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There was little to say about the first half apart from a couple of long distance shots from Gustavo Lopez, that flew over the bar another from Natalio that went the same way and a couple of headers from Fleurquin that were also off target and neither keeper were called into action on any occasion in the first half. As the half drew on the Cadistas were becoming more and more silent as there was little to cheer from their beloved Cadiz.
This result leaves los amarillos just 1 point above the relegation pack and with most of the teams around them picking up plenty of points over the last weeks as Cadiz have been dropping them and looking like a team in disarray, if you were a betting man then los amarillos look to be favourites for the drop. However there are still 3 games to go and next week sees Cadiz travel to Malaga for an Andalucian derby that is a vital game for both teams, although for completely different reasons, Malaga are fighting for promotion whilst, obviously, Cadiz are fighting for their Segunda A survival, a complete reversal to last seasons game, which ended 1-1. After tonights game the Cadiz administration sat and are to give a news conference on Monday at 17.00, where it is believed that they will announce that Raul Procopio will be relieved of his duties, provided that a replacement can be found. Favourite for the position is Victor Esparrago, who led Cadiz to their greatest triumph in recent years by taking them to the Primera Liga in 2004/2005, when they were crowned champions of the Segunda A but he lost the job the following year when they were in the relegation zone in the top flight. He is currently at Montevideo and we understand was due to return to Cadiz in June as he was unable to obtain release from his current club until then but maybe this can be changed. Whether he, or anybody else, will be able to turn this group of players around in time to perform as a coherent team for the last 3 games remains to be seen. We can but hope.
The Team Limia Cristian De la Cuesta Paz Raul Lopez Kosowski(75mins Barreiro) Fleurquin(86mins Bangoura) Miguel Garcia(67mins Enrique) Gustavo Lopez Natalio Dani
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Team
news this week sees De la Cuesta return to partner Paz at the heart of defense,
replacing Caneda who slips to the bench. Kosowski replaces Enrique and Miguel
Garcia comes in to replace Bezares. It was clear from the start that Procopio
was looking for that vital win by playing Natalio further upfield in a twin
strike force with Dani but, although Cadiz had plenty of the ball, with the
visitors looking as if they would be content with a point, they lacked any
imagination when it came to trying to break through the numbers of Gimnastic
players between them and the goal. So many times a pass from a Cadiz player went
astray or, because there was no running off the ball into space to give passing
options to the player on the ball, the ball was stolen off the player as they
searched for someone to pass to. Cadiz won a number of corners and free kicks in
dangerous positions during the first half and every single one was the same,
crowd the box and throw in a high ball, which came to absolutely nothing. How
many goals have come from these plays this season? Very, very few in fact we can
only recall Fleurquin getting a direct goal as a result of a header from a dead
ball situation this season, whilst there have been a couple from tap ins when
the defense haven't cleared properly. A swift look at the photos today on this
page says it all with plenty of yellow shirts in a very small area going for the
same ball and getting nowhere near it, why are these occasions wasted time after
time, where is the imagination to try something different and spreading the ball
short or wide and create spaces. Likewise from the wingers who nearly always put
a high ball over to the target man/men, today it was Dani and Natalio, two of
the smallest players on the pitch who are much better with the ball at their
feet and have the pace to take on the, normally, tall central defenders. Again
looking at the scoring records for this season that is precisely where the bulk
of the goals for these two have come from, being able to run onto the ball, with
the ball at their feet.
Within
minutes of the start of the second half a large are of seating behind Limias
goal in the Fondo Sur was cleared leaving an open yellow space amongst a sea of
spectators in some sort of protest at the apathy being played before them today.
Then in the 67th minute the visitors were awarded a free kick near the right
touch line about 10 yards into the Cadiz half, as everyone prepared for the free
kick Cadiz made a substitution with Enrique coming on for Miguel Garcia, who
left his place in the area in close proximity to the near post. Campano centred
and Moises beat De la Cuesta to the ball and glanced it past Limia and in by the
near post to make it 0-1 to Gimnastic and suddenly there was complete silence
from the almost 16,000 spectators in the Carranza today who just could not
believe what they were seeing. Should the substitution have been made at that
precise time?, probably not, would it have made any difference had Garcia still
been on?, who knows but as a general rule in football you do not make changes at
the time of corners or free kicks into your area. From that point onwards it was
all or nothing and it was no caution to the wind with firstly Barreiro replacing Kosowski and then
Bangoura coming on for Fleurquin, with Paz moving into midfield and Cadiz
playing a 3-3-4, which certainly made for some excitement with spaces opening up
all over the pitch but despite los amarillos creating good chances for Dani and
Natalio, neither were able to really trouble Perez, in the Gimnastic goal. The
problems with playing such an attacking formation was that the visitors were
able to break at pace and had numbers going forward and in time added on they
were thwarted by Limia, who managed to collect the ball after it was badly
controlled by the visitors but the next occasion it happened with the ball at
the feet of the newly substituted Calle, he was able to evade the challenge of
Cristian, who had again given his all for Cadiz and los amarillos looked most
dangerous when he was bursting forward, and coolly curl the ball past
the helpless Limia to put the final nail in the coffin.