When coach Raul Agne shouts “Action” on 23 August he is hoping for an Oscar winning season from CD Tenerife but the first two pre season games have shown that the cast list isn’t quite complete.
Sporting Gijon, recently promoted to La Primera were the first test in Santa Cruz and despite starting their top players they looked poor. CD Tenerife sporting director Serrano has only attracted two new players, Pedro Martin looked promising up front but for me central defender German Sanchez was the star with a cool and dominating display in defence. Dani Hernandez with a new contract in his grasp didn’t have a save to make until nearly half time, it came from a move down the left, Sporting’s repeated route.
Omar Perdomo showed at the end of last season that he has plenty to offer as a wide forward and he reacted well to grab a home lead after 65 minutes. Later in the game a raft of changes destroyed Tenerife’s rhythm and Jonay took advantage of poor judgement by Carlos Abad between the sticks, to tie the game. As the Emmasa Cup was put up by the sponsors a winner was needed, many of the sparse 2,687 crowd were caught out by the penalty shoot out and it seemed a few players were. Ricardo made a hash of his spot kick, Alberto also failed and when Pedro Martin put the fifth strike wide it sealed a win for Sporting. We left the Heliodoro relatively pleased with the performance and the promise of the younger fringe players.
Onto El Fraile and a match up with Ibarra, two divisions below CDT with many of last seasons CD Marino players. You can’t accuse Raul Agne of not trying different combinations, Oscar Gonzalez began at right back, he was only signed by the B team a few weeks ago from Sporting San Jose and found himself in senior action. The battle for back up goalie spot went head to head again with Angel Galvan taking the gloves in the first 45 minutes and Roberto coming on for the second half. Nano and Cristo Gonzalez started as the striking combination, Nano looked fired up but Cristo was a little quiet.
On a patchwork mess of a pitch thee home side had most of the play and Manzi scored with a free header after 26 minutes. Last year CDT was a steam roller romping to a 0-5 half time lead, this year they were more like a mobility scooter on low power and went in behind at the break. Ibarra could have increased their lead but Roberto scrambled away a net bound shot, Nano added to his three goals from the La Palma training camp tournament by pouncing to level after 60 minutes.
Ten minutes later CDT made wholesale changes and brought the big guns on, Pedro Martin adopted a main striking role, not his usual style, and posed plenty of threats. A draw looked likely but in the final minute Moyano fed the ball to Abel who blasted in a goal from outside the area – phew. Let’s hope director Serrano has auditions lined up for a couple of new faces before the serious stuff begins on 23 August.