Forever Betis

Cañas on the move?

Holding midfielders are not usually headline-makers, so you may be surprised to learn that the Betis player who's garnered most column inches over the Christmas break has been our hirsute destroyer, José Alberto  Cañas. 

Actually, the reason's quite simple. Cañas, who's 25 and has worked his way up through the Betis ranks, is out of contract in the summer and from Tuesday onwards is officially allowed to talk to other clubs. And although Betis have offered him a new contract and would love him to stay, it's already obvious that he's highly unlikely to be in verdiblanco next season.

I'm afraid it's all to do with the harsh realities of both the Spanish economy and Betis's own financial situation. As director José Antonio Bosch explained in a radio interview the other day, "I understand that his agents have already receieved offers from abroad that are three times what we can afford to pay him. There are some people who say we should make more of an effort, but that effort would cost us and right now we simply can't afford what the player is asking. I can understand young people who want to go abroad when this country can't give them the future they want - indeed, I have relatives working abroad for exactly this reason."

And that's just the way it has to be. President Miguel Guillén has been making much the same point this week, even suggesting that relegation would be less of a threat to the long-term future of the club than overpaying their players (and therefore risking bankruptcy), so I think we'll simply have to get used to waving goodbye to some old favourites. Iriney left for Granada last summer; it looks like Cañas will follow him out of the exit door - possibly heading to England - in six months' time. 

Of course, as we found with Iriney, defensive midfielders are not impossible to replace. Coaches, though, are a different matter - so perhaps we should be more worried about a report suggesting that Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner wants Pepe Mel to take over from hapless Paul Lambert. But let's not panic. The money would be good - at least three times what he earns at Betis - and all Spanish coaches are envious of the power that English managers wield, but it's still hard to see him leaving right now.

Bético on the verge of a nervous breakdown

This video (from the start to 3'00" in) is hilarious. It shows a guy watching last Saturday's game from the lower tier of Preferencia (the stand that the players run out from), from just after the penalty - which causes him, in time-honoured fashion, to offer his glasses to the referee - until he decides he's had enough just before the end. Now that's a man suffering with his team. (With thanks to videosdelbetis.com for finding it.)

 

¡Feliz Navidad!

Warm verdiblanco season's greetings to each and every Bético del universo, but especially to all the regular contributors here and on the Facebook page who make writing this blog so much fun. Here's to more of the same in 2013.

The pic below shows Seville town hall on a recent Saturday night.

The party goes flat

Pepe Mel genuinely isn't a manager who wastes too much time criticising referees, but yesterday he couldn't help himself. "The linesman was telling him [Mario's foul] was outside the area, and that's why we're fuming, because the linesman saw it better than the referee. He's telling him it's outside and he decides it's inside. And the referee ended up playing a big part in the game because Mallorca had one shot and scored two goals."

Not that the Betis coach couldn't see where his team's problems really stemmed from. "We let them off a second goal three times and if we'd got to 2-0, well, referee or no referee...So it's partly our fault for not killing the game off."

At the same time, Pepe Mel wouldn't be human if he wasn't sparing a thought for his opposite number Joaquín Caparrós, for whom the win bought him a few more weeks in his job. Caparrós, a born and bred Sevillista who managed the club for five years from 2000, was the focus of plenty of attention from the stands yesterday, with fans' chants including "Lorenzo echalo" (Sack him, Lorenzo) and "Caparrós, tus muertos" (hard to translate, but something like, Caparrós, f*** off and die). To the latter, he responded with a big grin and a cheery wave with his fingers spread out to indicate la manita (five goals, basically). Ridiculously, he later had to defend himself - which he did rather elegantly, saying, "The fans were remembering me, so I was just waving hello; that's all. Us Sevillanos are very polite people" - as if 30,000 people are allowed to sing very rude songs about him but he can't have a joke back. Fair play to him, if you ask me. (The pic below is from AS.com, which also has a video of the incident.)

To be honest, there isn't much else to report about the game itself. After the second Mallorca goal it was all just green-and-white heads banging against a red brick wall, and even with Beñat playing in a more advanced position than normal - the Salva Sevilla role, if you like - there was no getting through.

It was a shame, because, as you can probably tell from the album of photos I've put up on Facebook, Béticos arrived yesterday in the mood for a party. Afternoon games are sadly rare, but are always notable for the number of kids they attract, and what with the gorgeous weather and Christmas just around the corner, there was a particularly festive atmophere around Heliópolis yesterday afternoon. Not that the local police did much to help - they halted the planned pre-match celebration in front of the main stand over alcohol licensing issues and by 3pm the food was apparently having to be given away free. It was a great afternoon for party-poopers.

l Málaga's 3-2 win over Real Madrid last night (with two from Roque Santa Cruz) means Betis will start the New Year in fifth, which, let's face it, we'd have settled for in August. With no game until Zaragoza away on January 4th, the Betis players all taking a week's holiday - and the blog will be taking it easy for a while, too. So, unless something really important happens, there'll just be a skeleton service for a while. Here's wishing all the Béticos del Universo a very Merry Christmas.

Top pic from Beticismo.net

How it happened

Actually, these highlights miss what I thought was Betis's best chance of the game when, shortly after the Beñat goal, a rapid counterattack led to Rubén Castro crossing low towards Jorge Molina in the centre. The Betis No. 19, with the goal at his mercy, swung his left foot at it...and missed, the ball bouncing off his standing leg. It was one of those days.

Real Betis 1-2 RC Mallorca

The scoreline might have been the same, but in truth this didn't have that much in common with the Granada game we were so worried about this morning (see below). That day, Betis didn't show up and deserved to lose. This afternoon on the other hand, they looked more like their usual selves but caught some bad breaks against a team that didn't play five seconds of football the whole match. The second half was like one of the games we used to see in Segunda, with a line of six red shirts moving together across the pitch just ahead of a line of another four (see pic above). Against tactics like those you need a bit of luck or an Iniesta and today Betis just didn't have either. It happens.

Of course, that's not to say things shouldn't have been different. Right from the start Betis looked worth every one of the 14 places separating the two sides and could have been three-up within half an hour. They did score after five minutes, when two home players and the goalkeeper all misjudged a Beñat free-kick swinging in from the left, but Molina should have doubled the lead shortly afterwards when he fluffed an easy chance to finish off a sweeping counterattack, and Joel Campbell could also have done better with a free far-post header a little later. And then, even as it was crossing my mind that those misses could be costly, Mallorca equalised with (genuinely) their only self-generated chance of the game. A hopeful cross from the right was met at the far post by Victor, who outjumped Nacho to head home forcefully.

To be honest, the visitors' first goal didn't seem much more than a bump on the road at the time, such was the gulf in class between the two sides. But the trouble got more serious immediately after half-time, when Mario (from my vantage point, anyway) appeared to tackle Victor cleanly just outside the area. And let's not make any bones about it; from the pictures that are already up on the internet (the one from AS is below) it's obvious the referee's decision to give a penalty was just plain wrong. Even more annoyingly, the linesman apparently told him so at the time. Señor Mallenco just decided - as referees are wont to do - that he knew best.

And once Javi Márquez had put the ball into the centre of the net, we always knew we were up against it. If there's one thing Caparrós sides usually do well it's defend, and for 45 minutes that's basically all they did. Pepe Mel and Betis tried everything you're supposed to do in these situations - throw on subs, get the ball wide, switch the play, change the pace - but there were always just too many big red-shirted men in the box. Three young Betis subs - Pozuelo, Vadillo and Agra - did their best, but too often chose the wrong option, and with the Mallorcans timewasting like their lives depended on it, the equaliser simply never came.

Still, it was a solid enough overall performance that the home team were applauded off the pitch, and anyway, so redolent of deep contentment was the prematch atmosphere on a gloriously sunny December day in Heliópolis that it was always going to take more than an unlucky win to send 32,000 punters home unhappy. 2012 has been a great year; 90 frustrating minutes doesn't change a thing.

Betis: Adrian, Chica, Mario, Amaya, Nacho, Rubén Pérez (Pozuelo, m. 48), Beñat, Cañas, Rubén Castro, Joel Campbell (Vadillo, m. 53), Jorge Molina (Agra, m. 62).

Goals: 1-0, m. 5, Beñat; 1-1, m. 30, Víctor; 1-2, m. 47, Javi Márquez

Attendance: 32,361

Live thread: Betis v Mallorca

I know this game is at an unusual time, so I dare say not everyone will be able to follow it, but I'll stick up this thread for comments anyway, just in case. Musho Betis.

Preview: Real Betis v RC Mallorca (4pm)

If you hadn't been following Betis's season closely, you might be wondering why the word "Granada" keeps cropping up in previews of today's game against Mallorca. But we all know, right? The last time the verdiblancos had a home game they were supposed to win - as opposed to free hits against Real Madrid and Barcelona more recently - was back on November 9th, when our Andalucían neighbours limped into town on the back of four successive defeats...and skipped away with three points in the bag. The worst part of the occasion was that Pepe Mel had warned against complacency beforehand, and yet his team still played horribly. It was all rather depressing. 

Since then, of course - or to be more specific, since the Game We Don't Talk About a week later - things could hardly have gone better for Betis, which means we're back in exactly the same situation as the morning of the Granada fixture. Today's visitors have picked up just two points out of their last 33, a run that has seen them plummet from fifth place in Week 6 to 19th now, and coach Joaquín Caparrós - a confirmed Sevillista - is said to be one defeat away from getting sacked by Mallorca vice-president, the much-revered ex-Betis coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer. On top of this terrible run of form, they will also be without one of their few reliable central defenders in Geromel, who's suspended.

So, in theory, this is Betis's game to screw up - which we know they're well capable of doing if they're in the mood (or perhaps not in the mood). The word in the Seville papers this morning is that Casto might play ahead of Adrián, who has a slight finger injury, behind a defence of Chica, Amaya, Mario and Nacho, a midfield duo of Cañas and Beñat, and Rubén Castro ahead of them. That leaves Salva Sevilla, Jorge Molina, Pozuelo, Joel Campbell and Álvaro Vadillo to fight over the remaining three starting positions between themselves, depending on what kind of tactics Pepe Mel opts for. Juan Carlos and Nosa were last-minute withdrawals through injury.

Before the game the club have organised a giant party with food, drinks and music on the concourse in front of the main stand - which sounds completely mad, but unmissable - and with the team in such apparently unstoppable form, the Villamarín's last football match of 2012 should be a lot of fun. Defeat for Levante yesterday means that getting better result than Málaga manage later tonight against Real Madrid would leave Betis in fourth over Christmas, which would obviously be lovely. Let's just hope for no Granada-style silliness this time, please.

Projecting the future

It was about six weeks ago that Betis launched Proyecto Heliópolis, a long-term plan to invest more heavily in the club's youth system (known as the cantera - quarry - in Spanish) with the ultimate aim that at least 70 per cent of the first-team should be home-grown. I'm not sure I mentioned the project here at the time, so when the American-based website Forza Futbol asked me to write an article about the Betis cantera I thought it a good opportunity to explain a bit of the thinking behind it. It'll obviously be some years before we discover whether it has been a success, but it certainly sounds like a step in the right direction. You can read the whole article here.

All together now

Betis had their Christmas lunch yesterday, with more than 500 players and staff, including the teams at every age group, getting together at a venue near Seville to celebrate an exceptional year. President Miguel Guillén used the occasion to pay special tribute to Pepe Mel, calling him "an example" to follow. "I recall something he said recently that I like a lot and that we should all take on board. He said, 'I get up every day happy and excited because I work for Betis.' Look around you - those of us here today represent the feelings of thousands of people and that means we have to give the best of ourselves."

Guillén also had words of appreciation for the first-team squad: "[The youngsters] here should take note of the effort they put into every training session and how down-to-earth they are with the media. Look at their team spirit whenever they travel away. If you follow their example, I'm sure you'll be successful at Betis and, of course, in football."

As you'll see from the video below, there were warm fuzzy feelings all round.