Monday, March 22, 2010
Silver Collection
Phil Ball
Once a year at least, this column likes to look down below to see what's happening in the 'Silver Division', as they call it here in Spain. There are still thirteen games to go in Segunda 'A', but it's worth knowing something about the sides who are in the push for top-flight status next season. Later on we can return to talk a little about what's being going on up deck, but first let's pay a visit to the engine room.
Xabi Prieto (left) can expect to be playing against the likes of Ronaldo and co in the near future (GettyImages)
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The fairy story of the season so far has been written by Cartagena, in their first season at this level.
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The fairy story of the season so far has been written by Cartagena, in their first season at this level. At the time of writing (Betis play on Monday night and may supplant them) they lie third, and were top of the league back in November after playing their first eleven games unbeaten. There are some signs of a wobble coming on, with only one win in their last five games, but as the cliché goes, it's all still to play for.
Cartagena is a biggish city in the Murcia region, down in the south-east, and back in November they visited their more established neighbour, Real Murcia, for the first time in the history of La Liga. They took 8,000 supporters and won 4-1, perhaps marking the high point in their fledgling existence.
The fact that their foundation date is 1995 adds to the romance, of course, although it's slightly misleading since the club is a re-birth of the now defunct Cartagena FC, founded back in 1919. Nevertheless, they were re-constituted as Cartagonova FC fourteen years ago and only took on their present name in 2003 when the institution was about to fold again. They were then eleventh in Segunda 'B' and so short of money that the club's office telephone (hired) was reclaimed by the company and the line cut. Now they are thirteen games from an unlikely step up into the maximum category of Spanish football.
The two other sides who have occupied the promotion spots this season are Real Sociedad, currently the leaders, and Hercules, from Alicante. One of the sides who have been in the frame are Levante (5th before the weekend's action), and the ex-First Division club visited another top-flight exile on Sunday in a true six-pointer. Since the game was being played in my adopted home town of San Sebastián, I went along to judge the candidates' credentials.
The game was played at 12 noon due to the Canal Plus cameras, and I must say that it's an interesting experience at that time. Several weeks ago there was a poll in the tabloid Sport asking readers what their preferred match time was on a weekend. The vast majority opted for the 5 o' clock spot on the Sunday afternoon.
Nobody was asked to justify their opinions in the poll, but I do recall a Basque friend here telling me that he didn't like Saturday games because if your team lost, "te jode el fin de semana" (It f**** your weekend). This is an interesting and perhaps (Roman) Catholic perspective on the issue, since Sunday games were very much looked down upon for decades in the Protestant countries, and there are still lobby groups in northern Europe who would prefer the Sabbath to remain football-free. Fat chance of that, since Mammon has long since triumphed to the degree that there is now televised football every day of the week in Spain, with a Second Division Friday evening game, and the old Monday slot restored recently to the First Division programme.
The Catholic view of Sunday sport however, as far as I understand it, is that a football match is providing a leisure activity for the masses, and is therefore acceptable, in strictly biblical terms. The Spanish are, in fact, far more concerned with their routines being broken than with the Sabbath being defiled. The only complaint I could extract from the parents of my son's football team (the collective with whom I most commonly chat) about the 12 o'clock kick-off was that "te jode el aperitivo" (it f**** your lunch-time drink), a family occasion on Spanish Sundays where folks like to be seen out en masse, in their Sunday best or worst.
Nevertheless, there was a heady atmosphere at the normally rather frigid Anoeta stadium, the Real Sociedad supporters cognisant of the fact that a win would put them 3 points clear of second-placed Hercules (who had drawn the previous evening) and open up a gap of ten points between themselves and their aspiring opponents Levante, in 5th place. Apart from Levante, only Betis, coming up strong on the outside lane, threaten to break into the aforementioned top three for the time being.
The teams in the Second Division recently lobbied the FEF to consider scrapping the present system of three automatic promotion places and replacing it with the English one, where two sides go up and the four below them play off. It might be brought in, but the Spanish are more suspicious of smaller sides slipping through the nets and trying their luck with the big boys. If Cartagena prove their worth through 42 games of slog and go up automatically in 3rd place, no-one will deny them their subsequent shot at survival. The alternative, more open system worries the authorities here.
Whatever, I've seen a lot of Silver Division games this season, and in general I've been impressed by the standard. As the other cliché would have it, there are no easy games, and it's true. Real Sociedad, a side that 'belongs' in the top flight, as they say, are now in their third season in Segunda 'A', and whereas I enjoyed the first season playing teams with funny names from unheard of places, the novelty has definitely worn off. I would like to get back to the old days, when some good old-fashioned abuse could be hurled down from the terraces at Real Madrid, and the famous and the fabulous would step down from their team buses in the heart of the city before disappearing in a camera flash into the hotel lobby.
Sociedad won the game 3-1, with two goals in injury-time, and look to be on course for a return to their roots. Levante will not be far behind. At this stage of the season, the teams who can realistically aspire to promotion need to be considering the tricky balancing act of retaining the best of their squad who have succeeded, and bringing in reinforcements for the tougher campaign ahead. Real Sociedad have just come out of administration, and the gloom of the last four years is beginning to lift, sceptical though some of their followers remain.
Indeed, with Athletic Bilbao in 6th place in the league above, things are beginning to look up again in the Basque Country. Levante, from Valencia, remain in relative penury, but have also made a good job of emerging from the ashes of near closure.
Sociedad, forced by the limitations of administration to tighten their belts, took refuge in their 'cantera' (youth system), the quarry that people had been urging them to hew their rocks from anyway, and the enforced policy is paying dividends. Left-winger Antoine Griezmann, loaned out to a regional youth side last season is now being pursued madly by all the scouts of Europe, and midfielder David Zurutuza has also emerged from nowhere to looking like another gem that they will need to keep hold of.
Xabi Prieto remains the best Spanish player outside of the top flight, and may be subject to some big offers come summer. If he stays, the team might well aspire to a comfortable return to the top flight, blessed as they are with a good mix of youth and experience. The same could be said of their Chilean national goalkeeper, Claudio Bravo, for whom Real Madrid are said to be preparing a summer offer.
Their main rivals Hercules, last in the First Division in the early 1990s, have a rather more mature squad whose experience has been a factor in their consistency so far this season, but weariness seems to be creeping in. Their problem will be, should they go up, that the nucleus of their side has already played at the top level, and either didn't quite make it, or are in the twilight of their careers. Players like Francisco Rufete, Fernando Moran and Javi Farinos seem to have been around for ever, and do not look like a long-term insurance policy.
Which brings us round to Mr Messi. I thought it was quite an achievement to manage 1,400 words without mentioning him, but as my friend the barman remarked in midweek, after the Argentine's stratospheric performance against poor Stuttgart, "Le tienen que prohibir. No es justo". (They should ban him. It's not fair). That came on the heels of a hat-trick against Valencia. Then he manages another one against Zaragoza, just in case anyone thought he was slacking.
Sigh what can one say? Adjectives are beginning to fall short for this little man who seems to require neither space nor time to work his mojo. President Joan Laporta, frothing from every visible orifice, declared Messi the greatest player in history after the game, as if he [Laporta] were somehow qualified to say. He was getting a little carried away, and Messi will need to now prove his qualifications with his national side before any more can be seriously said on the subject. But, yes, the lad's a bit useful.
Stuttgart, bless them, decided that the best policy of defence was attack, but they were soon to regret their ambition when Messi began to revel in the space afforded him, at least in the two-thirds zone of the pitch. Arsenal will need to think twice about doing the same thing, but they are better than the Germans at keeping the ball themselves. That, in the end, is the only way they can aspire to beating Barcelona, now Spain's only representatives in the Champions League after Sevilla joined Real Madrid in the doghouse with a sickly display at home to CSKA - a plucky side, but nothing to really fear. Sevilla followed up their turgid display with a 2-0 defeat at Espanyol, a result that puts manager Manolo Jimenez's job at some risk.
All being well, and the flight being on time, I'll be visiting Barcelona next weekend for some telly stuff I've got to do, and will take in Espanyol and their new ground, against Sporting I believe. There's also a full programme in midweek, as the authorities cram in the games for this World Cup year. Real Madrid have a tricky one at Getafe, while Barcelona shouldn't sweat too much at home to Osasuna. Will the runes be more by readable this time next week? We shall see.
