A trip to south-eastern Spain in 2019 saw me squeeze in three football matches over a couple of days in Murcia and Alicante.
Elche v Real Oviedo
Promotion-chasing Real Oviedo move into the Segunda division play-offs with a helping hand from Elche.
After a day spent wandering around the remains of the Roman theatre in Cartagena and then admiring Elche’s date palm orchards – a Unesco world heritage site, no less – from the top of a cathedral, in the evening it’s time to pay a visit to the Estadio Martinez Valero.
Elche won this division in 2013 when they returned to La Liga for the first time in almost 25 years. However, the club was demoted two years later due to unpaid taxes and then dropped into Segunda B, the third level, two years after that. Victory against Villarreal B in last summer’s play-offs saw Los Franjiverdes return to the second tier but they’re looking over their shoulder at the relegation zone this season rather than thinking about another promotion.
The recent history of Real Oviedo is even more eventful. Relegation from La Liga in 2001 ended a 13-year spell in the top division and severe financial strife accelerated their drop all the way to Spain’s fourth-level Tercera just two years later. Having spent only one season outside the top two divisions in their history before that, it was a painful fall from grace. Even after escaping the Tercera for the second time in 2009, the club remained very close to going out of business over the next few years.
The Estadio Martinez Valero has been Elche’s home since 1976 and was the venue for Hungary’s 10-1 win against El Salvador at the 1982 World Cup.
Things look much rosier for the team from Asturias now. Since returning to the second division in 2015 Los Azules have made steady progress, finishing ninth, eighth and seventh in the last three seasons. What’s more, in 2012 Carlos Slim – then the richest man in the world – bought a controlling stake in the club. The telecom billionaire’s €2m investment came as part of the share issue that brought Oviedo’s plight to wider attention and ultimately saved them from extinction, with players and supporters around the world also contributing.
With four wins from five games since the Christmas break, Oviedo can move into the play-offs with another three points this evening. They have a couple of names in their starting eleven that I’m familiar with from my previous life as a La Liga analyst for Football Radar. Carlos Martinez, once of Real Sociedad, is at wing-back and still sporting the rock star hair he had during his forays up the right flank in San Sebastian. Oviedo’s midfield also features Sergio Tejera, once of Chelsea’s youth team but who I know best from his time at Mallorca.
The first half ends goalless but, as the last of the sunlight fades in Alicante and the floodlights come on, the game comes to life just after the break when Oviedo open the scoring. Saul Berjon’s clever chipped pass unlocks Elche’s defence and, though replays will show Joselu latched on to the ball from an offside position, the striker beats Edgar Badia low to the keeper’s right and the goal stands. The stadium might only be about one-third full but the sound of 10,000 people whistling their disapproval is still very loud.
Aggrieved by that misfortune, Elche enjoy some luck of their own when they equalise after 70 minutes. The mercurial Nino – who I watched regularly when he was Osasuna’s playmaker – runs into a pocket of space and drives in a shot, which hits Hernandez and loops over the stranded Nereo Champagne. Not a vintage goal, you could say, but Elche certainly don’t mind that.
Though the momentum stays with the home side for a little while longer after the goal, it seems like both teams are happy with a point as we enter added time. Then Oviedo earn a corner. Ibrahima Balde, another ex-Osasuna forward, rises highest and glances a header off the bar. When the ball rebounds to one of Elche’s defenders, he deflects it with his hand leaving the referee with an easy decision. With a penalty to win the game, Toche accepts the responsibility and scores the golden goal for Oviedo to the screaming delight of their coaching staff and travelling fans.
UCAM Murcia v Recreativo Huelva
A bizarre own goal sets Spain’s oldest club on their way to a resounding win against UCAM Murcia in Segunda B.
Along with the fine art and architecture that Spain has produced, the tradition of having cake for breakfast is one of the country’s greatest gifts to the world. An enormous almond pastry, washed down with a cafe solo, is the ideal preparation for UCAM Murcia’s match against fellow promotion contenders Recreativo Huelva in a midday kick-off.
Today’s venue, Estadio de la Condomina, was the home of Real Murcia from 1924 until 2006 when Los Pimentoneros (literally, the ‘paprika-men’) moved to a shiny new stadium on the outskirts of the city. Another local team, Cuidad de Murcia, had been playing at La Condomina too after a swift rise from the fifth division, joining Real Murcia in the Segunda. However, the club relocated to Granada in 2007 at the behest of a new owner and they were dissolved two years later. La Condomina fell largely into disuse until 2014 when UCAM moved in.
UCAM Murcia funded improvements to the Estadio de la Condomina on promotion to Segunda B in 2016, 10 years after city rivals Real Murcia left the ground for a new stadium.
UCAM – short for Universidad Catolica de Murcia – trace their short history back to 1999. After a couple of relocations and name changes they enjoyed two promotions at the start of this decade, the second in 2016 seeing them beat Real Murcia to the title in group 4 of Segunda B. La Condomina enjoyed some renovation work upon UCAM’s elevation to the second tier, which lasted one season, but it’s evidently a work in progress with only the bottom half of the main grandstand and a small end behind one goal open to supporters this lunchtime.
Recreativo Huelva are Spain’s oldest football club, formed in 1889 by two British miners working in Andalusia. In December 2006, a few months after being promoted to La Liga for only the second time since the 1970s, Recre beat a Real Madrid side including David Beckham and Ronaldo 3-0 at the Bernabeu. Their most recent spell in the top division ended in 2009 and it’s been a difficult few years since. In 2015 Recre dipped down to Segunda B after almost 20 years in the top two divisions and have been battling serious financial problems lately.
Both UCAM and Recreativo are near the top of the table but form favours the visitors. Recre’s five wins out of six, including a 2-0 win at home to Real Murcia last weekend, contrast with a draw and a defeat in UCAM’s last two outings. The opening goal has nothing to do with form though. With scarcely 10 minutes played, UCAM’s Cristian Britos collects a short pass from goalkeeper German Parreno and is closed down quickly by Recre’s forwards. Britos opts to return the ball but hits it a bit too hard, in the opposite direction to his keeper’s movement, so the midfielder succeeds only in stroking the ball into his own net. If the players are surprised by this turn of events, so is everybody watching.
Pouncing on this knock to their hosts’ confidence, Recre score twice more in the next 15 minutes. Israel Puerto nods in a free-kick floated in from the right wing, then Caye Quintana rolls in the third following a fast break. The small band of Recre supporters near us – as ever, segregation in Spain is rarely a concern – are euphoric. UCAM have to change something and so manager Pedro Munitis makes an early substitution, but it’s Recre who almost score again when a free-kick gives UCAM’s keeper a chance to make a morale boosting save. The final strike of the half does come at the other end though a minute or so later, Luis Fernandez’s penalty giving the home side a little hope to hang onto.
Like my bottle of Coke at the break, UCAM come out fizzing for the second period and almost reduce the deficit further when a deflected shot hits the bar. Their energetic start to the half falls flat, however, with Fernando Llorene (not that one) scoring a fourth goal on 54 minutes after good work by Recreativo’s right-back. UCAM keep coming forward but the feeling this just isn’t their day increases when the lively Isi Ros hits a post. Recre see off any lingering thoughts of a comeback among the home crowd with a quarter of an hour left, substitute Alberto Quiles getting in on the action to complete a 5-1 rout.
Deportiva Minera v Aguilas
A wise head in defence and some mildly intimidating teenagers help Deportiva Minera to a narrow win against Aguilas and three valuable points in the Tercera.
A sign outside Deportiva Minera’s ground advertises today’s ticket prices. The regular price is €8, while for the retired and mujeres it’s €5. British football clubs are unlikely to ever adopt a policy of treating all female fans as a concession in order to attract more women through the turnstiles, but it’s no doubt a well-intentioned policy.
Once inside I make a beeline for the small bar and order another cafe solo. The ground is modest but high concrete steps along one length of the pitch and behind the far goal offer good views of the artificial pitch. The surrounding hills provide an impressive backdrop, if you can ignore the warehouse plonked behind the dugouts on the opposite side.
Deportiva Minera are based in a mining area about 15 miles to the east of Cartagena. The club was formed in 1949 and represents the small communities of Estrecho de San Gines, Llano del Beal and Beal. They’re competing in the Tercera (this is group 13 of 20 in Spain’s fourth tier) for the ninth consecutive season, which is quite an achievement since their last spell at this level came in the 1950s and lasted just two years.
The visitors, Aguilas FC, hail from a seaport about 60 miles along the coast close to Murcia’s border with Andalusia. They came close to reaching the second division in 2006 before financial problems in 2010 forced the club to fold and reform in the fifth tier. They are higher in the table than Minera going into this game and currently lie just outside the play-off places. Their home, El Rubial, opened in 1913 and is the oldest ground in Spain after Sporting Gijon’s El Molinon.
The first half passes by without a huge amount of goalmouth action. Aguilas put the ball in the net after about half an hour but the linesman’s flag rules out the goal. Marshalling the home team’s defence is 42-year-old centre-back Fernando Colina Cruz, his positional sense helping him to shackle opponents half his age.
The home fans leave happy as the sun sets over Murcia.
Things remain tight after the break and I start to fear for my record of not witnessing a goalless draw since a stalemate between Fisher FC and Rochester United in August 2016. Some teenagers near us create their own fun by goading the Aguilas keeper, Javi Soto, who objects to whatever words have been said and gives a little bit back. After 68 minutes though there’s a breakthrough: Minera’s Adrian Hernandez Garcia, known as Rivo to his teammates, collects a long ball in the box and holds off a defender’s challenge to poke the ball past the onrushing keeper.
Minera dig in for the closing stages and try to break up the flow of the game as much as possible, something that the match report on Aguilas’ website laments is all too common a tactic in the Tercera. When the referee calls time the local supporters are jubilant at a hard-won victory that gives their team more of a cushion above the bottom three. The fans wait to congratulate the players as they cross the narrow threshold between the pitch and the dressing rooms, where enthusiastic celebrations continue inside.
