RCD Espanyol de Barcelona

Derby Troubles

Mando — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:45:35 +0000

Much will be said in he coming weeks over this game, there will be match bans and fan arrests, calls for retribution from officials and from either set of supporters, but in the end it will be just one game (RCD Espanyol) played in one city (Barcelona), where in spite of being down one goal for much of the game, the visitors eked out a win against an over-matched home squad by scoring two in the final half, and the decider coming on a penalty awarded in an extended period of injury time that reached well beyond the Saturday night start time and ended past midnight in the early hours of Sunday.

What do we know though about the off-field troubles, though? Well, midweek on the Boixois Nois website, the ill-famed ultras that support Barcelona FC (but are not allowed to enter the Camp Nou) threatened to give the Montjuic Stadium a well-deserved “send-off” as this will be the last derby hosted there. 10 minutes into the second half, the Barca supporters sitting in the upper deck of a half-empty Montjuic started throwing objects onto the Espanyol supporters below. A flare went off in the crowd, no one was seriously injured, and other than a minuscule group of Espanyol muscle who tried to scale the barrier below and cross the pitch, order was secured and the violence was curtailed. For those used to seeing this in Italian soccer this would have been a fairly innocuous bit of crowd trouble, but this was Barcelona and the media have blown things out of proportion.

Espanyol blame Barca for allowing their supporters to travel and make mischief across town. An angry Barca president Joan Laporta blames Espanyol for not securing the stadium, the league for not doing more against the violent ultras as he has done, and both clubs have hammered the stadium security. Attached to this, in the wake of the violence and the loss, Sanchez Libre the Espanyol chairman, has returned to that typical “big-club paranoia” that the league has been bought and paid for at the expense of smaller clubs like Espanyol.

Now, I don’t necessarily disagree with him. I’m an Espanyol supporter for godsakes, but in this case he doesn’t have much to stand on. The red card sending off for Nene was appropriate for an aerial challenge where he led with his hand outstretched. There was contact on the player and not the ball that led up to the decisive penalty and Espanyol’s goal was dicey in and of itself. What he does have a right to complain about is the typically shoddy refereeing of Luis Medina Cantalejo, who has stepped into the brown-stained shoes of Graham Poll as the worst referee in the world. Any referee worth his salt communicates with players, guides play and controls the game quietly and sternly. The authoritarian Cantalejo botches calls, waves flags mercilessly and angrily denounces the sort of dissent he brings on himself. In this match, Cantalejo failed to control the sort of problems that tipify derbies: overly enthusiastic tackles, heated emotions, and rough play. Beyond that, it’s a little much.

A New Beginning

Mando — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:28:18 +0000

I knew that top of the table couldn’t possibly be our luck, there are too many new pieces to our “clockwork-perico”, but I think we have a chance to do great things this year. Luis Garcia has been playing great, and he’s been a vocal leader.

After the loss midweek at Sevilla FC he added, “”Sevilla may have been better than us but we never let our heads drop at any time. Now we have to learn from that and bounce back in the derby. We know that the game on Saturday will be a different kind of war and what we need now is to see a couple of the injured players come back.”

The war he’s talking about is the derby match against Barcelona FC this Saturday, today since I’m writing this in the early morning, and I’m already jonesing for it. It’ll be a great match. Barca have yet to hit on all cylinders and are struggling with creativity, definition in the final third and I still hear rumblings that people are not at all happy even with Ronaldinho in Italy. We’ve played well against them recently so I’m hopeful or some points.

Quick Hits: Lil Buddha De La Pena is doubtful, the strain he suffered 2 weeks ago is not responding to treatment. This is worrying, as his injuries last year coincided with our lack of form in the final third of the season. Steve Finnan, the ex-Liverpool player is ready to play though, but since Sergio Sanchez has been playing well since taking over for Zabaleta I doubt he’ll get much playing time. Didn’t think he’d sit did you? I sure didn’t.

Week One

Mando — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 13:02:22 +0000

A little late getting around to this but better late than never I guess: after a week’s worth of International games we’re about to set on against Recreativo Huelva, and that does look like a winnable match as they lost Sinama-Pongolle to Atleti over the summer, but before moving onto that: well lets talk about the end of my frustrations.

I know it was only one goal and one game, but man beating Real Valladolid 1-0 win at home was sweet. After a continued slide that began it seems as soon as the ball finished dropping in Times Square and I had eaten my last grape and took my last sip of champagne, I had no idea we would have to wait until late August for at least a slight taste of glory. No matter. The goal Luis Garcia hit, a swerving reminder to all of us pericos that loyalty is rewarded, set us up at least temporarily on top of the table. Well, we were the first game played that week, but no problem. The new signings looked good: Roman looked like his namesake Riquelme standing tall in midfield and Zabaleta’s replacement Sergio Sanchez looked livelier than I expected. Did I mention that Lil Buddha is back? Ivan was his usual creative force, well other than when he’s hurt which is granted the more usual form. All in all a good win, even though Tamudo has yet to find the form he had early last year before breaking his arm.

Quick Hits: Looks like moving into Nou Sarria will be happening later than we had thought. Sanchez LLibre thinks it may be February or March, instead of December or January as had originally been expected. Looked fishy at first, stadium builds are complicated messes (materials, site issues, unions, etc.) but it does seem from the outside that it would take time to solve logistical problems even though the stadium in Cornella is almost ready. Also: Zabaleta apparently turned down a move down the road over the summer, so he could join Robinho at Citeh of course, but did he have any premonition over the poor start that Pep is overseeing at the Nou Camp? More about Pep next time.

Transfer Window Continued

Mando — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:14:45 +0000

Well, last time I talked about what we’ve lost, now let me talk about what we’ve added. Nicolas Martin Pareja, the Argentinian that we’ve been linked to for awhile now, is in. He’s an Olympic gold medal winner with Argentina. He’s a 24-year-old centre-back which we needed help with all year. He plied his trade at RSC Anderlecht in a fairly competitive league in Europe, and most importantly we spent €5m which means he’s young and cheap. Overall a good signing to shore up the back, but get this: Nicolas: “This has been an extraordinary year for me. In just 40 days I’ve won a gold medal in the Olympics with Argentina and now I’ve been lucky enough to play in a league as competitive as the Spanish one. I’m confident that I’ll be a key player. I know much is required of me, but I’m prepared, and I’m happy to be with Espanyol, a club who trust me. I’ll seek to adapt as quickly as possible. I know that there are other Argentines in the team and that’s going to help. I’m here to seize my chance.”

We also confirmed the signing of AS Monaco FC winger Anderson (Nené) Luiz de Carvalho on a season-long loan with an option to buy. He’s a direct replacement for Riera, he has played in Spain before with Alaves, Mallorca and Celta de Vigo. He’s been capped 4 times by Brazil and he scores goals, 35 or so in the last 4 years though his best years were in Mallorca scoring 21 over two seasons at Palma. Read this: Nene: I’ll try to ensure that the team are content with me, and I’ll work alongside them. I’m delighted to return to the Spanish league and I’ll do my best to help make it a good season.

Not only have we signed some help on the field, but come-on this can’t be seen as anything other than a pair of good signings off the pitch. They seem humble and ready to work hard. It can’t be anything other than good news right? Well, we did sign a European Championship winner in Steve Finnan, the fullback from Liverpool at least, right? More next time: there was a game on this weekend, right?

Transfer Window Closes

Mando — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:39:06 +0000

Great to be here again folks. The transfer window closes and the deals are coming fast and furious. Liverpool finally blinked and paid 17 million dollars for Albert Riera, Espanyol winger, or roughly 12million Euros or slightly less than the 13 million Euros that Espanyol were holding out for. All in all a decent amount of business as we held onto Luis Garcia despite the late push by Benfica: With David Suazo going there on loan it effectively means that Garcia will be spending another transfer window in our clutches. Liverpool get a full Spanish International, granted he failed pretty miserably at Man City a few years ago, but the 25 year old will be playing in a Rafa-esque rotational system, he’ll be surrounded by a higher quality of talent at Anfield and he’ll give them some needed width and a much better scoring record than some of the wingers that have switched sides in Europe recently.

Pablo Zabaleta also left the Montjuic for the Premiership, as the Olympic Gold medalist was just signed for Man City who paid about 12 million dollars for the Argentinian. He did say he’d like to one day come back to the club, maybe if we’re one day bigger than a Palermo or a Manchester City or that matter. It’d be interesting if the fit hits the shan at Citeh, Dr. Thaksin gets hauled off to prison and the Citizens get taken into administration, would our Pablo come back that quickly? I think this loss hurts a little bit more. We were sorely lacking in consistency at the back a a little Argentinian organization would have helped us some, the late going in the signing makes it doubly tough to sign a replacement, but it seems the club is hard at work at just that. More Soon

A Benfica

Mando — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:25:34 +0000

The latest in the transfer saga that won’t go away. Luis Garcia is a valued player for our club. Yes, there have been talks with Benfica ongoing and I was going to blog earlier in the week, but I decided to wait instead a little closer to the Friday deadline that Paco Herrera set up for the resolution of the saga. It looks like the price tag was too high for former AC Milan midfielder, Kaka babysitter, and current Benfica sporting director Rui Costa.

Instead of a full Spanish international with skill and experience, they turn to another Garcia, River Plate starlet Radamel Falcao Garcia. The Columbian is a talent for sure, but you pay the price for talent and right now the price for proven talent is high. Some would say that the market is overburdened and the credit crunch has kept want away payers at their home clubs despite their protestations, but Espanyol have invested a lot in Garcia and deserve not only to recuperate their financial expenditure, but Garcia’s pace in the squad with an equally experienced striker.

If we want to be seen as a club that has real vision and clarity for the project at hand, setting us up for the Nou Sarria and beyond, then players, supporters and the media need to see that we protect the squad, whether that means keeping our best players away from other clubs who want to tap-up ours, or at least getting the best price for players who are just set on leaving.

Off my soapbox, let rant fade into background.

Theater of Screams

Mando — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:17:15 +0000

Alright, I’ll get over it. We lost on Saturday to the European Champions giving away a goal to a kid who played for Hull City in their baby-food and black stripe kits last year, but I’ll take away some good things from the match. Ole Gunnar Solksjaer didn’t score in his own testimonial which is a good thing to take away from a match, friendly or not. We played well, especially our new Argentinian keeper Cristian Alvarez who saved two possible goals from the Norwegian (one a great fingertip save in the box), and Jarque who was all over the pitch with his gutsy play. United fielded a fairly competitive side with Giggs, Tevez, Scholes, and Nani playing for the injured C. Ronaldo on the left. United had the majority of the chances, although we came out strong in the second half, but the quality of a Ryan Giggs shone through. He took a ball in the midfield, side-stepped a diving tackle and took a winding run reminiscent of his famous run all those years ago against Arsenal and threaded a pass to the kid Frazier who looked like the second coming of, well who cares really ’cause this is an Espanyol blog. We played well nonetheless, we had our chances but couldn’t capitalize, but it does looks like we’ve found our keeper of the future in Alvarez.

,p>Quick Hits: It looks like we are far apart monetarily on the Luis Garcia to Benfica transfer, so we may settle on keeping the want away striker. Like I said on the podcast last week (forzafutbol, why are you asking me), these temperamental Espanyol players who had a problem, with either the captain or the management structure, had better get used to playing in Barcelona because the credit crunch has hit the football market, and clubs are not in the market for second rate players, quitters even, from a mid-table club like RCD Espanyol.
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New Kits 2008-2009

Mando — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:21:37 +0000

I know, I’ve been lax in getting the information out, but after a month long crisis away from football, I’m back and raring to go. Lots to talk about. First, this came through my inbox awhile ago (thanks Nik) and I’ve been remiss to talk about it. The new 2008-2009 football kits are in and I’d like to comment on them.

First off as you can see by the picture, we have a new sponsor, gone is the old Quat logo as the hotel chain were not keen to renew their deal with us, and in are not one but two new ones. Interapuestas.com, or Interwetten.com as they are a German online casino and betting service, will be the primary sponsor and have their somewhat clunky logo on the front of the new shirt. Trinasolar will be secondary sponsor and have their logo on the back just below the number. They are a Chinese solar energy developer with offices in Spain, Germany and the U.S. as well.

There are also some very interesting details added to the mix; a logo representing the new stadium on the left side of the kit opposite the badge, the cross of St. Jordi with the RCDE initials on each quadrant as a logo on the back below the neck, our club slogan (la forca d’un sentiment) printed on the collar in the back, and little periquito symbols or parrakeets inside the numbers.

The most important change however is in the color of the kit. The home kit is much the same as it should be, but the away kit is light years ahead of the godawful pink and black monstrocity that we endured last year. Much like Inter Milan’s Crusader’s cross experiment, ours however moves the axis away from the center of the shirt and puts it straight onto the club crest. The white shorts and red socks lend it an extra bit of class, something away fans will take getting used to as they are still recovering from the pink elephants that strode their way through La Liga last year.

Overall a great scheme I think, the logo does grate a bit, but I like it on the whole.

Away at Swansea

Mando — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:34:07 +0000

The new season is looming and the first friendly against Swansea was over the weekend and we beat the Welsh 4-0. Putting 4 past a Championship club is one thing, but a club like Swansea is another. Our starters were Chica, Victor Ruiz, Didac, De La Pena, Luis Garcia, Callejon, Coro, Jarque, Moises, Tamudo and Cristian Alvarez. Playing well, it was close to half-time though before a Luis Garcia free-kick found the head of Tamudo and opened the scoring. The second came in the 65th minute after Jonathan picked up a garbage goal after Rufete’s strike. Riera then ended the goal fest with two great goals setting his claim for that promised link to Liver…pool…crickets? Yeah, seems the market is pretty dead for all those over-hyped, I hate to use the term quitters for players that I was so high on but I will because that’s exactly what they were at the end of the season.

Some quick hits today, we signed Roman Martinez a powerful Argentinian midfielder from Arsenal de Sarandi. Look for us to face Manchester United at Old Trafford for the the Ole Gunnar testimonial on August 2. More next time.

Upcoming Friendlies

Mando — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:08:45 +0000

25th July:
RCD Espanyol vs Swansea City (WAL)
(International “Gamba de Palamós” Trophy)

2nd August:
Manchester United (ENG) vs RCD Espanyol
(Ole Gunnar Solksjaer Testimonial Match)

7th August:
Académica de Coimbra (POR) vs RCD Espanyol

9th August:
Os Belenenses (POR) vs RCD Espanyol

13th August:
FC Volendam (NED) vs RCD Espanyol

15th August:
Willem II Tilburg (NED) vs RCD Espanyol

17th August:
De Graafschap (NED) vs RCD Espanyol

19th August:
NEC Nijmegen (NED) vs RCD Espanyol

24th August:
RCD Espanyol vs Udinese Calcio (ITA)
“Ciutat de Barcelona” trophy (Annual summer tournament organized by Espanyol)

10th September:
FC Santboià (ESP) vs RCD Espanyol

Some great warmup matches before the season starts. Thanks to Nik from Pericoz, the RCD Espanyol Supporters Club in Sydney, Australia for the schedule. Big shout out to him, check out his website here.