The Pride of Vallekas

Interestingly, Rayo's ultras, the Bukaneros chooses to side with Depor's Riazor Blues, rather than with Celta's Celtarras. And yet Celta is perhaps where we should look for inspiration, because of two signings that happened in the summer of 2011 - Michu and Roberto Trashorras. Since I've already written about Michu before, I'm just going to put a link to the post - you can click here to read it . Nevertheless, without further ado.... Tic. Tic. Tic. The beat of the metronome. Its sound is drowned by the cheering fans yet everyone sees it. And the man controlling the frequency feels it. Knows it. Understands it. As the ball approaches him his eyes see the previous beat and his mind sees the next. The ball arrives at his feet. For a split second - a second that is easily missed to the naked eye, every single player slows down. Time slows down. His eyes don't need to look around - the snapshots are firmly ingrained in his mind. He knows what to do. ...

There is a history of Barcelona rejects ending up on Rayo's doorstep.  But it is history - the last time it happened was in 1997, when two Barcelona players - one young, one old - became Rayo legends... Born in Asteasu, Gipuzkoa, Julen Lopetegui started his professional career at local Real Sociedad, where he was barred by legendary Luis Arconada. In 1985, he accepted an offer from Real Madrid, who immediately incorporated the 19-year-old to its B-team. After a loan spell at Las Palmas (1988-89), Lopetegui returned, but could never dislodge another veteran, Francisco Buyo, only managing one La Liga appearance during two seasons, a 3-3 away draw against Atlético Madrid as Real was already crowned league champions. He subsequently signed with Logroñés, being instrumental as the modest Riojan club consistently managed to retain its top flight status. Lopetegui's stellar performances at Logroñés earned him his sole cap with Spain, coming on as a substitute for Andoni Zubiz...

Years have passed but his record remains. And it will remain for many more years. Santi Castillejo took his first steps in senior football in the ranks of Tudelano, but would be soon recruited by Osasuna to play for the Promesas for the 1991-92 season. In his first year in Segunda B and only 20 years old, the Valtierra native would score ten goals. He would double that tally the following season, scoring 20 goals with Osasuna's B team, and earned himself a debut with the first team in La Liga. It was to be his only appearance for the first team that season - 17 minutes against Real Zaragoza in a 1-0 victory. In the 1993-94 season Santi would alternate between the first and second teams, but - uncertain of the relevance of the role he had carved for himself at the club, he would go our on loan to Segunda B side Deportivo Alavés. He would, once again, show that he may be playing in the Segunda B but he was in a league of his own, scoring 21 goals and helping the Basque side earn...

That's right - there are four Spaniards playing at Puerto Rico Football Club, a franchise that resides in the second division (NASL). And one of them is Yuma , the former Rayo youth graduate and cousin of Antonio Amaya and Iván Amaya. But what about the other three? The American dream is all about doing better than your parents. Chus Martínez, a defender, never even made it to professional football - the high point of his career was playing for Numancia in the Segunda B between 1989-93. In contrast, midfielder Mario Martínez made his professional debut at the age of 18. Also a product of hometown Numancia's youth system Mario first appeared with its first team during the 2002-03 season in the Segunda. It took him several seasons, including two loan spells to Segunda B sides Las Palmas in 2006 and Zamora in 2007, until he finally broke into the first team. Under Gonzalo Arconada, He would go on to play 34 times scoring three goals in the 2007-08 season as the S...

In 2012, a defender, a midfielder and a striker, all playing for Levante, made the bold leap to a country no Spaniard had ever been before. In late January, 2012, center-back Nano Rivas was sold to Guizhou Renhe. Two months later, in March, striker Rafael Jordà was on his way. And three months later still, in June, diminutive midfielder Rubén Suárez was on his way.... You can read part 1, featuring Nano Rivas, here. Rafael Jordà was born in Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, Catalonia, and started his youth career at Damm. In 2001, at the age of 17, he moved to Valencia, and a year later to Numancia, where he graduated and made his senior debut with the B team. He was loaned to Segunda B side CM Peralta in the first half of the 2004-05 season, and to Benidorm, also in the Segunda B, in the second half of the 2005-06 season. Jordà would stay with Numancia until 2008 - in his last season, he contributed with six goals in 27 matches as the club returned to the top flight as champions. In...

This is a continuation of yesterday's blog post ... The joint record holder for most clubs played at in the Segunda currently plays at Hércules - and his record is 10 clubs. Striker Óscar Díaz González started out in the Segunda B with hometown club Alcorcón in the 2004-05 season. And the 33-year-old returned to the Segunda B this summer by signing for Hércules. But the 12 seasons in between have been full of ups and downs in the top two tiers. His strong performances with Alcorcón, scoring six goals that season, earned him a move to a small neighboring team by the name of Real Madrid Castilla, in the second division. After just 559 minutes of action all season, in July 2006, Díaz signed with fellow league club Elche. After being a regular in his first season, he lost his first-choice status in his second year, and he joined Mallorca in July 2008, being immediately loaned to Celta de Vigo also in the second level. Díaz eventually returned to the Balearic Islands in Ju...

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...

Good, attacking, ferocious football. That's how I would describe Compostela and their undying philosophy. A brand of play that has seen Compostela rise and fall on the ladder of Spanish football. Till 1986, Compostela were a stable mid-table third tier club representing the small regional town of Compostela in Galicia. However, that very summer they were relegated. They had attacked and attacked and fought with all their might, kicking and screaming, but went down - with the joint-worst defense in the league. But giving up their attacking philosophy was out of the question. It was that philosophy that saw them promoted to the third tier in 1990, promoted to the second tier the year after, and reach the top division in 1994. It was that philosophy that saw them lose the relegation playoff against Villarreal in 1998. It was that philosophy that saw them reach the quarterfinals of the 1999-00 Copa del Rey, defeating the likes of Numancia, Tenerife and Villarreal on the way - all...

You can follow Margus on Twitter here . A bit about yourself and your background? I'm a 27 years old Norwegian from outside Oslo. I grew up there and started to follow Spanish football back when I was 13 years old. I've worked as a freelance journalist since 2008, and now I live in Spain - right outside Málaga. How long have you been a fan of Zaragoza and what made you support them in the first place? Since 2004. I saw the Copa del Rey final against Real Madrid, where they won against the odds. Describe your first experience of watching Zaragoza play? My first visit at the stadium wasn't until 2011 against Real Sociedad. Hélder Postiga scored his famous chilena in that game! To an outsider - how would you describe Zaragoza's playing style, what it means to be a fan of the club, and what it means to be a player of the club? Their style is intense. A lot of pressure when in defense and at times too fast forward. The style requires a quick striker who can r...

Trashorras took his first steps in Barcelona back in 1996, when he was only 14 years old. He recalls living in a flat of four in La Masia because it was only at the age of 18 that players were allowed to look for a flat of their own. His eight years there coincided with Guardiola, De la Peña, Puyol, Reina, Valdés and Iniesta. On August 8, 2001 he made his first team debut with Rexach in a Champions League qualifying match against Wisła Kraków. It was 86 minutes when he entered the field for Luis Enrique, the current coach of Barcelona. A few days after that European experience, on October 7, 2001, Trashorras made his league debut against Deportivo, this time entering the field in the 68th minute for Alfonso Pérez. His time at Real Madrid coincided with Arbeloa and Beckham, but he didn't get any first team opportunities for two years there - despite helping Real Madrid B to a promotion to the Segunda. After eight years at Barcelona and two at Real Madrid, Roberto Trashorras w...

Rumors here, rumors there, rumors everyw...CAN WE PLEASE HAVE LESS RUMORS! As you can guess,  I hate silly season. It's just rumors and rumors - all talk and no action. So welcome to my new series, called the Silly Season Accumulator. Where I list all the rumors that have ever been mentioned on the internet about Rayo.  Yes - all of them. Just to show you how ridiculous this machine is - a machine that creates meaningless content masquerading as journalism. If that's harsh, that's because the irony is that more rumors gives me more material. And that material gets in the way of the stories that matter. Here's all the rumors so far: Marco Sangalli from Mirandés is interested in joining Rayo, who is also linked to Valladolid, Numancia and Reus.  Embarba is being courted by Granada, Sporting and Pumas in Mexico.  Alberto Martín from Leganés has his contract expiring this summer, and has been linked too. Córdoba are also interested. Rayo...

Every time I look at my drafts folder I feel a sense of failure. Those are ideas that I've started but never finished. Articles for this blog for which I've pounded at a keyboard and then hit a brick wall and stopped. No, I didn't finish it. No, I didn't stop - I failed. I keep thinking that I failed. I started a piece on Movilla a few days back ( here )  but never finished it. Then, and at other times, thoughts of failure bleed into this blog. Today, I finished it. It's not perfect by any means, and certainly doesn't completely cover his career. But it's one less draft in my draft folder. One more article finished and scheduled. One more failure turned into a success. Last time, I asked: "where do I even start"? I really should have seen it.  I started at the very start. It's almost poetic that one of the most successful careers in Spanish professional football starts with a series of failures. José María Movilla was born i...

I would like to start with an apology. On two different occasions on this blog ( here and here ), I mentioned something to this effect: "Jordi Gómez, Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will return to their parent clubs, and Miku, Baena, Ebert, Embarba, Lass Bangoura, Quini, Nacho, Raț, Manucho, Amaya, Aguirre, Dorado, Dovale and Toño are all out of contract. Basically, unless there are any contract extensions, we have no goalkeepers, a center-back (Zé Castro), a left-back (Johan Mojica), a right-back (Ernesto Galán), two central midfielders (Fran Beltrán and Roberto Trashorras), an attacking midfielder (Santi Comesaña), a left winger (Álex Moreno) and a striker (Javi Guerra)." I naively used transfermarkt.com in writing that - never doing that again. Marca recently came up with a list of contracts expiring at the end of the season, and it reads more like this: " Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will return to...

When did you make the decision to pursue football and what motivated you to do so? It has always been a dream for me to became a footballer since a I was a little boy.  When I was called by the national team at the age of 15 I realized that my dream could be true. What was the experience like when you played for Celta Vigo for the first time? I remember that I was very excited because I was only 16 years old and it was a very happy moment. How would you describe your time at Celta, and do you think your experiences on loan at Numancia and Recreativo helped shape you as a player? I was very young, everything passed by very fast. It was the moment when finally my dream of being a footballer came true. It was a learning experience. At Numancia and Recre was my first time away from home and family, for a 18 year old boy it could be difficult but that made me grow as a person and made me realize that that is the life of a professional footballer. You helped the Spain unde...

So far, he has played 207 games at Rayo, 119 at Celta, 64 at Las Palmas, 12 at Numancia, 75 at Real Madrid B and 122 at Barcelona B. Yes - if Roberto Trashorras plays this weekend, he would have played 600* professional games in a long and illustrious career.  I feel bad for Trashorras. He started out in the Segunda B at the age of 18, reached the Segunda at 24 and then La Liga at 30. His story is one that shows that hard work and dedication can take you places, and that age is no barrier to success. And then after five years of La Liga glory the club that put in faith in him got relegated. Of course, I'm happy and grateful that he stayed as a Rayo fan - but I wouldn't have begrudged him if he'd taken that offer from Deportivo. He deserved to stay in La Liga. I wrote about him here , but that is just a snapshot of his career - a career about which I'm finally going to write about. So, let's "continue" that article... Trashorras took his ...

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...

Failure is a strong word. It means a lack of success, collapse, the cessation of required action. Yesterday, I didn't want to fail. I failed because of me. I had an article ready and couldn't post it - but that's an excuse. As every second ticked towards the 10 o'clock mark I could feel myself becoming more and more frustrated. I was going to fail and I couldn't do anything about it. In just over a month I'm so addicted to daily blogging that the withdrawal was immense - symptoms including crankiness, anxiety and hyperactivity. 26th March will go up on the Hall of Shame, whether I like it or not. The irony of not having written for a day is that it gave me something to write about the next day - something that is amazing in its counterproductive nature. Today's post features the games against Numancia and Espanyol, the teams that the men's and women's teams played respectively. It also features what was supposed to go up yesterday ...

Given that we're playing Numancia and Girona in quick succession, t oday's blog post is dedicated to a man who lives and breathes the club from where he was born, only to change the fortunes of a team 300 miles away. Pablo Machín was born in Soria, honed as a footballer at CD Numancia de Soria, made his first-team debut for the club at the age of 19, played for Numancia for four years, retired, became coach of the youth team at 25, the B team at 31, the first team as an assistant at 32, and the first team as head coach at 36. His whole life had been dedicated to the Rojillos , and he had never thought of going anywhere else. Maybe that’s why he left after two seasons. He had never been anywhere else, and maybe it was the right time for a new challenge. In 2014, he took a Girona team that had just finished 16th, surviving relegation on the last day, and took them to third, losing out on automatic promotion on the final day. In the very next season, Girona managed to finis...

It's funny to think that Diego Costa was once a backup at Atlético Madrid. In June 2011, he was packing his bags. Beşiktaş had agreed a deal, and he was going to leave. All the papers had been signed. The team had four non-EU players and Eduardo Salvio was being favored over Costa. Costa was going to Turkey. However, in July, Diego Costa tore his anterior cruciate ligament and meniscus, which meant not only was the deal to Turkey off, but he would also be out for six months and unregistered for an entire year. Closer to recovery, in January, Sandoval insisted he come to Rayo. Costa was nowhere near full fitness, but Sandoval believed in him. He would later say that Costa was the best striker in the world. He was right. Diego Costa scored four in three games, which became six in seven, and eventually ten in sixteen as Rayo Vallecano survived in La Liga.  Diego Costa went on to score 20 goals in the 2012-13 season and 35 in the next. He would w...