Man sees Jesus in slice of toast! As much as you want to believe it and strain your eyes it’s just a blur. Now I’m not saying that CD Tenerife’s 1-1 home draw with Albacete marked a moment of divine revelation but something is definitely appearing out of the recent months gloom. Of course it helped having a hallelujah moment when Aridane scored the first league goal in 790 minutes.
Maybe the late night air of Santa Cruz suits us but don’t tell the TV companies, their imposed 10pm kick off is not something we want to make a habit of. The late recruitment of a whole shoal of new players has put CD Tenerife a month behind their rivals but two of the new boys made a big impact on this game. The injured Ifran made way for Cristo Martin, and Aridane played the central striking role, he had great support from Guarrotxena who was strong and went close to scoring after just five minutes. At the other end, Albuzua looked assured alongside Carlos Ruiz in central defence.
Jacobo made a couple of good early saves but repeated his opening day weakness after 32 minutes, Portu put the ball into Diaz in the area and he fired, it was a soft effort and the big goalie should have easily swallowed it but it went straight through him for an away lead. The home spirit was good, Aridane, Ruiz, and Guarrotxena all went close in a hot five minute spell and hope still hung in the air at half time. The second half saw the steady improvement continue, Ruso came on for the busy Cristo Martin and a minute later the visiting goalie showed his generous side after Guarrotxena forced a mistake out of him to present Aridane with the goal we had all craved since April.
The second biggest cheer of the night was for the return of Vitolo after nine years away from his home island. Although clearly a little rusty he slotted in well and another piece of the jigsaw arrived when Maxi came on after 70 minutes. The Albacete goalie and some bad luck prevented a home winner but the build up play was better.
Albizua looked a class act tidying up behind the more prominent Ruiz, in the last ten minutes he stopped a Albacete break and hooked the ball up field to start a Maxi run down the right wing. It was a much encouraged 7,885 crowd that filed out for a midnight cup of cocoa, we had to settle for beer. More of the new signings will be up for consideration for next weeks game at Girona and coach Cervera will have a tough decision to make on the goalie choice but I will be looking for omens in my cornflakes next Saturday morning.