Forever Betis

Preview: Almería v. Real Betis

The headline for the ABC de Sevilla preview of this game is "First stop on a sad journey to nowhere", which might be overegging the pudding somewhat, but gives you some idea of the mood in Betisland these days. We're already in Segunda, 90 per cent of the squad want to leave (whatever they say in public) in order to avoid having their salaries drastically cut, coach Gaby Calderón is on his way out too and there's not even a technical director to start the rebuilding process. A complete mess in other words. 

The team to play against Almería, who desperately need the points to avoid relegation, is: Adán; Juanfran, Perquis, Jordi Figueras, Juan Carlos; N'Diaye, Lolo Reyes, Matilla; Jorge Molina, Rubén Castro and Braian Rodríguez, which means, I suppose that we're mostly looking for evidence that Braian and perhaps Matilla could do a job next year. Almost all the others are on borrowed time in verdiblanco: Rubén Castro is very close to signing for Málaga apparently, Juanfran and Lolo Reyes are vulnerable to good offers from Primera, Juan Carlos and Alfred N'Diaye are loanees who won't be returning and Figueras is out of contract. This is certainly not how we expected the season to end.

I'll be in a bar that has the game showing, but I can't promise I'll be glued to the action. What time's the Spanish MotoGP on, anyway?

How it happened

Even from four minutes of highlights you can tell it can't have been the most spine-tingling game, which is probably why most of today's press has been focusing on the reaction of the Betis fans. When the team was announced, the following players received warm applause - Adán, Juanfran, Lolo Reyes, N'Diaye and Jorge Molina (plus the canteranos) - while every other name was whistled loudly, including that of Rubén Castro, who continued to be barracked during the game itself. Not even 80 goals in four seasons makes you above criticism, it seems, especially once you've earned yourself a reputation as an unapproachable party animal who disappears when the going gets tough (a simplification, but not far off how Rubén is regarded). Neither was Gaby Calderón give a much warmer reception; I think we can take it for granted Betis will on the look out for a new coach in the summer.

Real Betis 0-1 Real Sociedad

An unbelievably dreary game by all accounts, watched by half the usual crowd in near silence for long periods. The goal came shortly after half-time when Carlos Vela was brought down by Juan Carlos and dusted himself off to score the penalty. As the headline to the report in ABC de Sevilla put it, pre-season has already started.

Betis: Adán; Chica, Perquis, Jordi, Juan Carlos (Molina, m. 75); Lolo Reyes (Ceballos, m. 80), Ndiaye; Juanfran, Juanma (Baptistao, m. 58), Rubén Castro; Braian Rodríguez.

Goal: 0-1, m. 48: Vela (pen)

Attendance: 16.807 

Going...Going...GONE

This evening's 1-0 victory for Getafe over Málaga confirms what we've more than suspected for some time now...that Real Betis will be playing in the so-called Liga Adelante for 2014/15. Relegated before the end of April - that says it all, really.

To be honest, though, it doesn't hurt nearly as much as it could do. That's partly because we've had so long to get used to the idea, but also from knowing that next season is bound to be more fun than this one. A clean slate; a bunch of keen, young, home-grown players; a new coach...the only way is up, isn't it? We'll be back.

 

Preview: Real Betis v. Real Sociedad (10pm)

Are we there yet? Well, not quite - but it won't be long now. Indeed, if Getafe were to win their 6pm game against Málaga, Betis would be officially relegated to Segunda even before tonight's tricky-looking game kicks off.

Interestingly, if we're looking for a measure of how far Betis have fallen this season, tonight's opponents aren't a bad yardstick. Last year the team from San Sebastian finished fourth with 66 points, just 10 ahead of Betis; this campaign they suffered a little from the burden of having to play Champions League football in the autumn, but have lately pulled themselves up to sixth and have 54 points with four games left. In other words, they've enjoyed a broadly similar kind of season - despite losing their coach last summer. Your Real Betis Balompié, meanwhile, can currently be spotted no fewer than 32 points adrift of a team they should really have been aiming to keep up with. That's just embarrassingly bad.

But you don't need me to tell you that. By all accounts this is shaping up to be the second-worst of Betis's entire 49 seasons in Primera, and for the players, management and supporters, the end can't come soon enough. A noticeably sparse crowed is expected for tonight's penultimate home game, for which Paulao and Vadillo have been dropped, while four youngsters - goalkeeper Pedro, centre-back Caro, midfielder Dani Ceballos and forward Juanma - bulk up the squad.

They say that protests are planned for tonight, but it's hard to see quite what's left to rage against. Personally, I'm secretly glad that a promise to go and watch a friend's band play an 11pm gig means I have an excuse to skip what could be another humiliation - anyone who remembers the 5-1 drubbing in the Basque Country game will know what I mean - but I'll try and bring you the bad news before bedtime. The late Gabriel García Márquez had it about right: Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

Rayo Vallecano 3-1 Real Betis

Don't worry - the reason I haven't updated the blog since yesterday's game isn't because I've thrown myself off the highest available building in Seville. No, it's just that Typepad, the blogging platform I use, has been down for the last 24 hours or so.

And anyway, there's not much to say about the match itself except that it was literally unwatchable. As you can see from the highlights below, Paulao made two excruciating errors that handed the game to Rayo in the first 25 minutes and then had some kind of meltdown and asked to be substituted, a request to which Gaby Calderón, surprisingly, agreed. (Graffiti appeared on the walls of the training ground this morning accusing the Brazilian defender of being "a coward".) I have to admit that I stopped paying attention when it was 2-0, but I gather that only the wordwork saved Betis from total humiliation, while Javi Chica scored a late consolation - his first for Betis - which he was able to dedicate to his late friend Dani Jarque.

It goes without saying the season could not end soon enough.

Betis: Adán; Juanfran, Paulao (Vadillo, m. 31), Perquis (Jordi, m. 66) Chica; Lolo Reyes, Ndiaye, Nono; Leo Baptistao (Verdú, m. 66) Rubén Castro, Jorge Molina.

Goals: 1-0, m. 14: Rochina. 2-0, m. 26: Paulao en propia puerta. 3-0, m. 51: Larrivey. 3-1, m. 78: Chica.

Preview: Rayo Vallecano v. Real Betis (5pm)

I guess this is a bit what it must be like on Death Row. Strictly, there's the faint hope of a last-minute pardon from the governor, but deep down you must just want it to be over. If Susan Sarandon can stick around to usher you towards the light, then so much the better.

With all hope gone - it was extinguished definitively, I think we can say, in the last 10 minutes of the Málsga match - these five last games are pretty much the definition of going through the motions. Rayo are hardly desperate for the win as a run of five victories and two draws in their last eight games has brought them up to the very respectable total of 37 points, but as every other team in the league seems to be able to beat Betis without even trying, it's more than likely that Paco Jémez's combatative bunch will be able to do the same. In fact, the Rayo coach might just be the day's key man; there are rumours that Betis would like him to spearhead the promotion push next season and if you've ever seen this video of a team-talk he did towards the end of last season, you'll probably agree that he looks like he'd be ideal. (And besides, the last ex-Rayo coach we took on didn't turn out too badly.)

The Betis squad is plagued by injuries,with Amaya, Nosa, Salva Sevilla, Nacho, Dídac, etc,  all out, and Juan Carlos's appeal against his preposterous derbi red card was not upheld - surprise! - so the back four of Juanfran, Paulao, Figueras and Chica more or less picks itself, as does the middle three of Nono, Lolo Reyes and N'Diaye, while Rubén C, Jorge M and Leo B should start up front. (A couple of notes from the derbi: Sevilla fans had a lot of fun at Nono's expense, which visibly upset him, while Juanfran was very warmly applauded by Béticos when he was substituted; he's one of those players who almost cares too much.)

Rayo, who you will remember finished off Pepe Mel's Betis career in the first game between the clubs, are particularly hard to beat in their compact Madrid ground, and with the visitors so obviously down on their luck right now we can be pretty confident of a home victory, I'm afraid. We already know it's time to start looking forward to next season - and there was some good news yesterday with Betis B making the Tercera play-offs, and both on-loan Béticos, Sergio Rodríguez and Vincenzo Renella, scoring for Lugo in Segunda. One day we'll look back at these dark times and laugh, I promise.

How it happened

Two lots of highlights for the price of one, but if I put up 102 there still wouldn't be any that make it look like a penalty. I had a bird's eye view of the incident and it was so obviously a clean tackle that it was, as Gaby Calderón said in so many words, embarrassing.

 

And just in case you still had any doubts...

Real Betis 0-2 Sevilla

I've waited almost 12 hours to try and feel like writing something about this morning's game, and frankly I still don't, but it happened and it needs reporting, so here goes.

And to be honest, we might as well just skip past the first 28 minutes - which Betis dominated without really looking likely to score - and go straight to the key moment. Making their first break upfield, Sevilla opened up the Betis defence and Colombian striker Bacca was just about to shoot when Juan Carlos (playing left-back) stretched out a leg to push the ball away. Penalty and red card according to ref Carlos Velasco Carballo and precisely no-one else. (Even Unai Emery all but confessed it was a stupid decision later.) The Betis players and fans went absolutely bananas - there were even chants for the team to leave the pitch in protest - but not so much for this one terrible decision as the countless similar ones that have preceeded it this season. (Remember Javi Chica's penalty against Villareal? This one was almost identical.) Gameira made not mistake from the penalty spot.

So, an hour left and down to 10 men? Well, a better team might have shrugged off the disadvantage, especially as Seville looked to be feeling the effects of Thursday night's exertions, but this Betis simply don't have enough class to compete in these kinds of situations. It was game over and although the players tried their best - to the point that it was almost exhausting watching them - Beto's net was never seriously threatened and a Sevilla breakaway goal was always more likely than an equaliser. The killer blow arrived with 10 minutes to go and triggered a mass, very understandable exit.

A Betis twitter account - @BetisStats - is running a straw poll as to whether all the terrible decisions we've suffered t his season have been "premeditated" or "involuntary mistakes". The voting is currently 39:1 in favour of the former, but it's worth pointing out that today's referee was just plain bad. Sevilla had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside, Mr Velasco Carballo clearly chickened out of giving a deserved second yellow card to Alfred N'Diaye and, perhaps worst of all, he failed to stop play for a clash of heads so serious that Fazio needed two bandages to soak up the blood and Baptistao collapsed from concussion. As Gaby Calderón pointed out afterward, the standard of officiating was an embarrassment to Spanish football.

You don't need me to tell you where this leaves Betis - up the creek without a paddle, basically - but there was at least one high point of the morning. The gigantic tifo (banner) organised by the Betisweb site to hang across the Fondo stand was simply gorgeous, portraying riverside Calle Betis in Seville above the words: "A river, a street, a city, a universal feeling." Sadly, right now this universal feeling is something like "outrage".

Betis: Adán; Juanfran (Braian, m. 76), Amaya, Jordi, Juan Carlos; Nono, Ndiaye; Leo Baptistao (Cedrick, m. 59), Rubén Castro, Vadillo (Chica, m. 40); Jorge Molina.

Goals: 0-1, m. 29: Gameiro, de penalti. 0-2, m. 81: Gameiro.

Attendance: 32, 254

Preview: Real Betis v. Sevilla (12noon)

The fact that they're expecting a crowd of rather less than 30,000 tells you, I think, all you need to know about today's weirdly irrelevant derbi. (That's almost 20,000 fewer bums on seats than you might expect for a "normal" visit of Sevilla.) Put simply, a vast number of Béticos have decided that they've got better things to do, whether it's getting into position for the start of Semana Santa, heading to the beach or rearranging their second-best cutlery drawer. Perhaps this is not surprising: if Betis win, we can't honestly pretend we're anything but the city's lesser team and we're still going down; and if Betis lose - well, who wants to see that?

Perhaps this is the time to give credit to Sevilla, who, after a shaky start, have won seven of their eight league games to pull themselves up to fifth, not to mention having stormed into the semis of the Europa League. Legendary sporting director Monchi, who had been accused of losing his touch before this season, has obviously spent the Manchester City millions (for Negredo and Navas) wisely and a young, talented squad will largely be able to stay together for next season, possibly under quirky coach Unai Emery, and possibly not. (You know how those Sevillistas like to give a perfectly decent boss the elbow, just for the fun of it.)

Betis, as we alll know, are headed in the other direction - and fast. Ever since conceding that two-goal advantage in the Euroderbi second leg, Gaby Calderón's men have looked a little haunted, and one can't help wondering how many will really be up for a scrap this afternoon, especially as their terrier-in-chief, Lolo Reyes, is suspended. Two of the season's biggest disappointments, Nosa and Joan Verdú, are back in the squad, but their presence smacks of desperation more than a genuine tactical decision. I just hope Antonio Adán has woken up feeling lively.

I don't think there'll be much need for a separate Live Thread - just comment below if you're in the mood - and please don't expect a long match report soon after the game is finished. It's Domingo de Ramos in Seville - football, even a derbi, has to take a back seat today. Enjoy the game - and fingers crossed for some salvaged pride at least.