High visibility orange jackets were the uniform of the day for the motorway walkers heading to Candelaria but our pilgrimage by car passed them on the way to La Orotava to worship the boys in the pink change strip. It was Teide Trophy time again and late replacements Rayo Vallecano were run ragged as CD Tenerife beat them 5-0 and that hardly reflected their dominance.
The ground in its magnificent setting is always a good place to visit, especially after a few quick Doradas at our regular bar down the road. Tenerife came out with their tails up and Suso was unstoppable down the left, he bulldozed his way through two defenders and nearly skittled me over as well. The midfield was working well with Cristo Martin the creative spark and Ayoze’s speed and enthusiasm up front provided the cutting edge.
It took just 20 minutes for Ayoze to latch on to a pass from Loro to open the scoring. Rayo were struggling to create any decent chances, a wild looped shot over the goal didn’t need any attention from Sergio Aragoneses. Rayo’s six most experienced players were subbed after 35 minutes and Tenerife stepped up the pressure. Ricardo found Ayoze who shot wide and another Suso break ended with a teasing cross that Raul Llorente just failed to reach with his head. Suso charged again and this time he found Cristo who turned his markers and made it 2-0. The evening sun had set and a damp mist moved in by half time, combined with the pitch sprinklers it left perfect conditions for Super Mario to do his floundering fish impression on the grass.
Tenerife made their own raft of changes at the break without losing their rhythm and Chechu nipped in for the third goal to kill off Rayo. It would have been easy to relax but Tenerife showed a positive attitude and continued to exploit Rayo’s slow defending. Aday Benitez finished well for a fourth and even a change of goalie couldn’t stem the tide. Guillem got in on the scoring act 15 minutes from the end and had all the time in the world to find the net.
The La Orotava pitch is open on all sides and the final whistle was the cue for many of the 3,500 crowd to spill onto the playing surface and get photos and autographs with the Tenerife players. The presentations were a bit too laid back this year and players weren’t sure whether to go up or not, Ayoze got a man of the match award and captain Sergio picked up an old cracked trophy but was relieved of it as soon as he got down to pitch level again. As for the fans, we were still a little shell shocked by the ease of the victory and trying to reign in ambitious thoughts of the Segunda season ahead.