Last-gasp Castellon wreck the CD party - 26.06.2009

CD Tenerife 1 Castellon 2

AT 9.23pm last Sunday night, it was a bitter pill to swallow. The fourth official had just raised the board to reveal three minutes of added time – and Tenerife were180 seconds away from being crowned Second Division champions.
It would be their first senior honour. Ever! The previously-quiet Heliodoro crowd were just starting to celebrate, some flags were being waved and a few had changed into their ‘championes’ T-shirts.
Yet deep down in the pit of the stomach, there was this undeniable feeling of pending disaster. Tenerife never do anything easily, and sure enough the Angel of Doom had another card to play.
Castellon, who had finished the match like a side possessed, broke down the left and the ball fell sweetly to substitute Omar. His shot got a deflection and squirmed past Aragoneses into the net.
The silence was deafening. I’m sure I heard a cheer from Gran Canaria. Tenerife had grabbed third place from the jaws of immortality. It was cruel. It was unfortunate. It was wrong. But sat in my office typing this a few days later, it was…meaningless.
Yes, Tenerife had been denied the glory of winning the league, but so what? We are La Liga and the rabble from Las Palmas must concentrate on Girona, Cordoba and Cartagena.
We’ve got Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia coming here next season!
CDT coach Jose Luis Oltra started with half a reserve side, with Cristo named captain for his final match ever. And despite an understandably slow start, Tenerife were always on top.
They wasted a plethora of chances and the efforts on target were superbly dealt with by Xavi Oliva, who would have a stormer in the Castellon goal.
Richi somehow headed against the bar from two yards out, minutes before Nino opened the scoring and became the league’s top scorer.
‘God’ chased hopefully on to an up-and-under and, despite being the smallest player on the park, rose above Oliva and right-back Pedro to nod in his 29^th of the season.
That gave him the honour of being the division’s Pichichi, and his goal should have settled the nerves and led to a second-half avalanche.
But Tenerife were never at the races and ten minutes into the second half, the match swung the visitors’ way.
Cristo was substituted, to a standing ovation, and while he took a good two minutes to leave, after some lovely scenes which saw the whole team chair-lift him off, Castellon held a team talk.
Alfaro, also making his last Tenerife appearance, came on and Castellon equalised instantly. Cristo was embracing the bench and Richi, inexcusably, struck a soft back-pass straight to Arana, who sped clear of Luna and knocked it past the keeper.
It was a shocking mistake and Castellon scented blood. Both sides went in search of a winner, but Tenerife found Oliva in inspired form.
He somehow found some body part to keep out every effort, and his double save from Nino and Iriome eight minutes from time was world class.
At the end of the day Castellon deserved the win, but if Oltra was so worried about the title, he would have started with Alfaro and Kome.
Canarian Weekly ratings:
Tenerife: Aragoneses 8, Cendros 6, Luna 7, Sicilia 6, Clavero 6, Saizar 8 (Kome 68min 6), Ricardo 7, Richi 6, Ayoze 6 (Iriome 80min), Cristo 7 (Alfaro 53 min 5), Nino 7.
Castellón: Xavi Oliva 10, Pedro 6, Mora 6, Pol 7, Baigorri 5 (Diego Reyes 46min 5), Dealbert 7, Mantecón 7, Arana 7, Mario Rosas 7 (Omar70min), Víctor Salas 6 (Dani Pendín 62min 6), Ulloa 7.
Just 48 hours after the match, Oliva joined La Liga giants Villareal on a two-year contract. I’m sure his display in Santa Cruz would have helped secure the deal!
As you can see from the table, Tenerife’s late slip gave Xerez the title, and it’s hard to say they didn’t deserve it after leading the league for most of the season.
Real Zaragoza are the third side promoted, but spare a thought for Hercules. In any other season, 78 points would have been enough for promotion.
All eyes are now firmly set on next season, and Tenerife have already started work. Coach Jose Luis Oltra has inked a contract extension and Castellon centre-back Pepe Mora has become the first signing – as predicted here last week.
CDT have also enquired again about long-term target Abel Aguilar. The Colombian central midfielder had an excellent season at Hercules, but he has returned to parent club Udinese in Italy.
Aguilar wants first-team football next season and finally, he looks to be on his way to Santa Cruz.