The fans deserve a ten.

"The fans deserve a ten." A direct quote from Juanlu Hens. The blue and white midfielder calls the CD Tenerife followers to keep supporting the team in the coming season.

Juanlu is enjoying the first days of his summer holiday after a frantic campaign in the first division. The player stopped to spend time to make some comments for the CD Tenerife website and at the same time has a message to send to the fans.


Q. After the first days of your holidays and now that you are more relaxed how would you weigh up the last season.
A. After thinking about everything that happened, you are left with the sensation that in the finer details we lost something. We could have gained more points in certain games, but for those details I think we didn't manage to get to the end of the season safely.

Q. What are you left with after a year in the first division?
A. One of the things I was most inspired by was the fans. In spite of being the whole of the second half of the season in relegation positions the fans supported us the the hilt. They really deserve ten out of ten.

Q. And personally?
A. At the beginning I found it difficult because of my ankle injury. It was very painful, but then I found my way. Although we were relegated I am happy with the way I and the team played, as we did our best and always went out the play hard.

Q. The club is staring to organise next years team. How do you see the base that they are starting form? Do you think they could get one of the top places?
A. This is the intention, to meet the year head on as we did the year we went up to Primera. This the mentality required. We need to be happy and have faith we can have one of those positions. But we will need the help of the fans to get the plus needed to reach the highest point.

Q. Most of the players are staying, do you think the experience between you and the knowledge it brings will help to give you a good start in the second division.
A. It is hard to tell. All the teams are going to buy the best squad they can. But we have a good start as well as the players who are coming. For wanting to do well you won't find the team missing out. Our mentality is to fight from the first minute.

Q. This year you have almost 2 months holidays. What sort of training do you do in this time?
A. In the first weeks you need to do something completely different. Get out of your routine. Then you need to do things like be careful what you eat and do exercise so you reach pre-season in good condition. The ideal is to look after yourself so you avoid injuries.

Miguel Concepción explains on Radio Nacional

Miguel Concepción in an interview on Radio Nacional Saturday the 29/05 talked about different themes including the project for the coming season and the feelings after the relegation.

"One needs to look to take the club back to the standard of the fans which is a standard of the first division." stated the maximum authority for the club in response to a question asked by interviewer Domingo Álvarez." We need to look to the future. To work together to place CD Tenerife back where it belongs in the first division. 
When asked about the player Nino he recollected that "he still has a contract with the team and that he will continue playing. I would like him to finish his career here on the island. Marc Bertran also has a contract with us."
I am pleased with the way the team fought throughout the season. But as we didn't win the last two games we are back in the second division." he commented when asked to rate the previous year. "We should be happy with the last season. There were mistakes made and we should learn form them so they are not repeated. Now we need to construct a project to take us into the top positions of the second league." 

Miguel Concepción honoured trainer Jose Luis Oltra saying "Oltra came to us as a trainer we had looked for and he did a great job. He took us to the first division but he couldn't manage to keep us there. With that here in CD Tenerife it was decided the cycle was over. Had he managed to keep the team up then there would have been the option to negotiate a further contract. But our return to the second division made it seem pernicious  his continuity in the club. That said Oltra will always be welcome here.
Resuming his time as president he remembered " the season 2005/2006 was very difficult when I took over the presidency in the club although we managed to save the team and remain in the second division.We then consolidated the following two seasons we renewed the squad and then last year we managed to take the team up to the first division."
When asked if he wanted to send a message to the club and the fans the president said " We need to stick together, to have unity between the club, the fans and the press. I am calling for an effort between us all to return to the maximum football division."
When asked about the immediate future of the club Miguel Concepcion signaled that "we are starting a new project, with many new faces, as much in the technical team as in the players squad. I would like the new trainer here as soon as possible as this will help dissipate any doubts the fans and press have. But many of the trainers are still competing and some are not working. We are having discussions and till now nothing is decided." 
He followed by saying "I have complete confidence in the sports director Santiago Llorente. He has done a good job." He was then asked about the statement made last week that he might retire from being president explaining "I took the position for five years and as many know I do not stop until I have achieved my objectives. At no time will I abandon the club. In February there will be the possibility of elections and the council can be renewed. If there is a group who can show they will continue our lines in both the sporting and the economic areas, then I will be prepared to resign. But I will never turn my back on CD Tenerife."
He finished "We have all suffered and cried about the relegation of the team. We are going to try again. Together we can get there. We should have a team who are competitive and steady. And I call for the fans to keep coming to the stadium."

CD Tenerife website hits

The club is pleased to announce that the CD Tenerife website has had more then 1,000,000 visitors in the last year. These have been spread out over 168 countries. When this was analised form the webs restart on the 25th of January 2007 there have been 3.203.762 hits.


Germany (18.173 hits) an Great Britain (11.330) are by far the highest visitors after Spain(898.068) of nations who were interested in the CD Tenerife site. With less visitors were Venezuela, 5.337 visits; Italy, 5.069; France, 4.593; Argentina, 4.014; Brasil, 3.794; Japan, 3.639; and the USA, 3.418.

AS percentages Spain had 89,26 percent of the hits, and then Germany had 1,81 % and Great Britain has 1.13%.

The CD Tenerife website has experienced and sustained period of growth since its relaunching on the 25th of January 2007. In 2007 the site had 605.345 visits with an average of 1.658,48 visits per day. In 2008 this had increased considerably to 862.613 visits and an average of 2.357 hits per day.

But the great year was 2009 which broke all records with 1.366.752 visitors, and a daily average of 3.744,52. It offered an interesting insight as the average number of visitors between May and September were over 100,000 visits per month.

Juni 2009, with 170.000 hits has been the month with most visits in the history of the club. In adition on the 13th of that month there were 13.305 hits a recond for the site. That ws the historic day that the team ascended to the first division after their win against Girona.

In wthe first months of 2010 the website has received 365.992 visits, experiencing and notable increase in May. With less than a week to go for the end of the month the site has had almost 90,000 visitors.

Last training for CD Tenerife in season 09/10

The players were very relaxed and spent most of the time playing chase the ball firstly all together and then in two groups. They finished with  a 30 minute game in half a pitch with Alfaro and Bellvis in goal.
At the end of the session Alfaro stayed in goal and Nino, Roman, Sergio and Angel shot goals at him.
About 50 fans had gathered to say goodbye to the players and trainer Jose Luis Oltra.

After the training was the press conference with Santiago Llorente followed by a press conference by José Antonio Culebras. You can hear it here in Spanish. What you can't miss even if you don't understand it are his tears and his heart breaking.
He is immensely sad to leave and had hoped to finish his career in Tenerife. Twice the press broke into spontaneous applause as he talked.
Amongst other things he said "He had passed 4 fabulous years here. And he asks the fans to continue supporting the team as they need to go back to Primera."

In the time he has been in the club he has taken several football coaching qualifications so hopefully one day we will see him back as a coach.
 He has apparently offers from Hearts and Wigan in the UK.
I wish him luck wherever he goes as someone as committed to our colours we don't find so often.

Press conference with Santiago Llorente

This morning after the last training session of the season a press conference was given by Santiago Llorente:
His statements included the following phrases:
The team were irregular and lacked a certain element of luck. I am finally pleased with their work although the descending a division leaves a bitter taste.
Economic and sports need of the club need to go together. I think the level of this years players should have allowed us to remain in Primera. It wasn't achieved but would have been deserved. We were missing away points and more continuity.
I have never felt questioned by the president.
Now we need to think about the new season. Our objective is to build a team which can aspire to returning to the first division. We are now trying to form this team. Our objective is to fight to get in the first places in the classification.
After three years Jose Luis Oltra will stop training the team. He has gifted us some great moments of football. Last year we enjoyed more then anything the way the team played. All we should do is thank him for a great job and wish him luck. Football is a day by day option so why didn't we therefore renew his contract? We analised the situation. Cycles are not eternal and we concluded that to end this cycle was the best for everyone. We were always pleased with the work of Jose Luis Oltra. We always supported him with our maximum effort.We never had doubts and believed in his work.

We haven't decided on the style of trainer yet. We hope to get the best trainer we can. We know how important this figure is and we are going to make the maximum effort to find this man. We are working on this. I would like to tell you who this man is but I am not sure if it will be this week or next week. We are looking for a trainer with Oltra's style. It is important to continue with the same ideas.

There have been complaints about my not finding players in the winter market. I was looking to find players in the break. We tried to find players at this time. We were looking for a specific style of player who would not just be an in fill but someone who could be part of the future of the team. This is a difficult market and there are few players available. we could not find a suitable player who fit our criteria and therefore we bought no one.

The sadness of the CD Tenerife B relegation is different. But that said the other teams are doing a great job.

When asked about the possibilities of Nino and Marc Bertran leaving he said, "Nino and Bertran are both players with contracts. They are two important players for the team. The aim is to extend their contracts. In any case probably there will be interest form other teams. The club will analise any offers but if there is nothing interesting then the club aims to keep both players.
"Ayoze's contract ended and he exercised his right to go to another club. He had every right to do what he did and we have to respect that.. I don't want to get into further analysis about this."he explained when he was asked about the player form Puerto de la Cruz leaving.
He continued, "The team will carry on next year with a good base of players. The ones who will continue are Luis Garcia, Aragoneses, Marc Bertrán, Aitor Núñez, Sicilia, Luna, Bellvís, Ricardo, Mikel Alonso, Kome, Juanlu, Nino y Omar Ramos. Those whose contract ends and will not continue are Culebras, Manolo, Richi, Ayoze y Saizar. Those whose contract ends and we hope will continue are Héctor y Ángel. The three players on loan Román, Dinei y Alfaro will go back to their clubs and Iriome will return from being on loan in Huesca" he finished.

Final training session of the season

The first team of Club Deportivo Tenerife will take their last training session of the season on Tuesday morning at 10 am in the Complejo Federativo Juan Padrón Morales also know as the Mundalito.






At the end of this (about 11.30) the team Sports Director, Santiago Llorente, will offer an informative talk infornt of the media present in the press room of the Mundialito training ground.





The players for their part will start their holidays after the training session.


There seems to be a feeling on several CDT forums that the something important will be announced.


Also in the news is a comment from Vitolo a Tenerife footballer now playing in Greece for Paok. The team has come third this year and has the right to the play offs for Champions League. Inspite of this Vitolo says he  " still have the doors open for Tenerife. This team gave me everything and if at a given time I thought I could help them I would come home even in the second division." Vitolo leaves the chance to come back to Tenerife because of the enormous affection he feels for the club from his home. He and his family are all season ticket holders in the club. He finished "perhaps for other teams I wouldn't be available but with CD Tenerife we could talk and come to a satisfactory agreement."

Players for the season 2010/2011

I will be adding to this as the pre-season progreses:

	Nº	Player	DOB	Position
	1	LUIS GARCÍA Conde	23/04/79	Keeper
	13	SERGIO ARAGONESES Almeida	01/02/77	Keeper
	2	MARC BERTRÁN Villanova	22/05/82	Defender
	3	HÉCTOR Sánchez Cabrera	31/03/85	Defender
	4	Carlos BELLVÍS Llorens	24/04/85	Defender
	6	PABLO SICILIA Roig	10/09/81	Defender
	19	Ezequiel LUNA	19/11/86	Defender
	26	AITOR NÚÑEZ Martín	02/10/87	Midfielder
	8	RICARDO León Brito	08/02/83	Midfielder
	17	JUAN LUis HENS Lorite	07/02/84	Midfielder
	23	MIKEL Alonso Olano	17/05/80	Midfielder
	27	Julián OMAR Ramos Suárez	26/01/88	Midfielder
	7	Juan Francisco Martínez Modesto - NINO	10/06/80	Forward
	9	ÁNGEL Luis Rodríguez Díaz	26/04/87	Forward
	14	Daniel Armand Ngom - KOME	19/05/80	Forward

Interview with Sergio Aragoneses

From the club website.

Sergio Aragoneses is one of the most senior voices representing the present CD Tenerife team. A player with more time than most involved with the club, a goal keeper with great experience in the first and second division. His thoughts are interesting.

¿How do you feel? “We are now motivated to start the new season with the idea to gain the position for ascending to the first division.”. ¿Should you look forward instead of looking back and thinking what might of been? “Without a doubt. It is clear what happened. There is no way back and now we need to think of the future, to aim high, give our all and start for zero with maximum enthusiasm”. ¿Did the support of the fans help you overcome these bad moments? “Yes. It is important to feel the backing of the fans. Their support the whole season and the hope we can continue to feel this in the coming year”. Santiago Llorente is now building a new team. ¿Are you confident it sill be a winning project? “This is what we hope. This is the idea, to make an ambitious project, aiming high in the second division. I believe it will all come out well and who ever comes will feel comfortable in the team to be able to fight for our objectives”. ¿The next goal, in fact, should be going back to Primera? “Yes, thats clear. CD Tenerife needs to return to the place it deserves. We hope to build a good squad and we aspire next year to go up to the first division.”. ¿What would you say to the blue and white fans right now.? “There is not much to say. They have no responsibility, they were the whole year with us, supporting us. I want to say thanks for this support and I ask that they will be here next season, because their support is a plus and they are really important for the team to achieve their goals.”.

Players leaving or not

It states on the clubs website  that the decision has been made not to count with the services of Manolo Martínez, Gaizka Saizar, José Antonio Culebras y Ricardo Pérez de Zabalza,known as ‘Richi’ for the season 10/11.
The club thanked the players publicly for their time with the team and wished them all the best both personally and professionally in their future.


Negotiations have started with Hector Sánchez Cabrera who publically stated today he wants to stay and Ángel Luis Rodríguez Díaz. The only player left without information who has no contract is Juanlu. In his previous contract there was an agreement if he played a specific number of games he would be renewed. This has recently proved to be unenforceable but with the absence of information form the club it may well be that both sides have agreed that he can continue.


According to Ivan Bonales, who works for Canarian Television. The team will try in the next week to renew with Nino for 2 more years with an option for a third year. It remains to be seen if this is so.

Who has how long left on their contract.

For anyone like me who loses track of who signed when and for how long, La Opinion has a cheats list in Tuesdays paper.

Those whose contract ends this June include: Hector, Manolo Martinez, Jose Antonio Culebras, Juanlu, Ayoze who is already signed for Sporting, Richi, Saizar and Angel.

Those who are on loan are: Alejandro Alfaro who will return to Sevilla, Roman Martinez who will return to Español and Dinei who will return to Paranaense although we have an option to buy him for 4 seasons.

Those with a year on their contract are: Luis Garcia, Marc Bertran, Nino and Kome.

Those with more then a year are: Sergio Aragoneses, Carlos Belvis, Pablo Sicilia, Ezequiel Luna, Mikel Alonso, Aitor Nuñez, Ricardo and Omar.

Of the 4 with one years contract Marc will almost certainly go and although I hope not Nino might too.
Of the others Manolo has offers in the UK and Angel rumours say has signed a precontract. Hector and Culebras have sated their desire to stay with the club.

There is talk on various CDT forums that we are in negotiation with Jose Luis Mendilibar. The Valladolid trainer up to this February. He took them back up to the Primera division

New start

The club president in his press conference today talked of the mistakes made this last year by everyone. He thanked Caja Canarias for their ongoing support of the club. He said they are still negotiating with trainer Jose Luis Oltra and that there is a further meeting this afternoon. That the club hopes to fight to go back up again this coming season.

It has been finally made official on the Club website that Ayoze is leaving at the end of the season. He has signed a 3 year contract with Sporting de Gijon. Although I am sad to see him go as he was a played who gave a lot to the team. I wish him all the best in his new position.

Rumours about and talk that Angel has either signed with Mallorca or Español but there has been no confirmation.

The players trained today in the Mundalito training ground for 60 minutes. They will repeat this tomorrow and on Friday..


The club has a 35 % discount for any of this seasons official strip from today.

It wasn't to be Valencia 1 - CD Tenerife 0

Well I haven't cried for a couple of hours so I thought I might try to write here how I feel. We were so hopeful. Arriving in Valencia on Friday night we had the chance on Saturday to look around the city, including the new stadium that will be finished when Valencia finds some more money. It's not just us with money worries although theirs are bigger then ours.
The city is lovely and the people we talked to all hoped we would do well in the game on Sunday.

The players on Sunday morning when they took their walk seemed calm.

 There were smiles and they stopped to chat and sign an awesome display that two fans had drawn.

There was a fan meeting in one of the plazas in the centre of town and hundreds of people were there. Singing and supporting CD Tenerife.

The match started at 7pm and although the players tried their best, they couldn't save themselves. There was unilt the 9+ minute a hope that real Mwould score a second goal and then we would have been saved but in extra time Alexis scored and that was relegation for CD Tenerife.

Game notes
VALENCIA CF 1 (0)
CD TENERIFE 0 (0)

VALENCIA CF
Moyá; Miguel, Maduro, Alexis, Jordi Alba (Mathieu, 71’); Fernandes (Marchena, 75’), Baraja (Ever Banega, 88’), Domínguez, Pablo Hernández; Vicente & Zigic.

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Ezequiel Luna, Héctor, Pablo Sicilia, Culebras; Ricardo (Dinei, 74’), Mikel Alonso, Román Martínez, Juanlu Hens (Omar Ramos, 60’); Alfaro (Ángel, 85’) & Nino.

REFEREE
Velasco Carballo, from Madrid. Yellow card for local player Zigic; and for visitor Juanlu Hens.

GOAL
1-0: (91’) Alexis.

INCIDENTS
Played in the Mestalla stadium. Ground was in good condition. Warm afternoon. Before the start of play there was a display for player  Rubén Baraja, who played for the last time for Valencia CF after 10 years with the team..

On tenterhooks

I am sure the first thing you do in the morning is not supposed to be check the AENA flight website. This was my first action today and I expect it will be tomorrow. I need to get to Valencia. If I do my part and am there to support the side. I am sure the team will do theirs and play the best they can.
Other subjects of conversation can be heard on the Island this week but eventually the subject comes back to whether the listener thinks CD Tenerife can save themselves. It will not be easy but after watching them against Barcelona 11 days ago I am sure they can.
The players train again tomorrow morning and then trainer Jose Luis Oltra will announce the players who will be playing. The team then departs for Valencia on a direct flight from the south at 16.10

The Frente Blanquiazul the animation sector of the fans have called for the island to be covered in blue and white for the game. That all buildings, balconies, plazas etc. should be covered in flags, shirts, with cloth and ribbons. This way the islanders can support the team


The two players interviewed today were Pablo sicilia and Ricardo Leon .
Ricardo started commenting on the 1000 plus fans who were going to Valencia on Sunday to support them in Mestalla, "You have to thanks the fans. There is a whole island behind the team. An island who feels the colours and  who we should make happy at the end of this final day." He continued, "We are preparing for a game that is to us very important. It will be a final against a great rival," added the midfielder. "We need to think how to work hard in our intent to beat Valencia. Our intensity will need to be the maximum possible. Most importantly we need to forget everything that is not this game. We need to go out to win, knowing that we play for everything."
He finished, "We need this victory to stay in the first division. We will do our part and not watch the other teams. We need to be calm and up to the game day train as hard as we can."

For his part, Pablo Sicilia started explaining that "the game on Sunday is a final and we need to win what ever happens elsewhere. We know that the fans want to see the team spend another year in Primera. Valencia will try for the three points. No player will go out onto the field thinking about their holidays or something like that. If we manage to save ourselves, I am convinced it will be because we played well enough to deserve it.”
He added, "We will go out and give our all, with a great attitude. Everyone benefits from being in the BBVA League and we need to achieve this for the club, the fans and the team."

Training started for the game against Valencia.

The team trained for 80 minutes this morning in the Mundialito training grounds. The trainer José Luis Oltra, talked to the players for a few minutes before they started. This week there is training for the game in Mestalla against Valencia on Sunday.
They warmed up running a few rounds of the field and then did exercises with possession and circulation of the ball. At this point the players were divided into 2 groups. For those who played last Saturday there was recuperation and game in half a football pitch for those reserves who hadn't played. Kome was not involved and worked on his own with Adrián Gutiérrez.
Tomorrow the players have a day off and then training starts again on Wednesday in the Mundialito grounds.

The club gave thanks again to the fans who have attended games both on Saturday and this season generally. There has been an average attendance of over 19,000 fans.
The club is trying to organise trips to Valencia so fans can go to the last game.

CD Tenerife only seems to need 1 point.

With one round to go CD Tenerife still has a chance to save themselves. Someone in the club has worked out all the permutations for the last round and you can see them here.
The code is descenso - relegation and permanencia - staying in Primera. The teams are in order Va -Valencia Tf - CD Tenerife, Ra - Racing, Sp -Sporting, M -Malaga, RM - Real Madrid, Ba - Barcelona, Va - Valladoild. The scores are 1 - home win, X - draw  and 2 - away win.
The final goal last night and the point from the draw gave us more chance to save ourselves at the weekend. Malaga and Valladolid have hard games against the leaders who are still very much playing for the title. We can just hope that we can find a draw.

CD Tenerife 2 - Almeria 2 Game notes

Not suitable for fans with heart conditions should have been the notice on the gates as the fans entered. This was a game CD Tenerife really needed to win and the players really tried their best. In the first minute Roman had a shot on goal which was saved by Diego Alves. Not for nothing is this man rumoured to be going to Real Madrid as their second keeper. Shot after shot CD Tenerife aimed at the goal and Alves saved nearly everything. Only in the 14th minute and the last minute of extra time did CD Tenerife manage to score. A draw leaves them with hope to go to Valencia next weekend. A Valencia who have nothing to play for and lost last night 2-0 to Vallareal who had 2 men less on the field. Although it will not be easy CD Tenerife has the chance to save themselves. The really sad thing is the yellow cards mean neither Marc nor Ayoze can play. Alfaro had his last game in front of the home crowd as he and Dinei are due to return to their own teams.


CD TENERIFE 2 (1)
UD ALMERÍA 2 (1)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Bertrán, Culebras (Ángel, 86’), Pablo Sicilia, Héctor; Ricardo, Román Martínez; Juanlu Hens (Dinei, 60’), Alfaro (Omar Ramos, 86’), Ayoze & Nino.
TRAINER: José Luis Oltra

UD ALMERÍA
Diego Alves; Ortiz, Chico, Acasiete, Cisma; Bernardillo, Mbami; Corona (Borzani, 91’), Soriano (Vargas, 86’), Crusat (David Rodríguez, 86’) & Piatti.
TRAINER: Juan Manuel Lillo

REFEREE
Miguel Ángel Pérez Lasa, from the Basque region. Yellow cards for local players, Ayoze (19’) & Marc Bertrán (38’), also for visitors, Crusat (24’) y Corona (49’).

GOALS
1-0: (14’) Marc Bertrán, from in fornt of the goal, with his left foot, surprising Diego Alves. 1-1: (17’) Piatti made the most of a linsmans error, when he was in clear offside, to cross the ball in front of Sergio Aragoneses. 1-2: (80’) Crusat made the most of a defensive error to score in the empty goal. 2-2: (93’) Nino, from the floor, pushing in a shot by Dinei.

INCIDENTS
Thirty seventh round of the Liga BBVA in Primera División. Played in the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 20.810 spectators. CD Tenerife invited the female volley ball team Jamper Aguere to be at the game, to reconise their title as winners of the femal Superleague, but because of time constraints for the last two rounds, they were unable to come onto the ground.

Wanted - 12th man.

Without a doubt if the 12th man was needed in the stadium for a game it would be for tomorrows. CD Tenerife fans have stepped up to the plate. Whilst other teams are selling off tickets cheap to fill their stadiums, CD Tenerife is almost sold out for tomorrows game against Almeria at full price. This morning at 1pm there were only a few seats left in Tribuna with all the other stands full.

 Fans queueing yesterday morning







Ayoze, a home grown player has announced that they will play like this is the last game in their lives. And some would say we should expect this.What I see is a team who have worked hard to the best of their abilities and have played the very best they can. That their best has not always been as good as the fans would have liked is another thing but the team will I am sure leave nothing in the changing room and come out to show the fans we can be proud of them.

Ricardo Melchior president of the Western Canary Isles,  the Cabildo de Tenerife, stated yesterday, It is important for the island to have a first division team and we should all support them. The players coaches and management are all doing their part. This Saturday we play against Almeria and we need the three points. If we can gain the points we have a good chance to stay in Premier the first division in Spain." He continued, " I am convinced that the players will have the unconditional support of the fans in the games that are left this season. Last year the fans were an important factor in the teams ascending form the second division and we should all help them to remain where they are. This has a worldwide repercussion on the island as Spain's league is probably the most important in the world because of the quality of its teams and players. For Tenerife and the Tenerifians whether they are football fans or not it is important for the world to know where we are and First division Spanish football is a great promotion vehicle".

There is again a call for the fans to greet the team tomorrow afternoon. They will be arriving at 18.15 of the Tribuna side of the stadium. The club has asked the fans who have CREEMOS shirts to wear them. They will also be selling the shirts at the symbolic price of 1 euro at the same time. The back of these shirts have the 13 seasons that CD Tenerife have spent in the Spanish first division.

Trainer Jose Luis Oltra has named the following players for tomorrows game: Sergio Aragoneses, Luis García, Marc Bertrán, Culebras, Manolo Martínez, Héctor, Pablo Sicilia, Mikel Alonso, Ricardo, Román, Richi, Juanlu, Ayoze, Alfaro, Nino, Dinei, Omar & Ángel. In his interview today he commented that "every week the game is more important. If we win against Almeria we will have moved a giant step towards salvation. We know our rival will give us nothing and we will need to play our best but always wisely".

Following this theme he continued "We need to gain a victory at the end of the 90 minutes. In my mind are the six points that are left for us and I think we can achieve them. Right now we need to beat Almeria. We can play in one field and our rivals will do what they can. Knowing their trainer they will play a style like Barcelona. They have great style, are technically strong and although they are virtually saved things could be difficult". He then followed this by saying, "lets see if we are in a good position when we get to Valencia and only need to depend on ourselves. We need to apply pressure in the games and our rivals need to realise right from the start that if they want to make a point here they will need to fight."
When asked about the players he said "If there is something this group has it is how to live in difficult times. What the team has shown me is their commitment, sense of responsibility, their desire to win, their union as a group and their strength"
He commented that the fans were spectacular. That they had supported the team continually and that he hoped that at the end the fans would be proud of the team. That together the team and the fans had lived through many dark days and now they deserved to win.

FC Barcelona 4 CD Tenerife 1 Game notes

The team can come home with their head held high. For 60 minutes they held Barcelona at bay and a draw looked possible. No one can say we gifted this league to Barcelona. The players gave their all for the 90 minutes they played. There just came a time where tiredness hit and Barcelona showed why they really are a world class team.
Tuesdays games mean Valencia will be qualified into third position if Mallorca lose tonight leaving them nothing to play for. Almeria's win means they are in principal safe hopefully meaning they will not play so hard on Saturday. And the Getafe - Sporting draw at least leaves Sporting in our sights.
Tonight we need Real Madrid Atletico Sevilla and Atletic to win to keep all our options open.


GAME NOTES

FC BARCELONA 4 (1)
CD TENERIFE 1 (1)

FC BARCELONA
Víctor Valdés; Alves, Maxwell, Puyol, Piqué (Pedro, 46’); Xavi, Keita, T.Yaya, Messi; Bojan (Henry, 80’) & Ibrahimovic (Busquets, 65’).

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Luna, Héctor, Pablo Sicilia, Culebras; Manolo, Román (Omar, 72’), Juanlu, Mikel Alonso, Kome (Nino, 60’); & Alfaro (Ángel, 84’).

REFEREE
Delgado Ferreiro, from the Basque region. Yellow cards for visitors Pablo Sicilia, Alfaro & Héctor.

GOALS
1-0: (16’) Messi, from a pass by Ibrahimovic. 1-1: (39’) Román, from a pass by Kome. 2-1: (62’) Bojan, after a play by Alves. 3-1: (76‘) Pedro, with a centre from Messi. 4-1: (92’) Messi, on his own.

INCIDENTS
Played in the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. Rainy night. The grass was in good condition. There were 40.000 spectators including approximately 300 from CD Tenerife.

Tenerife B

I was looking at how relegation works in Segunda B as with one round to go the B team are at present in relegation. The four teams at the bottom are relegated and then the next team in 16th position has to play play offs.
Tenerife B lost at the weekend against Cacereño 4-0. We play Sporting B for the last round of the league and need to win and that all the other teams around us lose.

CD Tenerife 2- Racing de Santander 1 Game notes

This was one of those games to remember. It was vital for the team to win and they did. They were convincing and played well together as a group. After a mistake early on Hector played the game of his life. Roman managed to score again and more fans around me took back what they had said about him earlier in the season. He obviously needs a lot of time to adapt to a team as it took him half a season to adapt to Espanyol last year.
Monday is training and from there the coach will decide who is going straight on to Barcelona. A point from the Catalans would be great but as they are in their own battle for the league title I won't hold my breath. The game is on Tuesday at 7pm and I hope all those going especially those from Armada Sur have a great time.


GAME NOTES

CD TENERIFE 2 (1)
REAL RACING SANTANDER 1 (0)

CD TENERIFE
Sergio Aragoneses; Marc Beltrán, Culebras, Pablo Sicilia, Héctor; Ricardo (Manolo Martínez, 86’), Román Martínez; Juanlu Hens (Kome, 79’), Alfaro, Ayoze (Mikel Alonso, 70’) & Nino.

REAL RACING DE SANTANDER
Coltorti; Pinillos, Oriol, Torrejón, Chistian; Colsa, Lacen (Edu Bedia, 74’); Arana, Canales (Bolado, 54’), Toni del Moral & Tchité (Xisco, 61’).

REFEREE
Antonio Rubinos Pérez, from Madrid. Yellow cards for visitors Coltorti (55’), Xisco (62’), Oriol (89’) & Bolado (91’)

GOALS
1-0: (45+1) Román Martínez header from a foul played by Ricardo, the ball touched the post and shot in the net. 2-0: (56’) Ayoze transformed a penalty by Coltorti on Alfaro. 2-1: (71’) Xisco made the best of a defensive error and scored against Sergio Aragoneses.

INCIDENTS
Thirty fifth round of the Liga BBVA in the first division. Played in the Heliodoro Rodríguez López stadium in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, with 18.946 spectators present. One minutes silence was held for the death of Antonio Llanos, a CD Tenerife player between 1942 y 1947, and because of this the CD Tenerife players wore black armbands.

Another final

Here we are on game day with a desparate need for a win against Racing de Santander. The players chosen by trainer Jose Luis Oltra are Sergio Aragoneses, Luis García, Marc Bertrán, Culebras, Manolo Martínez, Héctor, Pablo Sicilia, Mikel Alonso, Ricardo, Román, Richi, Juanlu, Kome, Ayoze, Alfaro, Nino, Omar & Ángel. Training for the week is done and all we can hope is that everything goes well.

There have been rumors this week that the players have been promised 20,000 euros per point if the team manage to save themselves. There has been outrage about if this was what they were offered at the start of the season I don't care. The club has to know what it is worth to them to stay up and if this is what it takes then so be it.

What is certain is that the fans are really important today and should put aside what ever they feel to give their all to the team today and next weekend against Almeria.