Say Hello Wave Goodbye was playing over the speaker on the Armada Sur bus when we heard of the inevitable sacking of coach Antonio Calderon. It just about sums up our record with coaches (and shows how old we are) but this has been coming for weeks and a disasterous first half ending in a 2-o deficit sealed Calderons fate, even a fight back before losing 3-2 at home to Sporting Gijon B couldn’t gloss over the glaring problems out on the pitch.
Nothing is ever quite clear at CD Tenerife, who really picks the team, young midfield prospect Abel (above right) was a shock recall to midfield and looked like a headless chicken. I suspect even he was surprised to get the call up, it came as he was looking for assurances about his future at the club, clearly a political selection to keep him sweet, handed down from sporting director Cordero or even President Concepcion. Why is Medina playing at right back, and Tarantino at centre back, both had poor games, it’s worrying when the normally consistent and assured Medina loses the plot. Atleast Raul Llorente (above left) looks a classy new addition at left back. How does Chechu keep getting picked, his crosses from the right were sloppy and off target and Mendy tortured Tenerife down that flank.
Abel lost the ball just before the opening goal after 23 minutes and Guerrero had no problems with the static defence before giving the visitors the lead. There was no effective midfield for Tenerife, the ball did get up to new forward Aridane several times but his control on the ground is shockingly bad, of course top scorer Perona was dropped to the bench – work that one out. Then after 34 minutes it got much worse, Muniz struck a pin point free kick and Sergio was late to the ball and it beat his outstretched hand at the top corner. The shouts for Calderon to go rained down and after Tarantino picked up a yellow card there was a chorus of support for the return of Ayoze to the middle of defence. Pablo Sicila had his work cut out mopping up at the back and it was all painful to watch.
Changes had to come at half time, Abel went off for Nico and Medina went for Kiko Raton with Chechu dropping back to defend the right side. The wake up call made some difference, just a few minutes in and Kiko’s prescence helped to make an opening for Aridane to tap in for a goal. CD Tenerife showed a bit more fight and the final change, Perona for Ferran Tacon added more fire power. Nico was lively when he was fed the ball and after 76 minutes his determination earned a penalty, Perona was sharp from the spot and maybe we had a hope of getting out of jail.
It was a short lived and false hope, Guerrero took advantage of a rare slip by Sicilia and put the ball in the net – taxi for Calderon! As many of the 8,352 crowd streamed away new left back Llorente, easily the best home player, pushed forward again and unleashed a good shot that wasn’t too far away. The whistle came and we were left with the wreckage of another home game without a win, last one was 20 th November. Dare we hope that new midfield signing Luismi Loro from Elche can make a difference, dare we hope that a new coach can squeeze more out of the squad, and dare we hope that that coach (looks like Garcia Tebar) will have a free hand to pick his team. Stay tuned for the next gripping instalment.