was pleased to play again. As he only started training on Thursday I guess it was not a surprise he was tired after the game.

It looks like Mikel Alonso's brother Xazi will be coming back to Spain so it will be interesting to watch them play against each other.
Gaizka Saizar is recovering form his injury and is expected to play again in 2 weeks.

There is still talk about N'Gal coming but Nástic have been aproached by various first division teams for him to play so we will need to wait and see. There is talk in the AS today about Román Martinez from Español being available on loan for next year. He stated he hoped he could come to Tenerife as he had been offered the chance to play on a regular basis.

Tenerife B should know in the next few days if they have a chance to play in Segunda B as the ecconomic situation of some of the other clubs should either be resolved or show up as impossible. One of the Gran Canaria teams is desperately looking for a loan to cover their debts as they couldn't raise the finance neede any other way.