Forever Betis

Reaching his century

Here's a quiz question for you: which Primera coach has been in his job the longest? By my calculations it's Espanyol's Mauricio Pochettino, who took over the reins at Barcelona's "other" club in January 2009, a whole three and a half years ago. Compare that to the English Premier League, where Alex Ferguson has beeen in charge at Manchester United for more than 26 years, Arsene Wenger at Arsenal  for 16 years, and David Moyes at Everton for ten. Coaches in Spain must think of their reigns like dog years: a season in La Liga is worth about seven anywhere else.

Not surprisingly, then, Pepe Mel is nearing the top of the list of the longest-serving coaches in the Spanish top division. He got the job at Betis in the summer of 2010, a couple of months after José Mourinho (2nd on that list) was appointed boss of Real Madrid and a few weeks after Paco Herrera took over at Celta de Vigo. And tomorrow's Copa del Rey game with Valladolid will be his 100th competitive game in charge. That's not yet in Fergie territory, but it's still counts as eternity in Spanish football.

He's marked the occasion with a series of interviews in which he's confessed his desire to carry on till he's beaten Lorenzo Serra Ferrer's mark of 262 games as Betis coach, and if he continues to be as successful has he's been so far that might not be beyond the bounds of possibility. Promotion in his first season, comfortable safety and a derbi win in his second, a solid start to his third... Betis under Pepe Mel simply keep improving, and if anyone wants more from a manager than that, they're just being greedy.

The ridiculous thing is that although Primera presidents are famously quick to pull the trigger on their coaches, it's almost certainly a counter-productive tactic. It's no coincidence that Betis president Miguel Guillén has a business background outside football, and was therefore able to see the bigger picture when the team were suffering their terrible run of nine defeats in ten games last autumn. An old-style owner - Lopera, for instance - would definitely sacked Mel, just to show that he could. But Guillén backed him almost to the point of recklessness, and the gamble payed off. Betis eventually came out of their bad run and the coach was able to continue his overall good work unmolested.

And Guillén obviously knows he made the right decision. "It's very important to point out that we've had the same coach for three seasons," the president told journalists last week, when asked what he thought about Betis's position in the league table. "This is absolutely key if you want to understand this Betis. The club, the project and the team are all young and we're all guided by the hand of Pepe Mel."

As for the fans, they could hardly love their coach more if he were made of green and white chocolate. He's built decent teams with hard-working, unstarry players, he's given chances to talented youngsters and, even though he's originally from Madrid, he's shown time and time again that he "gets" Betis (helped, of course, by the fact he played more than 100 games for the club 20 years ago). His name is chanted with great gusto at every game, something that still takes him aback apparently. Asked by AS this week what has surprised him most since he arrived at Betis, he said, "That's easy, and apologies for being self-centred, but I'm amazed that not a single day goes by, even when we're losing, without the crowd at the Villamarín remembering me. You can't buy affection. That's the most unexpected achievement and also the most comforting."

Olé. Here's to the next 100.

Pic: Yesterday's Seville edition of AS newspaper. The coverline reads, "Coaching Betis is a thrill."

Accentuating the positive

Here's a nice couple of clips, courtesy of the Videos del Betis site, to give you an idea of the overwhelmingly positive mood among the fanbase right now. The first shows the whole stadium drowning out the centenary anthem playing on the tannoy with chants of "Beeeetis! Beeeetis!" as the players take the post-match applause in the centre circle, while the second is simply two minutes of Béticos saying nice things about their team. The woman who is third to speak is typical: "I really liked [they way they played] and now we just hope theycan keep going. All us Béticos are very happy," she says, with a twinkle in her eye.

 

 

A peaceful easy feeling

Apparently Cañas was voted man of yesterday's match by the club's Twitter followers, and he's also leading the voting in the videosdelbetis.com weekly poll, but really the best thing about the game was the collective performance of the whole team. All 14 players threw themselves into the fray with the sort of wholehearted passion that fans love to see. The three substituted players - Joel Campbell, Juan Carlos and Salva Sevilla - were all given standing ovations, and the vast majority of the almost 34,000 present stayed behind to applaud the rest of the team, plus a clearly elated Pepe Mel, off the pitch afterwards. A combination of this commitment, an abundance of talent and the team's ever-growing confidence might just be enough to keep Betis in the top half-dozen for a good while longer.

Some more quick observations...

l Pepe Mel used his press conference to pay tribute to the strength in depth of his squad. "Since yesterday it seemed the game would be difficult for us [due to the absences of Rubén Pérez and Beñat]," he said, "but the ones who came in did as well as or even better [than those missing]. I'm really happy for them. That's what makes a team, when you have 20something players and you don't notice absences." He admitted that Betis were hanging on somewhat at the end - "but even Real Madrid and Barcelona have to suffer to win games; we're not going to be an exception" - and publicly thanked the fans for their part in the victory: "I want to congratulate them because they realised the last five minutes were going to be hard and really lifted us." Indeed - towards the end the whole stadium was on its feet singing.

l While Cañas (right) has earned the lion's share of the post-match praise, it was Salva Sevilla who got the front pages (see above), thanks to his well-taken goal. The most common remark in the fans' forums today has been, "I'm really pleased for him," which gives you an idea of the affection in which he's held by Béticos. After being arguably the key player of the promotion campaign in 2010/11, he struggled to find his feet in Primera last year - often having to play out of position - and had to wait until last week to get his first action this season. But, like Adrián, he's taken his chance with both hands and now surely deserves an extended run in the advanced midfield role he played so expertly yesterday. The goal clearly meant a lot to him - and not just because he was able to dedicate it to his pregnant wife (or at least, that's whom I assume he was dedicating it too!).

l Another player to earn warm approval since the final whistle has been Nosa Igiebor. Perhaps because his first couple of games were so implausibly disastrous, there seems to be a great amount of goodwill towards him among Béticos - so yesterday's unmistakable signs that he really is a footballer were welcomed with some satisfaction. Playing alongside Cañas in the centre of midfield, he harried the opponents with energy and intelligence, used the ball sensibly, and once or twice showed a combination of pace and skill that suggested he could yet develop into a serious offensive threat as well. What a pleasant surprise.

l You could also say that about the verdiblancos' new-found power at attacking set-pieces. Paulao is obviously terrifying for opposition defences, but Mario and Nosa are also decent in the air, and when Jorge Molina came on it looked like every corner was a goalscoring opportunity. Fair play too to Nono, who took on the dead-ball duties after he came on and repeatedly put his crosses into dangerous areas. How many teams have a 19-year-old who can do that?

l If only all - or at least the majority - of fixtures could be played at a sensible time like 6pm on a Saturday. The stadium was buzzing before, during and after the game and the biggest crowd of the season enjoyed itself hugely. Betis's next three Liga games kick off at 9.30pm, and on a Monday, a Friday and a Sunday. Madness.

l Pepe Mel said it was too early to think about aiming to qualify for Europe next year - ie by finishing in the top six - and he's obviously right, but he might also be secretly wondering whether it would be worth the effort anyway. Valencia gave every evidence of being jetlagged from their midweek trip to Belorussia - coach Mauricio Pelligrino called their first-half performance "horrible" - and that's not an isolated incidence. Europe - especially the Europa League, which would be Betis's most likely competition - invariably takes a heavy toll on its entrants.

l Some stats: Betis didn't reach 16 points last year until their 15th game, on December 10th. And they haven't kept three clean sheets in consecutive games since June 2010, when Victor Fernández was their coach.

l Next up is the visit to Valladolid on Thursday afternoon for the first leg of the last-32 round of the Copa del Rey. Readers who like a bet might wish to take advantage of odds of 66-1 about Betis winning the cup competition; they're a team who can beat anyone on their day, who will be taking the competition seriously and are underrated by the wider world. Put it this way: Sevilla, who lost at Zaragoza today, are as short as 9-1.

Pics: top: the headlines on today's papers read, from left to right: Betis keep growing; Pregnant with excitement (!); Betis raise their aims; middle: Cañas, post-game, from the Beticismo.net gallery of photos; bottom: Adrián in front of a banner proclaiming him "the present and future of our Betis", from the Betisweb gallery.

How it happened

The video below is pretty good, but you can find slightly more extended highlights (with clips from the coaches' press conferences) over at Betisweb. Among the memorable moments are a series of nice saves from Adrián, whose importance to the victory I might have underplayed in the match report, and a blatant elbow from Banega to the chin of Nono, which was the Argentinian was very lucky not to get a red card for. That didn't stop the Valencia players protesting to the referee at the final whistle, but I'm not sure what about - I don't think they can think themselves hard-done-by in the least.

Real Betis 1-0 Valencia CF

By the look of the live thread, not many of you were able to follow this game - which is a real shame, because this evening Betis produced their most complete performance of the season. Even with two regulars missing (in Beñat and Rubén Pérez), they completely dominated the first half and then held on gallantly as the mighty Valencia tried everything to get the equalizer. With every player from 1-14 (or, to be strictly accurate, 3-29) performing heroically, Betis looked every inch a team that deserves to be in the top six of Primera. By the end of the game, the feeling of contentment among the 33,783 present was palpable.

Of course, you have to give a lot of credit for this to Pepe Mel. When I heard that Nosa Igiebor was in for Beñat, I assumed - as I think most people would have done - that Salva Sevilla would play along Cañas and Nosa would get the free role further forward. But no; Nosa was a straight swap for Beñat in the heart of midfield, with Salva looking for the space behind Rubén Castro. 

This gamble paid off in spades. Not only did Nosa have a hugely promising game, looking nothing at all like the frightened rabbit we'd seen up until now, but Salva provided the Valencia defence with a problem they were never quite able to solve and even scored the game's only goal - a smart volley from 15 yards out after 8 minutes, when a Juan Carlos cross was only half-cleared.

Believe me, that was the least Betis deserved from a first-half in which they totally outplayed their more illustrious opponents. With Joel Campbell looking very comfortable on the right-wing in his first start, and a defence that's simply unbeatable right now, the home team passed the ball with pizazz, pressed like tigers and, best of all, appeared to be enjoying themselves hugely in the process. It was not until the 37th minute that Valencia even had a shot - and not a particularly good one at that.

Pelligrino didn't have much choice but to throw Éver Banega on at the break and it's true that the second-half was rather more nerve-wracking for Pepe Mel's men. But Adrián was, once again, man enough for everything that was thrown at him and, in truth, Betis looked just as dangerous on the counter-attack as Valencia did with all their possession. Juan Carlos had a nice chance that just got stuck under his feet, Rubén Castro only just missed with a tricky volley, and Paulao was a threat at any number of corners and free-kicks. Unlike last season, when the last five minutes of games like this would have been spent camped on the edge of their own penalty area, Betis were even able to see out time with substitute Nono whipping in a series of vicious set-pieces that Valencia were repeatedly at full stretch to clear.

In a game where the whole team was immense it's hard to pick out a man of the match but for me it would just about be Cañas, whose energy and passion for the cause continually lifted not just his 10 teammates, but the whole crowd as well. Iriney may have moved to pastures new, but his successor is doing a superb imitation of the former Betis skipper. 

Over to you, Real Madrid and Sevilla, both of whom must win tricky away games tomorrow to go back above us. And you know what? After tonight, that no longer feels like a statistical fluke.

Betis: Adrián; Nelson, Paulao, Mario, Álex; Cañas, Nosa, Salva Sevilla; Campbell (Jorge Molina, m. 68), Juan Carlos y Rubén Castro.

Goal: 1-0, min.8: Salva Sevilla.

Attendance: 33,783

Live thread: Betis v Valencia

Let's start with the bad news. According to the club's official website, Beñat "hasn't stopped vomiting all morning" (which might just count as too much information) and is out for this afternoon's game. Damn. 

As always, this is the place to leave your commentary and comments. There will obviously live streams available in the usual places, but it also worth pointing out that you should also be able to keep in touch with the score on the club's Twitter feed. Enjoy the game, wherever you're following it from.

Preview: Real Betis v Valencia (6pm)

This is the fun stuff. While it obviously wouldn't be true to say that Béticos don't care whether their team wins tonight, you'd have to look hard to find someone who expects them to take the three points, so the pressure is very definitely off. Betis may be above Valencia in the league table right now, but the visitors are the third-biggest club in Spain and have a turnover roughly three times that of their hosts tonight. Even after selling David Villa, David Silva, Juan Mata and Jordi Alba - what a list, huh? - in the last two years, they have a fantastic squad of players for whom anything less than finishing third and qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages counts as failure.

All of which means they're exactly the type of side Betis enjoy playing against, and that Béticos enjoy watching their heroes playing against. We all know that an on-form Betis are easily good enough to beat an out-of-sorts Valencia and provide a lot of fun for 30,000 people wearing green and white in the process.

The first question is, then, are Pepe Mel's men on form? It's hard to say exactly, but recent signs are fairly promising. They certainly look hard to beat, having kept three clean sheets in their last four games, and although it hasn't quite been raining goals at the other end, at least goalscoring chances haven't been in short supply.

This afternoon should see a similar line-up to last week at Osasuna, but perhaps a slightly different formation. Earlier in the week there was some debate as to which three of the four decent central midfielders - Beñat, Salva Sevilla, Cañas and Rubén Pérez - would start, but the latter solved that conundrum by picking up a knock in training on Thursday. There's a suggestion that Salva will start out wide, allowing Rubén Castro to play through the middle in a fairly conventional 4-4-2 shape, but personally I'd prefer to see an exact repeat of last week's 4-2-3-1, with the returning Beñat simply replacing Rubén Pérez. The only other likely change in personnel is Mario for Perquis at the back.

Valencia are still without young hotshot Sergio Canales, and will also be missing consistent left-back Jérémy Mathieu, but in Roberto Soldado they have my idea of Spain's sharpest striker and everyone's raving about Argentinian creative midfielder Tino Costa. Jonthan Viera is a winger who gave Betis plenty of problems when playing for Las Palmas a couple of years ago, while Éver Benega, who's likely to come off the bench, is one of the cleverest midfielders around (in footballing terms at least; his latest injury came when he reportedly ran himself over with his own car).

The Chés form under new coach Mauricio Pellegrino - formerly Rafa Benitez's assistant at Liverpool and Inter - is almost as hard to fathom as Betis's. They haven't won an away game in La Liga this year, but they have had to visit Barcelona, Real Madrid and local rivals Levante, so that might not be as bad a record as it looks. In midweek they won a Champions League game in Belorussia impressively enough, thanks to a Soldado hat-trick, but they needed two very late goals to beat struggling Athletic Bilbao last week and were apparently booed off the pitch at half-time.

So let's just agree that they're beatable, just as they were a year ago when they were embedded in third place and Betis were struggling with an apparently unsatisfiable appetite for defeat. British bookmakers put the home team's chances of winning at about 30 per cent, which is probably right, but that's more than enough to send 30,000 folks to the Estadio Benito Villamarín with a spring their step and hope in their hearts. And why not?

l The squad, just in, is as follows: Casto, Adrián; Álex Martínez, Salva, Beñat, Paulao, Perquis, Nosa, Molina, Rubén Castro, Nelson, Joel, Juan Carlos, Cañas, Mario, Ángel, Nacho, Nono, Pereira. Apparently Beñat is a slight doubt with some kind of stomach complaint, which is why there are 19 names. You'll notice that Agra, Pozuelo, Dorado and Amaya are all absent.

Derbi date: Sunday November 18th

The headline says it all really. We have details for the first Seville derbi of the season: 9.30pm on Sunday November 18th, at Sevilla FC's Estadio Sánchez-Pijuán. (So in just over three weeks' time, not two as I think I said the other day.) An exact repeat of last season's fun and games is probably too much to hope for, but we'll definitely settle for the same result. Gratuitous photo follows.

Escape to victory

It's a fact that Betis didn't spend one day of the 2011/12 season in the Primera's bottom three, but last winter, against tomorrow's opponents Valencia, they came pretty damn close. Their improbable escape will live long in the memory...

(Cue wavy screen.)

It was Saturday December 10th and Betis had lost nine of their previous 10 games, an indescribably depressing run that had seen them float down from top of the table to 17th. And for 90 long minutes, things didn't look like improving against Valencia; the verdiblancos didn't play at all badly, but a series of missed chances and an unlucky Chechu Dorado own goal had left them staring at a berth in the bottom three as the linesman held up his injury-time board. 

But just then (3'45" on the video above), Iriney fed substitute Juanma on the right wing, his cross took a slight (crucial) deflection into the path of Rubén Castro, and he simply couldn't miss his header from three yards out. At that stage a draw would been accepted gratefully - even though it would still have left Betis in the relegation zone - but only because 32,000 Béticos didn't dare dream of what was to happen next. With just 10 seconds remaining, another Juanma pass left Rubén through on goal and with the commentator on Radio Betis yelling, "Smack it, Rubén!" (1'50" on the clip below), he did just that...right into the back of the net. Joy, as they say, was unconfined. In an interview this week, Rubén admitted that thinking about that winning goal still makes him laugh to himself.

 
My headline the next day was "The rest of the season starts here", and that's pretty much how it worked out; Betis started a nice little winning run and never fell as low as 17th again. And even though the season had an even sweeter moment in store - thanks to Beñat, on May 2nd - around 10pm on that wet December Saturday night is right up there with my best experiences at the Estadio Benito Villamarín. The photo at the top of this post - taken on the night and posted on the Betisweb gallery - captures the atmosphere of sheer giddy elation just perfectly.

Nice T

I know that "Keep calm and carry on..."  memorabilia industry has become tackily ubiquitous in the UK, but this T-shirt really made me laugh. It's available via the Beticismo.net website (with, take note Real Betis Balompié SAD, delivery available worldwide).