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.”.

Deception

I have to say this is just how I feel. What happened this evening. After we scored why did we give up. Where were the team who last week ran their guts out until the last whistle. I feel that we are going back to the second division which is a pity as they are a great team who deserve more.

The buying window closes tomorrow night at midnight and we will see if the club buys someone or if the players are left to struggle on as they are. 17 points are not enough with only 18 games left to play and only 8 home games. We still haven't won away so perhaps we could do that next week (you can always hope.)


GAME NOTES

CD TENERIFE 1 (0)
REAL ZARAGOZA 3 (0)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Beltrán, Manolo Martínez, Ezequiel Luna, Pablo Sicilia; Mikel Alonso, Ricardo (Ángel, 79’); Juanlu Hens (Dinei, 85’), Alfaro, Kome (Román Martínez, 60’); & Nino.

REAL ZARAGOZA
Carrizo; Diogo (Gabi, 58’), Pulido, Contini, Ponzio (Arizmendi, 70’); Ander, Jarosik; Pennant, Lafita, Eliseu (Colunga, 58’); & Suazo.

REFEREE
Carlos Delgado Ferreiro, from the Basque region. Yellow cards for local players Alfaro (36’), Ricardo (43’), Román Martínez (64’), Luna (75’) & Aragoneses (77’), and for the visitors Diogo (6’), Pulido (60’), Arizmendi (84’) & Lafita (86’).

GOALS
1-0: (47’) Juanlu Hens, from a pass by Pablo Sicilia. 1-1: (76’) Suazo, from a penalty. 1-2: (78’) Colunga, from a cross ball Aragoneses. 1-3: (82’) Lafita, from a distant shot at goal.

INCIDENTS
Twenty first round of the Liga BBVA in Primera División. In the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, attended by 19.198 spectators on an afternoon which started with rain. The local players wore black armbands in memory of the recently dead ex-player from CD Tenerife, Juan Martín Martín, for whom one minutes silence was held.

Start of the second half of the season.

The home game against Zaragoza today is the start of the second half of the season. CD Tenerife is short 4 points of the 23 points the club hoped we would have by the half way mark to maintain our position in the Spanish first division.
The game today is very important it is a direct rival which we lost 1-0 to away in Zaragoza in August 2009. Their goal was by Arizmendi in the second half. Hojuan Martin martinpefully the team can have their revenge today.
The players choosen for the line up are Luis García, Sergio Aragoneses, Culebras, Marc Bertrán, Juanlu, Pablo Sicilia, Kome, Ayoze, Román, Mikel Alonso, Manolo Martínez, Ricardo, Richi, Ezequiel Luna, Alfaro, Dinei, Ángel & Nino. We will see who gets to play. For the first time this season not a sngle players is on the sick list and trainer Jose Luis oltra could choose the players he really wanted without haveing to balance who was missing.

There will be 1 minutes silence for ex-tenerife player Juan Martín Martín who played in the team twice(1954-1957 & 1962-64) he died in Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 74 Years old. His posicion on the field was on the wing, on both sides.

Undeserved loss

It takes me ages to come to terms with losing especially when like this is was undeserved. They played really well and in one minute of unconcentrated play Zaragoza managed to score a goal. I am not the only person, everyone I have talked to says CD Tenerife played well and at least deserved to win. Zaragoza have spent lot of money on players, where as we have spent very little. We looked the better side.
Playing for us were:
Aragoneses, Marc Bertrán, Bellvís, Manolo Martínez, Luna, Ricardo, Román (Omar, 62), Alfaro (Ángel, 80) Kome (Saizar, 86), Richi & Nino.

Playing for Zaragoza were:
Carrizo, Ayala, Pablo Amo, Jorge López, Uche (Obradovic, 88’), Pennant (Ander Herrera, 70’), Gabi, Aguilar (Babic, 70’), Arizmendi, Ponzio & Laguardia.
Yellow cards were given to Arizmendi for Zaragoza and for us to Luna, Román, Bellvís, Manolo Martínez y Nino.

The start of the game had both sides playing very carefully watching to see how the other was going to play. Both seemed more preoccupied with not letting a goal in than actually scoring the first gol. Slowily Tenerife started to move towards the 3/4 line with the aim to score.

In the 4th minute Jermain Pennant ex Liverpool player had a shot towards the gola but Arizmendi failed to convert it into a goal and the ball went out. In the next play Tenerife counterattatcked and Alfaro shot with the ball hitting the post.

shortly after the 30 minute mark Tenerife had a clear shots at goal, first with Richi shooting a header and secondly Nino with a ferocious shot at the Zaragoza goal.

Again and again Tenerife took the ball all the way to the local teams area playing with precision and courage. Just before half time Tenerife players Alfaro and Nino missed great possible shots at goal leaving the half time score 0-0.

The first part of the second half the ball moved from one end to the other in a constant rhythm of up and down. The teams both knowing the importance of starting the league with points. They chased the ball without stopping in a constant stream of energy. Uche and Kome were always in the action and created chances where they played. Inspite of the fact Tenerife played well Zaragoza's goal came in the minute. From a play by Herrera who had just come onto the field ending up at the feet of Arizmendi who scored.

The last few minutes of the game both sets of players were tired and you could see the mistakes. there were fewer sequences of passes and the game was more choppy. It ended in a win for Zaragoza which gives them their first three points.

The Table looks interesting with Athletico Madrid who are actually playing in the Champions league last ( 1 game missing). Tenerife is 16th with no chance of being in the last 3 positions this week.

The team have also announced that they now have 14.050 season ticket holders. I would expect the figure to start to rise after Tuesday when many holders get paid.

Line up for tonights game

Here is the list of the players who went to Zaragoza. These 18 players are the ones Jose Luis Oltra will decide form who will play tonight.

Keepers: Luis García & Sergio Aragoneses.
Defense: Bellvís, Marc Bertrán, Ezequiel Luna, Manolo Martínez & Pablo Sicilia.
Midfielders: Alejandro Alfaro, Míkel Alonso, Ayoze, Kome, Román Martínez, Omar Ramos, Ricardo & Richi.
Forwards: Ángel, Nino & Gaizka Saizar.

Omar our latest sigining even if it was only from Tenerife B is travellng with the team and I wish him luck even if he doesn't get to play. we wihs them all the best and hope for a win.
After the game CD Tenerife have 2 weeks to refine their game as next weekend is an international weekend and the only one of our players who has been called up is Kome.