ELCHE HAVE REAL PROBLEMS

Osasuna 2 Elche 1

The reality of life in the fast lane is steadily kicking in for Elche, emphasised by this defeat by the bottom club in La Liga, Osasuna from Navarra who began the match with no points at all after four defeats with ten goals conceded. With three draws from the first four games everyone connected with the Illicitanos were hoping for a first win, but it wasn’t to be.

Following the goalless home draw with Valladolid on Monday evening Elche made one change to the starting line up where the Bosnian international Stevanovic began in place of Javi Marquez in midfield, arguably the Franjiverdes at full strength

The first goal came early on the quarter hour as Damian Suarez failed to clear on the edge of the area, the ball running loose to Armenteros whose low shot to the far post eluded Herrera, and put the Illicitanos on the back foot for the rest of the game. Fidel on the left and Stevanovic on the right were working well but their crosses were not finding Boakye or Coro, and the first half finished 1 – 0.

Within three minutes of the re-start it was all over as a chipped through ball found Oriel Riera, who despite the attention of centre backs Botia and Lomban controlled the ball, turned and slotted in the second: 2 – 0 and the home side looking comfortable. As ever, positive Elche coach Fran Escriba rang the changes on the hour with Del Moral, a striker, replacing Stevanovic, a midfielder, and three minutes later a direct midfield swap Javi Marquez for Carlos Sanchez

Well, Elche improved a little and Boakye had a shot miles wide but the Franjiverdes looked unable to mount a serious attack. In the 86th minute a cross from Fidel was clearly handled by Bertran, and up stepped Elche full back Edu Albacar. I cannot recall him missing a penalty, and he duly slotted in this one to give Elche some final moments of hope, and Osasuna some panicky ones, but no 94th minute Boakye equalisers as per the Almeria game two weeks ago: Elche tamely lost 2 – 1 to the most abject team in the league.

On Wednesday evening this week the dream of all green and white-blooded Elche supporters comes true after 24 years when the great Real Madrid, Christiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and all come to the City of Palms to play in a La Liga game. If there’s ever a good time to play Real Madrid, I can think of better ones, but hey, this is football, and anything can happen. Whatever does happen, Elche are playing Spain’s greatest team historically by merit, the Franjiverdes promoted back up to the big league after a phenomenal season ending as record Champions of the Second Division – and no-one can ever take that achievement away.

But that was then, and this is now. The new recruits especially must play their part and blend in with the old guard: it’s about 50/50 at the moment in terms of numbers. New players like Richmond Boakye, Carlos Sanchez and Ruben Perez must do better if Elche are to stop the rot and get some confident performances together. Several seasons ago Elche had a nasty habit of losing their first half-a-dozen opening fixtures, firing their manger and playing catch-up, which they always managed to do for the rest of the season to finish averagely. I hope it gets better before that happens: Escriba is the man who delivered Elche back to the promised land, and deserves more. A Real’ test is coming on Wednsday…

Mucho Elche!

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/40751/

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