Sunday, October 13, 2024

State of the Unión

The town of La Unión in the Spanish region of Murcia is just three miles up the road from Llano del Beal, the home of football club Deportiva Minera who I went to watch last week (see Loopy Linares Rides Again). It is an earthy town with a strong mining heritage but now perhaps better known for its annual international festival Cante de las Minas (songs of the mines) celebrating flamenco gypsy culture. Perhaps unusually for a town of its size - population around 21,000 - it does not appear to have any sort of football heritage.

Seventy miles away, Caravaca CF was founded in 1969 but went bust in 2011. Its place in the Spanish football pyramid was bought out and the new club moved the seventy miles to La Unión and renamed CF La Unión. Fans of Caravaca CF were none too pleased with this development and complained to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RSFF). The new club played one season of football before being doubly relegated by the RSFF for non-payment of of players wages and the club subsequently folded.

Torre Pacheco Fútbol Club Pinatar was founded in 2010, taking the place of CD Dolores Torre Pacheco in the pyramid, basing itself in nearby San Pedro de Pinatar. In 2018 in an attempt to consolidate the future of the club it moved twenty miles down the road to La Unión and renamed FC La Unión Atletíco. Six years later and it is still going strong. The club achieved promotion to the Segunda Federación in 2023 and now competes in Group 4 alongside near-neighbour Deportiva Minera

The surrounding hillsides leave no one
in any doubt as to the town's mining heritage.
The club plays its games at the municipal sports centre with an artificial pitch around which there is a running track and beyond various practice pitches, tennis courts, padel courts, a bar, kiddies playground area, huge administrative(?) building, basketball pitch, changing rooms, sliding doors and a cuddly toy. Okay, the last two don't feature but older readers will know where I'm coming from.

Today, FC La Unión Atletíco were at home to San Fernando Club Deportivo Isleño from the town of San Fernando in Cádiz, a mere three hundred and ninety miles away. This was gameweek 7 and both clubs had enjoyed reasonable starts to the season with nine points and eight points garnered respectively. Admission to the ground was €15 and the bar provided me with a typical Spanish breakfast of tostado con tomate and a small beer at a cost of €1.80. Well, it was an 11.30 a.m. kick-off.

Despite the distances involved, there was a fair little smattering of San Fernando supporters in the modest crowd of, I would hazard a guess, around two hundred and fifty. Judging by the high pitched vocals of the occasional chanting from the away fans, it may be that many were wives, girlfriends and children of the away team players. All credit to them anyway in making the long journey in support of their team, husbands, boyfriends and fathers.

Yesterday I attended a La Liga 2 fixture between FC Cartagena and Racing Ferrol, notable only for the fact that both teams deserved to lose. Today was better, not fantastically so, but at least I didn't have to wait until the 90th minute before anything of any note happened. Today's match was fairly even throughout with not too many chances created although lots of endeavour, lots of misplaced passes and some welcome hoof-ball from time to time. 

The La Unión drummer keeps a respectful distance from
the rest of the crowd. An ambulance is kept close by for
protection from cardiac strain or irate fellow supporter.

Of considerably lower pitch than that of the away support vocals was that of the lone La Unión drummer who appeared to be drumming solely for his own pleasure and with no discernible rhythm, beat or call to arms. Helpfully though, he positioned himself as far away as possible from anyone else in the ground so as to lessen the impact of his efforts. Whether or not the ambulance behind him was there for his protection, be it from cardiac strain or irate fellow supporter, remained happily un-tested.    

La Unión were the more dangerous team in the second half with no.14 Karim El Kounni particularly catching the eye on the left hand side as the home team began to present an attacking threat. However, San Fernando were awarded a penalty in the 70th minute for a dubious hand ball but La Unión keeper Jose Salcedo dived low to his left to make the save. Seven minutes later, it was La Unión's turn following a clear foul in the box by San Fernando keeper Ángel de la Calzada. 

Can you hear the drums Fernando

Substitute Javi Pedroza, on the pitch for only twelve minutes, stepped up to score the only goal of the game.

As with all football clubs at whatever level, there is no doubt that FC La Unión Atletíco will have their share of players, officials and volunteers all working hard for the betterment of the club and this is one of the things I love about football. But despite the fact that they play in blue and white stripes, I think I would have to work very hard to develop real affection for this club. It has set down roots in La Unión but it is yet to become La Unión.

Next week, the club faces local rival Deportiva Minera in Llano del Beal. I am not sure if I will be able to attend but - and it pains me to say this - I may be wearing red if I do go. However, between them, FC La Unión Atletíco and San Fernando Club Deportivo Isleño served up some passable football fayre today so let's hope that both clubs go on to have successful seasons.


Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Around The World in 90 Minutes - searching for the meaning of football

In an age where football seems now to be the plaything of billionaires, suits and the prawn sandwich brigade, has the beautiful game finally lost its soul or could it be that rumours of its demise have been greatly exaggerated?

If you know your football then you will undoubtedly have heard of Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, the Brazilian footballer better known, simply, as Neymar. You almost certainly haven't heard of Jaime Escalante. But maybe you should do.

Nick Thomson is on an international quest to discover the true meaning of football, one mispronounced team at a time. If you like your football - and I mean your real football - then check out the links below to Nick's new podcast series Around The World in 90 Minutes.

Apple: Around The World in 90 Minutes

Spotify: Around The World in 90 Minutes


 

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Loopy Linares Rides Again

 

About a lifetime ago I worked for a bank in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar which, for those who don't know, is located pretty much at the southernmost tip of Spain. One of our clients went by the name of Mr Linares and he was a bit of a nutter, so much so that he was known among the staff as "Loopy Linares". One day, said client came into the banking hall and presented himself to the receptionist saying that he wanted to speak to someone about his account. The receptionist phoned upstairs, speaking to my colleague Joe, to pass on his request. "Is it Loopy Linares?" Joe asked. "Just a minute" the receptionist answered, I'll ask him". 

Nooooooooooooo! Too late. Fortunately, Loopy lived up to his name and, oblivious to this sleight, was ushered upstairs presumably content in the knowledge that he would spend the next thirty minutes or so wasting someone's time.

The Spanish football pyramid is a bit loopy as well. Tiers 1 and 2 are not dissimilar to the English Premier League and Championship with La Liga (20 teams) and La Liga 2 (22 teams). However, Tier 3 (equivalent to our League 1) consists two divisions of 20 teams each and Tier 4 (i.e. our League 2) is made up of five divisions of 18 teams each. The Spanish Tier 5 (Tercera Federación) consists eighteen divisions of 18 teams each. That's a lot of football clubs, 496 to be exact, but there again Spain is a big country.

To the best of my knowledge, our old friend Loopy had nothing to do with the city of Linares, in southern Spain, which has a population in excess of 56,000 and a football team called Linares Deportivo. Indeed, the city has had a football team in various guises since 1909 although its latest incarnation has been in existence only since 2009 as a replacement for a dissolved predecessor. Since its rebirth, the club has largely bounced between Tiers 3 and 4 but now finds itself back in Tier 4 following relegation last year. However, a good start to the new season saw the club in second place in Segunda Federación Group 4 ahead of their trip to Club Deportiva Minera for Gameweek 6.


The main (only) entrance to Estadio Municipal
Angel Celdran
, home to Club Deportiva Minera.

There is no reason at all why Loopy would have had any connection with the town of Llano del Beal, which is home to 
Club Deportiva Minera - founded in 1927 - but I think he would have liked it. Established in the late 1800's to house workers in a lead mining industry now long since gone, the town has a proud history of standing up for its rights and resisting the demands and harsh working conditions of the mine owners. Based in the region of Murcia, it has a population around 55,000 fewer than Linares but football is not about the size of the dog in the fight, rather the size of the fight in the dog and the town has plenty of that as does its football team. Minera's promotion last year as champions of Tercera Federación Group 13 saw them welcome Linares for the first home game at their refurbished Estadio Municipal Angel Celdrán, having played the first two home games of the season in the nearby city of Cartagena.

As the name suggests the stadium is a municipal facility, owned by the city council who have committed to spend around €150,000, primarily on the installation of a new artificial pitch (now installed) plus improvements to the stadium lighting, changing rooms and toilet facilities. Stadium capacity is said to be 2,000 although the enthusiastic crowd which greeted the players was substantially less than that figure, perhaps around the 300 mark (?).

Local man José Blaya, from nearby Los Nietos, is the Minera chairman who has brought new ambition and success to the club in his two year tenure. Indeed, the Águilas Rojas (Red Eagles) were runaway champions of Group 13 last season finishing ten points ahead of their nearest rivals. Los Nietos is home to a small(ish) expat community, many of whom love their football, and it was with eight of whom - the "Los Nietos Massive" - I met at the game for my first taste of Spanish Tier 4 football.

José is clearly appreciative of this international support group for his club. For our €15 entrance fee, we were treated to reserved seats, complementary beer delivered to us at half time by the chairman's lovely wife plus a complementary cool-down shower courtesy of the pitch-side sprinklers. This was all very welcome bearing in mind the early October, midday kick-off with a temperature in the mid to high twenties. 

The sprinklers proved to be very welcome, as did the 
complementary beers courtesy of the club chairman.



The Segunda Federación Group 4 covers a huge geographical area encompassing the whole of southern Spain and running nearly four hundred miles from east to west. For Minera, this has led to a complete revamp of the promotion winning squad with only two players remaining from last season, due primarily to imbalance between individual work commitments and travel commitments for the new season. In fact, Minera started the new season with the furthest away game of the season, winning 2-0 away to Cadiz CF (B team), involving a round trip of some seven hundred and eighty miles. By comparison, Linares faced only a modest four hundred miles round trip for today's match. Unsurprisingly, there weren't many away supporters.

Minera's opening five matches had seen them win twice, draw twice and lose once so a pretty steady start to life in Tier 4, suggesting that the new playing squad had adapted quickly to their new challenge. And after today's scrappy 1-0 victory against Linares, they have moved up to fifth in the table (play-off positions) only one point behind today's opponents who remain in second place, level on points with table-topping Xerez CD.

I have described the win as "scrappy" because the only goal of the game was exactly that although the match itself was fairly evenly contested with the skill level generally better than I might have expected. Players looked comfortable on the ball with plenty of quick passing movements albeit chances created were at a premium. The moment of the match for me was a first half, flying save by Minera's goalkeeper Fran Martinez from a well placed, looping header by the Linares no.4 Rafa Ortiz. 

Two other Minera players who caught the eye were no.15 Damian Petcoff, a 34 year old Argentinian midfielder, who very definitely knows how to pass a ball and No.23 Pipo, a feisty little winger who when he wasn't busy chuntering at the referee or opposition players was busy chuntering with himself.

The Minera ultras assemble for the second half.

Credit also to the ten or so Minera ultras (my description, not necessarily theirs) who banged their drums and kept up a vocal support throughout the first half. At half time they changed ends and were joined by a vociferous bunch from the bar area and, between them, probably played their part in sucking/ willing/ serenading the ball into the Linares net in the eighty first minute, credited as an own goal by Linares' Lithuanian goalkeeper, the rather splendidly named Ernestas Juskevicius. 

On the final whistle, the Minera players celebrated in front of the Minera ultras whilst the Linares players, having suffered their first defeat of the season, appeared to take the defeat in good grace ahead of their three hour coach journey back to base. Next on the agenda for Minera is a coach trip of similar distance and duration to play Granada CF (B Team) and then it will be home to local rivals FC La Unión Atlético who are based literally up the road, just three miles beyond Llano del Beal. 

These are exciting times for Club Deportiva Minera. For me this was a real football experience. Real people. Real community. Real good fun. A bit loopy in fact.