Forever Betis

Small wonder

So, Dorlán Pabón has officially been snapped up - albeit for a maximum of 17 games as his agreement to join Monterrey of Mexico in the summer is apparently watertight. Judging a player on the basis of YouTube clips is notoriously unreliable, but from the below we can at least see that 1)  he's got quite a shot on him (get a look at this), and 2) he looks pretty good in green and white stripes (having spent a couple of seasons with the mighty Atlético Nacional of Medellín, some of whose songs he might recognise at the Villamarín). And despite my facetious remark earlier about Betis wanting someone taller, it does look like he offers Pepe Mel a different kind of threat than the players he already has. He'll reportedly be available as soon as Sunday in Madrid.

 

Forward planning

The winter transfer window closes tonight and ideally Betis wanted to sign a tall striker with long-term possibilities...but it looks like they're going to get a 5ft6in (1.68m) Colombian who's only available until the summer. I haven't got time to go into more details just now, but 25-year-old Dorlán Pabón was signed  for €4million last June by Italian club Parma, where he has failed to make impression and is therefore looking for some playing time before joining Mexican team CF Monterrey later in the year. He's a sometime partner of Falcao upfront for Colombia, but there is a touch of desperation about this move after all the more promising candidates priced themselves out of Betis's reach. Confirmation later.

Reasons to be cheerful

Shall we get the negative stuff out of the way first? Betis were clearly second-best in Vallecas yesterday, and are also likely to lose their next game, away to a formidable Atlético Madrid side on Sunday evening. All of a sudden they look exhausted, short of options and low on confidence.

But that's not to say it's all doom and gloom in the south Seville barrio of Heliópolis. Far from it. After the season's final game against Atleti, Pepe Mel will have a full eight days to prepare his side for the visit of Valladolid, who Betis have already beaten twice this season, and by then the likes of Juan Carlos, Pozuelo, Alex Martínez, Paulao and Mario should all be back in contention for a starting spot. Nosa will be back from South Africa, Molins will be a couple of weeks further into his integration period and the weariness engendered by those seven January games should have been largely overcome. Let's not panic.

And that's more or less what Pepe Mel said after yesterday's game. "We've got 35 points [still level on points with fourth-placed Málaga] and that's something to be proud of," he suggested. "That's the message I want to the half of Seville who listen to me. We're doing well - so much so, in fact, that we're still above Rayo, who beat us today...It's important to be positive."

Although he admitted that Rayo's greater intensity won the day yesterday, he also pointed out that had his forwards taken one of the chances that came their way, the shape of the game might have been different. "The important thing is that we're still creating opportunities to score," he said. "Even in the cup at the Vicente Calderón we showed we were capable of making five or six chances, something that doesn't usually happen there. But for us what's not usual is that we didn't even take one of them."

So, even if things do get worse (briefly) before they get better, I think we can agree that at least they definitely will get better, a guarantee that about 12 other Primera clubs would settle for. 

l Whatever happens to Betis over the few weeks, it will do so without the help of Nelson, who has been allowed to leave six months before the end of his contract to sign a two-and-a-half year deal with Palermo of Italy. The 29-year-old right-back joined Betis in summer 2008 and was therefore one of the last remaining footballing links to the Lopera era - which might be why Pepe Mel never quite seemed to trust him. He'll be remembered for a spectacular winning goal in the last minute of the home game against Athletic Bilbao last February, but has mostly been slightly disappointing in a Betis shirt and probably played his best football of his time with the club in the 2010/11 season, which he spent on loan to Osasuna.

l Also unavailable for at least the next three months is young Eder Vilarchao, who today had an operation on his fractured knee. You have to feel sorry for him - he makes a very promising debut for the first-team and within two weeks has picked up a long-term injury. That must be hard for a 22-year-old to take.

How it happened

Not much fun to be had watching these highlights, I'm afraid.

Rayo Vallecano 3-0 Real Betis

That was as painful as it was predictable. Betis gave Rayo the lead as early as the third minute, when Adrián clearly and needlessly upended Delibasic in the area (almost exactly as the Athletic keeper did to Salva Sevilla a week ago) and Pepe Mel's boys aren't currently aren't in the kind of shape or form to make chasing a game for 87 minutes a very workable prospect. They had some fair spells of possession, and Rubén Castro managed to miss a couple of chances he would normally expect to put away, but overall Rayo had more bite and energy and deserved their victory.

The two second-half goals came on 63 minutes, with Delibasic getting the better of Nacho in the air at the far post, and eight minutes from the end, when José Carlos picked up a half-cleared corner on the edge of the area and was made to look like Leo Messi by the Betis defence, and left the visitors looking very dispirited by the end. Nothing seemed to work very well - not the more orthodox 4-4-2 system (with Salva Sevilla on the left), not the Beñat/Cañas partnership (for once), and not the substitutions. It was just a terribly flat performance against vigorous opponents who, with their fifth consecutive defeat of Pepe Mel's side, showed once again they know just where Betis's weak spots are.

The bad news is that next week's task, away at Atlético Madrid, looks even tougher. Hang on in there.

Betis: Adrián; Chica, Amaya, Perquis, Nacho; Cañas, Beñat (Nono, m. 57), Salva Sevilla (Vadillo, m. 78); Joel Campbell (Molins, m. 68), Rubén Castro, Jorge Molina.

Goals: 1-0, min. 3: Piti (p); 2-0, min. 63: Delibasic; 3-0, min. 82: José Carlos.

Live thread: Rayo v Betis

This might not be the easiest game to find a live stream for, so I'm sure any updates and commentary would be appreciated by Béticos around the world. (The club's official Twitter feed is also a good place to find scoreline news.) Either way, it's going to be tricky.

Preview: Rayo Vallecano v Real Betis (5pm)

Brace yourselves: the next couple of weeks are going to be tough. By a quirk of the fixture list Betis now face two consecutive away games, both against difficult opponents, just when they least need additional obstacles. Pepe Mel's squad is battered and bruised - exhausted after seven games in three weeks and crippled by a freakishly long injury list - and frankly any points they can pick up from these two trips to Madrid should be counted as a bonus. The season restarts in earnest with the visit of Valladolid on February 11th, by which time the Betis sickbay should have cleared significantly.

But for today's game almost half the first-team squad are unavailable for selection. The injury rollcall comprises Mario, Paulao, Ángel, Juan Carlos, Álex Martínez, Pozuelo and Eder Vilarchao, with Rubén Pérez suspended for picking up his fifth yellow card last week and Nosa Igiebor away at the African Nations Cup (where he played all but 14 minutes of Nigeria's two 1-1 draws). Pereira and Dorado have left for Villareal, Agra has gone on loan to Siena and Nelson is also reportedly about to depart for Italy (Palermo, to be precise). Only 13 official first-teamers are fit and ready to go, so Pepe Mel has had to add Nono and Vadillo - both of whom are Primera regulars by now - plus their Betis B teammates Carlos García (a holding midfielder), Manu Palancar (right-back) and Borja Navarro (central defender) to make up an 18-man squad.

All of which means the Betis 11 more or less picks itself this afternoon: Adrián; Chica, Perquis, Amaya, Nacho; Beñat, Cañas, Salva Sevilla; Campbell, Rubén Castro y Jorge Molina. Several of those players have looked very tired in recent games and Pepe Mel is desperate for another striker to help out Rubén and Molina, but the cupboard is bare. It is what it is, as they say.

What makes things worse is that Rayo Vallecano - whose current  upward trajectory was started by Pepe Mel during his four years at the club until February 2010 - have a complete hex over Betis. The franjirrojos have won the last four meetings of the two teams, always convincingly, and they completely outplayed  Betis at the Benito Villamarín in August. They've won four of their last five Primera games, bringing them to the fringes of the skirmish for European  places, and have earned plenty of plaudits for the style of their football under ex Córdoba coach Paco Jémez. The only bright spot for Betis is that the home side's brilliant 20-year-old Brazilian Léo Baptistao, reputedly ready to join Atlético next year, is out injured.

But, as we know, one of the great attributes about this Betis side is their tendency to triumph against the odds, so all hope is not lost. Far from it. As Pepe Mel asked yesterday, "What are the grounds for thinking things are all about to go wrong?" (On the other hand, the other day he did warn that Betis could drop 10 places if they didn't sign some new players for him soon, so he could be accused of sending out mixed messages...) Overall, even tired and short of resources, Betis have talent, spirit and nous in abundance - it's just that they'll need all that and more this afternoon. 

How it happened

I think we have to put the goal down to a Casto mistake; Amaya had everything under control so there was no need for the keeper to come rushing out. A shame.

Generally, though, this highlights package gives a good idea of what the game was like from a Betis point of view - lots of set-pieces, some long-range shots, one or two quarter-chances...but not many clear sights of goal. The Atleti defending was very solid.

Real Betis 1-1 Atlético Madrid (Atlético Madrid win 3-1 on aggregate)

When you're up against a side determined to give as little away as possible, the last thing you can do is hand them a goal on a plate - especially one that in effect is worth two. Alas, that's just what Betis did tonight. After an opening 44 minutes in which they had the majority of possession without ever really getting near the Atléti goal, a long clearance out of the visiting defence caused a mix-up between Casto and Amaya on the edge of the Betis penalty area - which ended up with the horrible Diego Costa tapping into an empty net (see below). If three goals in 90 minutes was always an unlikely task, four in 45 was mission in-your-dreams. The second half was more like a friendly than a competitive game and a last-minute penalty for a a push on Jorge Molina was a very unconsoling consolation prize. Derbi revenge will just have to wait.

To be honest, there's not much elso to say. Once again Beñat wasn't Beñat and had to be substituted at half-time, Guillermo Molins came on to play 45 minutes and looked understandably rusty, Álvaro Vadillo looked like a boy playing against men (which of course he is), and the Betis man of the match was probably Rúben Pérez, who had a particularly dynamic game against the team that still officially hold his rights. But the well-organised Atletico Madrid defence were so much in charge throughout that all that is pretty much incidental. The better team went through, no doubt about it.

And so endeth Betis's 2012/13 cup dreams. They were fun while they lasted.

Betis: Casto; Ángel, Amaya, Perquis, Nacho; Rubén Pérez, Beñat (Jorge Molina, m. 45), Salva Sevilla; Joel (Molins, m. 45), Vadillo y Rubén Castro (Nono, m. 70).

Goals: 0-1, m. 45, Diego Costa. 1-1, m. 89, Jorge Molina (pen.)

Attendance: 21.605

Preview: Real Betis v Atlético Madrid (8pm); Copa del Rey quarter-final 2nd leg (0-2 after 1st leg)

The first Bético I met this morning reacted with gloom to the news that Sevilla won their own quarter-final second leg 4-0 last night and await today's winners in the semis. "I hope we don't get through," he said, "because we'll just lose to them and reflotar [refloat, or perhaps kickstart] their season."

That may not be a majority view in the green-and-white half of Seville, but I'm sure he won't be alone. Certainly a temporary pall of pessimism seems to have descended on Heliópolis, to such an extent that Pepe Mel complained yesterday that it was like "being in the café of a mortuary". The 2-0 deficit, the tired 1-1 draw against Athletic Bilbao at the weekend, the injury crisis that has left him with just 15 fit first-teamers - all are contributing to a suspicion that tonight's task is almost certainly beyond Betis, and even it isn't, another game against Sevilla next week is probably the last thing we need.

But let's look on the bright side for a moment or two. In the quarter-final against Barcelona this time two years ago, Betis were two-up within eight minutes - and at one stage looked to be in with a shout of overturning a five-goal deficit, so there's no real reason why 2-0 should be irreversible, especially as Atlético are without the injured Falcao and Spanish international right-back Juanfran. Overall, Betis are still a team in form and with the backing of a raucous crowd (albeit not a huge one, as almost everyone I know is struggling to make the 8pm kick-off time) they're definitely not without hope. Guillermo Molins is likely to make his debut, probably as a substitute.

That's really all I've got time for this morning, so fingers crossed we can at least make a game of it. And a derbi semi this time next week? Well, stranger things have happened.