A WALK AROUND Madrid’s famous Plaza Mayor is a must for tourists. Down the alleys that lead out of the plaza there are souvenir shops selling everything from flamenco dolls to bull fighting outfits.
Also on sale are Real Madrid and Atletico de Madrid gear from fake jerseys to boxer shorts. One club of which you will struggle to spot merchandise is Getafe. Granted they are not a team in the city perimeter but neither is Barcelona and their products are easily seen for sale all around. So who are Getafe?
Located inside the Communidad of Madrid, they became the first Madrid team to play top-flight football that weren’t based in the city. Club Getafe Deportivo was founded in 1946. Their main highlight was when they played Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey in 1976. A few years later a group of supporters clubs emerged including the Peña Madridista Getafe (the Real Madrid supporter’s club of Getafe) and in 1983 a new club was founded.
They achieved promotion in 2004 and haven’t looked back since. The clubs links to Real Madrid are strong. Their president is a Real Socio (member of Real) and some say has ambitions of being Real’s president. A lot of their fans are actually Real fans as well. Four of their last five managers have played for Real and they sign a lot of Real youth players.
Remember me?
Current manager José Miguel González Martín del Campo, aka Míchel, may not be a household name to younger readers but he scored a very important own goal which helped Ireland to qualify for the World Cup in 1990. He took over a team that had just avoided relegation but hard work and good results see the team with a chance of European football.
The team have qualified for Europe three times in the last four years and this year they are trying again. Their ground Estadio Coliseum Alfonso Pérez holds just under 18,000 and has had its fair share of exciting nights. In 2007 the team staged an amazing comeback against Barça. After losing 5-2 away, a game which saw the now famous solo goal from Messi, Getafe stunned Spain when they won 4-0 at home.
They made it to the final that year and lost but European football came to Getafe and they were unlucky to go out to Bayern Munich in the quarter-final which was the first time in their history they pre-sold out the ground.
And so this week saw Super Geta face Racing Santander. Racing who are now under the control of an Indian billionaire made their way to a half empty Getafe ground hoping to build on last week’s success against Sevilla. Racing’s owner Ali Sayed made all the headlines last week with his celebration of last week’s injury time goal. But, this game would see a very different game. A dull and poor game was played out with the winner coming in the 87 minute when ex Spurs player Gio Dos Santos won a penalty that was slotted home by Pinillos.
The game produced very little apart from a possible cure to insomnia. This week Sayed remained calm and celebrated with a little wave. If Getafe want Europe again they will need to improve. If Racing want to stay up they will want more of the same.
Around the grounds
Atletico de Madrid finally win after four straight defeats. All week players have come out in support for underfire coach Quique Sanchez Flores. Facing a Zaragoza team that featured four ex-Atleti players and had ex-Atleti coach Javier Aguirre on the bench, Flores took a gamble in giving youth team player Koke a starting place. And it paid off. Kun Aguero scored his first goal in six games to ease the pressure on ‘Los Rojiblancos’ and move them to four points off the Europa league places. Watch the action
Standing by your manager isn’t exactly a common trait here in Spain but credit must go to the president of Sporting de Gijón, Manuel Vega-Arango who when the pressure was on stood by his manager. After last week’s heroics against Barça, they faced Valencia away and dogged it out for a point. Sporting seem to be a new team and are starting to believe they can stay up. Next up is a potential six-pointer against Zaragoza.
The big debate in all the Madrid papers this week: Benzema or Adebayor? The pressure is on the young French man. He hasn’t made the best start to his Madrid career and the fans expected more as he entered his 2nd year. But, Mourinho believed and little by little Benzema is winning over the Bernabeu faithful, who braved the rain to see their team beat Levante 2-0. Youngster Adan made his starting debut and impressed for the suspended Casillas.
It was back to winning ways for both Sevilla and Barcelona. Sevilla won their first game in seven. Barcelona faced Bilbao with the news that Victor Valdes could be out for up to six weeks and is now almost certain to miss the second leg match of Champions League against Arsenal. A mixed first half with some great possession but nervous defending saw a goal from David Villa. But, a Bilbao penalty early in second half set up a tough game for Barça. But as always that man Messi stepped up.
If you took Messi’s goals out of the equation Barça would have 11 points less. But more worrying for Barça is that they are starting to show signs of tiredness. Will they be able to last the distance?
Special mention to Deportivo de la Coruna’s keeper who became the first ‘keeper in La Liga to score; he hit a header in the 94th minute against Almeria to make it one all.
For a full set of results and the league table La Liga’s official website.
