CD ESPARRAGAL v MAZARRON FC

MATCH DETAILS

CD ESPARRAGAL v MAZARRON FC

4.30pm (16.30) SUNDAY 2nd NOVEMBER

The away supporters coach will leave El Pareton at 2.45pm and leave Camposol at 3.00pm.

Cristian has rejoined Mazarron FC and has trained with the team. He will be available for selection on Sunday.

Tony Jarvis's match report:-

CD ESPARRAGAL 1 MAZARRON FC 0

Hope springs eternal … or so they say!

The pre-match discussion amongst the Mazarron supporters on the coach as it travelled up the AP-7 towards Murcia contained the optimistic view that Mazarron would play a good game today; based on two major assumptions. Firstly, Cristian was back training with the squad and would hopefully be playing; and secondly Mazarron could not possibly play as bad as last week against Minerva as that game was dire!

On arrival at the ground the second* job of your reporter was to establish who was in the team/squad for the match. This contained the first surprise as the squad made no mention of Tolo, Mazarron’s main striker. On further enquiry by your reporter it was established that this was because Tolo had not trained during the week. At this point it was decided that discretion was the better part of valour and no further request was made as to why he hadn’t trained! In any event I’m not one to gossip!!

The team lined up as follows. Carrasco in goal, with Mateo, Dani, Antonio Jose and Alfonso in the back four, with Liders, Pineda (Cristian) and Israel in midfield; and Diego, Andreu (juvenile) and Juanillo up front. A three man attack might bode well for what was to come. Although for most of the match young Andreu fell back into midfield and Cristian moved up to occupy the left wing position.

The first Mazarron attack resulted in a corner in the first minute, but it unfortunately came to nought; and in the third minute Antonio Jose made an excellent interception to break up an Esparragal attack. This was followed by a couple of free kicks to Esparragal from within the Mazarron half, but both were cleared by the Mazarron defence.

The next 15 minutes or so were taken up with mainly Esparragal attacks interspersed with an odd Mazarron attack. On 14 minutes the Esparragal team thought they had scored after some desperate defending by Mazarron found Carrasco clutching the ball on the Mazarron goal line after a free header, but the linesman on the far side who was well placed indicated otherwise. There followed a corner moments later but the Esparragal player placed it into the nearside side net – a woeful waste of a dead ball situation.

Mazarron mounted most of their attacks via Cristian out on the left wing and in the 20th minute he took off down the left wing, but there were too many defenders and he was unable to get in a telling cross. A free kick taken by Liders went towards the right hand side of the Esparragal goal but the Esparragal goalkeeper had expected the ball to be placed there and he easily gathered it in.

During the period leading up to the half-hour there were quite a few Mazarron attacks, usually led by Cristian, but there were no clear-cut chances or direct shots on goal for the Esparragal defence to have to deal with.

On the 25th minute there was yet another goal line clearance from the Mazarron goal area, which led to a corner, but this was safely gathered in by Carrasco. Clearly, the better chances had fallen to Esparragal, but they had not been able to capitalize on them.

However, something appears to have happened at about the 30 minute mark as Mazarron reverted to the old kick and run style of football. Whether this was due to the Esparragal pressure or not, the defence just kicked the ball out of defence without looking for a Mazarron player to receive it. On the 37th minute an interesting Esparragal free kick on the edge of the Mazarron penalty area was only foiled by bad timing of the players involved and not any Mazarron interception – the ball went out of play on the far side.

The referee blew bang on the 45 minute mark, with an Esparragal shot just sailing over the Mazarron bar.

Bar the last few minutes this had been a much better half for Mazarron than any of the previous three matches, with some attempt by the defence and midfield to pass the ball around. The Mazarron supporters around your reporter were in good humour and optimistic about the second half – although that could have been the beer and pasties talking!

Half-Time: 0-0

The second half started very much as the first had ended with more Esparragal attacks and the odd Mazarron one. One free kick to Mazarron down at the near corner flag was wasted as it sailed over the bar for an Esparragal goal kick. In the meantime a substitution had taken place as Juanillo was replaced by Esteban (a juvenile). In the minutes following his introduction he scampered up and down the Mazarron right wing and demonstrated some great determination and not a little skill, but as ever was outdone by too many defenders around him and too little assistance from the Mazarron midfield.

On the 53rd minute Esteban was released down the right and he passed a couple of defenders down to the Esparragal bye-line, he got a good shot away but the angle was too tight and the Esparragal goal minder was able to gather the ball.

In the 57th minute an Esparragal defender was booked for bringing Cristian down, but Cristian was also booked - for a foul that had happened just seconds earlier, but the referee had allowed play to continue as Esparragal had the ball at that point.

As we approached the hour mark Mazarron strung a number of passes together in an attack – only for the play to go out of play on the far side!

In the 60th minute came that one goal that all the supporters around your reporter believed would win the match – unfortunately, it came for Esparragal and not Mazarron. A through ball from the Esparragal midfield bisected the Mazarron defence and there was an attacker to pass it into the Mazarron net.

1-0

In the next 10 minutes Mazarron made another couple of substitutions with Chema coming on for Israel, and Stalin (juvenile) coming on for Andreu. It didn’t make too much difference as the Esparragal defence held firm with a couple of Esparragal attacks testing the Mazarron defence, but they were dealt with quite easily.

For some reason at or about the 85th minute Mazarron decided that they had to do something about the one goal deficit and mounted attack after attack on the Esparragal defence; with all of the attack and the substitutes showing up well in the opposition penalty area. However, all of this came far too late and the referee blew with only a minute of added time.

Full-time: 1-0

Summary

Thankfully, this was a much better display from Mazarron than the previous matches. Certainly, for the first 30 minutes and the last 5-10 minutes Mazarron tried to play football with determination and skill and tried to pass the ball around.

In my opinion they still need to commit more midfield players to the attack, but they can only do this by holding the ball in defence sometimes, to allow for runners and other players to take out opposition defenders and to create space for others to utilize. In order to achieve that the defenders need to feel comfortable on the ball and they have to move around at the back to make themselves available for a pass. Kicking the ball aimlessly up field will only result in the ball being returned very quickly.

So decision making and judgement is called for i.e. knowing when to kick the ball into the stands; and when to take control and look for the pass out of defence.

Team: Carrasco. Alfonso, Antonio Jose, Dani, Mateo, Israel (Chema), Liders, Cristian, Diego Andreu (Stalin), Juanillo (Esteban)

Man of the Match: Mateo

Hope springs eternal – for the next match!

*The first was to establish where the Cantina was and to order supplies for the visiting troops.