Preseason Friendly: Poli Ejido vs Malaga
On Wednesday 8 August 2007, Malaga were outplayed in Nerja by the Kettle Boys who dominated the game from start to finish, with Malaga rarely entering the opposition half.
Only some fine stops from Arnau (who was undoubtably Malaga's man of the match) kept Malaga in this game, which they could easily have lost 3-0.
In fact, the game ended goalless and again went to a penalty shoot out, as the match was for a magnificent cup. Malaga won the shoot out 4-1 and again Arnau was the hero with an excellent save, whilst another Ejido penalty came off the right hand post.
Two games played and two trophies won?!?
Malaga were dire on the night, showed nothing down either wing and were completely overrun in midfield, in a game where only Arnau and Apoño started and finished the game. Muniz's opening 11 looked very much like what might be considered his first choice and was an attacking 4-4-2 formation:
Arnau;
Raúl Gaitán, Silva, Weligton, Valcarce;
Paulo Jorge, Apoño, Antonio Hidalgo, Calleja;
Baha and Salva.
But the truth was that neither Hidalgo nor Apono were seen and Paulo Jorge seemed to have a free role and appeared to get in the way of Valcarce and Calleja down the left wing. Arnau was called upon to make two point blank saves as Ejido won several corners and dangerous free kicks, which for all that, was more entertaining than the whole game at Marbella on Saturday night.
Baha looked lost without any service whatsoever, whereas at least Salva won a few balls in the air to knock down to Mr Nobody.
The big surprise in the second half was that Malaga lined up with exactly the same eleven and the pattern continued.
The second half was a poor spectacle as both sides made numerous changes: for Malaga these changes were:
Raúl Gaitán (Javi Martos 65), Silva (Hélder 62), Weligton (Jesule 65), Paulo Jorge (Gerardo 55), Antonio Hidalgo (Carpintero 62), Calleja (Rossato 65); Baha (Sandro 55).
Over 2000 souls were in the stadium, mostly Malaga fans but quite a noisy few from El Ejido.
But my spirits were low watching this and got lower during the second half, with only one shot on goal during the whole match to report, when Rossato brilliantly beat two men to cut inside from the left wing to blast in a shot, but it went straight into the arms of the goalkeeper.
The only other player to take the eye was the little right winger from Malaga B, Gerardo, who at least showed some pace and guile, but again the supply of passes, particularly from Sandro was woeful.
From a Malaga perspective, let's hope that we are getting rid of all this rubbish now before the season starts. Poli Ejido will be very disappointed that they did not win this game convincingly.
Malaga still look three or four players short of a squad, particlularly up front, where ironically Salva (perhaps he was proving a point as he continues to be the focus of transfer speculation) was one of Malaga's best players on the night.