Last home game for six weeks

Back to back defeats and shipping seven goals against Barcelona and Celta Vigo has seen Mallorca slip down a couple of places to eighth in the classifications. In both these games we made unprecedented errors in defence as we hadn’t lost a game by more than one goal so far this season. Against Barcelona we found stopping the talent of Lamine Yamal, Raphinha etc a step too far as our defence seemed to give up too early. Against a team with the quality of Barcelona, we should have at least tried to “get into them.” Sitting back and allowing them to run the show was a recipe for disaster.

The Celta 2-0 defeat was a defeat I half expected. Coach Arrasate was in a “needs must” situation due to fixture congestion and injuries. Making eight changes including two players who hadn’t played all season against a team with a good home record was a no brainer. To make matters worse, our captain Antonio Raillo, who’s been a “rock” at the heart of our defence this campaign, handled the ball in the area and was harshly shown a straight red card. In my humble opinion a yellow card would have sufficed. Copete is likely to take Raillo’s place tomorrow.

Girona have had a tough last two games, losing 0-3 to Real Madrid then going down 0-1 to a Mo Salah penalty against Liverpool in the Champions League. The Catalan club have lost eight of their side that finished an admirable third last season and are currently two points behind us in ninth place with 22. Saturday’s game is our last home match of the year. Our final La Liga game of 2024 is away in Madrid against Getafe next Saturday at 2pm.

Pontevedra from Galicia will be our first rivals in this season’s Copa del Rey. They are leaders in Group 1 in Segunda RFEF (fourth tier of Spanish football) and are a side we already visited in the third round in the 2022/23 season which we won 0-2 after extra time with goals by Muriqi and Abdon. Pontevedra are unquestionably so far the competition’s “giant killers” after beating second division Levante 4-1 and then Villareal 1-0. I seem to remember that their Pontevedra ground Pasaron had a near unplayable pitch so there’s no question the tie will be no stroll in the park for Mallorca. The game is scheduled for Friday, January 3, kick off 7pm.

Real Madrid, Barcelona plus Athletic Club and Mallorca enter this round after being exempt in the previous ones as they are the four that will play in the Spanish Super Cup in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia between January 8 – 12. If Mallorca get past this round of 32 teams (playing 16 games) in what has over the years been our favourite competition, we would once again be in with a shout of reaching another cup final. The round of 16 (8 games) follows10 days later on January 15. The quarter finals are scheduled for February 5 and the first and second legs of the semifinals will be on February 26 and April 2 respectively. The final will be on April 26.

Two of our most popular players reached a landmark recently. Vedat Muriqi scored his 30th goal for Mallorca against Barcelona, only the fourth player in the club’s history to reach that figure. However, he still has a long way to go to equal the record of 54 goals set by Samuel Eto’o, although Muriqi has a contract until June 2027. Five years ago when Mallorca were in the second division, they signed a then unknown midfielder from Albacete called Dani Rodriguez. Born in a small town called Betanzos in Galicia, he quickly became a fans’ favourite and has recently reached 161 matches in La Liga. He scored his first goal for Mallorca in a match against Eibar after just four minutes and from then on has earned a place in the hearts of all Mallorquinistas. All of us are expecting Dani (now 36) to see out his playing career in Palma. There’s no better sight than Dani charging out of his own half and into enemy territory with the ball at his feet, and he’s definitely one of the best box to box players to pull on a Mallorca shirt. Although he can’t play 90 minutes any more and has started six games from the bench, he remains a key player for the team on the pitch and in the dressing room. Suerte “El Tigre”!

I read on the internet during the week that Italian giants Napoli were interested in signing Mallorca’s Colombian left-back Johan Mojica in January! He’s turning in spectacular performances of late for Mallorca and is more decisive in attack than defence, in fact he struggles in his own penalty area as he showed recently with a hand ball against Valencia, and head-butting his own team-mate against Barcelona ! But down the other end of the pitch in the final metres, and above all when crossing, he is one of the most incisive wing backs in La Liga. The Colombian, at 32 years of age, has spent almost his entire career in Spain playing for Rayo Vallecano, Girona, (Atalanta in Italy in 2020) then Villareal, Elche and Osasuna. Mojica signed for Mallorca until 2027 from his parent club Villareal for 1.5 million euros and is now worth at least double that. There’s no way Mallorca will let him go in January and I question if he’ll even be allowed to leave in the Summer.

AND FINALLY, a man boards a plane with six kids. After they all get settled in their seats, a woman across the aisle leans over to him and asks “Are all those kids yours?” He replies “No, I work for a condom company. These are customer complaints!