From: franherr@romeo.caltech.edu (Herrero, Francisco)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.soccer,soc.culture.spain
Subject: Spanish Soccer News 10/4
Date: 5 Oct 1992 03:06 PDT
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: romeo.caltech.edu
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    

Hey Dudes!

Maradona is back! He played his first league game this weekend, and we'll see
how his team responds to their new player. The big surprise this weekend was
Deportivo yet again. This time they defeated Real Madrid in La Corun~a by a
score of 3-2, which keeps them in first place for another week. Here are the
scores and standings in first division play this weekend:

______________________________________________________________________________
Cadiz				0	Oviedo				2
								Carlos
								Carlos(p)
______________________________________________________________________________
Espan~ol			2	Rayo Vallecano			2
			Korneyev				Momparlet
			Korneyev(p)				Polster(p)
______________________________________________________________________________
Zaragoza			0	Celta				0
______________________________________________________________________________
Athletic de Bilbao		2	Sevilla				1
			Luke					Marcos
			Ciganda
______________________________________________________________________________
Logron~es			1	Osasuna				1
			Poyatos					Aguila
______________________________________________________________________________
Valencia			1	Real Sociedad			0
			Penev
______________________________________________________________________________
Deportivo de la Corun~a		3	Real Madrid			2
			Bebeto					Hierro
			Bebeto					Zamorano
			Rocha(own goal)
______________________________________________________________________________
Albacete			1	Tenerife			0
			Rommel
______________________________________________________________________________
Sporting de Gijon		1	Barcelona			1
			Iordanov(p)				Beguiristain
______________________________________________________________________________
Atletico de Madrid		2	Burgos				0
			Manolo
			Donato
______________________________________________________________________________

STANDINGS:

TEAM		     POINTS
1. Dep. Corun~a	       10
2. Barcelona		8
3. Sp. Gijon		7
4. Zaragoza		7
5. Valencia		7
6. Atl. Madrid		7
7. Ath. Bilbao		6
8. Celta		6
9. Real Madrid		5
10. Osasuna		5
11. Oviedo		5
12. Sevilla		5
13. Rayo Vallecano	4
14. Cadiz		4
15. Tenerife		3
16. Logron~es		3
17. Espan~ol		2
18. Burgos		2
19. Real Sociedad	2
20. Albacete		2



And these are the scores and standings in second division:

Castellon - Badajoz	    2 - 1
Sabadell - Compostela	    0 - 1
Figueras - Sestao           1 - 2
Marbella - Mallorca	    1 - 0
Rac. Santander - Lugo	    3 - 2
Betis - Bilbao Ath.	    1 - 1
Eibar - Valladolid	    1 - 2
Lerida - Palamos	    3 - 0
Merida - Barcelona "B"      1 - 3
R. Madrid "B" - Villareal   1 - 0

STANDINGS:

TEAM		      POINTS
1. Castellon		9
2. Lerida		8
3. Marbella		8
4. Rac. Santander	8
5. Barcelona "B"	7
6. Mallorca		7
7. Betis		6
8. Merida		5
9. Valladolid		5
10. Real Madrid "B"	5
11. Sabadell		4
12. Sestao		4
13. Compostela		4
14. Palamos		4
15. Villareal		4
16. Bilbao Ath.		3
17. Badajoz		3
18. Lugo		2
19. Figueras		2
20. Eibar		2



As already mentioned, Maradona set foot again on a soccer field for regular
competition this weekend, at San Mames Stadium in Bilbao, where his team Sevilla
played Athletic de Bilbao. Sevilla, inspired by Maradona's presence (not by his
play, because he basically did not do anything), scored first, in a goal by
Marcos. The game seemed to be headed into this final score when Athletic player
Lacabeg took Maradona out of the game with a viscious tackle from behind. The
Argentinian star limped his way through several minutes before he was replaced
by Coach Bilardo. When this happened, Athletic got new life and turned the score
around in the last 20 minutes with goals from Luke first, and then Ciganda on
a horrendous mistake by Athletic goalie Valencia (yes, that's his name). Sevilla
cannot rely on Maradona to do everything for them, especially as he tries to get
into shape the next few weeks, so they'd better stop relying on his divine
presence so much... Sevilla striker Suker did not play this game and will not
play the next two, due to a three-game suspension for having some sort of 
altercation with the referee last week...

Deportivo de la Corun~a continued to surprise the entire nation with yet another
victory, this time at Riazor Stadium in La Corun~a against Real Madrid. The last
time they did this in the regular season must have been before I was born. Real
Madrid came out gunslinging and produced two goals before Deportivo could react,
the first from Hierro on a great pass from Michel, and the second from Zamorano
on (what else?) a header into the corner of the goal. Yet, Deportivo did not
self-destruct with this deficit and they slowly got the game going their way.
Bebeto, the Brazilian wonder, scored twice on Real Madrid's goal, the second
coming on one of Nando's now-typical disasters as the last man on defense. Why
on earth does this pathetic soccer player have to play? He ranks right up there
with Pedrag Spasic as one of the worst defenders to step on the field the last
few years... Anyway, to cap the horror of the Real Madrid defense, Rocha, their
only good defender, headed the ball into his own goal, and the city of La 
Corun~a began to party the night away... Geez.... If there's any excuse at all
for Real Madrid recently, it is the fact that most of the starting players are
injured, so Coach Benito Floro has to invent new line-ups every week. People are
starting to wonder if all of these sudden injuries are because Floro's scheme of
play, where they pressure the ball everywhere on the field, is forcing his team
to play too hard and to incite muscle injuries. Regardless, this is not a big
enough excuse. Some heads need to start rolling, starting with the slowest 
player in Spain, Nando. Enough said.

Barcelona could only squeeze out a 1-1 tie in El Molinon Stadium in Gijon 
against Sporting. Barcelona's goal came on the very first minute of the game,
by Txiki Beguiristain. Sporting managed to tie the game in the second half, with
a penalty shot taken by Iordanov. Sporting got really lucky that Barcelona 
basically took the day off, because if Cruyff's team had played like it's been
playing the last few weeks, it would have demolished Sporting. Barcelona may
have been suffering from a little bit of fatigue after coming back from 
Wednesday's game in Norway... Meanwhile, Barcelona's "B" team in the second
division is raising eyebrows, because it is just an offensive machine. They have
scored eleven goals in the last two games, and no one is getting in their way.
Their top players are Christianssen and Vucevic, who will climb up to the first
team within a couple of years, so it looks like Cruyff is building himself an
unstoppable team.

Atletico de Madrid continued its mediocre play so far this season with a 
forgettable 2-0 victory over Theo Vonk's Burgos at Vicente Calderon Stadium in 
Madrid. Burgos, under Vonk, has completely changed its style into an offensive
game, but all it has done so far is get demolished game after game through its
very weak defense. Yet, Atletico only managed to score two goals against them,
and both of them came on broken rebound plays, too messy for me to explain.
Manolo and Donato were the two lucky players to find the ball at their feet in
front of an open goal after some sort of a rebound, so they are the ones who
scored the victory. Aragones' team is having troubles finding itself on the 
field so far in this early season, with special mention to Schuster, Luis 
Garcia, Lopez, and Aguilera for their feeble play...

Espan~ol got yet another boofest from its fans at Sarria Stadium in Barcelona
after tying Rayo Vallecano 2-2. Korneyev scored the first two goals for the 
locals, but then they inexplicably let Rayo take over and tie the game, with
goals from Momparlet and Polster on a penalty kick. The fans showed their
displeasure at Coach Diaz Novoa again, and he could be fired any day now. Stay
tuned... Meanwhile, Rayo's absolutely insufferable President-crook, Jose Maria
Ruiz-Mateos, has been going around the last few weeks attempting to buy into
many of the teams in the Spanish first division. I guess he is trying to gain
ownership of three or four teams at the same time, so he can fix games. So far,
I don't think anyone has taken the bait, but troubles loom ahead if this con
artist doesn't get stopped soon...

Albacete finally won a game! Remember them? They were the surprise team last
season, with Benito Floro's revolutionary style of play managing to get them
a 7th-position finish. Now, they have fallen back down to earth, and they are
in last place after five weeks. Today, they defeated Jorge Valdano's so-far
erratic Tenerife at Carlos Belmonte Stadium in the city of Albacete (which by
the way, in case you did not know, is in La Mancha, OF COURSE). Rommel Fernandez
was the author of the goal against his ex-teammates of Tenerife... Valdano is
having a lot of problems with his team this season, and I don't understand why.
They have an excellent team, with Redondo, Estebaranz, and Pizzi leading the 
way, and yet they have lost the last two games, both of which were winnable.
Something weird is going on in the Canary Islands...

Nothing much else to say. In second division, Valladolid Coach Marco Antonio
Boronat was fired this week because of his team's pitiful play, and the change
has worked, at least this weekend when they won in Eibar (then again, it 
doesn't take the Brazilian national soccer team to defeat Eibar). Anyway, I
have no idea who their new coach is, but I'll tell you as soon as I can find
out..

What else? Oh yes!! The Spanish Soccer League plays its sixth games this 
Wednesday, October 7, as the Spanish National Soccer Team plays at Northern
Ireland on the 14th. So stay tuned for more news from me coming this Wednesday.

Later, dudes.

Paco Herrero				| A Spaniard in a foreign land 	|
franherr@romeo.caltech.edu		| Where is Tomelloso?		|
franherr@juliet.caltech.edu		| In La Mancha, of course	|
			H A L A   M A D R I D!!!