Villarreal B meets their new rivals

With the drawing of the calendar for Primera and Segunda, there’s also been the drawing of the groups for Segunda B. The competition will start on October 18, as well as for Tercera (Villarreal C) and the women sides, and until the groupings are ratified, this are the rivals for Villarreal B during the season.

They are in the Group 3 with Catalans and Balearic teams (two of the four there are). At the same time, if you all recall, they also were going to do a subgroup inside each one as this season is the transition to Segunda B Pro, so Villarreal B will play against Valencian teams and two Balearic teams in a group of ten teams. Why we don’t change names to actually reflect the level on the pyramid, I don’t know.

The rival teams are Alcoyano, Atlético Levante, Atzeneta, La Nucia, Hércules, Orihuela, Valencia Mestalla, Peña Deportiva and UD Ibiza. As you can see, a lot of them are already known by the B side as the filials of both Levante and Valencia, La Nucia, Orihuela, Hércules or Alcoyano. You also have two newly promoted teams as Alcoyano, who got promoted due to the false positives of Marino at the last round of the promotion playoffs of Tercera, and Atzeneta.

The case of Atzeneta is the typical of regional club where somebody with money arrives and revolutionizes the club. Atzeneta d’Albaida is a town of 1001 inhabitants and the team will make their debut this season in Segunda B after debuting last season in Tercera. Their coach is a former known player for Villarreal, as he played for them on loan from Valencia before returning and becoming the captain: David Albelda. UD Ibiza is also a new rival for the B side, as the team has been in existence since 2015 when Amadeo Salvo, former boss of Valencia, and a group of businessmen bought the federative rights of UD Ibiza-Eivissa.

The good news, in my opinion, is that on the drawing, Atlético Baleares has not been sent to their group, as they are one team that will surely aim for promotion. With the creation of Segunda B Pro for next season, this will also be more competitive as you will need to be around the 7th for promoting to the new category, while you will also need to be 3rd to play the promotion for Segunda. All in all, this looks as a fun season, albeit a short one.

Of course, they are also in preseason, playing against Valencia Mestalla a friendly this Wednesday at 20:00 local time (not clear if there will be a signal provider) in Paterna while the next week, Valencia Mestalla will travel to Villarreal for this two-parter