The Pride of Vallekas

Juan Sánchez is a lifelong Rayo fan...and is @MitaADRV24 on Twitter, give him a follow! A bit about yourself and your background I am a rayista through and through, I have tattooed the shield of Rayo on my skin, am very eager to see Rayo at all times...if you ever have the chance to travel to Spain and Madrid, I invite you to go and see a match in Vallecas. It is incredible, you will really like it! I am a subscriber of the club and I love it. How long have you been a fan of Rayo and what made you support them in the first place? I supported the club since I was 5, since Rayo was in the Segunda B (similar to the English 3rd division), my father took me from a very young age, and I loved to go and enjoy the team play. Describe your first visit ever to Vallecas and the stadium? How would you describe the fans in the stadium, and how intimidating is the stadium for opposition fans and players? It was great! As I said, it was when I was very small and I saw so much madness for...

I didn't write anything for today. Unfortunately, that's what happens when life gets in the way. I'm linking a Twitter TL that I wrote yesterday, talking about supporting a smaller club. You can read the original thread by clicking on the tweet below - it's more pertinent to fans of big clubs. 1/ I get confusing messages at times about why I support a small team. And I've seen others get this as well. And I thought I'd address — Sarthak Kumar (@Vallecanos1924) July 26, 2017 Otherwise, I've edited it below to remove the "come at me" style of writing - Twitter, essentially :D... Supporting a smaller team helps you appreciate every player who stays for more than a year, every signing made, every youth player who aspires to be in the first team, every contract renewal, every goal, every point, every new manager - everything. Even one season players are revered years after they have left. And the players feel that - for example one-season...

Given that now Baena has also signed for Granada - that's three Rayo players to the club in two years - you can excuse the frustration that I feel. And it may not even be the end - Manucho, Ebert, Nacho, Dorado, Dovale and Miku, among others I'm surely forgetting, are all free to sign for other clubs.  Granada have taken legends from Rayo - Juan José Collantes, Piti, Tito, and now Baena too. And what makes it even more painful is that it's so simple. Money talks. TL;DR: I hate Granada. He was just one of three players to stay with the club from 2004 all the way till 2008, when Rayo jumped out of the well and into the Segunda. The name? Juan José Collantes, who joined Rayo midway through the 2004-05 season also at the age of 21 after roaming around in Villareal (Juvenil), CD Onda, Palamos CF, and Racing de Santander B. A right winger, he would score 12 goals in the 2007-08 Segunda B, and along with Sergio Pachón (16 goals), Míchel (10 goals) and Piti (7 goals) g...

Gazzaniga Mejías Galán Quini Rat Á.Moreno Amaya Íñiguez Trashorras Baena Santi F.Beltrán Jordi Embarba Ebert Lass Manucho J.Guerra #RayoLugo pic.twitter.com/KtMhuO5rT4 — Rayo Vallecano (@RVMOficial) April 21, 2017 Compared to last week - Pablo Iñiguez, Răzvan Raț and Lass are back in the squad, and Míchel confirmed that Pablo would play. Not out of pity, out of necessity - Toño, Pablo Clavería and Dorado are out due to injuries and Zé Castro is out due to suspension. Plus, Miku, Cristaldo, Aguirre and Nacho are out too. It's a shame - a Venezuela international, a Boca Junior hot prospects, an ex-Toledo hot prospect and youth graduate and Rayo's second captain won't even grace the Vallekas bench, much less the pitch. Expect a bumpy game, with many cards. The referee for the game is Jorge Figueroa Vázquez, one of the toughest referees in the division. In the 17 games he has refereed this season he has dished out 75 yellow cards and ...

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 Sa...

Zero. Rayo had zero shots on goal. None. Zilch. Na-da. Meanwhile, Cádiz had a shot cleared off the line, a misplaced back-pass that should've gone in but was miraculously saved by Paulo Gazzaniga, and a deserved goal scored after a through ball that split the defense while at the same time nutmegging Antonio Amaya - and that was just the first 36 minutes. They then also hit the post and generally expose Rayo time and again, while Cádiz's goalkeeper made zero saves - 37-year-old Alberto Cifuentes barely moved the whole game. With this result, Rayo are now 21st out of 22 teams, joint-bottom, and just generally out of ideas. Creating chances isn't the problem - Rayo and Cádiz both had nine shots. The problem is when Patrick Ebert, the attacking midfielder, is shooting from 25+ yards while Manucho barely even tries to make a run. In a 2 vs 3 situation.  Pablo Clavería came on for Trashorras at half-time, with Jordi Gómez being replaced by M...