Round 32 Albacete Balompie v. Cadiz CF
The drive was exhausting. 644km, nearly 7 hours on the road. Or maybe it was just me worrying for 7 hours.
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The stadium isn't in good shape, but the showers and toilets work. That's always a bonus.
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The stadium was half full which is a considerable number compared to what we're used to in El Segundo. This crowd seemed to make a decent amount of noise. A decent number of Cadistas had made the long trip.
GK: Alejandro
D: Albert Dalmau, Mikel Martins, Wellington Carvalho, Moises
M: Kike Lopez, Josete, Jorge Luque, Perico
F: Aymen Souda, Jose Villar
Subs: Andres (D/M), Bruninho (M), Abdoullai Fall, Kike Marquez (M/F), Javier Valdes (F)
We got lucky with the ref. Jose Figueroa Vasquez is the most lenient in all of Spain. He hasn't red carded anyone this season and only shows a single yellow per match. This give us the opportunity to spread the special sauce especially thick and generously.
I told them to target their two forwards: Rizvan Umarov and Sergio Molina; as well as right winger Israel. Israel is their top assist man and second top scorer. I told Moises to play defensively and tightly mark him.
I reminded them of our plan to drop into a 451 if we scored first or if they were overrunning us in the midfield.
"We are on a really good run, let's continue it tonight," I said. "We're on this run because we're moving the ball around really well and concentrating when we get chances in their half. I believe in you guys. You defenders have the skills to shut down Albacete. You midfielders know how to control the tempo and get the ball to Aymen and Juan up top. And I have faith that you as a group will continue scoring plenty of goals."
"So let's get out there and kick those cheap b*st*rds in the nuts and make our Cadistas proud of us!"
Despite my positive, assertive pre-match comments, the game started out cautiously. Eventually, we started asserting ourselves. Albacete didn't seem like the team that had won 10 straight.
In the 21st minute, Luque passed the ball upfield to Souda. Souda controlled it and held off the defender on his back. He saw Luque charging forward and once he was past him, tried to feed a pass into his path. The right back sprinted over and thumped the ball out across the far half line.
Dalmau threw the ball into Luque who sent a pass up to Villar. Villar spun past his defender took a few steps and thumped a dipping shot for the near post. The Alba keeper managed to parry the ball out for a corner.
Luque whipped a ball right into the mixer. 4 players went up for it and the ball pinballed between them eventually landing at Villar's feet. The game then devolved into a U10 kickfest. There were a flurry of swinging legs. I'm pretty sure I saw Villar take 3 kicks at the ball. I'm not sure if he connected every time, but the ball was certainly pinballing around the 5m box as everyone desperately tried to thump the ball somewhere.
Eventually the ball soared high and wide, clear of the danger. Moises got underneath it, controlled it and passed it across the top of the box to Josete. Josete fed the ball to Villar.
Villar hit a thunderous shot right at the keeper. Pressure relieved.
Israel realized that Moises was going to stick to him like stink on ****. So in the 32nd minute he dropped deep to get the ball and quickly passed the ball up to Molina. Moises didn't track Israel's run from well in his own half, but Perico did. Molina fed the ball into the space Moises had created but Perico was sprinting right next to Israel.
Israel won the race to the ball but Perico was right at his side. The pressure from Perico helped and Alejandro blocked the shot and it trickled out for a corner.
This fast break began an onslaught from Alba.
We cleared the corner, but the ref called a foul on us in the center circle after some back and forth in the middle of the park.
Alba played a long-ball down the left channel. Their left midfielder out-jumped Dalmau and the ball bounced into the path of Molina. Alejandro parried his shot out for a corner.
We cleared that corner, too.
But in the 39th minute. They worked the ball down the left again. As the ball came into the middle from the left, Martins decided to step forward and abandon Umarov. He immediately realized his mistake but he was too late.
Umarov was in alone and slid a shot under Alejandro.
1-0
The players then got organized and we kept the ball until halftime. We created several good chances, but a couple of great stops by their keeper preserved their lead.
Then Luque played a ball up to Souda just like earlier. Souda tried to feed the ball into his path and this time succeeded. Alba didn't pick up his run from deep and he was in alone.
1-1
He bulged the side netting.
At halftime, I gave them another pep talk. They were doing great and just needed to keep doing what they were doing. I decided to drop Villar into the midfield as he hadn't done much as a forward in the first half.
I also told everyone to get Kike Lopez the ball and for Kike to run with it. He hadn't really seen the ball in the first half.
We completely dominated the first 15 minutes of the second half. We created chance after chance. Their goalkeeper stood tall and we just couldn't put a header on net. The runs from deep by Villar and Luque were terrorizing the Alba defense.
Then in the 62nd minute, Moises lost Israel. Either their midfielder was planning on trying a ball into the right channel or he saw that Moises wasn't paying attention. Regardless, Israel was all by himself and running onto a through ball. Fortunately for us, his first touch was atrocious. It bounced off his knee and was running nicely to Alejandro.
Danger averted.
We continued to create chances, but so did they. This was mainly because Luque was tiring. His passes were starting to get intercepted and he just wasn't as sharp. So in the 67th minute, I replaced him with Bruninho. Bruninho was a good passer and while he wasn't going to score, he'd be solid defensively and help keep the ball.
Then disaster struck.
Alejandro tipped a long range shot over the bar for a corner. Israel took the corner and we cleared it, but right back to him. In the meantime, Wellington forgot about Molina. Israel spotted our mistake and sent a near post header right to a wide open Molina. His redirection went over Alejandro and nestled into the far side netting.
2-1
We had 17 minutes to go plus stoppage time. We answered by camping in their half. Alba parked the bus and dared us to try and break them down. They threw themselves in front of shots, several of them from in close and their keeper made a miraculous point blank save on Villar in the 78th minute.
I replaced Perico with Kike Marquez as Perico was tiring in the 83rd minute.
We kept crossing the ball in, lumping it in, working in it, but nothing bore fruit.
As the 4th official raised his board signaling a mere 2 minutes of extra time, I had the sinking feeling that we were going to lose.
Suddenly, the players had trouble connecting passes. Their desperation crosses were woefully inaccurate.
Then 1:50 into extra time, Jose Figueroa Vasquez looked at his watch and blew three depressing blasts on his whistle.
I saw nearly every player's head droop as the final whistle sounded. So close, yet so far.
The locker room was silent.
"I apologize for letting you down, boss," Martins said.
"Relax guys," I replied. "You played great. Their keeper made some fabulous saves. If he's not man-of-the-match, well, I wouldn't know what to tell you. He was great. We were unlucky and it just wasn't our night."
"We're still on track for a promotion spot," I continued. "The match against Linense is what will decide our fate."
The players all nodded and I could tell the blue mood from losing had lifted slightly. This wasn't the end, regardless of what Florentino might do tomorrow.
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I checked my iPhone. Linense were trailing at home to an early strike from Jose Pina of Atletico SanLuqueno. If they lost we'd be fifth but still tied on points. Cartagena was up to third with a victory over La Hoya.
As the players were finishing showering, I saw that Linense had equalized. By the time we were loading the bus, their draw was final.
We were fifth but I would plead my case to Florentino in the morning once we were back home.
It was going to be an agonizingly long bus ride home.
keep it up!