Archive for the 'Sport' Category
CD Tenerife pack them in for another victory

It’s the hottest ticket in town, 18,305 fans flocked to Santa Cruz yesterday to see CD Tenerife bear Eibar 2-0. It wasn’t the teams best display, but another clean sheet, achieved with key players Martinez and Ricardo missing, had everyone cheering.

CDT v Eibar

Crowds continue to rise and there is a much higher awareness of CDT across the island, even old lapsed fans are digging out their ancient team shirts and showing their support again, I saw one shirt that was so old it was made of chain mail.

Bucking the recent weather trend, Santa Cruz was bathed in sunshine as the teams ran out, the large crowd welcomed CDT with a sea of scarves held aloft and a wall of sound. Tenerife shaded the early play and got their reward when Sicilia rose to head in the opening goal after 26 minutes, from a Juanlu cross. Lowly Eibar created a few problems but the home defence was again strong, Hector and Bertran were particularly impressive and Aragoneses was Mr Reliable between the sticks.

The second half saw Eibar players making late bids for BAFTA awards with some theatrical falls, and the referee let them get away with a lot. Tenerife held firm but we had to wait until injury time for a second goal. Visiting keeper Zigor, made a complete hash of a clearance and gifted the ball to Nino, who gratefully struck his 13th goal of the season to wrap up the points.

Tenerife remain second, 3 points behind Zerex and 3 in front of Zaragoza, next Sunday is another home game at 5pm, this time against Elche. The Armada Sur will as always be in good voice and the crowd looks likely to break the 20,000 mark.

Good news from the Tenerife government, Ricardo Melchior, President, has said that if CD Tenerife get promoted in June, fans will be allowed to dance in the man made lake in Plaza de España, without the fear of a fine of between 60€ and 300€ – now that will be some party.Â

Angel keeps CD Tenerife knocking on heavens door

Confidence is oozing through the CD Tenerife squad this season, yesterdays 1-0 away win at Nastic (pic – home v Nastic) came from a magnificent all round performance, with sub Angel netting with his first touch of the ball. It’s good to see now that if a couple of players are below par, others raise their game and drive the team on.

From the kick off, Tenerife were all over their hosts, the defence was tight, Hector made another of his telling interceptions early on to clear a rare attack, and Kome and Hens were constantly probing from midfield. The Camaroon midfielder, Kome,  had the best chance, forcing a good save from the home keeper after a determined run.  The half ended with the far from busy, Aragoneses, making a full length flying save to ensure a blank first half.

CDT v Nastic

Tenerife kept up the pressure in the second half and with Alfaro and Nino, not quite at their brilliant best, coach Oltra swapped Alfaro for Angel with immediate effect. Kome went on another run, took the ball wide, and floated in a hanging cross, Angel rose above a group of defenders to head the ball into the net with his tracksuit still warm on the touchline.

The referee tried to throw a spanner in the works, giving Ricardo a harsh second booking for handball, that reduced tenerife to 10 players, but they tightened their grip and defended strongly to repel Nastic. Aragoneses made another finger tip save late on, and even an agonising 4 minutes of injury time couldn’t shake Tenerife from their second place in the Spanish Second Division.

That’s 4 valuable points from 2 away games on the trot and the prospect of 2 home games in a row. Transfer window signing, Mikel Alonso, brother of Liverpools Xabi, wasn’t even on the bench, he will have to fight his way into the midfield. This was only the first game of the second half of the season, so we will just enjoy the games as they come – but you can’t blame us for thinking this might be the big promotion season.Â

Who needs Kaka? CD Tenerife have Nino.

Probably the best performance I have seen in 8 seasons of watching CD Tenerife, that was the first half of yesterdays 4-1 home win over Girona, that put CDT in third spot in the Spanish Second Division. It was a sublime display that saw the blanquiazuls soar into a 3-0 half time lead that could have easily been by twice that margin.

CDT v Girona

Nino, Tenerife’s top scorer, was the subject of a 1.4 million euro bid from Barnsley in the week, he dismissed it out of hand and took just 9 minutes of the game to undeline his priceless status to CDT. With his back to goal, Nino pounced on a ball from team mate Richi, turned, and spotting the visiting keeper off his line, fired in a wonderful chip shot that hit the back of the net. There was more to come after just 21 minutes when Cameroon international Kome, again exposed keeper Ponzo’s poor positioning to make it 2-0. A free kick on the 40 minute mark by Hens Juanlu, found Richi, who slid the ball under the keeper for a well desereved third.

 Tenerife were all over Girona and playing some great controlled football, the visitors must have been dreading the second half. During the break, the wind whipped up into a frenzy making conditions difficult and threatening to blow the advertising hoardings onto the pitch. Tenerife relaxed a little and Girona hit back within 10 minutes with a goal from Raul Martin, the striker who couldn’t score in a house of ill repute, during his spell with Tenerife. Aragoneses was in commanding form in the home goal to protect the lead and CDT had more good chances, the best coming from a run by Kome, he resisted the urge to shoot and passed to Oscar Perez, who fired wide.

It was still an impressive score line, and as the 14,239 crowd filled the closing minutes with Mexican waves and deafening chorus’s of their favourite songs, Nino popped up in injury time to add a fourth and seal a memorable evening.

CristoThe next 2 games are away, followed by 2 home matches so that will provide a good test of Tenerife’s true promotion credentials.Cristo Marrero (above) came on for the last 5 minutes of the game, a regular scenario lately as he plays out his last season before retirement, there is a strong lobby to encourage Cristo and the club to sign a years extension to his contract, to add your comments go to www.cristorenovacion.blogspot.com . As for 12 goal hero Nino, there would be riots if he was allowed to leave, he is worth a fortune, even Manchester City, over in Tenerife this week, would have to dig deep to buy him.

Missed opportunity and new blood for CD Tenerife

So there I am at 11 am on a Sunday morning, sat in a Canarian bar watching cartoon dinosaurs singing and dancing on the television. Don’t worry, I’m not entering my second childhood (still in the first one) there was just a technical problem in getting Canal Plus to watch CD Tenerife play away to Xerez, thankfully the bar owner showed up and made the required adjustments. By the end of the 2-0 defeat I was longing for the dinosaurs back.

It was always going to be a tough gane to win, against the 3rd placed team and Tenerife suffered an early blow, typically from a set piece, when Xerez’s Momo scored from a free kick, just to make it worse-he is a Pio (born in Gran Canaria). Xerez used spoiling tactics with loose tackles and lots of theatrical writhng when any of thbeir players went down, but they looked a useful footballing side, thankfully Aragonoses was in top form in the Tenerife goal.

Alfaro and Nino battled away up front without much reward but goping into the second half, coach Oltra boosted the attack by bringing on Ayoze, Angel and later Cristo. For much of the game Tenerife were the better side, but it’s all about goals and Calle added a second for the home side after 57 minutes from a Momo counter attack. Xerez could have added further goals but Aragonoses denied them with late saves from Alex and Aythami.

Abel Gomez

Despite the defeat, Tenerife stay in 4th spot and are still well placed for the promotion push. It looks likely that there will be a new addition to the squad with 26 year old midfielder Abel Gomez (above) joining from Steaua Bucarest in Romania. The player was formerly with Real Murcia and has experience in the Spanish primera division.

It’s nose bleed time for CD Tenerife

What a way to start 2009, CD Tenerife made it 3 wins on the trot, beating Sevella Athletic at home, to go joint second (4th on goal difference) in the Spanish Second Division, just two points behind leaders Salamanca.

V Sevilla

It wasn’t a classic game but playing the bottom team, just after the christmas break, the win was the important thing. The 14,894 crowd were treated to the long promised new video score board, it has been promised for years but finally the 6 x 8 metre screen is bringing us all the stats, gol times etc throughout the game, and the raunchy Scandinavian movie they showed at half time was a surprising treat.

Alfaro looked lively for Tenerife early on but along with his team mates, was guilty of squandering several goal chances. Tenerife were all over the visitors and with Ricardo running the show in midfield, a goal was sure to come. It took until the 36th minute though, Kome broke on the left and crossed the ball for Nino to fire in his 10th goal of the season.

It was clear that further goals were needed to seal the game and Alfaro obliged after 52 minutes after good work from Oscar Perez. Sevilla hit back almost immediately, finding Tenerife’s continuing weakness, set pieces, this time it came from a corner with Mohammed forcing the ball into the net.

Sevilla lost all chance of getting back into the game when goalie Vargas ran out of his area to handle the ball and got sent off barely ten minutes after their goal. Tenerife could and should have added to their goal tally but poor finishing dogged them and they had to settle for the slender win.

Things could get even better next weekend when Tenerife are away to 3rd place Xerez on Sunday morning and Salamanca play second placed Real Zaragoza, the right results could see Tenerife in top spot. maybe the promotion dream can come true, funny things happen in football, this weekend a former Nottingham Forest and Leicester City player became the next Dr Who, maybe Tenerife will be feeling out of this world at the seasons end.

There was a less friendly game closer to home this weekend when CD Marino hosted Los Llanos from La Palma at their Las Americas ground. The visitors won 1-0 thanks to a controversial penalty and the game ended with both teams, and some fans, fighting in the tunnel as the police were called to calm things down.

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CD Tenerife have their fans Singing In The Rain

What’s the best theme park in Tenerife? There’s no contest really, if you want a white knuckle ride of excitement with an unpredictable outcome, it has to be the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez stadium in Santa Cruz, home to CD Tenerife. On Sunday they served up another thriller that had even the most hardened fans squirming and preying to the football gods before an eventual 3-2 win over Hercules.

On paper this looked like a tight game, Hercules mean defence had only let in 8 goals all season and they were perched in 3rd spot in the Spanish Second Division. Tenerife seldom let form affect their display, and they set out at a fast pace making the visitors look very ordinary. After 25 minutes Alfaro picked up a ball from Oscar Perez (below) and fired Tenerife into a deserved lead. It was largely one way traffic and no surprise when Juanlu scored with a volley after 38 minutes to make it 2-0. It was looking almost too easy.

Oscar Perez

Time for a few twists and turns, firstly Tote from Hercules was sent off for a foul on Manolo but his team mates hit back well with Abel Aquillar pulling a goal back just before the break as the tenerife defence stood and watched.

As the second half kicked off, the heavens opened and rain poured down on Santa Cruz, Tenerife seemed to lose their way and when Sendoa tied the game after 59 minutes, the 13,247 crowd sensed the worst. Tenerife battled hard but poor finishing and spoiling tactics from the visiting goalie seemed sure to fritter away the remaining time. Hercules lost another player after 86 minutes as Sergio picked up his 2nd yellow card, and CDT surged forward.

Bertran attacked down the right and floated a cross into the box, Alfaro met it perfectly with his head and sent the fans wild with an injury time winner. Players jumped the advertising hoardings and fans vaulted the pitch surround to share their joy, a quick clearance allowed the last few seconds to be played out before another pitchside celebration erupted at the final whistle. Phew, there is certainly never a dull moment with CD Tenerife.

Super Oxford City round off my trip in style

How wonderful, a rare chance for me to see my beloved Oxford City at Court Place Farm, and they did me proud with a 2-0 win over Bashley Town. What started as a crisp sunny winter afternoon descended into a freezing second half once the sun went down, but the hoops were quick out of the blocks with a 2nd minute goal from Jamie Brooks and added another in the second half from Craig Faulconbridge for a convincing win. Crowds are not quite so big as at CD Tenerife, in the British Gas Premier Division (that’s the old Southern League) , the only good thing about only getting 217 people in, is you can be sure to get a burger at half time.

Oxford City v Bashley Town

Anyway the visit to Oxford descended after the football, into a few days of drinking, well I do miss the real ale, but at least I managed to squeeze a little work into my trip, meeting up with Pablo Gonzalez de Chaves Fernandez, a young student from Santa Cruz. Pablo is studying Sports engineering at Brookes University in Oxford, funded by a grant from the Fernando Alonso Foundation, it made a good story for the local Oxford paper.

On Monday I headed back up to Manchester and Pam’s welcoming arms, before heading out to catch my Monarch flight back on Tuesday. Before the flight we spent the morning at the Trafford Centre, not so much a shopping hall, more like a village. What a mammoth and extravagant place, full of elaborate ballastrades, balconies and statues, it’s even got it’s own cinema and a new extension with an Italian style piazza, complete with mermaids drinking out of a huge fountain. The only thing it was lacking was customers, the cleaners outnumbered the shoppers, obviuosly not impressed by Gordon browns latest ploy to make them spend, spend, spend.

Trafford Centre

The flight was on time and smooth, although barely two thirds full – another sign of the times. It’s good to back in Tenerife, now the catch up starts – and of course CD Tenerife at home at the weekend – not a bad life is it.

CD Tenerife clip the Pios wings

Happy and hung over, the 2,000 strong army of travelling CD Tenerife fans can hold their heads high after a great 1-0 away win against Las Palmas in Gran Canaria yesterday. Those pesky Pios are now another step nearer the relegation zone while Tenerife can use this as a launch pad for their promotion bid.

The Armada Sur gathered at the Royal Oak in Las Americas for a liquid breakfast and a 10am coach trip up to the ferry port in  Santa Cruz. With surprising promptness we were up and running and in good singing voice as we headed up the motorway. It’s a whole hour to Santa Cruz so we of course made our usual half way stop at the Oasis bar for extra singing juice. Sitting outside in the sun we met a middle aged British couple who were heading over to Gran Canaria for a few days break, I think they were suitably impressed when we told them that all the ferries would be bulging with Tenerife football fans.

Armas ferry

Arriving at the port we had time to grab a quick beer at the bar and meet some of the other Tenerife fans that had arrived early for the later and faster ferries. Thanks to the television companies wrangling over who should show “El Classico” and when, booking the ferries at barely a weeks notice left us a bit more fragmented than usual. Normally the Armada Sur go on the one hour Fred Olsen ferry into Agaete, an hours drive from Las Palmas, but this time we were booked on to the larger Naviera Armas ferry that takes 2 and a half hours and goes straight into Las Palmas port. As we piled on board the rain arrived but it couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm, neither could over ambitious attempts to smuggle our own beer aboard, the police confiscated quite a haul from the 500 or so fans on board, they said we could have it back later – yeah really!

What a posh ferry this was, most swarmed around the large circular bar downstairs but some of us headed to the top deck where a swimming pool lurked dangerously close to another bar. The ferry company had been warned that we might like the odd half of shandy but even so they ran out of beer after an hours sailing, I was forced to go onto rum and coke, then they decided to close the bars – i’m sure that infringes our human rights.

Pool bar

We amused ourselves with some community singing and dumped a cuddly Tweetie Pie (a yellow Pio and therefore fair game) Â in the pool, instead of drowning it floated ,mockingly, despite our attempts to bombard it. With the bars closed and the prospect of arriving in Las Palmas 2 hours before kick off, some of the Armada Sur decided to slip away from our police cordon and get taxis into Santa Catalina, a busy bar area. The owner of the bar we descended on must have thought it was christmas as we get the beer flowing and invited local shoppers to join our party.

We suddenly realised it was getting very near to the 5.30 kick off and time to flag down some taxis, unfortunately I went to the toilet only to come back and find they had all gone. Luckily I quickly found a cab and got to the ground, the driver wouldn’t go right up to the entrances so I was left to suffer the verbal abuse (I had my Tenerife shirt on of course) of hordes of Pio fans. The General had given us all out tickets in advance so at least I knew the number entrance I needed.

The Game

Once in, I joined the swirling flags and colours of the CDT fans in the corner of the ground that we had been assigned. We rode our luck a bit and had our goalie Sergio Aragonoses to thank for some great saves but were giving as good as we got. After 30 minutes Aragoneses made a deep clearance and Alfaro jinked past his marker, Ramos, and beat the home goalkeeper to send the CDT fans wild. Not blessed lately with great defensive performances, we were a bit sceptical about keeping the Pios out, but the team stood firm and the final whistle signalled wild celebrations from the blue and white fans and the inevitable shower of missiles from the Pio fans, of course we didn’t gloat – MUCH.

Tenerife fans gloat

We had to wait well over an hour for our coach to be allowed out of the stadium car parkbut eventually we were off to the port and up the gang plank. Guess where we stopped first? no, not the souvenir shop, the bar. It was quite a liquid trip home, fair play to our police escorts, they struck their usual menacing poses but left us to enjoy our celebrations in good voice. The crossing seemed to fly by and we were soon on our coach and heading down the motorway to Tenerife South with great memories of another jolly derby day.

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CD Tenerife rue missed chances, sloppy defence and the ref!

Ooh you bounder, what an absolute cad, these were just some of the insults thrown at the referee in CD Tenerife’s 1-1 home draw with Real Sociedad last night in Santa Cruz. There were additional references to the referees poor eyesight, debatable parentage and sexual interests, but CDT fans will wake up today, painfully aware that this was a game they really should have won but they only took a point due to some old familiar failing s of their own.

Sociedad came to play a defensive containing game and looked well organised and hungry in the tackle. Tenerife had a strong first half and made plenty of chances, Kome set up Alfaro early on, but his control let him down in front of goal. Coach Oltra dropped Garcia in the CDT goal and his replacement, Aragoneses showed his worth on the half hour, claiming the ball as Moha raced towards him after winning tha ball off Martinez. At the other end Juanlu had sight of the visitors goal but was squeezed out by a defender and the goalie.

CDT v Real Sociedad

The second half carried on in the same vein, with Tenerife trying to break down their stubborn opponents. Referee Franco ignored a penalty appeal when Nino went down after 55 minutes, but the Tenerife striker followed up with a good shot a couple of minutes later, only to be denied by keeper Bravo. Frustration was setting in for CDT, Kome squandered a good opportunity, firing just wide of the post, and Nino couldn’t quite finish his effort soon after.

The break through came after 86 minutes when Bertran fired Tenerife into the lead after good work from Juanlu. There was plenty more drama to squeeze in, first Gonzalez clearly handled the ball in the area but the referee seemed the only one among the 14,556 crowd not to spot it, and just to rub it in, he booked Bertran for pointing out his error. Still it looked like a home win but in the 3rd minute of injury time, Tenerife conceeded a corner. Set pieces always expose the worst in the CDT defence and Gerardo floated his corner in for Labaka to rise unchallenged and head in the equaliser.

Not the ideal preperation for next Saturdays big derby game at Las Palmas, especially as the Pios won 2-1 away at Eibar. Despite the chopping and changing of the match day to please the television companies, the usual 2,000 or so Tenerife fans will be putting the bar staff through their paces on the ferries across to Gran Canaria next week. I feel an adventure coming on.

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A kick up the Arsenal for Canary Islands tourism

Wasn’t it thrilling on Saturday at the Emirates Stadium in London as Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-1, people just couldn’t take their eyes of it, no not the game, the adverts for Canary Islands tourism. It was a corker of a game, but if you could bear to take your eyes off the action, you may have noticed the logo (below) on the pitchside hoardings. This was just part of a three pronged promotion at European football stadiums, to encourage more holiday makers to come to the 7 Canary Islands.

Yslas Canarias

It’s a very innovative and, in my humble football obsessed opinion, good idea, that will also take in the Madrid derby at the Bernabeu Stadium on March 8th 2009 when Real Madrid play Athletico Madrid and will close with a game, yet to be decided, at the Allianz Stadium home of Bayern Munich, befire the end of this season.

The promotion is called “Los Tres Estadios de la Felicidad” (the 3 stadiums of happiness) and each game will be at the centre of a 14 day promotion at the ground. The total cost of the promotion is 250,000 euros, that sounds a lot but just look at the Arsenal game, the crowd was 60,000 and after the game has been relayed to 202 countries, it will reach a potential 500 million people, that’s the power of football.

There was also a full page advert for the Canaries in the Arsenal match programme and a big publicity bash after the game. There were even a few celebs on hand, Bono was there (that’s the rock star, not the multi use Canarian bus ticket) presumably he is a Man United fan, they have a big Irish following.

Pio throttleBack in the real world of football, where money is hard to come by and wins even harder, CD Tenerife slipped back to their usual away form with a 2-1 loss at Levante. It’s gonna be an early start for us CDT fans in 2 weeks for the derby game in Gran Canaria, Canal Plus have decided to show the Las Palmas v CD Tenerife game live on Sunday (November 23) morning at 11am. The Armada Sur will be bright tailed and bushy eyed in their blue and white jim jams, and ready to join the other 1,500 fans at the Santa Cruz ferry port for the traditional pre journey drinkies, singing practice and abuse of Pio effigies ( the victim in the photo met a gruesome end ). The form book always goes out of the window for these games and we must be owed a win after last years sickening equaliser in generous amounts of injury time. The clock is ticking, in the meantime lets hope for a home win next Sunday when Real Sociedad visit Santa Cruz.