Espanyol Notes: New Stadium

By: Armando | August 2nd, 2009

Today is the day for the official grand opening of the new stadium at Cornella el Pratt, the Nou Sarria as some of my colleagues are calling it, or officially the new RCD Espanyol Stadium. It’s an important game for Liverpool, they start their season sooner than Espanyol do and I’m sure Rafa will urge them to play well and win, but Pochettino knows very well that Espanyol want to inaugurate Cornella appropriately. Coming in though, here are some stories making the papers in Spain:

Sanchez-LLibre says today’s match came as an after-thought while negotiating the Albert Riera transfer.

Player reactions to the game: Raul Tamudo says, “It’ll be an unforgettable party for those who love Espanyol.” David Garcia says, “It’s a grand illusion, because we have been waiting years for it. I don’t have the words to explain what it means for the club and for those of us who are inaugurating the pitch.” On another note, Luis Garcia adds, “Será la hostia para todos los pericos”, which roughly means, “It’ll be the shit for all us pericos.”

Xabi Alonso, despite his coming out and officially requesting a transfer to Real Madrid to join the Real Madrid 2.0 Revolution, has made the trip to Barcelona and is looking to play for Rafa and the Reds.

How seriously are Liverpool taking the game? They haven’t released, either to Espanyol or to media outlets, the starting lineup for the game that starts in a little under 4 hours yet. Odd for a preseason friendly? That’s Rafa Benitez I guess.

Javier Mascherano hasn’t commented publicly about going to FC Barcelona, but it is well known that Barca would love to have the Argentine. Is this a derby game for him? That’s how Mundo Deportivo are spinning it.

Whether on loan or permanently Espanyol have lost Jonathan Soriano to Barcelona B’s, Roman to Tenerife which means he’ll be playing plenty for the Canary Islanders, and Angel to the crazies at Rayo Vallecano.

Boca Juniors defender Facundo Roncaglia has signed on loan. He’s 21 years old and he’ll bring depth behind Jarque and Pareja.

New striker Ben Sahar takes a swipe at ex-team-mates at Chelsea, “Here there’s joking and music, which helps to take the pressure off. It’s a big difference to what I knew in England, where there wasn’t much laughing. I’ve also trained much harder, with much more running and fitness work in the practice than I used to do in England.” Who would have thought? Guys don’t train as hard in England? No!

Speaking of Liverpool, ex-Liverpool player Steve Finnan, who got maybe a cup of coffee and tapas last year at Espanyol, was released from his contract allowing him to join Portsmouth this year, and….he’s hurt again.

More soon.