Pitchside with Pope: An entertaining game under the floodlights

Richard Pope is impressed with Perelló’s young players, who created a high-tempo match against Santa Barbara on Friday 25 September.

Friday night football under the floodlights didn’t pull in the supporters; the crowd was far smaller than for a Sunday afternoon with fewer than 100 people in attendance. However, the quality of the football served up was of a high standard.

The injury list at CE Perelló continues to grow: there are nine players presently out of action, which meant that only three substitutes were available to sit on the bench.

This young team, however, is beginning to gel as a unit and the more senior players are going to have to fight for their places when they regain fitness.

The game against Santa Barbara began at a high tempo with exchanges even until the 24th minute when a low cross found Santa Barbara’s Josep De La Torre Ferre unmarked two metres from the Perelló goal line. Marc Andreu, who had made two wonderful saves last week from similar situations, was unable to stop the shot from Josep.

But within three minutes Perelló were back on level terms. Left full-back Marc Toledo Soler made a rare excursion into the centre of the opposition half and unleashed a thunderous shot from 35 metres which took a slight deflection off a defender and sailed into the net.

The second half started with another reversal for Perelló. Yet another unnecessary foul committed outside the penalty area gave a free kick to Santa Barbara. Gerrard Curto Camacho’s kick passed over the heads of the three-man wall, then curved downwards into the back of the net. David Beckham couldn’t have done better.

After this setback Perelló showed their resilience. The midfield, driven by Joan Esteban Miro, gaining the upper hand, the players often interchanging roles with everyone wanting to be involved, the forwards making intelligent runs off the ball and the defence dealing competently with the occasional Santa Barbara attack.

With 15 minutes to go, they got their reward. A beautifully weighted free kick taken from near the touchline by Eric Barbera was met by Arnau Pedreny who neatly placed the ball past the goalkeeper with his right foot.

Joan Esteban almost got a winner soon afterwards when he smashed a free kick against the crossbar only for the ball to ricochet to safety.

Perelló survived a late scare when they gave away a free kick in the same place as Gerrard Curto had scored previously. Again, he executed the kick perfectly but this time Marc anticipated it, diving at full stretch to finger-tip the ball around the post.

Next match: Sunday 4 October, at home, against Flix. Kick off 4.45pm.

FINAL SCORE

CE Perelló 2 2 Santa Barbara CF