There’s something about Christmas that brings out the worst in CD Tenerife, we have had some stinkers in the past just before the break but this 2-2 draw with Marino de Luanco was one of the worst.
With current form described as wobbly at best, a strong performance was needed against opponents from a small village with just 5,000 inhabitants. The defensive mentality of coach Calderon has alienated many fans and even allowing for other festive distractions the Heliodoro looked well down on numbers, a mere 6,441 was the official figure.
The first half hour of play was awful, neither side troubled the goalkeepers and play was scrappy and lacking any direction. Tenerife finally managed a shot after 27 minutes from Kiko (top pic) but this and a Chechu effort soon after were easily dealt with by former CDT stopper Ponzo. Woken from their slumber, Tenerife started to show some good football and were rewarded after 33 minutes, a Bravo cross was met perfectly with a glancing header by Kiko and it was 1-0. The visiting keeper had looked confident but lost the ball after Zazo shot following another Bravo cross, Perona (above) was on hand to score his 7th of the season for a 2-0 lead at the break.
That should have been the springboard to a demolition of Luanco but the old problems came back for the second half. Tenerife looked happy to sit back on the lead and sure enough six minutes into play Titi put the ball past a hesitant Sergio to reduce the arrears. The confidence drained away and coach Calderon brought on Ferran and Marcos but they couldn’t make any impact and Meji on for Sergio Rodriguez a few minutes later was also a fruitless move.
The inevitable happened after 71 minutes, a break on the left ended with Arias scoring to level the game. Calderon was squirming on the bench as abuse started to fly his way from the frustrated crowd. Tenerife managed a late fight back, Bravo had his legs taken out from under him in the box but the ref didn’t give the obvious penalty. Bravo had a clear chance when Ponzo fumbled the ball but his reactions weren’t fast enough to reach the ball. Into injury time and Kiko could have got a penalty after being mugged in mid air by Ponzo and a defender but again the ref wasn’t interested. The final whistle brought a chorus of calls for Calderon to be sacked. Amazingly rival teams dropped points and Tenerife moved up to third spot but the problems remain and all eyes will be on our three wise men – Concepcion, Cordero and Calderon for some encouragement before Segunda B resumes in January with two away games.