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