Is Cartagena For Real?

OK... Admittedly I've been slack about updating this blog. Stuff happens when you have a one year old daughter, ya know?

So on to the futbol. Without question, the big story so far this season is the surprising good play of FC Cartagena who are newcomers to El Infierno. The club is relatively new being founded in 1995 and has never spent a season above Segunda B until this year. Expectations were modest coming into the season and any Cartagena fan would have been happy with simply surviving its first year in the Segunda.

Well, apparently the players didn't get the message. Turns out that the squad decided to pick up 10 points in their first four matches thus making them lider.It is mainly a domestic squad with the exception of a Panamanian and a Frenchman. Upon further inspection of the roster, you can see why the club does generally well as there are quality players with experience at even some of the biggest clubs in Europe.

It starts with goalkeeper Ruben who rose through the youth ranks at Barcelona and even managed to snap a couple appearances back when Ronaldinho was running rampant for the Blaugrana. Unfortunately for Ruben, Victor Valdes and Albert Jorquera were firmly entrenched ahead of him so he elected to head south along the coast towards Murcia and has been with Cartagena since last season.

The aforementioned Frenchman is Pascal Cygnan who came in from Villarreal and also spent four years at Arsenal, including playing a role in Arsenal's legendary "Invincibles" squad which went unbeaten in the EPL. Before that, it was eight years at Lille. He might be 35 but this guy knows how to play and was a wise 'fichaje'.

There's another graybeard who plays up front, Victor, who is also 35 and has nine years at Valladolid and four years at Villarreal under his belt. The man has scored nearly 150 goals in all competitions and serves a perfect complement to his partner in crime, Enrique de Lucas.

Lucas also has a European portfolio after spending time with PSG in France and then one season at Chelsea under Jose Mourinho. He is native Catalan but don't ever expect to see Lucas at Camp Nou cheering on the reigning Europeam champs. Lucas is a 'Perico' through and through after getting his start at Espanyol.

So there you have it, a very nice blend of hungry young players combined with players who may be on the wrong side of 30 but are still very apt and very skilled to teach the other teams in El Infierno a thing or two about class futbol.

This weekend they get their biggest test when they travel to Sevilla to play Betis who still pretty pissed about not being in the Primera.
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I decided that in order to make things more interesting, instead of just listing last week's scores, I'll be giving my predictions of this week's upcoming matches in true 'Quiniela' fashion.

R. Sociedad - Huesca 1
Gimnástic - Numancia X
Murcia - Salamanca X
Las Palmas - Levante 1
Elche - Córdoba 2
Celta - Hércules 1
Cádiz - Recreativo 2
Villarreal B - Albacete X
Betis - Cartagena 1
Castellón - Rayo 2
Girona - Real Unión 1


Clasificacion:

1. Cartagena - 10
2. Betis - 9
3. Recreativo - 9
4. Las Palmas - 8
5. Numancia - 7
6. Rayo - 7
7. Gimnástic - 7
8. Hércules - 7
9. Córdoba - 7
10. Levante - 6
11. R. Sociedad - 6
12. Albacete - 6
13. Huesca -5
14. Salamanca - 5
15. Villarreal B - 4
16. Girona - 3
17. Murcia - 3
18. Celta - 2
19. Cádiz - 2
20. Real Unión - 1
21. Castellón - 1
22. Elche - 1

Back and Back Big!

Now you really didn't think I was going to forget that my beloved El Infierno had started back up, did you?

As is custom, the Spanish gratiously allowed the rest of Europe to start their futbol season prior to their own kickoff. We are all aware of the headlines made by Real Madrid over the summer with their infusion of Galacticos 2.0, but largely unnoticed was what transpired over the summer in the Segunda Division in what in my opinion was the biggest news piece.

Esteban Vigo. Remember that guy? We talked about him alot last season. He was the Xerez coach who got Confederation Cup hero Jozy Altidore in a midseason loan from Villarreal but elected to never play Jozy, hell, that's doing it justioce. Esteban only called his name once to sit on the bench and then Jozy never even saw a minute of action in that 3-0 blowout over Hercules.

Well, it was hard to be critical at that time seeing that Xerez rode the brilliant coaching of Vigo all the way to their first ever appearance in the Primera Division where they will get smacked around all year long by their older and stronger opponents.

But in a rare move, Esteban said, "Thank, but I'm pretty comfy here in El Infierno, so good luck playing Barca next year and I'll just head east to Alicante to coach Hercules."

So there you have it. The best coach in the Liga Adelante was so taken with the second level of Spanish futbol that when he was given the once and a lifetime chance to coach a Primera Division side, he turned it down and decided to go coach another team in El Infierno. In a way, I admire his spirit.

That said, I hold a grudge against the guy for keeping Jozy on the bench, but I cannot dispute his ability to coach up a team so here I am on September 4th telling you that Hercules will return to the Primera Division for the 2010-2011 La Liga season. In the meantime, let's enjoy the games, shall we?

Jornada 1 - Resultados

Celta - Numancia 1-2
Cádiz - Salamanca 0-1
Villarreal B - Levante 2-2
Betis - Córdoba 3-0
Castellón - Hércules 0-0
Real Unión - Recreativo 0-1
Rayo - Albacete 3-0
Girona - Cartagena 0-1
Murcia - Gimnástic 0-1
Las Palmas - R. Sociedad 1-1
Elche - Huesca 0-2

Clasificacion

1. Betis - 3
2. Rayo - 3
3. Huesca - 3
4. Numancia - 3
5. Cartagena - 3
6. Gimnástic - 3
7. Recreativo - 3
8. Salamanca - 3
9. Levante - 1
10. Villarreal B - 1
11. Las Palmas - 1
12. R. Sociedad - 1
13. Castellón - 1
14. Hércules - 1
15. Celta - 0
16. Cádiz - 0
17. Girona - 0
18. Murcia - 0
19. Real Unión - 0
20. Elche - 0
21 Albacete - 0
22 Córdoba - 0