After a week when Martin Scorsese’s movie “Killers of the Flower Moon” is showing in Palma – its running time of 206 minutes reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock who said “The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder !” – Real Mallorca, after a three week moratorium, get back to business tomorrow (Saturday 25th) when they face the daunting task of playing in-form Atletico Madrid in their impressive Civitas Metropolitano stadium at 9pm.
They’ve been on a 15 consecutive winning streak at home. We can take a small crumb of comfort from the fact that we won 0-1 there two years ago, however, current dynamics of both teams on present form couldn’t be more different. Mallorca have gone seven games without a win and will be without their star player Verdat Muriqi for several weeks.
Two other players, Pablo Maffeo and Cyle Larin, only arrived back in Palma yesterday from international duty in Brazil and Canada respectively. Maffeo didn’t get any game time for Argentina whereas Larin played in two CONCACAF nations league games against Jamaica.
Over two games, scores were level at 4-4, but the Reggae Boyz went through on away goals. Larin was substituted in the 74th minute on Tuesday with his performance being described as “shy and hesitant with a lot of running and not much else” – nothing new there then !
Whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s game (I’m not optimistic), our crunch match comes next Wednesday at home to Cadiz (9pm) who are just one point ahead of us. It’s what’s called in Spanish football a “bocadillo game” because many fans bring a “barra” sandwich which must never be unwrapped until half time!
Mallorca now face a plethora of seven games in 25 days, six in La Liga and one in the Cup before the end of the year. That’s 18 points at stake that are vital to place the team in the safety zone before they play the next 20 games scheduled from January 2024. Of these seven matches, four are in the Son Moix where 12 points are a must.
We have a month to find out if we sink or swim as the road map shows the Palma side have to face fixtures against direct rivals in quick succession. After Cadiz, Alaves are here on Sunday December 3 at 2pm, followed by a tricky tie against the unpredictable Sevilla in Son Moix on Saturday December 9, kick off 9pm.
In between league games we have to trek up north to play a team called CD Valle de Egues on their plastic pitch in Pamplona in the Copa del Rey second round on Wednesday December 6 at 7pm.
Three weeks’ inactivity doesn’t seem like the best preparation to reverse the dynamic, made even worse with the injury to Muriqi. The Kosovan, who injured a calf muscle playing for his country in Pristina, is now walking without pain and the expectations are that he may make the Sevilla game. Mallorca must be careful of a relapse if they rush him back too early.
They have an away game against bottom side Almeria on Sunday 17th at 2pm (a more likely venue for Muriqi’s return) then we bring the curtain down on a frenetic 2023 with a home match against Osasuna on Thursday 21st at 9:30pm. The team haven’t been without match practice during the break as they played Portuguese Primeira side Boavista in a behind-closed-doors friendly in Son Moix. A brace from Abdon Prats and goals from Llabres and Samu Costa saw us win 4-1.
Enhorabuena to our club mascot Dimonio who was runner up (to Amunt, the bat of Valencia) in the first ever “La Liga de las Mascotas” challenge in front of 3,000 fans in Leganes’s Butarque stadium in Madrid. Clubs from the top two Spanish leagues were present and they competed in events such as an obstacle race, a relay race and tossing the cucumber ! The hosts are nicknamed “Los Pepineros” hence the reason they threw cucumbers – Duh!
The past international break (the last until next March) saw a surge in players coming back injured with the so-called FIFA virus. It’s caused many top clubs to lose their best players for the rest of the season. All these injuries don’t just occur by chance, they happen because there are now far too many games with players not getting enough recovery period in a packed fixture list. Top players in Spain are playing 70 games a season including internationals with their eternal qualifiers and play offs.
Now future World Cups and Europa competitions are to be enlarged, prompting one top coach to comment “We’re taking footballers to the slaughter house.” It also means there’ll be more “minnows” in these competitions and we’ll see more ridiculous scorelines like France 14 – Gibraltar 0 !
AND FINALLY, a little girl walks into a pet shop and asks the assistant “Have you got any wabbits ?” The assistant smiles and replies “Yes we have, would you like a fluffy white wabbit or a cuddly brown wabbit !” The little girl answers “I don’t think my python givth a thit !”
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