The Pride of Vallekas

Last season, I repeatedly sung the praises of Ernesto Galán. He is a former center-back and current right-back - quick, defensively excellent and surprisingly adept going forward and covering for players. However, and quite surprisingly, I never actually wrote about him - his career and his story. Which is a shame, but better late than never I guess. Here it is. Ernesto Galán was struggling. His youth career had started with Villaviciosa de Odón releasing him and ended with Getafe releasing him too. His senior career had started with Segunda B side Móstoles in the 2005-06 season, playing 32 games under four different managers, but the team was relegated. Having played in Madrid all his life, and with his career in jeopardy, the decision to leave was a huge gamble. But he did - in 2006 he signed for Lleida. It was a risk - and it certainly felt like one at the beginning. Felipe Miñambres gave him just three league games in six months, and he had to pack his bags once again f...

Rayo Vallecano vs Osasuna. Starting lineups. Rayo and Osasuna were both coming off midweek Copa del Rey games - Osasuna went on to need extra-time to defeat Albacete. Míchel made just one change from the previous league game - a goalless draw at Lorca - with Unai López coming off for Fran Beltrán. Diego Martínez is still figuring out his Osasuna side. He has made changes from game to game, fine-tuning his preferred eleven - and he seems to have struck gold this week! Compared to the 1-1 draw against Huesca, Fran Mérida was replaced by Lucas Torró, Oier came into central defense for Unai García, and Coris was replaced by Mateu. Rayo started this game brightly in the first five minutes, but were quickly undone by themselves - their poor passing and defensive play came back to hurt them. The Diego Martínez 4-4-2 It was fascinating once again to see a Diego Martínez side in action - predictably hardworking, positionally excellent and incredibly dangerous on the counter. Few e...

More than three weeks ago, I did a piece on my thoughts on Rayo's current squad , and I spoke about the dire need for reinforcements. Well, now that the transfer window has concluded, here is what I said then, compared to my thoughts now... Goalkeepers Then : Alberto García (loan), Toño Adequate? Not sure, given Toño's injury problems, but Lucho from Rayo B seems like optimal backup if truly necessary. Now: Alberto García (loan), Toño, Mario Fernández Seems like Toño is still not ready for action - which means perhaps a signing was probably necessary. Mario Fernández from Osasuna will be a decent backup. Center-backs Then: Antonio Amaya, Zé Castro, José Antonio Dorado Definitely understaffed here - one more center-back might be needed, even if Kike from the B team did well in preseason. Now: Antonio Amaya, José Antonio Dorado, Emiliano Velázquez (loan), Abdoulaye Ba, Nacho Monsalve (loaned to Recreativo) So apparently Zé Castro wasn't even p...

Rayo Vallecano vs Numancia. Starting Lineups. Míchel went with the same lineup that won against Real Oviedo 3-2. Jagoba Arrasate went with two changes from the squad that won 1-0 against Huesca - both in defense. Unai Medina, an attacking right back, was replaced by the more defensive minded Markel Etxeberria, on loan from Athletic Bilbao. And in the left center-back spot 6'4" Carlos Gutiérrez was replaced by 6'1" Alberto Escassi. Míchel, surprisingly, had Santi play even further up the pitch and join Trejo almost as a second striker, which meant that Rayo's midfield was even more wide open. In contrast, Arrasate's game plan for Numancia was very tailored to this game - ditching his usual 4-2-3-1 for a 4-4-2, with both Manu and Pere Milla pressing the center-backs heavily. This was a game of four parts - the first being from minutes 1 to 17, the second from minutes 18 to 45, the third from 46 to 80 and the fourth from 81 to 90. Numancia didn't tak...

Welcome to a brand new tactical analysis series, called The Rayo Report! For the first time on this blog I will (attempt) to tactically analyse each and every Rayo league game. I emphasize on the word 'attempt'. Real Oviedo vs Rayo Vallecano. Starting Lineups. Míchel and Juan Antonio Anquela both went with unusual, yet predictable, lineups. Rayo were essentially playing Trashorras and two attacking midfielders in midfield which struggled to defend but was technically astounding going forward. Óscar Trejo played something between a true 9 and a false 9 - sometimes distracting and pressing defenders, other times making late runs into the box or even dropping deep into midfield. In contrast, Oviedo went for a front four that was both fluid and tactically near perfect. It became the centerpiece of Oviedo's attack as well as its defending from the front. But it also meant that their midfield was exposed throughout the game. This was an end-to-end game - partly due...

I was looking for ideas for today's post, and could find nothing. Every website, every Twitter feed, every draft saved in my folder was visited. I even looked back at previous blog posts, hoping to create a continuation, a spin-off, a new miniseries - anything. And then this popped up on my phone: 💻 Óscar Trejo, mago del balón: https://t.co/BWGTES8Qgb — Unión Rayo (@UnionRayo) August 13, 2017 Eureka. Mago del balón , they had called him. His performances as a false 9 have provided hope in the face of an injury to our only striker Javi Guerra. Look at Rayo's other signings, and you see another mago . "Chori" Domínguez was nicknamed El Mago  during his previous stint by the Vallekas faithful. And while mago del balón  is an honour, El Mago  is a sacred title. It is conferred only once by a club's fans - and only on the most dazzling of club legends. Examples in Spain include Cádiz's Mágico González, Valencia's David Silva, and Sevilla'...

I'm not going to pretend that I'm a know-it-all when it comes to tactics. But, hey, worth a shot right? Faith is a funny thing. Three games, one point, zero goals. Zero. Going into that Oviedo game, not even the most optimistic of Rayo fans expected anything out of that game. After such a demoralizing start to the season, even Faith had taken a vacation. And in the darkest of times, somehow, from somewhere, Rayo found the strength to compete. That fateful day, Rayo lined up a little like this, with Lass Bangoura playing instead of Santi Comesaña. Three things became crucial in Míchel's Rayo side. First is the defense - specifically the full backs. Second is the role of the media punta. And finally, the crucial roles of wingers Ebert and Embarba. It's a delicately balanced machine, that works well for these players. Just look at the main attacking move for Rayo: Ebert dribbles inwards with the ball. At the same time, Guerra moves slightly t...

Three of Álex Bergantiños' four goals in La Liga for Depor have been against Barcelona. Here are those goals. Scene 1: 12th May, 2017. Riazor. In the 74th minute, a corner is whipped in from the left wing to the far post, and Jordi Alba, who is marking Álex, watches him rise above him and head the ball into the net. And this just days after Barcelona overturned a 4-0 deficit and won 6-1 against PSG. Scene 2: 20th October, 2012. Riazor. Barcelona were 3-0 up after 17 minutes and cruising, but it went from 0-3 to 2-3 to 2-4 to 3-4 to 3-5 to 4-5 with 12 heart-stopping minutes left. That game had literally everything: a ludicrously good Leo Messi hat-trick, a yellow card for the least offensive man ever - Juan Carlos Valerón, and the finest own goal ever by Jordi Alba - a delicate volleyed lob over his keeper. And it was Bergantiños who scored the second for Depor to inspire the comeback. Scene 3: 12th December, 2015. Camp Nou. Barcelona are 2-0 u...

Yesterday was part 1 of the Pride of Vallekas End of Season Awards! This is part 2... Best goal So many contenders - Fran Beltrán goal against Tenerife was shocking. If you hear closely, you can hear the Tenerife stadium go "woah!". It was his only goal of the season. Embarba's goal against Gimnàstic was perfectly threaded - it went through four players and somehow hit none of them. This one by Javi Guerra at UCAM Murcia was vital - Rayo didn't deserve the three points - and harder than it looks - Patrick Ebert's cross was amazingly precise. But this pass by Pablo Íñiguez, along with Embarba's run, makes it the winner . No contest. Best player Any one of Patrick Ebert, Embarba and Javi Guerra could take the plaudits here. I'm going to give it to Ebert though - in many games, everything went through him. Which leads me to award... Best performance Patrick Ebert. Against Oviedo no less . Best save by a goalkeeper Gazzaniga's save...

There are two kinds of people in the world. If you give both a task to do in 12 hours, one of them will carefully calculate how much work needs to be done in each hour, and calmly finish it before the deadline. The other will binge watch half a season of their favorite TV show they haven't seen for the fourth time, and then all hell breaks loose in the last hour - a frantic, hectic, enjoyable-to-watch mess. Given that  Roberto Trashorras was suspended - you knew that all the calm, careful calculations of the Galician were gone. You knew all hell was going to break loose. Rayo attacked loads and defended loads. Fran Beltrán and Jordi Gómez dribbled and ran with the ball, Patrick Ebert went on long mazy runs with the ball on the left. Embarba made excellent runs on the right - even hitting the post from an Ebert cross. But Rayo were overrun in the center of the park. Time and time again, Zaragoza players waltzed past Rayo defenders. Time and time again, Manuel Lanzarote ...

A lot of what goes missing in football analysis is the fact that being a professional football is an actual job. Many who enter the profession think about the food they put on the table for their families. They think about the future since the job only pays well till the early thirties. They think about bigger and better clubs offering bigger and better opportunities. They think, constantly, about the next step in their careers. Understandably though, most fans don't see a player playing for their club as a job - as an honor, or as a responsibility, but certainly not as a job. One way professional football is harder, aside from the competition of course, is job security. One-year contracts are the norm for most teams. That, along with miserly termination clauses and relegation clauses that cut wages significantly means that Spanish football, and indeed football in many second tiers in the world, produce numerous journeymen who bounce around from club to club, with no clue w...

I get it now. I get why I support Rayo. Watching the game against Gimnàstic, I realized why my heart belongs to a working-class district in Madrid I've never been to, to a club that smears its own fans and a side that should be competing against Barcelona and Real Madrid but instead plays Reus Deportiu and Mirandés*. It wasn't the 2-0 win. Or the incessant wave of attack after attack. Or the intricate passing patterns breaking down a resolute defense. It wasn't Roberto Trashorras, who had one of his best games in a Rayo shirt and created chance after chance. Or Ernesto Galán, who kept Nàstic's entire left side silent. Or Adrián Embarba, who exposed right back Gerard Valentín's foraying runs forward** with pace and trickery. Or Fran Beltrán, who defended with heart and attacked with skill. Or Antonio Amaya, who calmly kept and distributed the ball. Or even Míchel and his calm demeanor. It's because there is a fight that Rayo fans are fighting and they...

Ernesto Galán's praises have been sung many times. But they're not enough - he gives Rayo the solidity they need and is silently becoming an essential part of the team. By being a defensive right-back, a complete opposite to his predecessor Tito, Ernesto becomes the third center-back while Rayo have possession, thus freeing up Trashorras who would usually drop deeper as the third center-back to move further upfield. A subtle change - but it means that Trashorras is able to make his impact felt further up the field. In a frantic game like the one against Lugo, this wasn't just crucial - it was necessary. 35 seconds in and Patrick Ebert misses a one on one header with the goalkeeper. So much energy in this Rayo side too!!!! #RayoLugo — Sarthak Kumar (@Vallecanos1924) April 22, 2017 This new 4-3-3/3-4-3 suits another unsung hero - Álex Moreno. The left winger turned left back covers the wing perfectly, which suits Patrick Ebert who likes to cut inside with hi...

There are many story lines about the 90 minutes of football that took place that can be dealt with. One is the fact that a stadium that can hold 6,500 thundered against the incessant support of 150 fans who chanted Rayo until the game was over and the players had very visible smiles on their faces. Another is the fact that Rayo have picked up 11 points out of a possible 15. Or that they won just their third away win of the season. Or the fact that Gazzaniga saved Rayo from a late UCAM Murcia onslaught. Or that Ernesto Galán may be the most underappreciated defensive right back there is. Or that Fran Beltrán was excellent as usual. Or that Patrick Ebert's free kick to set up Javi Guerra's goal was perfectly set up for Javi's head. But, once again, Rayo were losing control - Santi Comesaña was having an off game and Trashorras looked tired. And, once again, the savior was not recognized. His shirt number says number eight but it is just that - a shirt number. ...

On the 24th of June, 2014, three players were presented at the Estadio de Vallekas. A signing from Real Madrid in the first division, a signing from Mallorca in the second, and a signing from Real Jaén in the third. As Quini, the right-back from Real Madrid, was being benched by a left-back; as Álex Moreno, the winger from Mallorca, was on loan at second division Elche, Jozabed continued to inspire the biggest success story of the 2015-16 season. And now? Jozabed left for Fulham for four million euros, Moreno is benching the left-backs who were benching Quini, and Quini himself is back up to Ernesto Galán. It's funny how life works out. The missing piece in this story is that of Diego Aguirre - he, too, was signed in 2014 after having made waves at Toledo in the third division. The left-back/left-winger has been rarely used at Rayo this season, despite a successful loan stint at Leganés (2014-15). However, a dismal loan spell at Real Oviedo (2015-16), and the perform...

I see what he was doing. Pep Guardiola used to bring on Keita, a defensive midfielder, for David Villa to defend the left flank. In the 2009-10 seasons, Mourinho played Chivu, a midfielder, on the left wing for a suspended Pandev to - successfully - block Dani Alves' runs in the second leg of the Champions League. So when Míchel put Fran Beltrán on the left-wing, it wasn't totally without reason. Suso Santana had to be stopped. It was the only major surprise of the evening - Jordi Gómez and Zé Castro replaced suspended Ebert and Amaya. But despite the creativity of Jordi and the talent of Trashorras, they were defensively weak and on the left wing Aarón Ñíguez wrecked havoc - it was his pass that set up Amath Ndiaye for the first goal. And that was just three minutes in. Slowly, but surely, Rayo grew into the game and the players grew into their roles, but it was a first half to forget - even if Embarba equalized after a Santi diagonal pass to Ernesto was blocked. ...