Segunda B (Grupo 4) preview 2010/11: Part 3

I return from my break in España with tales of a bizarre pre-season tournament nature, but that’ll have to wait for a few days. It’s the ‘big kick-off’ on Sunday (August 29th) and it’s about time you were acquainted with the remaining sides battling it out for Segunda B glory.

Actually, I told a little fib there. Cádiz started their season yesterday, with a Copa del Rey First Round tie up in the outskirts of Madrid where I’m delighted to say they thrashed Tercera División AD Parla 5-1. Los Amarillos’ new midfield signing Fernando Velasco hit a hat-trick (and rather charitably, an own goal) against the side Rafa Benítez once had spell with as a player. This sets up a meeting with L'Hospitalet at the Carranza in the next round.

Unión Deportiva Melilla

Formed: 1943 (Reformed 1976)
Ground: Estadio Municipal Álvarez Claro (12,000)

Last season: 2nd

Look like: Chesterfield

Unión Deportiva Melilla are (along with AD Cueta) based in an autonomous Spanish city joined to Morocco on the North African coast. Which could quite possibly add it to the list of clubs that are ‘always a tough place to go’. By that I mean no offense to any Moroccan readers, as the only tangible criteria for grounds to be described as such by visiting managers/players is to simply have recorded a recent victory there – be it at Besiktas or Brechin - regardless of the home team’s current form.

The origins of UD Melilla go back to 1943 when the club was formed through the merging of Deportivo Español, Melilla FC and Juventud Deportiva, although this incarnation only lasted for 13 years. After reforming in the mid-seventies the club finally reached Segunda B in 1987 were they have been firmly entrenched ever since.

They missed out in the 98/99 promotion play-offs and again last season, to the elaborately titled Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Club de Fútbol (The Las Palmas University team). So, it’ll be interesting to see whether UD Melilla can bounce back from the disappointment of having their season ruined by a bunch of students.

Lucena CF

Formed: 1968
Ground: Estadio Municipal de Lucena (6,000)

Last season: 6th
Look like: Wycombe Wanderers

Lucena CF are looking forward to their fourth successive season in Segunda B after clinching promotion from the Tercera División in 06/07 by overcoming AD Fundación Logroñés (yet another Spanish club with a fleeting lifespan) and Sociedad Deportiva Noja in the play-offs. It was also the year the club ditched their original name: Atlético Lucentino Industrial.

Now, the Spanish are a bit of a superstitious bunch that it wouldn’t surprise me at all if many Lucentinos saw this identity change as the real reason behind their teams newly found success. I should also point out to any skeptics that my very own ‘lucky’ Wednesday boxer shorts finally wore out around 1993… merely a coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

Further evidence that fortune perhaps favours Lucena came at the business end of the 2008/09 season. The Lucentinos found themselves 6 points from safety with just three games left but handsome victories over fellow relegation candidates Granada 74 (boo!) and Portuense (my dad’s home town team) gave them every chance of escaping. On what proved to be a dramatic final day, Lucena could only manage to draw with UB Conquense and so had to hope that this bettered the results of Granada 74 and San Fernando. But with San Fernando cruising to a 3-0 half-time lead at home to Puertollano, all seemed lost. Yet incredibly Puertollano produced a stunning second-half fight back to run out 5-3 winners and with Granada 74 losing at Antequera, Lucena were saved.

Real Jaén CF

Formed: 1922

Ground: Nuevo Estadio de La Victoria (12,800)

Last season: 3rd

Look like: Hearts (in their away kit)

You have to go back to the 1950s for Real Jaén’s glory days when they spent three years in Spain’s top flight. The pinnacle of this spell came after the third game of the 57/58 season, when they proudly sat in second place in the La Liga table behind a truly all-conquering Real Madrid side.  

Unfortunately, since then Real Jaén haven’t really come anywhere near to recapturing that splendid form, spending the majority of the intervening years languishing in the lower leagues. They do however jointly hold (with fellow Segunda B - Grupo 4-ers CD Puertollano) the record number of Copa Federación wins, but before we get too carried away I should tell you they have just the two trophies to polish. That’s because this competition - which is only open to sides in Segunda B and the Tercera División – ran from 1945 to 1953 and was then abandoned for over 40 years. It was exhumed in 1994 and has been contested ever since.

Real Jaén have missed out on promotion in the last two season’s play-offs, losing to Villarreal B and Barcelona B respectively. The biggest challenge in their recent history did end in triumph though. Saddled with huge debts the club almost certainly faced liquidation this summer but at the very last moment existing and former players agreed a reduced repayment deal and the club was thankfully saved.

And on that bright note, let’s have some light-hearted trivia. The final hours of Jaén’s old Estadio La Victoria ground in June 2001 were quite eventful. Not only did Andalusian rivals Real Betis clinch promotion to the Primera División with a 2-0 victory over the hosts, later that evening the stadium became the venue to a concert by legendary crooner Julio Iglesias.

Club Deportivo Puertollano

Formed: 1948
Ground: Estadio Francisco Sánchez Menor (8,000)
Last season: 6th
Look like: Oldham Athletic

CD Puertollano’s best ever season came in 1967/68 when they missed out on a place in the top flight by losing (thrashed 6-1 on aggregate) to Córdoba in a promotion/relegation play-off when they were known as Calvo Sotelo (after the national fuel company which was established in the town).

In fact, the industrial city of Puertollano is sometimes cynically referred to as ‘The town of two lies’ because puerto is Spanish for ‘port’ and llano means ‘level’ or ‘flat’. As it is situated hundreds of kilometres from the coast and built on the slopes of the surrounding mountains, Puertollano can claim neither. Now, I knew there was something not quite right about my trip to Port Vale for a League Cup tie last season…

Club Deportivo Puertollano (a name adopted last year, the fifth different one in their history) ended a 20-year spell in the doldrums in 2006 when they beat Arcos CF in the play-offs to clamber into Segunda B, where they’ve established themselves quite well. They’ll be hoping to make the step up from being a crack lower division side (8 Tercera titles and 2 Copa Federación wins) to something resembling their team of the swinging sixties.

Unión Deportiva Almería B

Formed: 2001
Ground: Estadio Municipal Juan Rojas (13,468)
Last season: 4th Tercera División Group 9
Look like: Stoke City

Unión Deportiva Almería B will fill the unsightly hole left in Segunda B by the demise through financial collapse of CF Atlético Ciudad. The club had been knocking on the promotion door for the past two season’s, losing out in the play-offs firstly to Real Ávila and then Centre d'Esports L’Hospitalet - a Catalan team with a name that, to me, sounds like the French version of Lilleshall.

The fact that Unión Deportiva Almería B even exist is testament to how far Almería’s senior side have come in recent years. A Tercera División team just over a decade ago, UD Almería have established themselves in La Liga, proving to be a thorn in the side to many a more illustrious equipo.

Lorca Atlético CF

Formed: 2010
Ground: Francisco Artés Carrasco (8,094)
Last season: N/A
Look like: Colchester United

The tale behind the newly formed Lorca Atlético is not so much a Granada 74-esque franchise horror story but more of a local rescue job. With debts of €340.000, Sangonera Atlético CF were facing oblivion this summer until a businessman bought their ‘seat’ and shifted the club a few miles down the road to Lorca. Although this was after he had sniffed around other financially stricken sides from the Murcia region - Caravaca and Jumilla

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Sangonera Atlético were themselves only formed in 1996, after it was decided that a town of less than 10,000 inhabitants would perhaps enjoy more football success if its two clubs - Atlético Sangonera and Sangonera CF – merged. For the record Sangonera Atlético had finished the 2009/10 season 12th in Segunda B.

Écija Balompié

Formed: 1939 (reformed 1968)
Ground: Estadio San Pablo (4,500)
Last season: 11th

Look like: Peterborough United

Écija Balompié (the literal translation of ‘football’ into Spanish never fails to make me smile) are about to embark on their 14th successive season in Segunda B, a league they actually finished the 2007/08 season in first position but lost to SD Huesca in the play-offs.

Since then the club have had two nervous summers trying to meet the financial requirements to stay not only in Segunda B, but to remain in business altogether.

It’s all a far cry from the heady days of their 2006/07 Copa Del Rey run where they held Real Madrid to a 1-1 draw at their Estadio San Pablo ground. Temporary seating was erected doubling the capacity to 10,000 to meet the demand for any lower league side’s dream date. The second date didn’t go so well with Los Galácticos winning 5-1 at the Bernabéu. Needless to say to the pair haven’t retuned calls since.

Y ya está. Hopefully the next time the conversation in your local boozer turns to the Segunda B you’ll be able to hold your own. Stay tuned for a report on the 39th Trofeo Ciudad de El Puerto.

Adios

Sal