Archive for September 1st, 2015
CD Tenerife Left On The Launch Pad

Where was the reaction, the wounded pride, the statement of intent? The Heliodoro pitch may have rallied quickly after being stomped by a rock concert but CD Tenerife looked faded, tired, and short of ideas as they added a 1-2 home loss against Gimnastic to the 6-3 thumping at Numancia.

Coach Raul Agne brought in Cristian Garcia at right back for Jon Aurtenetxe but it didn’t work as Ferran of Nastic gave the 33 year old a torrid time. Dani Hernandez had to be sharp to snatch the ball from Ferran as Nastic exploited slack marking and when Vitolo threaded a neat pass through to Abel at the other end, the Tenerife midfielder put it wide of the post. Neither side looked particularly good but goal less at the break it seemed a hopeful sign that the speedy Omar arrived on the left wing as Abel departed.

Choco Lozano made his first start and looked lively, the Nastic defenders gave the Honduran a few bruises but he showed a resilient attitude and set up a Pedro Martin header just after the restart. It took a sharp eye and quick reflexes for Choco to grab the lead, Nastic defender Molina lost the ball and the striker nipped in to lob a crisp shot into the net. That should have lit the fuse but Tenerife didn’t seize the game, Choco made a good chance that Pedro headed, Nastic raided down the left again, Ferran pumped the ball across and Alex beat a cluster of defenders to head it on for Mari to bury past Dani.

When Cristo Gonzalez took over from Choco it seemed a strange move and made Tenerife’s task even more difficult. The 17 year old was reported to be a transfer window target for Valencia but didn’t enhance his reputation this time out. The referee was losing the plot and the frustration of the home players was growing, Vitolo snatched at a decent chance and the game was slipping away. Time for another change, a subdued Suso got pulled with Omar switching to the right as sub Jon Aurtenetxe tried to open a channel down the left.

Tenerife fell for the same routine again, Ferran flying down the left, crossing a deep ball to the far post where Camara should have been covering, Jean Luc had plenty of time to plant his header for the winning goal. It wasn’t the result or performance we expected, a bumper 9,174 crowd was clearly willing to write off the opening day debacle but this inept display will instill a few more doubts.