CD Tenerife 2- Racing de Santander 1 Game notes

This was one of those games to remember. It was vital for the team to win and they did. They were convincing and played well together as a group. After a mistake early on Hector played the game of his life. Roman managed to score again and more fans around me took back what they had said about him earlier in the season. He obviously needs a lot of time to adapt to a team as it took him half a season to adapt to Espanyol last year.
Monday is training and from there the coach will decide who is going straight on to Barcelona. A point from the Catalans would be great but as they are in their own battle for the league title I won't hold my breath. The game is on Tuesday at 7pm and I hope all those going especially those from Armada Sur have a great time.


GAME NOTES

CD TENERIFE 2 (1)
REAL RACING SANTANDER 1 (0)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Beltrán, Culebras, Pablo Sicilia, Héctor; Ricardo (Manolo Martínez, 86’), Román Martínez; Juanlu Hens (Kome, 79’), Alfaro, Ayoze (Mikel Alonso, 70’) & Nino.

REAL RACING DE SANTANDER
Coltorti; Pinillos, Oriol, Torrejón, Chistian; Colsa, Lacen (Edu Bedia, 74’); Arana, Canales (Bolado, 54’), Toni del Moral & Tchité (Xisco, 61’).

REFEREE
Antonio Rubinos Pérez, from Madrid. Yellow cards for visitors Coltorti (55’), Xisco (62’), Oriol (89’) & Bolado (91’)

GOALS
1-0: (45+1) Román Martínez header from a foul played by Ricardo, the ball touched the post and shot in the net. 2-0: (56’) Ayoze transformed a penalty by Coltorti on Alfaro. 2-1: (71’) Xisco made the best of a defensive error and scored against Sergio Aragoneses.

INCIDENTS
Thirty fifth round of the Liga BBVA in the first division. Played in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 18.946 spectators present. One minutes silence was held for the death of Antonio Llanos, a CD Tenerife player between 1942 y 1947, and because of this the CD Tenerife players wore black armbands.

Weekend in Madrid

If only we had won the weekend would have been perfect.
Saturday morning saw us in Tenerife airport on aour way to Madrid again for the away game against Atletico Madrid. The flight was plain sailing and we had another "ontime" flight with Ryanair.


The afternoon flew by and we headed into the city centre to find the others but it wasn't to be. I should have remembered in the Irish bar in Sol the noise level is so bad that no one can hear their phone.
Sunday saw us again on our way into Sol and this time we found some of the other fans from Armada Sur. Some were more fragile but everyone was having a good time.
Slowly we moved twards the stadium where my son met up with his friends who are at universtiy in Madrid and that was the last we saw of him for several hours.
We stopped with several other Tenerife fans to have a drink in one of the bars outside the stadium and were invloved in a long conversation with Athletic fans about which team Atleti would be better playing in the final of the Europa League if they made the made the next round.
We moved into the stadium with high hopes but it wasn't to be. Maybe it was the stadium or the players just couldn't on the day. Atletico scored 2 goals. We had chances, Ayoze hit the goal post in the first 10 minutes but their defence was strong and it seemed when we reached their goal area there were 7 or 8 defending. In the second half Roman scored with a pass from Dinei and it seemed that we might be able to equalise but there you go then Aguero scored a third goal for Atletico Madrid and that was it. The Atletico ultra fans decided it would be fun to shout "Your going down to the second division" and that hurt. Maybe though it did our team a favor as the Tenerife fans went from complete silence to strong support as the game finished.
We need now to look forward to Saturdays game against Racing de Santander which we need to win.

Game Notes

ATLÉTICO DE MADRID 3 (2)
CD TENERIFE  1 (0)
ATLÉTICO DE MADRID
De Gea; Valera, Antonio López, Perea, Domínguez; Tiago, Camacho, Jurado (Simao, 73’),  Salvio, Reyes (Forlán, 73’); & Agüero (Ibrahima, 85’).
CD TENERIFE
Aragoneses; Marc Bertrán, Héctor, Culebras, Sicilia; Román, Mikel Alonso, Ayoze (Kome, 62’), Juanlu (Dinei, 55’); Alfaro (Ángel, 82’) & Nino.
REFEREE
Mateu la Hoz, from Valenciaa. Yellow cards fro loacl player  Domínguez   and for visitors Héctor y Román.
GOALS
1-0: (10’) Salvio. 2-0: (30’) Salvio, arriving from further down the field. 2-1: (60’) Román, from a pass by Dinei. 3-1: (77’) Agüero, from a pass from Forlán. 

INCIDENTS

Played in the stadium El Calderón. The grass was in good condition. Warm afternoon. With some 40.000 spectators of which about 700 were from CD Tenerife. One minutes silence was held for Juan Antonio Samaranch, ex president of the Olympic comitee. The day had been announced as the day of the children for the club and there had been activities including three air force parachutists landing on the field before the start of the game.

The B team had a win which took them out of relegation.

Sporting 0 - CD Tenerife 2 First away win.There is euphoria online tongiht

There is euphoria online tonight as CD Tenerife managed their first away win. First a goal by Roman who looked better than he has most of the season followed by a late goal by Alfaro in the 86th minute. 3 points leave CD Tenerife 2 points form Malaga and 3 points from Zaragoza and Racing. All three have still to play this round but tonight the blue and white players go to sleep a step nearer salvation.





GAME NOTES
REAL SPORTING DE GIJÓN 0 (0)
CD TENERIFE 2 (0)
***

REAL SPORTING DE GIJÓN
Juan Pablo; Lora, Gerard (Carmelo, 75’), Gregory, Canella; Rivera, Camacho; Luis Morán (Kike Mateo, 60’), De las Cuevas, Diego Castro; & Barral (Bilic, 66’).

CD TENERIFE
Aragoneses; Marc Bertrán, Culebras, Pablo Sicilia, Héctor; Míkel Alonso, Román (Richi, 85’); Juanlu, Alfaro (Kome, 90’), Ayoze (Manolo Martínez, 79’); & Nino.

REFEREE
Carlos Delgado Ferreira, from the Basque region. Yellow cards for local players Canella (72’) & Rivera (75’).

GOALS
0-1: (69‘) Román. 0-2: (86‘) Alfaro.

INCIDENTS
Played in the El Molinón stadium. Grounds were in perfect condition. Good entrance with 22.000 spectators. Warm afternoon. One minutes silence was held for the death of journalist Juan Manuel Gozalo.

Friday's interviews

Interviews on Friday the 12th of February were with Roman Martinez and Marc Bertran. Given in the press room in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium but players talked about their desire to beat Mallorca on Monday.


Román Martínez stated that the team " want to stop this bad run. We really want to win on Monday hopefully everthing will come out right against Mallorca."he added. When asked about the teams position in the league table the Argentine added, "It is hard but we need to fight. Together we can fight to the end to achieve the our objective"

Lastly Roman reminded the press that everyone needs to pull together. " Everone needs to do their best, to get up and go on. We need to be confident and just think about Monday. If feel good and am ready for the trainers orders."


Marc Bertrán signaled that “Our confidence in the trainer is total. He is the ideal person to take our ship to sea.”The CDT Captain indicated that the motivation of the team are the best for every game and truly it cost a lot to come up to the first division and it is really important to stay up" he repeated. He finsihed with the comment that " this is going to be a difficult game and although Mallorca has dificulties away we need to fight. We want to see the fans happy."

Interviews after the game

Trainer Jose Luis Oltra was interviewed after the game on Sunday against Valencia in the press room of the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez stadium. "A point against Valencia has to be judged by its merits. I want to thank the team for their effort and the fans for their support. That was how he started his interview with the press. He lamented the bad luck the team had with their shots at goal but final lack of goal.
"Cesar deprived us of a win." he added. "We were better than our rival in places exceptionally. We had more chances. We had the ability to reach the goal and shots on goal. Last season we had games where we were lucky, but this year you can't say that about any game. I hope this run will change. Football has a debt to CD Tenerife. But we can do little more to win and more so against a team like Valencia. We are strong at home and have shown that again today."
" I am happy that the players have gone out to compete. The defence line has worked more and even that Valencia has a great set of forwards. Our rival had chances they made themselves not that we gifted them" explained the Tenerife trainer.

Following this line Oltra said "I am happy with the play by Alfaro and Nino who both had chances. Alfaro played today perhaps his best game. Last year he could score with his eyes closed and this year it is harder because we are in a league with better keepers and better defenders. I can't reproach Nino for anything either"

“I know Unai said we have the team to be higher in the league. Others think the same”, stated José Luis Oltra.

“In the end talk of Justice or injustice is very subjective. But I believe that the clear occasions were for us. We were close to a victory. I understand that Valencia will go home with happy with the point. We are too, but less than them”, he finished.

The players commented:
Marc Bertrán: “We showed the best defence, above all in front of a rival with a rival with speed and quality. We are content with the game. I believe we deserved to win. We had three clear chances. We need to keep on working and have confidence that luck will come. defensively in Almeria we were good and today was the same. The pity is the missed chances. No team comes to Tenerife for an easy game. I am starting to pick up rhythm, litle by little recovering sensations”.

Luna: “We could have won in spite of playing the Great Valencia. We knew how to wait out our rival and had great chances. We left our goal clear.We need to go on working. Now we have nothing to do but think about the next game and continue fighting to carry on. CD Tenerife played a great game in every line and was only missing a goal. We put to the test a great rival with great players and it came at a moment when we were in great form”.

Román: “I felt good and was confortable out there. Today we gave everything to the game. We can look ourselves in the eye and say we played a great game. We are left with a bitter taste because we deserved the three points. I train every day to be called for the squad. It could be that it was the best CD Tenerife game this season, good in every line but we were unlucky. But this is the right path. Next week will be a great game.”.

Ángel: “We are sad to leave today as we deserved more. It is not easy to have so many chances against a team like Valencia. Against Barcelona more or less the same thing happened. The chance Alfaro had was the clearest.I hope soon we will have a run of luck. If any of these shots had gone in the game would have been ours above all because we were completely solid in the back today. Now we need three points against Zaragoza which are very important.”

Tickets for Sevilla game go on sale.

Tickets go on sale this morning for the game on Saturday. Sevilla are third in the league, but Capel is away with the under 21's and Adriano Correia has problems with his stomach muscles. We will see what is to be. Of the 14 visits from Sevilla in Tenerife CDT has won half the games.

In a Player interview yesterday Roman Martinez stated that the team wanted to gift a win against Sevilla FC to the fans.

The club has just employed ex referee from the Primera Division, Manuel Ángel Pérez Lima, to help with technical advice for the players and coaches.

The president of CD Tenerife, Miguel Concepción in an interview on Radio COPE yesterday (Tuesday) covered various points of interest. He stated that he would have liked the team to have won the round in the Copa Del Rey but it wasn't possible and now the team needs to look forward and try to reach the 45 points that we need to stay in the first division. He commented that this is not going to be easy but everyone is confident that the team will get there. He also spoke of the attempt to try to raise the number of shares that members need to go to the AGM, He stated that what they wnated to do was within company law and there would be a vote to see if thiswas what the shareholders wanted. When asked about the number of delegates he confirmed that the club was looking for a maximum of seven and a minimum of five. Lastly he talked about the timing of games he has been in meetings with the president and vicepresident of the LFP( Spanish professional football league) and now needs to talk to Media Pro representative Jaume Roures where he hopes to come to a solution which respects the Canarian time difference. He asks that they respect the times in the league and that we are not asking for a favor just that the team is treated the same as every other team.

Cristo Marrero an ex CDT player who was on the Island took the time to pass by training yesterday to visit the team and the trainers.

3rd busiest stadium in primera.

The calculation is made in percentage terms as the stadiums are all of different sizes but CD Tenerife's stadium is the third busiest behind Real Madrid and Sevilla. They have 94% and 90 % respectively and Tenerife has 88% a figure to be proud of. The stands are full of singing, cheering fans. The lowest figures re Juegos del Mediterraneo - Almeria at 40%, Riazor - La Coruna at 44% and La Romareda - Zaragoza at 60%.

A great side story came up in The AS newspaper this morning. Marc Bertran had asked Raul Gonzalez the long time Real Madrid player if they could change shirts during the game and after paly had finished the palyer came to the CD Tenerife changing room to bring the shirt to the players for them to pass it on. It is a very nice thing to remember and take the time so Marc could have the shirt even though he wasn't on the field due to his injuries at the end of play.

Roman Martinez who was interviewed yesterday after he had been banned for the next game against Español ( a game that he couldn't play anyway due to his contract, Español being his real team. He is on loan to CD Tenerife this year.) He commented that the team are making mistakes due to being inxpert at the level they were playing. He stated the mistakes are the sort that any team in the Primera, the Spanish first division will take advantage of and convert into goals. He felt that they needed to be more careful but not worry as they were playing well with only small mistakes.

The cup games are played over the next days with the next draw being held in Las Rozas at 11.00 on Friday morning. Ternerife will be in the next round and it will be interesting to see who they are playing. The club hasn't commented yet what is happening with the season ticket holders seats. I guess they are waiting to see who CD Tenerife draws to see if they charge extra or not.