In the preview, Jon Erice asked for a victory against Talavera to be able to close this 2025 that will remain in the history of Arena in a … position “unsuspected for experts in the field”, sending a clear message and, in the process, highlighting the work that the sand team has been carrying out. However, that victory could not come with which to say goodbye to the year in a duel that was not exactly the best of those on the right bank in Gobela.
A second consecutive setback that, however, should not cloud what Arenas is doing in a category as complicated and competitive as the First Federation, in which many, and hence the statements of its coach, considered him defenestrated without even having gotten the ball rolling.
Well, Arenas goes into the break with 21 points in its locker, three above a red zone marked precisely by Talavera, consolidated as one of the most difficult teams to beat in its own fiefdom and with a seal as a very marked and recognizable team, one of the objectives set from the sporting field at the start of the season.
And, after the great campaign completed last year under the leadership of Ibai Gómez, taking the first firm steps in the new category was vital. Gobela has been a fortress only attacked by the implacable Tenerife and the Talavera team. The debit, which is becoming less and less so, is in the games away from home, in which the team’s image is much more solvent than at the beginning and in which it has also deserved a greater reward.
Back with the goal
The biggest problem that Jon Erice’s team has been demonstrating is surely the lack of success, that difficulty in transforming the numerous dangerous arrivals that it usually generates in each game into goals. A situation repeated in many situations throughout this first round in which there are still two more games left. The last one, in Sunday’s morning game against Talavera. The Castilian team from La Mancha was superior in many phases of the match and, in addition, had the aim that Arenas lacked, which could have at least rescued a draw.
“We have crashed again and again against our lack of success in front of goal, and with how accurate they have been,” lamented the red and black coach after a defeat that he described as “ugly because of how we lost.” «The team tried, until the end we had chances, but they were not able to tie. We have not got it right and we leave with zero points. “Calm down, analyze and come back with more enthusiasm,” he asked.
«There has been a lack of success in the shot, in the center and in the finish, of which we have had many and very clear ones. It’s not the first day that’s happened to us. The team is what it is. And he is aggressive, he wants to arrive many times and needs a volume of attack that he produces in every game,” continued the head of the Gobela bench. «Other days we have generated a little less and we have scored more goals. It is part of the game and part of our limitations, which we will continue to work on.”
