Soccer | FC Cartagena
Efesé, who have already beaten Almería and Sporting, will host another first team tomorrow, Eibar, to once again add a win: “It’s 100% possible”
October 19 and January 2 are the two precedents that invite the Cartagena coach, Luis Carrión, to think that tomorrow (Cartagonova, 6:15 p.m.) it is possible to beat the leader: Eibar, «the best team in the category ». The Albinegro team has achieved two impossible goals this season, defeating Sporting (1-0) and Almería (0-1), two clubs that were the first classified at that time. There are not two without three, Carrión hinted yesterday, excited and convinced to repeat it again.
Efesé really needs it, not because of qualifying urgencies but to add three again. The team has not won since January 30 (against Fuenlabrada, 3-0) and on Monday they managed to break the losing streak of three straight losses (Las Palmas, Ibiza and Valladolid) with Okazaki’s goal in Malaga in the 94th minute ( 1-1). “We want to win, and at home. You have to get a good result and it doesn’t matter which rival comes. I am confident and I see that we are well, in a good qualifying position».
Cartagena is ninth, has a cushion of 14 points on relegation and the dream of sixth place is still 3 away. This day is of vital importance for the team, since if it loses it could be overtaken by other rivals and see that distance increased with the promotion playoff. Carrión sees “desire and predisposition” on a day-to-day basis to “be there”, in that list of candidates, to continue fighting for a goal until the end of the season. The permanence, except catastrophe, is sealed.
promotion bonus
There are 13 games left and 39 points at stake. Anything can happen, however difficult some or other scenarios may seem. For this reason, the captains of the first team have agreed, agreed and signed with the president, Paco Belmonte, a bonus in a hypothetical case of promotion to the First Division. It is not the first time that a team sneaks into sixth place, disputes the ‘playoff’ and ends up moving up in category. Just in case, that document is already prepared. And it is an extra element of motivation for footballers. Some players, like Gallar, would be obligatorily linked to Efesé.
At the moment it will be time to wait for the Catalan for a few weeks. Tomorrow is the main absence for Carrión, who has felt “bad” about that inopportune micro-tear suffered at La Rosaleda. The Catalan can opt for a wide range of possibilities, players and tactical systems, to cover the loss of the Catalan footballer.
«We are considering several possibilities and I have to end up deciding. They are all good players and whoever plays will do well. Whoever comes out on Sunday will do well, the people on the bench have always performed and it is an opportunity to stay [en la alineación]», Carrión said about it.
The quarry, integrated
During this week he has gone up to train with the older Diego de Pedro. He is the winger of the División de Honor, with an increasing presence in the Tercera subsidiary and who has renewed his contract with the club until 2024. «I have seen him and he is doing well, he is doing a good job, he has helped us complete the I train and there is a possibility that he will come with us [convocado]. If he has a chance to play, he will come; and if not, no, because the subsidiary plays the same day as us », he argued.
The Cartagena coach did guarantee the call for Neskes, unprecedented in recent weeks and who has recently returned to the subsidiary to have minutes. «He will come with us, he does a good job. Just as he has played with us at a good level in the preseason and during the course, now, perhaps, I think he is a little worse. I don’t want him to be unemployed for two months, without playing; I want him to have minutes when he goes down to ‘B’. Everything he has had he has earned. And you have to keep working, because these are times, perhaps, a little more difficult for him. On Sunday he will be with us and, if he goes out, he will do well », explained Carrión.
The Catalan coach finally affected “having the illusion of winning”, regardless of the rival and the “larger or smaller budget. If we do a good job, I am fully convinced that we can win.”
LaLiga eliminates the obligation to carry out daily tests on players
The 42 clubs that compete in the professional soccer league no longer have the obligation to follow a health protocol set by LaLiga. For a few weeks, teams like Cartagena have been able to follow a series of recommendations, without the obligation that the body chaired by Javier Tebas demanded at the beginning of 2022.
Then, the Ómicron variant hit the population hard, the number of cases rose and infections skyrocketed in most First and Second division teams. For this reason, strict health protocols were re-established, such as those applied in the hardest moments of the pandemic. Some prevented the use of the changing rooms, the showers and the rest of the common areas of the stadiums and training fields. The players had to come dressed from home, travel on several buses, go to training in private cars and even eat, in the concentration hotels, in small groups to strengthen contacts.
The most severe measure was the control of the soccer players, technical bodies, workers and managers closest to the first team. Above all, with daily antigen tests and PCR tests in the hours before the match. Under these parameters, positive and asymptomatic cases were detected in the workforce.
Currently, the incidence of the coronavirus has decreased and teams like Cartagena are not obliged to follow a marked and fixed protocol of LaLiga. Yes, a series of recommendations, translated into testing in a not so continuous way and, above all, if there are symptoms related to Covid-19.
Thus, for a few weeks, it is also possible to use the changing rooms to change and clean up. Also the common and interior areas, for stretching. It is also not mandatory for substitute players, physical trainer and assistant coaches to wear the mask on the bench.