From: franherr@romeo.caltech.edu (Herrero, Francisco)
Subject:  Spanish Soccer News 4/5
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.40    
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 09:59:00 GMT

Hey Dudes!

It's time for another weekly update of the week's action in the Spanish Soccer
League. Here are the scores and standings in first division:

Barcelona                       4     Deportivo de la Corun~a              1
                     Stoichkov                                    Jucic
                     J. Salinas                                        
                     J. Salinas
                     Bakero
Logron~es                       1     Albacete                             1
                     Polster                                      Zalazar
Real Madrid                     2     Burgos                               0
                     Lasa
                     Hierro
Sporting de Gijon               2     Mallorca                             0
                     Luhovy
                     Luhovy
Sevilla                         2     Espan~ol                             1
                     Diego                                        Francisco
                     Suker
Athletic de Bilbao              2     Real Sociedad                        1
                     Ciganda                             P. Salinas (own goal)
                     Valverde
Valladolid                      0     Zaragoza                             0
Cadiz                           3     Oviedo                               1
                     Tilico                                       Jankovic
                     Tilico
                     Quico
Tenerife                        0     Atletico de Madrid                   1
                                                                  Vizcaino
Valencia                        1     Osasuna                              2
                     Eloy                                         Urban (p)
                                                                  Merino

STANDINGS:

TEAM                         POINTS
1. Real Madrid                 43
2. Barcelona                   42
3. Atletico de Madrid          38
4. Albacete                    34
5. Valencia                    34
6. Real Sociedad               32
7. Sporting de Gijon           32
8. Sevilla                     31
9. Zaragoza                    31
10. Logron~es                  29
11. Burgos                     28
12. Athletic de Bilbao         26
13. Oviedo                     25
14. Osasuna                    25
15. Tenerife                   23
16. Deportivo de la Corun~a    23
17. Valladolid                 22
18. Espan~ol                   22
19. Cadiz                      21
20. Mallorca                   19


And here are the scores and standings in second division play this weekend:

Rac. Santander - Las Palmas       3 - 0
Castellon - Barcelona "B"         1 - 1
Lerida - Palamos                  2 - 0
Malaga - Sabadell                 0 - 0
Merida - Bilbao Ath.              (postponed due to Juanito's death)
Sestao - Betis                    0 - 1
Eibar - Aviles                    0 - 0
Figueras - R. Madrid "B"          2 - 0
Murcia - R. Vallecano             1 - 1
Celta - Compostela                4 - 1

STANDINGS:

TEAM                    POINTS
1. Celta                  43
2. Figueras               41
3. Rayo Vallecano         39
4. Betis                  37
5. Lerida                 36
6. Rac. Santander         33
7. Merida                 32      (one fewer game)
8. Barcelona "B"          32
9. Compostela             31
10. Castellon             30
11. Eibar                 30
12. Sabadell              29
13. Palamos               28
14. Murcia                28
15. Sestao                28
16. Real Madrid "B"       27
17. Bilbao Ath.           26      (one fewer game)
18. Malaga                26
19. Las Palmas            21
20. Aviles                20


The week's action was dominated by a tragic story: Juan Gomez "Juanito", famous
player for Malaga, and especially Real Madrid and the Spanish National Team, and
the until-now coach of second division's Merida, died in a car accident going to
Merida after witnessing the Real Madrid-Torino game in Madrid. This terrible
incident marked the tone of the weekend's games, as the Merida-Bilbao Athletic
match was postponed, and a minute of silence was held in his honor at the 
beginning of every game in first and second divisions. In Madrid, there was a
special ceremony before the R.Madrid-Burgos match in which both teams put 
flowers for Juanito between their benches, and in Malaga, where he played in the
early part of his career, instead of the customary one minute of silence, the
crowd gave Juanito an emotional farewell with a three-minute standing ovation
in his honor.

Real Madrid defeated Burgos by a score of 2-0 at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in
Madrid. Real Madrid clearly dominated the match and toyed around in the second
half when it was clear Burgos was throwing in the towel. The two goals came in
the first half, the first from Lasa after a cross, and the second on a beautiful
header by (who else) Hierro on one of Michel's patented crosses from the right
side of the field. While the two teams were playing in the second half, there
was a bomb scare at the front door of the stadium, when a car with a box and
suspicious cables inside was found parked right in the front of the stadium. It
turned out to be a false alarm, but it could have dampened an already somber
weekend even more in Madrid...

Barcelona had a lot of troubles in the first half, but ended up trashing 
Deportivo by a score of 4-1 at Nou Camp Stadium in Barcelona. In the first half,
Stoichkov and Jucic scored respectively for both teams, and there were times,
especially towards the end of the half, when Deportivo had total control of the
middle of the field. In the second half, the suffering resumed for Barcelona,
until their savior arrived, as usual. Julio Salinas came into the game and
promptly proceeded to head the first ball he touched into the goal. He scored
another one five minutes later from a pass by Amor, and finally near the end, he
dished out another goal for Bakero. Once again, the much-maligned Salinas, who
is slow and hogs the ball too much generally, decided the outcome of the game
with his incredible sense of goal-scoring...

Atletico de Madrid defeated Tenerife by 0-1 at Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez Stadium
in Tenerife, in an absolutely boring game. The lone goal came from a great kick
from outside the penalty area by Vizcaino. The rest of the game was a disaster,
especially as both teams resorted to kicking at each other's shins instead of at
the ball in the second half. Atletico coach Luis Aragones got himself ejected 
from the game in the second half after he almost got into a fight with the field
delegate ("delegado de campo") who would not let him substitute for the injured
Aguilera until Tenerife coach Jorge Solari had decided whether or not to put
Quique Estebaranz into the game. Aragones and the delegate got into a shouting
match, which the referee stopped with a red card. But this didn't stop there.
Aragones refused to leave the stadium for a while, and his own player Juanito
had to go persuade him. Upon seeing this, Aragones yanked Juanito's shirt and
began to shout at him, after which he finally left the field, smoke coming out
of his ears. This means he'll have to sit another game out, a couple of weeks
after doing so already. I'm sure we'll hear all sorts of colorful insults out of
Aragones this week headed towards the Tenerife delegate, who has already had a
couple of other incidents this year with various coaches...

Valencia suffered a major disaster at Castalia Stadium in Castellon, where they
lost to Osasuna by 1-2. The game was played in Castellon because Luis Casanova
Stadium was closed down this week as a result of incidents from the Spanish Cup
against Real Madrid a couple of weeks ago. The first goal was scored by Urban
of Osasuna on a penalty kick, after a Valencia player had saved the ball from
going into the goal with his hand. Valencia tied the game with a goal from Eloy
after a pass from Penev, and looked like they could turn the game around. Then,
the referee failed to call a clear penalty on Penev, and the crowd started to
get on his back. The game appeared headed certain for a tie, when in the last
minute of the game, Larrainzar II stole a terrible pass back toward the goal by
the Valencia defense, cruised on towards the goal, and kicked the ball into the
post, after which Merino took the ball and scored it into the empty goal. The
linesman messed up and raised his flag calling for offsides, because he thought
that the pass Larrainzar II stole had come from one his players, when this was
not so. The referee went over to the sideline to consult with him, and ended up
making the decision to let the goal stand despite the linesmman's judgment. The
game only had a couple of minutes left, and ended up in the loss for Valencia.
Valencia President Tuzon exploded into a barrage of insults towards the referee
after the game, even though coach Hiddinck had agreed that the goal was valid.
Tuzon will probably get some sort of disciplinary action taken against him this
week, like the type that Atletico President Jesus Gil usually gets...

Logron~es and Albacete tied 1-1 at Las Gaunas Stadium in Logron~o, in a game
clearly dominated by Logron~es. They had plenty of opportunities to score in the
first half, but Albacete goalie Luis Gavelo Conejo had an incredible game and
stopped everything that came his way. He even stopped a Logron~es penalty, taken
by Quique Setien, who took it instead of Polster because Polster's confidence
was shot lately with his penalty kick misses. Conejo stopped Setien's shot,
making it now three penalties in a row that Logron~es has missed, so they are
going to need some extra-practice on these this week. To add insult to injury,
Albacete scored first, a goal by their best player, Zalazar. In the second half
it was more of the same thing, with Logron~es attacking constantly but unable to
put the ball in the goal, but they finally tied up the score on a goal by 
Polster when Albacete was playing with ten players after one was given a red 
card. Overall, a good score for Albacete, who climbs back into the fourth place
in the standings...

Sporting de Gijon defeated Mallorca 2-0 at El Molinon Stadium in a game that 
could have easily ended up the other way. Mallorca had plenty of chances to 
score all game long, but Sporting took care of the game in the last ten minutes
with two goals from Luhovy. Sporting keeps its UEFA Cup hopes alive with this
victory.

Sevilla beat Espan~ol by a score of 2-1 at Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium in Sevilla.
This was a very well played game by both teams, with Espan~ol attacking 
constantly even though it was playing away from home. Espan~ol did not have much
luck putting the ball in the goal, but it once again showed that it is itching
to get itself out of the last positions in the standings.

Another team who is desperately trying to avoid the last positions in the 
standings is Athletic de Bilbao, who on Saturday defeated Real Sociedad, the
best team of the second half of the season, by a score of 2-1 at San Mames 
Stadium in Bilbao. The first goal came when Athletic defender Patxi Salinas, 
who is the brother of Barcelona's Julio Salinas, kicked the ball into his own
goal, starting things out on the wrong foot for his team. But Athletic recovered
and ended up dominating the game and defeating Real Sociedad, with goals from
Ciganda and Valverde from a penalty kick. Athletic keeps climbing positions...

Valladolid and Zaragoza played the worst game of the weekend with a soporiferous
0-0 tie at Zorrilla Stadium in Valladolid. Maturana's troops once again showed
why they are going to need a miracle to avoid second division next year, while
Zaragoza did nothing to demonstrate that they were not the worst team of the
second half of the season. Not even Onesimo, who usually excites games with his
quickness, could do anything to make the game a little exciting. Maturana's
future looks bleak...

Cadiz defeated Oviedo 3-1 at Ramon de Carranza Stadium in Cadiz, in a game in
which there were too many goals compared to the effort put forth by both teams.
Tilico scored his first goals in first division, with a pair against Oviedo,
while Quico scored another one to further interest Atletico de Madrid and 
Barcelona in their quest to sign him next year...

Signings: Real Madrid "B" player Ugbade, from Nigeria, has just signed up to 
play for Deportivo for the remainder of the season... Remember Carrasco? He used
to play for Barcelona in the late 70's and 80's and played a lot of games for
the Spanish National Team before going away to play in France the last few 
years. Now he is back, and will debut next week with his new team, Figueras of
second division, who is in the thick of things to make it into first division
next year for the first time in their history. Carrasco got tired of playing
in empty stadiums in France, where he said no one really cared much about 
soccer the way they do in Spain or Italy...

The highlight of next week's games is Valencia-Barcelona, which should be a
barnburner, especially after this week's fiasco between Valencia and Osasuna...

Later, dudes.

Paco Herrero                             | A Spaniard in a foreign land |
franherr@romeo.caltech.edu               | Hala Madrid!!!               |



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