Skill, pace, belief, and teamwork, all qualities that made CD Tenerife a pleasure to watch as they took Caudal Deportivo apart 2-0 to keep them top of Segunda B with four straight wins.
The final score didn’t reflect the dominance of Tenerife with every player adding something positive to the mix. Only some inspired saves from Caudal’s keeper Segura prevented any goals in the first half. Chechu was a constant menace on the right and exposed the visiting defence with two early raids. Caudal had little to offer against a tight home defence with Yeray doing a superb job of the holding role just in front of them, the only slight concern was a weak back pass from Llorente that Sergio dealt with easily.
After 20 minutes Loro turned quickly and fired in a shot that Segura dived to keep out. It was the start of a golden spell for the keeper as he denied Chechu twice, the second with an athletic full length spread. Loro flashed a header wide and Chechu looped a shot over the bar – what a charmed life Caudal were living. We thought we had a pretty decent ref but he rammed our compliments down our throats in the second half, Martin cursed as his promising break was cut short by a clumsy foul that was ignored.
Suso came on for Bruno for a short cameo role as he played the cat among Caudal’s defensive pigeons. Martin had a more productive run and as the visitors defence hesitated his pass found Chechu whose shot trickled teasingly slow over the line for the first goal after 61 minutes. Llorente was unlucky to see his effort from a free kick cleared by the goalies outstretched boot. Suso charged at the Caudal goal and squared the ball to Aridane who couldn’t quite get the killer touch but a few minutes later Suso tried again and this time Aridane converted perfectly for his fifth goal of the season.
The ref was unraveling fast and making some bizarre calls, Suso was on the receiving end with a second red card and he was heading for the dressing room after just 22 minutes of play. Caudal may have ejected CD Marino from the Copa del Rey but Tenerife were a far tougher proposition and even a man short they looked more than good enough to complete the win. The crowd was up nearly a thousand to 7,340 and if Tenerife can keep up this form and the pleasing style of football there will be more good times ahead.