Rayo B, Sandoval and a historic promotion (17th March, 2017)

In light of the fact that Rayo B might return to the regional leagues, where Rayo B haven't played since 1988...

They had topped their group - by 11 points, no less - but that was not enough. They had to play L'Hospitalet over two legs, they were at the Municipal Feixa Llarga and 1-0 down, with only seconds to go.

A free kick from the halfway line results in a corner on the left hand side. Confusion in the box. Calls for a penalty while the Rayo player run to take another corner from the other side of the pitch.

Step forward, Borja García.

The goalkeeper misses the cross, and it's an easy tap in - Sandoval's team are up into the Segunda B. In the 97th minute, Rayo B had made it.

In other news, Javier Tebas confirmed that Rayo has an agreement with the NASL that a new franchise will be created within two years - reportedly in Omaha or Las Vegas, Betis' Rafael Salas apologized for his previous comments about Zozulya (which I talked about here), and Saúl Níguez, Joaquín Larrivey, Alejandro Gálvez, Alberto Perea and Ismael Gil have all expressed public support for Rayo in these troubling times.

Speaking of troubling - what's troubling is that Rayo has the second highest budget in the Segunda. What's troubling is that La Liga caliber players rejected better offers to stay at Rayo* but a lack of concentration has seen a competitive La Liga side not even being able to compete in the Segunda.

What's troubling is that Rayo may go from playing Real Madrid to Real Madrid Castilla in two years.

*Javi Guerra had offers from Málaga and Granada. Trashorras had offers from Depor and other countries. Depor even offered 600,000 euros for Miku. Leganés offered 2 million euros for Embarba and Alavés offered the same for Álex Moreno. In the winter, Lass had an offer for 3 million euros from China and Manucho was courted by Córdoba.

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