Words fail me as to how inept we were inside the penalty area in a first half when Mallorca should have gone in at the break three up. Four corners in ten minutes (we've now had 26 in two games), all of which came to nothing, were scant reward for the islanders, whose build-up was impressive but the finished article was a complete disaster. We should take some encouragement from the first twenty minutes, but for all the hard work Moutinho and Lago Junior did down the flanks putting over crosses to invisible strikers, it was frustrating to say the least.
Most football teams in the modern game in any league have some sort of killer instinct up front: at the moment Real Mallorca couldn't burst a paper bag. Our main so-called striker, Oscar Diaz, missed at least two sitters in the first half as did Lago Junior, Juan Rodriguez and especially Campabadal. Just before the break his attempt from ten yards was ballooned over the bar. Instead of trying to go for the delicate finish he went for the “take the leather off the ball” option and blazed his effort into the crowd. After the interval, the home side kicked towards their own vociferous fans and in the 70th minute ex-Mallorca player Alex Moreno found himself in acres of space as he poked home the game's only goal. They had one chance in 93 minutes to score and made it count. Mallorca were stunned, another smash-and-grab defeat; they only have themselves to blame.
SUMMING UP: Long before this season kicked off, the powers that be should have made signing a striker our number-one top priority with the money available. It's all very well playing attractive football in the build-up but if you can't finish these moves off with a goal, the game's up. Sunday was the anniversary of Real Mallorca's famous 1-0 win over Arsenal on 11 September 2001 in their first ever venture into the Champions League, but this Sunday we looked like a team who don't know how to score goals. Back then on that famous night we had Luque and Eto'o in attack and we were lethal in front of goal.
I watched the game in the packed Mallorcafé with four other expat Mallorca fans. After the game finished we all trooped out at two o'clock with a sense of total disbelief. Mallorca totally dominated the game but had absolutely no idea how to hit the target. That's now 270 minutes in normal time we haven't scored and our season has started disastrously. Mallorca still haven't won a game in Liga 1.2.3 and our striking situation has now become very worrying. Ironically, Ortuño, who played with us at the back end of last season and was top of our list for this season before heading for Cadiz, scored twice at the weekend. He's now scored four goals in five games.
Rayo made a crucial half-time change bringing on Moreno and he scored with his second touch. Our coach Vazquez waits far too long to make changes: Dalmau should have been introduced at half time. With all these missed chances Real Mallorca, after four games, find themselves bottom of the league. There's now a huge question mark over the continuance of our coach Fernando Vazquez.
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What s great job Steve Nash and Robert Sarver have done since wasting their €21m on getting ownership of the club. They have taken a bottom six team and turned it into a bottom of the table team. Letting your best striker go and then signing a bunch of no hopers who can't hit a barn door with a basketball isnt very sharp business. This is the worst offensive Mallorca team in over 25 years. The owners want more English/German fans to attend. Well I gotta tell you Bob, not only wont that happen, but your local fans will head for the Tramuntana hills also. No goals = no entertainment = no fans. If this keeps up, attendances will drop to 4,000. If these two US clowns dong act in Jan, the club is doomed.
So - you watched the game in a cafe ?????? Why weren´t you in the stands with the REAL fans ??