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.

Rest day today

After a ninety minute training session yeaterday in The Mundialito stadium yesterday the players are off today. Tomorrow Wednesday, they will again train in the Mundialito stadium from 10am.
Tickets for Sunday's game will go on sale from Thursday morning in the stadium, the Liberia in Playa de las Americas and in the Bar Canario, in Puerto de la Cruz.

Interviews with players this week included so far Richi, Kome and Juanlu.

Richi is one of the most experienced players in the CDT team so when he talks he is always clear. "We don't like the position the team is in on the classification table. That is logical. But the way the table is right now is very tight. We need to move day by day. We have enough things to be optimistic." These words don't leave place for doubts.
When asked about the last game, the mid fielder explained that in Almeria we were serious. But we didn't hide: perhaps for a few moments we were missing long passes into attack. But anyway we were near a win and that is never a time to go crazy attacking."
Richi showed himself to be optimistic about the game as " we have one point more that before the game. I need to insist that this team can do great things. There are a lot of games left and the competition is very level. For those teams who just came up it is always more difficult, though this team doesn't need to be jealous of the teams just above us." The mid fielder discussed the game against Valencia which he sees as "Valencia is a great team, with wonderful footballers. We will see once again how we can do at home in our stadium with the support of our fans."

Daniel Kome stated that “This is the moment to stand together and help each other more to get out of relegation. It was a shame we couldn't win. I had the chance to score the 0-2 and just after they equalised. I would have been enchanted to have scored.”

For the player from Cameroon it is clear that “now is the time to continue working and demonstrate we are a strong team. The group is strong and in my case I am starting again to get a good feeling.”

Kome remembered again that “in the Heliodoro, with the support of our people, we are very strong. I hope the rest of the season we will be luckier than we have been up to now.”

Juanlu offered some opinions similar to Kome: “The analysis of what happened in Almeria has to be positive, because we have gained another point away. Independent to the classification it is the moment to have more confidence in our work. We have to forget what the classification says and centre ourselves in the game against Valencia.” He claimed “I felt really good during the game even with the niggles I had during the week.”

Player interviews after the game in Almeria

Interviews with the players after the game in Almeria included Alfaro, Marc Bertran, Ricardo Nino and Richi:

Alfaro: "This point feels like very little. The game was tough. Some of the time we played a great game but in one encounter they scored a goal. Then we played with one more for their red card and could have won. We finished tired as we ran a lot. Now we need to go on fighting and think how to win the next game".

Marc Bertran: " It was a shame, but we played a full game, we played our best. The 1-1 caught us disorganised. We have at least broken the run of losses and it was an away point against a direct rival. I am happy about the way the team played. Personally I finshed the game very tired, its four months since I played and you can tell".

Ricardo: " We need to go on slowly. Today we tried with all our efforts. We had our chances, with one man more than our rivals we had chances to win. But any point is good without leting go of the fact a win is what really counts".

Nino: They made the most of theis chances when the ball still. We tried to kill the game and this is how Almeria managed to score. We need to keep working the same as we did up to now. I would like to be further up the table, but we knew in advance that this was a year to suffer."

Richi: " It leaves a bad taste after being up 0-1. In the second half we suffered loads but we had a chance for the 0-2. After the sending of we had the ball more under control, but it was difficult to get to the goal. They couldn't get to us but we couldn't get the ball in play. Still it is an away point and the team has reasons you should have confidence in them."


Interestingly in an interview after the Valencia - Villareal game, David Villa counted the points which he expected his team to have at the end of the first half of the season, including 3 more for next weeks game. You know what they say about counting chickens.

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"

Mallorca V. CD Tenerife

The game this afternoon is at 5pm Canarian(UK) time. It is being shown on Pay Per View on Canal Plus which we are lucky enough to have at home and although I am not sure what they are charging I am going to watch it anyway. The Armada Sur fans are going together to watch it in Suters Bar, Parque de La Reina, Tenerife.

The Club is looking for their first away points in the Ono Stadium. They are sure that the great form they have been showing until now will stand them in great stead for gaining the 3 points available in this afternoon's game.
In an interview yesterday afternoon in Los Rodeos airport Ezequiel Luna stated "we are very excited we have worked hard all week to correct the mistakes we made in Sunday's game We will be concentrating hard for the 90 minutes of tomorrows game so we won't be making any more mistakes. In this category if you make a mistake it can cost you a goal and you lose the game."
Richie said Mallorca is a good rival, they have great players and are not going to be easy to beat, we are going to the match with our game plan and expect to play well and gain a good result. We know it has been raining a lot in Mallorca but the ground condition will be the same for both teams.
Jose Luis Oltra in his interview announced “You need to keep both feet on the ground. We aren't inferior to any team, but we are not superior either. Mallorca has 2 good results so far, but we are confident the team can show their good side.”
Miguel Concepción will be at the Mallorca v. CD Tenerife game. This is the second away game the president has managed to attend.
The team will be staying at the Hotel Tryp Bellver, in Palma de Mallorca the Capital.

Dani Kome who played for Mallorca commented that "we are going with the aim to gain 3 points. We are a humble team but we are keen to show our skills and we will continue to follow the trainers instructions." He has been injured this week but stated that is the Mister called for him to play he would be enchanted to play against Mallorca
He finished his interview saying that although he didn't play many games for Mallorca during the 2006/07 season he had enjoyed his time there and was looking forward to going back to show how well he can play.