Deception

I have to say this is just how I feel. What happened this evening. After we scored why did we give up. Where were the team who last week ran their guts out until the last whistle. I feel that we are going back to the second division which is a pity as they are a great team who deserve more.

The buying window closes tomorrow night at midnight and we will see if the club buys someone or if the players are left to struggle on as they are. 17 points are not enough with only 18 games left to play and only 8 home games. We still haven't won away so perhaps we could do that next week (you can always hope.)


GAME NOTES

CD TENERIFE 1 (0)
REAL ZARAGOZA 3 (0)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Beltrán, Manolo Martínez, Ezequiel Luna, Pablo Sicilia; Mikel Alonso, Ricardo (Ángel, 79’); Juanlu Hens (Dinei, 85’), Alfaro, Kome (Román Martínez, 60’); & Nino.

REAL ZARAGOZA
Carrizo; Diogo (Gabi, 58’), Pulido, Contini, Ponzio (Arizmendi, 70’); Ander, Jarosik; Pennant, Lafita, Eliseu (Colunga, 58’); & Suazo.

REFEREE
Carlos Delgado Ferreiro, from the Basque region. Yellow cards for local players Alfaro (36’), Ricardo (43’), Román Martínez (64’), Luna (75’) & Aragoneses (77’), and for the visitors Diogo (6’), Pulido (60’), Arizmendi (84’) & Lafita (86’).

GOALS
1-0: (47’) Juanlu Hens, from a pass by Pablo Sicilia. 1-1: (76’) Suazo, from a penalty. 1-2: (78’) Colunga, from a cross ball Aragoneses. 1-3: (82’) Lafita, from a distant shot at goal.

INCIDENTS
Twenty first round of the Liga BBVA in Primera División. In the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, attended by 19.198 spectators on an afternoon which started with rain. The local players wore black armbands in memory of the recently dead ex-player from CD Tenerife, Juan Martín Martín, for whom one minutes silence was held.

Start of the second half of the season.

The home game against Zaragoza today is the start of the second half of the season. CD Tenerife is short 4 points of the 23 points the club hoped we would have by the half way mark to maintain our position in the Spanish first division.
The game today is very important it is a direct rival which we lost 1-0 to away in Zaragoza in August 2009. Their goal was by Arizmendi in the second half. Hojuan Martin martinpefully the team can have their revenge today.
The players choosen for the line up are Luis García, Sergio Aragoneses, Culebras, Marc Bertrán, Juanlu, Pablo Sicilia, Kome, Ayoze, Román, Mikel Alonso, Manolo Martínez, Ricardo, Richi, Ezequiel Luna, Alfaro, Dinei, Ángel & Nino. We will see who gets to play. For the first time this season not a sngle players is on the sick list and trainer Jose Luis oltra could choose the players he really wanted without haveing to balance who was missing.

There will be 1 minutes silence for ex-tenerife player Juan Martín Martín who played in the team twice(1954-1957 & 1962-64) he died in Santa Cruz de Tenerife at 74 Years old. His posicion on the field was on the wing, on both sides.

Players pages

I though I would tell you all about the websites players have:
Juan Lu Hens has this one: link
Alfaro too: link
and the latest to have been bought to my attention is Mikel's: link

There has been talk again in the papers about if the club will buy somone during the winter break. Santiago Llorente says he will go on looking until the last moment and the president of the club says he will find the money if the Sports Director finds a player the club needs. This leaves everthing in the air but time is running out. We didn't actually sign Mikel Alonso last year until the 28th of January.

Tickets for the Zaragoza game go on sale from this morning at 10 am and will be on sale in the stadium, in Playa de las America and in Puerto de la cruz.

Gaizka Saizar rumor says will go to a second division club, favourite to the press seems to be Cadiz. The club website makes no comment, except to have a quote form the player saying "I am finding every training session better. I feel a need to play more to help my recuperation. I would prefer to play here but it is clear the situation here is complicated."

An interesting statistic is that in the 12 seasons that we played in the first division in half we scored more points in the second half of the season then the first. This may serve as encouragement as we begin the second half of this season at the weekend

The Spanish football federation would like to take on of the games each week and play it on a Monday and on of the second division games to be played in a Friday. They hope to have the clubs approve this before the end of the season so we may well be going to Santa Cruz on a Monday evening instead of a Saturady or Sunday. Teams in Europe will not play on Monday so it will be the little teams. It may at least mean that we move away from 4pm on Sunday.

Photos from the Valencia game

Due to circumstances I was sat in the Popular stand for yesterdays game against Valencia so I took some photos and here they are.

Corner

After their corner

going back to the centre

What now mummy?In the stand

Mostly Armada Sur fans

Flags everywhere

Valencia warming up

Our President and others

The smallest man is Santiago Llorente

Due to circumstances I was sat in the Popular stand for yesterdays game against Valencia so I took some photos and here they are.

Interviews after the game

Trainer Jose Luis Oltra was interviewed after the game on Sunday against Valencia in the press room of the Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez stadium. "A point against Valencia has to be judged by its merits. I want to thank the team for their effort and the fans for their support. That was how he started his interview with the press. He lamented the bad luck the team had with their shots at goal but final lack of goal.
"Cesar deprived us of a win." he added. "We were better than our rival in places exceptionally. We had more chances. We had the ability to reach the goal and shots on goal. Last season we had games where we were lucky, but this year you can't say that about any game. I hope this run will change. Football has a debt to CD Tenerife. But we can do little more to win and more so against a team like Valencia. We are strong at home and have shown that again today."
" I am happy that the players have gone out to compete. The defence line has worked more and even that Valencia has a great set of forwards. Our rival had chances they made themselves not that we gifted them" explained the Tenerife trainer.

Following this line Oltra said "I am happy with the play by Alfaro and Nino who both had chances. Alfaro played today perhaps his best game. Last year he could score with his eyes closed and this year it is harder because we are in a league with better keepers and better defenders. I can't reproach Nino for anything either"

“I know Unai said we have the team to be higher in the league. Others think the same”, stated José Luis Oltra.

“In the end talk of Justice or injustice is very subjective. But I believe that the clear occasions were for us. We were close to a victory. I understand that Valencia will go home with happy with the point. We are too, but less than them”, he finished.

The players commented:
Marc Bertrán: “We showed the best defence, above all in front of a rival with a rival with speed and quality. We are content with the game. I believe we deserved to win. We had three clear chances. We need to keep on working and have confidence that luck will come. defensively in Almeria we were good and today was the same. The pity is the missed chances. No team comes to Tenerife for an easy game. I am starting to pick up rhythm, litle by little recovering sensations”.

Luna: “We could have won in spite of playing the Great Valencia. We knew how to wait out our rival and had great chances. We left our goal clear.We need to go on working. Now we have nothing to do but think about the next game and continue fighting to carry on. CD Tenerife played a great game in every line and was only missing a goal. We put to the test a great rival with great players and it came at a moment when we were in great form”.

Román: “I felt good and was confortable out there. Today we gave everything to the game. We can look ourselves in the eye and say we played a great game. We are left with a bitter taste because we deserved the three points. I train every day to be called for the squad. It could be that it was the best CD Tenerife game this season, good in every line but we were unlucky. But this is the right path. Next week will be a great game.”.

Ángel: “We are sad to leave today as we deserved more. It is not easy to have so many chances against a team like Valencia. Against Barcelona more or less the same thing happened. The chance Alfaro had was the clearest.I hope soon we will have a run of luck. If any of these shots had gone in the game would have been ours above all because we were completely solid in the back today. Now we need three points against Zaragoza which are very important.”

CD Tenerife - Valencia CF

In the best game I have seen Tenerife play this season they managed to hold Valencia to a 0-0 draw. Not for chances did their score stay at Zero. Tenerife had 16 shots at goal. Sometime we need to get lucky and something go in. That said Ceasr, Valencia's 38 year old keeper was awesome. Everything that came his way he stopped.
Our defense was good and Manolo was exceptional. The team resembled the team from last year where they fought to the end in every game. I hope they will play next week against Zaragoza with the same intensity.

GAME NOTES

CD TENERIFE 0 (0)
VALENCIA CF 0 (0)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Beltrán, Manolo Martínez, Ezequiel Luna, Pablo Sicilia; Mikel Alonso, Román Martínez (Richi, 86’); Juanlu Hens (Ángel, 80’), Alfaro, Kome (Ayoze, 70’) & Nino.

VALENCIA CF
César; Miguel (Dealbert, 76’), David Navarro, Alexis, Bruno; Albelda, Banega (Marchena, 74’); Pablo Hernández, David Silva, Mata (Vicente, 85’) & Villa.

REFEREE
David Fernández Borbalán, from Andalucia. Yellow card for local player Luna (60’), and visitors Albelda (29’) & Ever Banega (52’).

GOALS
None.

INCIDENTS
Ninteenth round of the competition Liga BBVA in the first Division. Disputed in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López Stadium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, present were 21.366 spectators on a warm afternoon with gusts of wind.

Squad for the Valencia Game

After 80 minutes training, which was watched but many fans in the Helidoro rodriguez Lopez Stadium trainer Jose Luis Oltra announced the squad for tomorrows game. Players are Luis García, Sergio Aragoneses, Marc Bertrán, Pablo Sicilia, Juanlu Hens, Ayoze García, Carlos Bellvís, Míkel Alonso, Dinei, Manolo Martínez, Dani Kome, Ezequiel Luna, Román Martínez, Omar Ramos, Ángel Rodríguez, Nino, Richi & Alfaro.

Roman is recovered from the injury which has bothered him all week.

Preparation for Valencia

Training yesterday was for 80 minutes and today the team will train in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López form 10 am in preparation for tomorrow Sunday's game against Valencia CF at 4pm Canarian time. After training today trainer Jose Luis Oltra will announce the squad for tomorrows game.

In an interview on Friday tenerife trainer José Luis OltraDiscussed that although he came from Valencia his team was " CD Tenerife, Here they treat me like I was at home. I owe the club a lot and the island and no one should doubt that my greatest wish is that we win tomorrow."
When asked about Valencia he replied "Valencia is competing at the highest level. They are the best away6 team not only in Spain but in the whole of Europe."

He then discussed that the players where not frightened of Valencia that "we need to be effective and think about ourselves. They will certainly be a rival with personality. But also we ned to bear in mind what our rival will let us get away with."
In reference to the absence of Ricardo Leon, the Valencian confessed that " no player missing is alarming, the mid field is well covered here in Tenerife. Each player has their virtues. Although we can't count on Ricardo other players can cover his position."

Just like 97/98

Just as in the league 97/98 Cd Tenerife will finish the first half and the final game playing Valencia. That time the team managed to stay in the first division and hopefully this time they will too. In 97/98 the games were reversed with the first game being away and the second game being at home. That year CDT managed to win both games tha waya game with a score of 1-2 and the home game on the 15th of May with a score of 3-2. The goals for CD Tenerife in this final game were scored by Felipe, Domingos and Jokanovic
The games in that year had another similarity it was a world cup year, France was played in 98.

Cd tenerife goes out to face Valencia on Sunday, confident and aiming to repeat history. Supported by their fans who they hope will be in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium to cheer them on in this important game.

Rest day today

After a ninety minute training session yeaterday in The Mundialito stadium yesterday the players are off today. Tomorrow Wednesday, they will again train in the Mundialito stadium from 10am.
Tickets for Sunday's game will go on sale from Thursday morning in the stadium, the Liberia in Playa de las Americas and in the Bar Canario, in Puerto de la Cruz.

Interviews with players this week included so far Richi, Kome and Juanlu.

Richi is one of the most experienced players in the CDT team so when he talks he is always clear. "We don't like the position the team is in on the classification table. That is logical. But the way the table is right now is very tight. We need to move day by day. We have enough things to be optimistic." These words don't leave place for doubts.
When asked about the last game, the mid fielder explained that in Almeria we were serious. But we didn't hide: perhaps for a few moments we were missing long passes into attack. But anyway we were near a win and that is never a time to go crazy attacking."
Richi showed himself to be optimistic about the game as " we have one point more that before the game. I need to insist that this team can do great things. There are a lot of games left and the competition is very level. For those teams who just came up it is always more difficult, though this team doesn't need to be jealous of the teams just above us." The mid fielder discussed the game against Valencia which he sees as "Valencia is a great team, with wonderful footballers. We will see once again how we can do at home in our stadium with the support of our fans."

Daniel Kome stated that “This is the moment to stand together and help each other more to get out of relegation. It was a shame we couldn't win. I had the chance to score the 0-2 and just after they equalised. I would have been enchanted to have scored.”

For the player from Cameroon it is clear that “now is the time to continue working and demonstrate we are a strong team. The group is strong and in my case I am starting again to get a good feeling.”

Kome remembered again that “in the Heliodoro, with the support of our people, we are very strong. I hope the rest of the season we will be luckier than we have been up to now.”

Juanlu offered some opinions similar to Kome: “The analysis of what happened in Almeria has to be positive, because we have gained another point away. Independent to the classification it is the moment to have more confidence in our work. We have to forget what the classification says and centre ourselves in the game against Valencia.” He claimed “I felt really good during the game even with the niggles I had during the week.”

Interview with Jose Luis Oltra

José Luis Oltra was pleased with the result in Almeria. The CD Tenerife trainer offered his reflections of the game in a press conference after the match on Sunday in the Juegos Mediterráneos stadium. He insisted again that the players had played well and to the best of their abilities.

Oltra repeated that the game can be seen as “positive”, showing that “we have been a long time without an away pointand today we made on against a good team . We have recovered our abilities, above all in defense, where things have been difficult. perhaps our mobility was not the best. We didn't make the most of the time where our opponent only had 10 players but I saw a CD Tenerife serious and commited to the game, both in the first and second half. We started out winning and obliged Almeria to make an enormous effort. We almost made the score 0-2 with the shot on goal by Kome then they scored to make it 1-1. But I want to repite we played at a good level. The draw is important and I hope it will be a point of change for the rest of the season .”

The Tenerife trainer insisted that “The scores are measured in June. I know that away we are not winning, but we have made a lot of effort to come this far. Today we were serious, but I understand we need to aspire to more. Just two points away in the first half is preoccupying, but we are working to improve these results. Starting from a secure defense we have gone out to compete. We have fallen into the last 3 places but we still have half a league to compete. Knowing that at home we are strong and supported by our fans. I ask for patience and for us to use our heads. The most important thing is that the team doesn't doubt.”.

When Oltra was asked about his teams position in the last three places. The coach recognised that “Knowing the environment you could argue that having not been in the relegation positions up to now could play aginst us. i hope that things don't blow up. You need to go out to win every game. I am calm as I see a group with a desire to compete and win.”

“This afternoon the team worked, if we put on one side the goal they scored. If we defend in other games this way we have a chance to score more away points ”, he finished.

Player interviews after the game in Almeria

Interviews with the players after the game in Almeria included Alfaro, Marc Bertran, Ricardo Nino and Richi:

Alfaro: "This point feels like very little. The game was tough. Some of the time we played a great game but in one encounter they scored a goal. Then we played with one more for their red card and could have won. We finished tired as we ran a lot. Now we need to go on fighting and think how to win the next game".

Marc Bertran: " It was a shame, but we played a full game, we played our best. The 1-1 caught us disorganised. We have at least broken the run of losses and it was an away point against a direct rival. I am happy about the way the team played. Personally I finshed the game very tired, its four months since I played and you can tell".

Ricardo: " We need to go on slowly. Today we tried with all our efforts. We had our chances, with one man more than our rivals we had chances to win. But any point is good without leting go of the fact a win is what really counts".

Nino: They made the most of theis chances when the ball still. We tried to kill the game and this is how Almeria managed to score. We need to keep working the same as we did up to now. I would like to be further up the table, but we knew in advance that this was a year to suffer."

Richi: " It leaves a bad taste after being up 0-1. In the second half we suffered loads but we had a chance for the 0-2. After the sending of we had the ball more under control, but it was difficult to get to the goal. They couldn't get to us but we couldn't get the ball in play. Still it is an away point and the team has reasons you should have confidence in them."


Interestingly in an interview after the Valencia - Villareal game, David Villa counted the points which he expected his team to have at the end of the first half of the season, including 3 more for next weeks game. You know what they say about counting chickens.

1-1 draw in Almeria.

Game Notes

UD ALMERÍA 1 (0)
CD TENERIFE 1 (1)

UD ALMERÍA
Diego Alves; Míchel, Cisma, Chico, Acasiete; Soriano, Bernardello, Piati, Crusat (Ortiz, 86’), Corona (Nieto, 80’); & Goitom (Solari, 89’).

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Bertrán, Pablo Sicilia, Ezequiel Luna, Manolo Martínez; Ricardo, Mikel Alonso (Ayoze, 73’), Juanlu Hens, Kome (Richi, 61’); Alfaro (Ángel, 86’) & Nino.

REFEREE
Velasco Carballo, from Madrid.Sent off local player Piati (66’), for two yellow cards. Yellow cards for visitors Kome, Marc Bertrán, Ricardo, Luna, Mikel Alonso, Ayoze y Richi.

GOALS
0-1: (1’) Juanlu, from a ball pushed away by the keeper. 1-1: (60’) Goitom, from a cross pass.

INCIDENTS
Played in the Juegos Mediterráneos stadium. Grass was in good condition. Warm afternoonin front of 17.732 espectadores. First time the club had sold out this season.

Marc Bertran back at last.

The right defender Marc Bertran is back to playing for the Club Deportivo Tenerife team for the first time since his injury during the Real Madrid game last September. A broken ankle after a foul by Dutch player Royston Drenthe left him several months on the bench. Trainer Jose Luis Oltra has finally picked him as fit to play for the game in Almeria. The team departed this afternoon for the Costa Brava for the game Sunday afternoon.

"I am good to play or at least I feel fit. I am pleased by the support that I have been show by the fans and the club. I am completely ready with a need to play after so much time off." stated the Catalan player yesterday when interviewed by Marca a Spanish sports paper.

In the time Marc was sick the trainer from Levante has tried various players in his place including Ezequiel Luna and his theoretical substitute the young Aitor Nunez. When this hasn't worked he has taken midfielder Juanlu Hens back to try to fill the place.

Looking for a strong defence.

When the team position is analysed he is concious" we have been missing a little luck, we have not been solid in defense or scored whn we got to the goal." also when asked about tomorrows game he commented "the best would be if we can score an early goal."

Jose Luis Oltra has also recovered Juanlu Hens from the injury bench so the probability is they will play together as this coupling gave great results last season. On the down side Omar Ramos is still not able to play with leg muscle injuries.

There is a certain mmout of superstition in reference to away games with one fan going back to watch the game in a bar where he watched the Valladolid game where CDT scored one point with a draw and two other Armada Sur fans not going to watch the game at all as they didn't watch the Valladoild game. I hope this works out and the team manage by what ever means luck superstition or otherwise to find 3 points to bring back to Tenerife.

Almeria

This weeks game will be played in the Estadio Juegos Mediterráneos on Sunday the 17th of January at 4pm CET. The referee is Velasco Carballo, who CD Tenerife have won twice and drawn once with.
The players will be flying to the mainland on Saturday and returning after the game on Sunday. The charter plane was also available to fans for 199 euros.

Wednesday' player interviews were with Pablo Sicilia & Ricardo León In the press room in the Mundialito training ground. Their main comment was the need to move on and concentrate on Sunday's upcoming game

Pablo Sicilia commented on the fact that away they had only managed one draw and that they need to change the run of bad luck they have had away as soon as possible. He affirmed the need to compete at the highest level and look for a positive result.
When he was asked about various injured players he cold only reply "we need to respect the decisions that our trainer makes " continuing that "my first goal is still to come this season. I hope it will come soon and be part of our victory"

Ricardo León, on the other hand started talking about the fact the team was up to now in the same position and still not in relegation, He hoped that they would stay where they are and not go down this year. he then said " Almeria is a very motivated team with their new coach, they have had great results with the new trainer"
Lastly the player from Tenerife commented that their style of play wouldn't change " We don't look further then the next rival. I don't think that we should change our game as visitors. We need to remain true to our style of play"

On Thursday Juanlu Hens & Ezequiel Luna were interviewed in The press room in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium. Both the player from Cordoba and the Argentinian talked of Sundays game and their hopes for a win.

"We need to travel with clear minds and just think in a positive result" declared Juanlu hens. The tenerife footballer confessed that " we gain nothing thinking about the bad run we have had away. Now we are going to Almeria, a direct rival, and this is an important game. So we are going to make the best of it."

Juanlu then commented on " the dynamics of the season is how you escape the relegation positions and race to the end." when asked about his injuries he commented that he was " optimistic and hope to be ready when the trainer picks me"

For his part Ezequiel Luna explained that " we are working well and are thinking about Almeria. Both teams need the points and I hope we will be coming home with them. The numbers tell that we need to improve away, but we always go out to win and things just haven't worked out the way we wanted so far.

The Argentine defender hoped " the bad run we have had will end as soon as possible. In the changing rooms you need to fight for your position to play each week, but you also need to be patient and go on working. Any mistake can cost us a gaol and then everything is more difficult"

Thoughts

Tenerife played on Sunday and lost. That is a how game went but it goes no where near describing the effort the players put into the game and the chances they had. The first 20 minutes of the game CD Tenerife dominated the play and had 3 shots at goal, unfortunately they didn't go in. Messi then proved why he was player of the year with a hat trick and additional goals, a suberb header from Puyol and a shot from our home grown Pedro finally knocked in as a home goal by Luna made the final result 0-5 by Barcelona. Nethertheless the CDT players tried their best and fought to the end. All the subs came on and tried hard including Dinei who just doesn't seem to have managed to adapt to Jose Luis Oltra's game. Talking of Dinei I have said before and no doubt will say again that I do not understand why fans would whistle and boo their own players.
The game had a bitter sweet feeling as some of the fans turned on others, shouting and abusing them. This doesn't make for a great atmosphere an is sad in itself. I have read on a couple of forums that no one should have clapped either Messi's third goal or the entrance of Pedro but can't see either myself. If Real Madrid fans can clap Ronaldino in their own stadium when he was a Barcelona player then surely CD Tenerife fans can clap Messi.



As to not supporting Pedro this is just silly. The boy is from here he grew up in Arico played for local team Raqui San Isidro and had the skill to play in FC Barcelona. He has proved this year to be one of the worlds most talented players. The only one to have scored in 6 championships in one year. If supporting him makes me a s*** fan then so be it.

Tenerife B continue to be out of he lst positions with a win against Vecindario and Airam has now scored 21 goals. It is worth bearing in mind his contract runs out in the Summer and I hope Santiago Llorente manages to get him to sign up again.

CD Tenerife 0 - FC Barcelona 5

CD TENERIFE 0 (0)
FC BARCELONA 5 (3)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragones; Juanlu (Culebras, 46’), Bellvis, Sicilia, Luna; Ricardo, Mikel Alonso, Ayoze (Dinei, 65’), Kome (Ángel, 85’); Alfaro & Nino.

FC BARCELONA
Víctor Valdés; Daniel Alves, Maxwell, Rafael Márquez, Carles Puyol (Milito, 85’); Xavi Hernández (Chygrynskiy, 88’), Andrés Iniesta (Pedro, 76’), Sergio Busquets; Messi, Bojan & Thierry Henry.

REFEREE
Pérez Lasa, From Guipúzcoa. Yellow card for local players Luna, Ayoze y Kome; and for visitors Márquez & Puyol.

GOALS
0-1: (35’) Messi, after a play form Bojan. 0-2: (44’) Header from Puyol. 0-3: (45’) Messi, aftr a play by Iniesta. 0-4: (75’) Messi, high ball. 0-5: (88’) Luna, in home goal after a play from Pedro.

INCIDENTS
Played in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium. Ground was in good condition. Warm evening. In front of 22.510 spectators.

Training for Sunday's game against Barcelona

CD Tenerife started preparation for Sundays game against FC Barcelona in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium at 20.00 on Wednesday. The Blanquiazules trained in the Mundialito training ground for one hour and 40 minutes after their day off on Tuesday.

The Island team completed their usual warm-up then did some phyisical exercises. After the trainer Jose Luis Oltra formed them into small groups and they played five minute games in four teams of five players

In the session were CD Tenerife B goalkeepers, Toño Ramírez y Luis Arellano and Manolo Martínez, Omar Ramos y Héctor Sánchez took part in the group.Marc Bertrán, though worked out on the side with injury specific exercises.

CD Tenerife's first team are training again today (Thursday) from 10am in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium.

It may or may not be worth bearing in mind that CD Tenerife has never won a game with referee Miguel Angel Perez Lasa, the referee for Sunday's game. With him CD Tenerife has had three losses and two draws.

Thoughts for a new year

There has been a lot of talk on various forums including the Armada Sur one about how badly the team is playing and if they continue to play like this they will go down. This is certainly possible. For those of us who have been going to support CDT this year is going to be fabulous what ever the final position. Don't get me wrong I would love the team to say up and will support them to the end however they play. I hated the way they whistled at Manolo in November. However they will still be my team and I will still be going to see them play even if next year it was in the second division as we have for years.
The club had serious financial problems 3 years ago and when Miguel Concepción stood for president he made promises. Promises he has kept. He promised we would consolidate, we did. He promised that in 3 years we would go up to the first division, we have. And when we went up this year he has promised we will stay up. Anyone with knowledge about the club knows we still have large financial debts, less that thre years ago but still debts. This means we have difficulties when it comes to buying players. Nino came on loan and only after he proved he could make it with us did the club buy him.
The new players this year Roman is on loan as Espanol has too many non-Europeans, Dinei came from an major injury and Bellvis came up from Elche in the second division. Alfaro coming back on loan was regarded as a miracle. Other than this the team renewed what they had and got on with it. And they have done well until now. Away games have always been a struggle. 3 seasons ago we went nearly the whole year without an away point. If our home ground wasn't such a fortress we would have been in segunda B.
We can make this if we all pull together but the team needs to feel we support them. Hopefully Santigo Llorente will manage to buy or find two or three players to support the team. But most of all we need to support the players and be there at every game cheering them on. See you Sunday.

Ricardo & Juanlu

Ricardo León y Juanlu Hens were the two players interviewed on Monday the 4th of January after the players finished their training session in La Maruca in Santander.

The Canarian footballer on one side commented that " we need to improve our points from here to the end of the first half. This can't happen again. We need to improve various aspects of our game although we did some things well". He then tried to raise hopes by saying "time is passing and we are recovering although this last loss was hard". When asked about the FC Barcelona game he said that " we are going to play the best team in the world,but it will be in our stadium where we are strong and we will need to show this one more time".


Juanlu Hens, then said, “ I consider that in general terms, the team did a good job, but in 5 minutes they scored two goals which cost us the loss. We need to go on working peacefully. At the moment we were playing best they scored and then we couldn't come back”.

“We are committed and hopeful that we will finish the first round and start the second round in good form”, added the player from Cordoba , he then concluded that “Barcelona is a very complicated rival, the best team right now. We need to show then the most difficult game we can, to make them uncomfortable. We need to go out to play committed and of course give away nothing”, he finished.

Training schedule week comencing 04 Januay to 10th January

Agenda for the 04 to 10 January 2010

Day	Time	Place	Activity
Monday	08:30	La Maruca	Training
Tuesday	-	-	Day off
Wednesday	12:00	El Mundialito	Training
Thursday	10:00	Heliodoro	Training
Friday	10:00	El Mundialito	Training
Friday	-	El Mundialito	Press conference
Saturday	10:00	Heliodoro	Training
Saturday	-	Heliodoro	List of Players
Sunday	20:00	Heliodoro	CD Tenerife-FC Barcelona

CD Tenerife to take part in the 3 Kings parade

For the first time CD Tenerife will take part in the 3 Kings Parade in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in their own Carriage. Present will be players from the youth teams and the second and third team. The ceremony will start out from the stadium Heliodoro Rodríguez López at 19:00 and will pass through the main streets of Santa Cruz.

This is part of the clubs promotion this Christmas to get children more involved with the club and the players. There have been signings outside the club shop. The players have been today to the PIT to sign more autographs and spend time with local children. They also spent time in the childrens wards in hospitals in Santa Cruz and La Laguna.

Racing de Santander 2 - CD Tenerife 0

This was one of those games. Nearly all through the first half we looked reasonable and there seemed a chance for a second point away but we had very few shots at goal and finally as ever if you don't score you lose.
Game Notes

RACING DE SANTANDER 2 (0)
CD TENERIFE 0 (0)

RACING DE SANTANDER
Coltorti; Pinillos, Henrique, Torrejón, Christian Fernández; Colsa, Lacen, Canales (Arana, 67’), Serrano (Geijo, 70’); Munitis & Tchité (Xisco, 60’).

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Juanlu Hens, Carlos Bellvís, Pablo Sicilia, Ezequiel Luna; Ricardo, Mikel Alonso (Román Martínez, 83’), Kome (Ángel, 60’), Ayoze (Dinei, 79’); Alfaro & Nino.

Referee
Alfonso Álvarez Izquierdo, from Catalyuna. Yellow card for local player Pinillos; and for the visitors Ricardo y Juanlu Hens.

GOALS
1-0: (72’) Colsa. 2-0: (75’) Xisco.

INCIDENTS
Played in El Sardinero stadium. The pitch was in bad condition, very soft. 15.264 spectators. Rainy, windy afternoon. CD Tenerife players wore black armbands in memory of Hector's brother a fellow team member.

Interview with Alejandro Alfaro & Pablo Sicilia

Alejandro Alfaro & Pablo Sicilia where the palyers interviewed today Saturday in Santander after training in La Maruca.
The player from Onubense, on one side, stated that the plan is to start out “empezar the new year on a good foot and win the first thre points away. We want to make the fans happy and ourselves”.

And for Alfaro, a victory “would be threefold”, given that this is a direct rival. “There are many incentives for this weekend and we hope for a good result. Right now we have a different calander, with the best teams against us at home y and away playing aginst direct rivals. We need to gain some points against Santander and Almeria in the next two away games”, he added.

In reference to the Santander team, the ‘21’ from CD Tenerife assured “They are having a lot of problems at home, y parecen sentirse más cómodos a domicilio. Debemos aprovecharlo, if we control our game, and are concentrated from the begining, we can correct previous errors and take the game”.

Pablo Sicilia, for his part, started his interview confessing that “Now we wish to start the new year with an away win, something we have been chasing since the beginning of the season and lets see if against Racing de Santander we are capable of achiveing this.”, an objective that will ne be easy as “our rival is looking to get out of the same position”.

When asked about the important points of the game, the Gran Canarian indicated that “we need to make sure, by all means, to play a good game, go out with our home spirit and try to make no mistakes. They are a difficult rival and we are concient that winning in El Sardinero will not be an easy job, but going all out we can achieve these three points”.

Sicilia, who conceded that “we need to keep our goal at zero and try make the most of our chances”, he concluded with his wish for 2010. “For the new year I wish for health and that Tenerife stays in the first division.”.

Last training session for the week.

The team finished their last training session today Saturday for the game tomorrow in Santander. Training in the Complejo Deportivo La Maruca, in Camargo (Santander). The session lasted one hour and ten minutes.

The practise consisted of the warmup then a series of rounds, exercises with the midfielders and shots at goal. Followed by a minigame in half the field.
All the players who formed the Tenerife expedition, that is , Sergio Aragoneses, Luis García; Bellvís, Culebras, Pablo Sicilia, Luna, Aitor Núñez; Ricardo, Ayoze, Román Martínez, Alfaro, Kome, Juanlu Hens, Richi, Míkel Alonso; Nino, Ángel & Dinei, took part in the training with no problems.