Archive for December 20th, 2021
No Silver But CD Tenerife Promotion Bid Shines Brightly

Slippers seemed to be on for CD Tenerife in the second half of their home league game with Lugo. Elady had atoned for two glaring misses with a 38th minute strike but a VAR assisted penalty allowed the visitors a late equaliser and they nearly stole all three points with the final kick of the game.

A few days later, Eibar arrived for the Copa del Rey , and Tenerife were up against it after a 11th minute slip by Shaq Moore let in Garcia to grab the lead. There´s no VAR in the cup but Tenerife fans found themselves wishing there was when two home goals were ruled out and a Sam Shasoua penalty appeal was ignored. Sergio Gonzalez powered a header to level late on but the ref was suckered into giving Eibar a generous free kick after Exposito clashed with Mollejo and made out the home player had mugged him. The free kick was well taken but veteran home goalie Dani Hernandez looked a little slow to respond and narrow the angle. So farewell to the Cup.

Putting two good halfs together has become a problem for Tenerife lately, rash of bookings didn´t help in the league clash, The cup is often a stage to test fringe players, CDTs only concession was to give a first half run out to 21 year old Thierno on the left flank, The young gun put in some good crosses but it only served to expose the weaknesses of Emmanuel Apeh who backs off defenders too easily. Yhierno gave way to Sam Shashoua for the second half and Shaq Moore was back to his tough tackling best and Jeremy Mellot arrived to fill the left back slot – an answer as how to use the impressive American and French full backs together instead of a straight choice.

A bad week? Well one of the finest qualities of this Tenerife squad is its resilience, and once again they bounced back, this time with a stunning 0-2 win at Real Zaragoza to close the first half of the season. Elady with his 7th strike of the season, and Mollejo, had the game all gift wrapped within the half hour. That was sauce for the turkey as it put Tenerife in 3rd place, just a point behind the 2nd automatic promotion slot. As the players enjoy their parties, the club management will be working on fine tuning the squad in the January transfer window. 2022 could be an epic year, lets just hope we can continue to watch the games live.