Match Reports

Hello Fellow Malaga Fans around the world.
Yes it's a new season and on Sunday 12 September, we saw Malaga's first home game of the new season (having suffered a 2-0 defeat away to Atletico de Madrid in the opener). It's all new - new season, new manager, Gregorio Manzano (ex-Atletico Madrid, so a quick return to his former haunt in the first game), new players, new stand open at La Roseleda and new seats for Geoff and me, still at the Fondo end, but to the right of the goal and a bit closer to the action. So all full of anticipation and excitement we made our way to our seats. We were joined by Geoff's daughter, Zoe, across here on holiday at the moment and keen to compare Spanish football with the fare served up at White Hart Lane, where she works on match days for Tottenham Hotspur.
Manzano had come with a bit of a reputation, particularly in his days at Real Mallorca, and he has stated that it his ambition this season to get Malaga into a UEFA Cup slot, which was narrowly missed out on last year. In the close season, Malaga have lost leading goalscorer Salva (to Valencia), fellow strikers Diego Alonso (to Pumas in Mexico) and Canabal (did not renew contract) and from the defence, Josemi as transferred to Liverpool for £5m. Drafted in are a few younger players recruited from last season's successful Malaga B team, who play in the Second Division, namely centre back Juanito, hot prospect teenager right full back/winger Alexis, and strikers Juan Rodriguez and Swiss international Alex Giejo, topscorer last season. Two other strikers have been resourced, Amoroso, a Brazilian international, signed on a "Bosman" from Borussia Dortmund and Paulo Wanchope, the Costa Rican international, signed from Manchester City for £500k. Both these latter two players have only been with the squad for a matter of a week or two and Manzano has had them in for double training sessions to get their fitness levels up. This was necessary particularly for Wanchope (El Chope, as he is known back in Costa Rica) who missed most of last season with a knee injury and received surgery in the USA. Hopefully he has fully recovered and will play a leading role in Malaga's fortunes this season. Neither new signing started in the previous game, although Amoroso did come on as a sub late in the game. So home debuts for both were another reason to look forward to this game.
Teams: Malaga (4-4-1-1): Calatayud, Alexis, Fernando Sanz, Juanito, Valcarce, Gerardo, Michel Angel, Romero, Duda, Amoroso and Wanchope.
Real Zaragoza: (4-4-1-1): Lainez, Cuartero, Alvaro, Milto, Aranzabal, Gelleti, Movilla, Zapatar, Savio, Javi Moreno, David Villa.

The visitors, winners of the Spanish Cup last season and in the UEFA Cup this season, are the first leaders of La Liga after the first match and their centre back, Alvaro, tops the goalscoring charts with 2 goals. Nonetheless, Malaga should and must expect to take all three points against this team at home. Teams like Zaragoza (pronounced tharagotha) play deep in defence, all eleven behind the ball and look for goals on the counter through speedy forwards, particularly David Villa. In Cesar Lainez, Zaragoza have one of the best young goalkeepers in Spain and tipped to be a future international, so as Malaga fans, we knew we would have to be patient and hope that our new strikers could make devastating impact on their defence.
We had to wait until the 6th minute for the first goalmouth incident. Duda took a free kick out on the left, which Wanchope latched onto, only to see Lainez palm the ball away to safety. As early as the 16th minute we had our first booking of the game when Gelliti brought down Duda illegally in the centre circle. We did not know it then, but this was to become a feature of a desperately disappointing spectacle as the play got bogged down in the midfield and the referee seemed to be constantly disrupting the flow of play with every tackle seemingly a foul. And so Miguel Angel became the next in the book, on 21 minutes for a tackle on the centre line. In 28 minutes, the first attempt on goal from the visitor. Good interpassing down their left ended with a shot on target from David Villa but Calatayud saved comfortably enough. A promising move from Malaga on 34 minutes finishes with slick pass from Amoroso to Duda, who's felled in the "D" by Cuartero, who becomes the next name in the book. Up to this point, Wanchope, who must be 8 feet three, with most of that leg, had been showing plenty of movement up front, in a casual laconic loping sort of way and Amoroso always seemed to find space to accept a pass and do something with it in a crowded defence. It was not Duda who took the resultant free kick but Amoroso and there was the sense of something special about to happen when a Brazilian lines up a free kick just outside the box, but his kick was poor and came back off the wall.
On 40, Duda had a fine effort which Lainez double fisted away for a corner. Three minutes later, Fernando Sanz became the third name in the book for a tackle from behind in the centre circle. Then right on half time Malaga came closest to scoring when there was an almighty scramble in a crowded penalty box after a corner on the left with the ball bouncing around like in bagatelle. It finally fell to Juanito whose shot was saved by Lainez.
Half time 0-0
The second half was no better than the first and following the pattern, Amoroso was booked in the 59th minute for diving after being poleaxed by Aranzabal just outside the box. On 66 the first substitution for Malaga brought Portuguese-Angolan Edgar on for Gerardo as a straight replacement on the right wing. In the moments directly after as Malaga were adjusting to the change, Zaragoza had a chance but Calatayud saved the shot and Romero booted the ball into the stand for safety. On 71, Edgar's pace took him past defenders down the right and he pulled back an excellent cross from the touchline, but Michel Angel's header was held by Lainez. Both Amoroso and Wanchope has faded from the game at this point so it was no surprise when Wanchope left the field on 73 and Giejo entered the fray to a rousing roar from the crowd. Malaga changed format slightly with Amoroso playing up with his new team mate as Malaga looked for the goal which would win this game. On 82, already booked Michel Angel was involved in altercation with Milto and was immediately substituted by Manzano, who brought on Leko, recently returned from international duty with Croatia. The bookings continued in this scrappy game when Alexis caught Savio's heels on the centre line.
Full time 0-0
The next few matches are against teams which Malaga must take points from (Mallorca, Numancia, Espanyol and Osasuna), before they play the big guns in successive weeks after that (Deportivo, Real Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona). For the home games anyway, your Malaga CF Correspondent will be there.