The Triangle.....

Real Murcia took the "7 Región de Murcia" triangular tournament last night, and deservedly so.

First up we played against Lorca with :

Alberto
Mario Marín - Luciano - Rodri - Rubén Párraga (Óscar Sánchez 33')
Nico Varela - Juan Aguilera - Eddy - Pedro
Lionel - Kike García

So only Alberto, Kike, Pedro and Aguilera who could be considered from the first 11. Of the reserves Nico Varela on the wing has put down a marker in pre-season, he's busy, skilful and committed.....and may save Real the trouble of having to sign a player for that position as was the plan. Eddy crunches into tackles and makes good use of the ball....he's Eddy Vieira from now on. Kike continues to look very sharp indeed, Pedro a little lost and short of confidence. Parraga was on the wrong end of a bad tackle and may have a damaged knee. The result was never much in doubt once Pedro put Real ahead after being set up by Kike.

But the real action came when we faced Cartagena.

Alberto
Molinero - Oriol - Iván Amaya - Óscar Sánchez
Isaac - Richi - Pablo - Sutil
Emilio Sánchez - Chando.

A much stronger line up. Cartagena came out looking strong, and dominated for the first 10 minutes or so, had a few corners, but without really threatening or having a shot. They were evidently wound-up for the game, making several reckless tackles. The game changed quickly once Real got hold of the ball. Emilio Sanchez controls midfield, is unfluttered, and seems to make his own space and time where there doesn't seem to be any. Sutil is a great signing....skillful, swift, direct...and ready to give as good as he gets. Even before Chando gave us the lead, we could have been 2 ahead....great team passing movements not getting the finishes they deserved. A Cartagena defence cock-up let Chando in, who finished calmly. After that Sutil hit the bar with a free-kick. Then the ref decided to get noticed and sent off a couple of Cartagena players, not really deserved, but there were only a couple of minutes remaining and they were not going to equalize....indeed they started to look quite downhearted and desperate even before the ref's intervention.

Cartagena have been most active in the transfer market, and have spent heavily. It must be very very worrying to be beaten by an austere Real Murcia, who are still to make more signings.

Real Murcia fans should be congratulated. Impeccable behaviour, despite the Cartagena supporters provocations and insults. The best way to answer the rabid insults was ignorance. They also goaded us...saying we were "four cats" (cuatro gatos) which is a typical spanish saying meaning you are very few. Evidently they couldn't see that their end was full to the rafters, as the photo below proves.


So a very very promising pre-season so far and more new arrivals to come. But let's keep our feet very firmly on the ground.