Forever Betis

Real Betis 5-1 Portsmouth

Predictably enough, this was a bit of a rout, especially in the first half when a full-strength Betis side tore into their English visitors, who were without several of their regulars. Rubén Castro opened the scoring after about two minutes and that pretty much set the tone. By the time Varney scored with the help of a deflection in the last minute, the shot count was something like 25-3 in Betis's favour. Maybe 10,000 were on hand to see the slaughter.

There aren't too many lessons to be drawn from a game like this, especially as eight changes were made at half time, but it's worth pointing out that Jefferson Montero was particularly effective, making the first goal, drawing a penalty for the second and scoring the third, while Ezequiel, whose place Montero has taken in the Betis starting line-up, seemed very fired up and scored a couple himself (one of which was due to an old-fashioned goalkeeping howler). Roque Santa Cruz replaced Jorge Molina after 58 minutes, but didn't prove anything except that he does indeed have two functioning legs. The two Betis players to play all 90 minutes were Antonio Amaya and Javier Matilla, who did a better imitation of Beñat (who has a slight injury) than he managed in pre-season. 

The players now have 10 days to wait till the visit of Mallorca at lunchtime on Sunday, September 11th for the next game. The Benito Villamarín, however, will see action this coming weekend, when Sevilla Atlético (their B team) come to play Betis B in the derbi chico (on Sunday at 11am).

Betis: Casto (Goitia, m.45); Chica (Juanma, m.45), Amaya, Dorado (Ustaritz, m.45), Nacho (Isidoro, m. 45); Matilla, Iriney (Cañas, m.45), Salva Sevilla (Ezequiel, m.45); Rubén Castro (J. Pereira, m.45), Jorge Molina (Santa Cruz, m.58), Jefferson Montero (Momo, m.45).

Goals: 1-0 (m. 1): Rubén Castro. 2-0 (m. 17): Molina (pen). 3-0 (m. 26): Jefferson Montero. 4-0 (m. 67): Ezequiel. 5-0 (m. 78): Ezequiel. 5-1 (m. 89): Varney.

Home at last

By my reckoning it's been 12 and a half long weeks since Betis last played at the Benito Villamarín, so I probably should be more excited than I am by this evening's friendly against English second-tier side Portsmouth. In fact, I'll almost certainly stay home and watch the game on TV. Pepe Mel has called up a squad of 20 players, suggesting there'll be a ton of substitutions, and Portsmouth are missing half a dozen of their best players on international duty, so it's unlikely to be a particularly gruelling test for the home side. On top of that, the club haven't made it easy to get tickets - and I have visitors. So Canal Sur it is.

One point of interest is Roque Santa Cruz has gone straight into the squad. I have a slight worry that the euphoria of his arrival yesterday might have blown itself out by the end of September, but I suppose we should at least give him a chance. He certainly talks a good game; it would be fantastic to see him re-establish his reputation as a top striker this coming season.

I doubt whether Nuestra Patricia - Our Patricia, as the Betis sports psychologist seems to have been dubbed (do click on that link, btw) - will be called upon before tonight's game, but an example of the type of work she does has been posted on the club's official website recently and is well worth checking out.

A couple of weeks ago, she invited fans to email her with any special memories of Betis in Primera that they thought would inspire the players, explaining that she was planning to use them in her pre-game chats. The first example of this, shown before the Granada match, can be seen in the video below.

 

I haven't got time to translate the whole thing, but the story relates to a game towards the end of the 2001/02 season, when a just-promoted Betis took on the all-conquering (as they were then) Deportivo La Coruña side at home needing a win to retain a chance of making the Champions League places. What's so great about Patricia choosing this particular story, about this particular game, is that it tells how Betis actually lost 3-0.

"Seconds after the third goal was let in, a roar came down from the stands, " runs the commentary (at about 2:51). "Shouts of 'Betis, Betis' and 'Campeones' were heard all around the stadium and the applause never stopped ringing out. The players looked up surprised. A recently promoted side had fought to the last breath to beat one of the giants of La Liga, had fought to make the fans happy, and had given everything, right until the last minute, for the shirt. We weren't sad, we were proud. Proud that they represented us on the pitch, proud that they wore the same badge as us on their hearts..." And so on. As dozens of Béticos have already pointed out, this is pure manque pierda - and it's great to know that the players are being indoctrinated with the philosophy as much as successive generations of fans are.

Incindentally, I'm sure Patricia would be interested to hear your tales of following Betis around the world - the crazier the better. You can email her a story at lomasemotivodelbetisenprimera@gmail.com (it's something like "the most moving thing about Betis in Primera"@ etc); she tweets in English now and again, so I'm pretty sure she'll understand.

Do follow her on Twitter, too - @Patri_Psicologa; she practically defines the word "positivity".

Done shopping

Strictly speaking, the transfer window closes tomorrow at midnight - but today's news that Betis have reached agreement with Red Star Belgrade left-back Dusko Tosic more or less signals the end of the club's dealings this summer.

At least, that's what Pepe Mel seems to think. "We've gone over our financial limits already, so you have to assume that no-one else will come in," he told a press conference today. Not even in swap deals involving certain diminutive Galician strikers? "We have never talked about any of our forwards leaving. Neither his agent, nor I, nor the club have ever said that Jonathan Pereira can leave."

I'm afraid I have no inside information on Tosic, beyond what's available on Wikipedia. He's a 26-year-old Serbian international who's had spells in Serbia, France, Germany and (briefly) England, and whose biggest claim to fame seems to be that his wife is a famous model, singer and TV presenter in Belgrade. "We've been looking to improve the team and he's coming in a position where we were lacking cover," said Pepe Mel. "We only really had Nacho there, because I'd prefer to keep Chica on the right. Tosic raises the quality of the squad, which is what we wanted."

Mel also revealed that Roque Santa Cruz, who trained with his new team-mates for the first time today, chose Betis over Celtic. The player himself, speaking before being presented to 6,000 Béticos (according the club's website) at the Benito Villamarín this evening, seemed genuinely delighted to be in Seville four years after the idea was originally proposed.

"I'm very happy to become part of the Betis family," he said. "I've fulfilled the ambition that I had of coming here. I know a lot is expected of me, but I've also got high expectations of myself. I promise you work and more work and hopefully we can enjoy a great season here."

So much for the ins. As far as the outs are concerned, Arzu seems to be about to join Nástic of Segunda, while Rodri (an unexceptional attacking midfielder who hasn't played regularly since the days of Antonio Tapia) is also headed down a division having been signed by Guadalajara. 

One player going nowhere, of course, is young Álvaro Vadillo. Ooh Betis reader Linus has stitched together his performance on Granada and stuck it up on YouTube for your watching pleasure.

 

(Pic above from the official club website.)

Roque times ahead

I first came across the name of Roque Santa Cruz this summer when I was scouring Blackburn Rovers forums for information about their proposed bid for ex-Betis man Mariano Pavone. "Well, at least we know he can't be as bad as RSC," was the general gist. (How little they knew...) And as regular reader Andy Smith pointed out in the comments last week, Manchester City fans don't rate him much higher. And yet Betis fans, on the whole, are thrilled with his signing (which has just been officially announced). So, who's right?

Well, here's what we know. He's Paraguayan, he's 30 and he's joining on a year's loan from Manchester City, who bought him from Blackburn for 17 million pounds just two years ago. Since an annus mirabilis with Blackburn in 2007/8 (19 goals in 36 starts), he's had three indifferent seasons, struggling with injuries and falling out of favour with new City coach Roberto Mancini. A loan spell back with Blackburn from January to the end of last season was a big disappointment (see above), and although he helped Paraguay to the final of the summer's Copa America he was far from an automatic choice in the starting 11.

In short, he's got a lot to prove. At his best - and we have to go back three years or more for that - he was a fantastic all-round striker, combining no little skill with physical presence. At his worst, he's just a highly paid invalid.

Overall, though, I have to say that he's probably worth a gamble for Betis. Even though he'll be the highest earning player at the club, he won't be more than back-up for Jorge Molina until he starts proving that he's worthy of challenging for the centre-forward spot. If he gets his mojo back, then great; if not, I've no doubt that Molina will prove a handful for opposition defences anyway.

One curious fact in all of this: Santa Cruz was on the point of joining Betis four years ago but pulled out of the deal because his advisers didn't like the peculiar conditions demanded by then owner Manuel Ruíz do Lopera. He arrives with plenty of respect for that, if nothing else.

Carrying on where we left off

The best thing about the first competitive outing for the 2011/12 Real Betis might just be how closely they resembled the 2010/10 version. That's probably not surprising - Jorge Molina's arrival made the team 8/11ths of last year's line-up - but it was still encouraging to see the old virtues have remained intact over the summer: pressing and passing, pressing and passing. It should be enough to see off better teams than Granada this year.

Some more thoughts about Saturday...

l Pepe Mel was inclined to put the sticky first 20 minutes down to nervousness. "[I think there were] too many expectations, too many [Primera] debutants and too much time waiting, and Granada started strongly with the help of their support," he explained afterwards. "But after the first 20 minutes we dominated and overall we had the ball more and made more chances. A fair result? I don't know but they're three very precious points for us."

l It's a fair bet that he might have had more to say about the referee if Rubén Castro hadn't popped up with that late winner. Pérez Lasa declined Betis two 80 per cent penalty shouts and was noticeably reluctant to get out his yellow card, even in response to some very robust Granada tackling. Seville sports daily Estadio Deportivo gave him a mark of 0 out of 3 and one journalist called him "a clown".

l The latest financial dispute in Spanish football concerns the ever-popular radio coverage of La Liga. (See here for the background.) Several national and local stations cover each game, and have done so for free for more than 80 years, but now the Liga authorities want them to pay for the privilege. Radio reporters were locked out of every Primera game except Sevilla's over the weekend but news was still delivered to the nation by studio-bound pundits watching television pictures. The only official radio station in the Granada stadium on Saturday night was Radio Betis, who commentated on the goal like this:

 

l Jonathan Pereira's contribution may have been crucial, but he still had to answer questions about his future after the game. There have been rumours that he will be sent up to his home-town club Celta Vigo as part-exchange for left-back Roberto Lago, but he seemed keen to stress that he wasn't planning to go anywhere. Needless to say, letting Jony leave would be A Bad Idea.

l Once Álvaro Vadillo hits his stride he'll almost certainly have to get used to comparisons with Cristiano Ronaldo, but I'm glad to say that off the field at least he seems a very different personality. Interviewed on TV after the game he came across as chatty, excited and even a little goofy, rather like a Roald Dahl character as drawn by Quentin Blake. Long may he remain so.

l While the first team were winning in Granada, Betis B were managing a creditable 1-1 at Badajoz, including this great goal from Pozuelo. There are no Primera games this weekend (for an international break), but the B team faces one of their biggest fixtures of the season: the derbi chico against their Sevilla counterparts. Ooh Betis certainly plans to be there.

l Finally, Roque Santa Cruz is undergoing a medical right about now. After two years of injuries, no-one is assuming this will be a formality but I'll give you the news as and when it arrives.

(Pic from the official club website. See here for more pictures of the game.)

How it happened

The powers that be are being even more careful than usual to prevent their league being advertised around the world and are taking highlights off YouTube almost as soon as they are posted, but you should be able to see a brief summary of the game here (courtesy of Betisweb).

Granada CF 0-1 Real Betis

 

Regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of canny little striker Jonathan Pereira. He's had to put up with playing out of position for most of his year and a half at Betis, but he's got an impressively cool head whenever he gets into the danger area - a useful attribute that he demonstrated again tonight. Coming on as a late subsitute for Salva Sevilla, he took advantage of slip by a Granada central defender to advance towards the left-hand post, then calmly put his cross right onto the head of Rubén Castro, who could hardly miss. (As the video above has been taken down, try here to see the goal.) It all looked so simple, but it certainly wasn't; Jefferson Montero had made a mess of an almost identical situation moments earlier.

Personally, I thought it was a thoroughly deserved victory. Betis started poorly, but gradually got their midfield passing game together and dominated the second half, even while the front three were sometimes struggling to connect with each other. Granada were their usual physical selves - and looked dangerous at every attacking set piece - but simply didn't have enough possession in the second half to do Pepe Mel's side any real damange. The chances were coming thick and fast in for the visitors in the final 20 minutes, with a Mario header thumping the bar and Jefferson Montero causing continual problems down the left wing, and in the end it was just a question of whether a goal or the final whistle would arrive first. The fact Betis finished up with the three points is tribute to Pepe Mel's attacking instincts; instead of settling for a draw, he went for the kill by throwing on a striker for a midfielder. That's why we love him.

His other gamble, starting young Álvaro Vadillo ahead of Jorge Molina, wasn't quite so successful. The kid - Betis's youngest ever debutant in a competitive game - didn't do badly, but he was noticeably lacking the super-confident swagger I saw in his Betis B performance last week and was nullified pretty effectively by the Granada defence. Sensibly, Pepe Mel didn't knock his confidence by bringing him off at half-time, but Betis certainly looked stronger once Jorge Molina was on early in the second half and Rubén Castro had been moved into Vadillo's position on the right.

The three debutants - Chica, Mario and Montero - all looked useful enough, with Mario in particular having an immense game in central defence. He's not tall, but he's a real warrior and fitted into Pepe Mel's blue-collar Betis side like he'd played 50 games alongside Chechu Dorado and Co.

The only real shame was that so few Béticos were on hand to see the triumph. Television pictures showed big expanses of seats where 2,000 away fans should have been - and were when the two sides last played in January - but, as the reporter for Spanish TV channel La Sexta acknowledged, a price of  €70 a ticket was too much for all but a handful of visitors from Seville. You can only hope the fact Granada ended up shooting themselves in the foot (financially speaking) will be a lesson to other clubs thinking of taking advantage of Béticos (almost) unconditional loyalty.

Anyway, a great start - and improvement still to come. We're off.

Betis: Casto; Chica, Mario, Dorado, Nacho; Iriney, Beñat, Salva Sevilla (Pereira, min. 85); Vadillo (Jorge Molina, min. 51), Jefferson Montero (Álex Martínez, min. 92) y Rubén Castr0.  

Goal: 0-1, min. 88: Rubén Castro.

Molina out; Vadillo starts

Hot off the airwaves of Radio Betis: Jorge Molina has failed a late fitness test and will be replaced in the starting line-up by Álvaro Vadillo. When I wrote on Sunday that "I'd bet good money he makes the first team before June", I honestly didn't think it would be within seven days but, hey - I couldn't be more excited to see how he gets on. Vamonos, Vadi!

Better late than never

For those who've joined us over the summer, and there seem to be quite a few of you, here's how a matchday weekend at Ooh Betis works: a preview a few hours before the game, a report as soon afterwards as I can manage (easier tonight as I'll be watching at home), then a link to highlights the next morning and, usually, some more considered reflections a day or two later. This season will be a little different to the previous two as a good proportion of games will be broadcast around the world, so feel free to add your own comments whenever you like.

Having said this year will be different, however, there's more than a small feeling of deja vu about tonight's visit to Granada. Betis even kicked off last season against the same Andalucían rivals (with a convincing 4-1 home win), before meeting them again in the Copa del Rey (winning on penalties after a 2-2 draw) and then losing heavily in Granada (3-0). What's more, at least a dozen of tonight's probable starting line-ups were on the pitch for that latter game in January, and although both clubs have made signings over the summer, the key men on each side are more than likely to be leftovers from last year. So while,yes, this is Betis's first game in Primera for 818 days, we might have to wait a week or two to notice the change.

That's not to say Granada aren't worthy opponents at this level. Despite needing the play-offs to win promotion - having come up from Segunda B just the year before - they were always one of Segunda's strongest sides, with a shrewd coach (the wily Fabri) marshalling some very decent players (many of whom come loaned from Serie A club Udinese). Last season's 24-goal striker Alex Geijo misses tonight's game through injury, but my Segunda player of the year, Dani Benítez, will still be working his tricks on the left-hand side of attack and French right-back Nyom is another player to be very wary of. It's hard to know which of their new signings will play, but Portuguese international Carlos Martins is said to be a decent attacking midfielder and right-sided Jaime Romero is a young Spanish wing-back with a future (and another on loan from Udinese).

In January Fabri's men played the perfect game against Betis, soaking up pressure and staying patient before hitting the verdiblancos with three lethal counter-attacks in about ten second-half minutes. It was clever, cruel and painful to watch (especially in the bouncing Granada city centre bar where I happened to be at the time).

The Granada coach will no doubt try to do exactly the same tonight, but Pepe Mel is bound to have learnt from that lesson and I'm sure he will have earmarked this is game that could be won. The Betis line-up is fairly predictable - Casto; Chica, Mario, Dorado, Nacho; Salva Sevilla, Iriney, Beñat; Rubén Castro, Molina, Montero - with 16-year-old Álvaro Vadillo ready to come on in the second half as Betis's youngest-ever Primera debutant. They've been playing 4-3-3 all pre-season and there's no reason to suppose that'll change now, so it just remains to be seen whether Betis can turn possession and neat passing into goals - while at the same time being canny enough to watch for Benítez and Co on the counter. It's a tricky balancing act - and one that obviously went awry in January - but the pace of Jefferson Montero is a handy new weapon that could make the difference.

To be honest, though, there are too many unknowns to be very confident about the game's outcome. Both sides have had a mixed bag of results in pre-season and it's impossible to know what sort of affect the enforced break will have. But Betis were a better overall football team than Granada last year and that's more than likely to be the case again this season. Now they just need to prove it.

The game is on Sky Sports 4 in the UK and Ireland, and DirecTV in the USA, while Googling around for "Roja Directa" should find you decent-ish (albeit illegal) live streaming. It's a real shame that the high ticket prices seem to have caused an unofficial boycott by Seville Béticos - with the result that the away presence will be counted in hundreds rather than the thousands who went to Granada in January - but the Nuevo Los Cármenes stadium is one of the most atmospheric in Spain and it will still be close to its new 22,500 capacity.

It's been a long, long wait but we're nearly there now. Welcome back to the big time everyone - and, at the risk of sounding undignified... ¡¡¡MUCHO BETIS!!!

(Pic from last season's game taken from here.)

The guessing game

A couple of days ago, someone on one of the Spanish Bético forums invited fans to predict where the club would finish this season. Around 120 replies came in and the results are pretty interesting: 12th was the most common answer and 10th the average; no-one was brave enough to choose third place (the highest realistically available), but then again not a single respondent predicted relegation, either. It seems Béticos are anticipating - and would be perfectly happy with - a quiet season of all-round consolidation.

I wouldn't disagree at all. Right now, before a ball has been kicked, it's obviously hard to be exactly sure where Betis stand in the Primera pecking order, but most of the important signs are positive. Despite the fact that relegation in 2009 was the culmination of several years' worth of struggle, only the most chronically pessimistic fans foresee a return to that kind of anxiety. 

Here's why...

1. The players

An outsider might look at the current squad - which, after all, is not that different from last year's - and see a dearth of Primera experience. Fair enough - but that's not to say these players aren't ready now. Names like Chechu Dorado, Salva Sevilla, Jorge Molina and Beñat have worked their way up through the ranks, becoming the stand-out players at tiny clubs like Conquense and Poli Ejido before moving up to Segunda level and shining there. They are serious, ambitious, talented footballers who are all the hungrier for success in Primera because it's cost them so much to get there. "Hombres no nombres," as the Spanish phrase goes (men, not names). If they were racehorses, you'd say they were "unexposed" - in other words, the upper limits of their abilities hasn't been revealed yet - with the quality of the football they played last season (collectively and individually) suggesting this team has more than enough ability to cope comfortably with most Primera opposition. (And that's even before we've mentioned the younger talent already coming through...)

2. The Copa del Rey run

Not that you need to take my word for the qualities of this Betis side. Last winter they beat two mid-grade Primera clubs - Zaragoza and Getafe - over two legs in the Spanish equivalent of the FA Cup. They were the better side in each of the ties, and completely took Getafe apart in a 3-1 away win. They then gave a three-quarter strength Barcelona side two good games, winning in Seville and impressing Pep Guardiola so much he was still talking about us at the end of the season. Those were six proper tests and the new Betis passed with flying colours.

3. Pepe Mel says everything will be fine

"I'm completely happy with the players who took us up last year," the Betis coach told reporters in the summer. "I've said many times that the side that finishes as champion of Segunda generally makes a good showing in Primera the following year. I'm convinced that the likes of Dorado, Iriney, Beñat, Salva, Molina and Rubén Castro are going to prove themselves."

Like the Béticos polled above, he's looking higher up the table than 17th. "I have a lot of confidence in my team and I think we're going to be competitors. OK, only two teams can win the title, but I'm not going to say that our only objective is to stay up. It might be the first target, but once we've achieved it, which I'm sure we're going to, then we'll start aiming higher."

4. History

While Pepe Mel's assertion that Segunda champions do well in Primera isn't entirely accurate - six have gone straight back down in the last 10 years - it is mostly true that promoted teams overall hold their own. Over the last 15 seasons, only 15 of the 45 sides to have come up from Segunda have been relegated in the very next season.

 5. Los 40,000

Need I say more?

This is obviously a nervous time. Pre-season has seen a rather odd mixture of meaningless thrashings of minor teams and unlucky defeats to bigger ones, and then there's been the strike to keep us stewing just a little bit longer. Now we play the first game of the Primera season against a side we faced three times last year. It'll be a good couple of months before we really know how Pepe Mel's Betis will shape up at their new level, so in the meamtime we're relying on guesswork and sheer blind faith. Where do you think they'll finish? Call me crazy, but I'm going for 8th.

(Preview of tonight's game to follow later.)