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Villarreal B have a home game Saturday at noon against Alcorcon (it's on Canal Nou Dos, so there may or may not be a stream available). This is a big game--frankly, any home game is going to be big because with only four clubs below us, we need points!
Our opponents: Though founded in the 13th century, Alcorcon is nowadays a suburb of Madrid, reachable by metro or bus, which makes their football club's ousting of Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey a couple of years back even more noteworthy. Alcorcon won 4-0 at home, lost only 1-0 at the Bernabeu, so went through to the round of 16, where Racing eliminated them.
The team was only founded in 1971 and has spent most of its short existence in the lower divisions, but won promotion to the Segunda B in 2000 and the Segunda A in 2010. Expect them to push for the Primera in 2020, then! In their first season in the Segunda, last year, they finished in a creditable ninth place, powered by Quini's 22 goals. This season looks to be similar: they are ninth in the table, but have won only 3 of 11 road matches.
They are an experienced team (a polite way of saying old, certainly compared to our B-boys); their main goalscorers, Quini (7) and Miguélez (5) are in their thirties, and so too are midfielders Mora, Sales and Sanz and keeper Herrera.
For a brief period this season, Alcorcon actually had a World Cup player in their midst, but Australian left back David Carney failed to impress and has since moved on. Alcorcon are one of the only other teams besides us to wear yellow, which meant we actually got to break out our second kit when we played there in September. That match finished in a 1-1 draw, and amazingly enough, of our starting XI, only 3 (Mariño, Jaume Costa, and Llorente) are in the squad for this game. And Thiago Dutra was the first man off the bench then, too!! How things change in five months.
Our team: The squad for this match is as follows:
Keepers: Jorge Palatsi and Mariño.
Defenders; Orfano, Truyols, Leujene, Toño and Jaume Costa.
Midfielders: Edu Ramos, Barrientos, Llorente, Toribio, Moi Gómez, Pedro Vázquez, Iriome and Manu Trigueros.
Strikers: Juanto, Joselu and Gerard Moreno.
Kiko Olivas and Lucas Porcar are suspended, Gerard Bordas and Pablo Iñiguez injured. Not sure what the deal is with Pere, but we might see new signing Esteban Orfano at right back, perhaps?
Prediction: 1-1