¡Vamos Atlético!

(6th & 13th March 2021)

Following on from one of my previous articles, “The Art of Football” (https://adayinthelifeofafootballtherapist.sport.blog/2021/02/27/the-art-of-football/), which reported on a double-header of football matches I watched in December, I’d once again be visiting two of the lesser-known clubs in Marbella over consecutive Saturdays in early March. This was a little different to previously though, as I’d finally have the chance to “tick-off” my 5th and final football ground within the town, by visiting a club with an unusually similar name to one that I’ve written about before.

I’ve become fully aware of the variety of ways that football clubs are named in Spain, since they tend to be in reference to a location, district or a person, with their suffix typically being the translations of “sports club”, “football club”, “sports association” and so on, but I was stumped when I saw that 2 clubs within Marbella only had a one letter difference in the shortened version of their names. CD Atlético Marbella are currently celebrating the 10th year since they were founded and play at the Campo Luis Turuel Aguilar, located inland and close to the La Cañada shopping centre, but along side Marbella FC’s Ground (further towards the coast) is Campo Antonio Serrano Lima, which is primarily home to Peña Los Comprades (a junior set-up) and also CD Atlético Marbellí. What’s odd is that other than having similar names, the two clubs are completely different. The kit colours, badge and club set-up don’t have any resemblance to one another. I was able to find that the translation of “Marbellí” means “the people of Marbella” which makes a lot of sense. If you take my hometown of Tamworth as an example, where the residents are known as Tamworthians, it can make for a very similar situation. It’s not something we find too often in England though, as I’d associate it more-so with Rugby Union, but it’s also not uncommon in Cricket.

Going to watch a game at either club is relatively straightforward, as I’ve found that they rarely clash with each other’s kick-off time and they both avoid having the same one as Marbella FC. The good thing about seeing either club is that you can always shout “¡Vamos Atlético!” and be welcomed. I can’t help but think of seeing a Monty Phython ‘Life of Brian’ type scenario though, where upon entering the ground to watch CD Atlético Marbella, you ask the man on the gate “are you CD Atlético Marbellí?”, as a homage to the well-known “Judean People’s Front” gag, those splitters…

At the time of these matches, it had been just under 2 months since I was last able to attend the football, to see Athletic Club Fuengirola’s 3-0 victory over CD Mijas (https://adayinthelifeofafootballtherapist.sport.blog/2021/03/24/the-fascination-of-fuengirola/). It was a real shame how everything worked out, since I’d attended three games within the first week of January, to then have to be without any live football until the first week of March. The one positive was that it forced me to use the time to focus on other activities, as opposed to just spending my weekends travelling around and watching football matches. I substituted my time with exercising, writing and planning out ideas for my commitments back in the U.K, all of which I’m sure will benefit me in the long-term. Not knowing how much longer I’d still be away from home, I was feeling the need to get out and watch more local football whilst I could. The first week of March saw the travel restrictions relaxed and local football clubs had spectators return to their grounds, so it was just a case of checking the fixtures on La Preferente (lapreferente.com) to see where I could get my football fix. Luckily, my adopted Spanish club CD Altético Marbella were hosting CD Benagalbón in a very suitable Saturday 5pm kick-off, which began my football journey for the weekend.

The weather was annoyingly dull, but thankfully the action on the pitch turned out to be better. The hosts were in the ascendancy early into the game, but squandered several good chances within the first half-an-hour played. Those missed opportunities came back to haunt them just before half-time, when Benagalbón’s Joesph Milner broke the deadlock in the 43rd minute, from an unchallenged volley in the centre of a box after a corner. 1-0 would be how it remained at the half-way stage, which felt like an unfair reflection since Marbella were playing some of the best football I’ve seen from them across my visits there.

It almost went from bad to worse for the home-side only a minute into the second period, when the visitors saw another volley cannon off the cross-bar. This lucky escape seemed to cause a shift in momentum, with the next quarter of an hour being dominated by the hosts. First of all, they had a free-kick go over the bar, before Borja shot wide whilst under pressure, when only a minute later a pinpoint left wing cross found Eneko in the middle of the penalty area, who headed into the bottom right corner to level the scores. It’d only be 10 minutes later that Marbella took the lead, with the reliable Borja getting a goal by tucking the ball under the goalkeeper from inside the box, the visitor’s keeper got a hand to the ball but was unable to stop it from crossing the line. Benagalbón only had one significant chance afterwards to equalise, with the Marbella keeper being forced into a smart near-post save. The home-side would make sure of their victory just before the end of the game, when a deservedly awarded penalty was duly converted into the bottom right corner by Yuliano. The closing stages saw goal-scorer Eneko sent-off in injury time, presumably for something he said to the referee.

A 3-1 victory gave the hosts hope in achieving a play-off position, in a game that was thoroughly entertaining to watch throughout. Thankfully the rain held out for the most part, but it returned whilst I was walking back down towards the centre of Marbella, on my way to catch the bus home after the game.

Exactly one week later, I’d be returning to Marbella but this time, it was for my third attempt at trying to visit the Campo Antonio Serrano Lima for a match. Both of my previous attempts had failed due to late postponements, which weren’t publicly announced by the club and didn’t appear on the usually reliable La Preferente, making for a disappointing journey home on both days. For this visit, I made sure to double-check with the club in order to confirm the kick-off time and day, that spectators were allowed in for the game and that I was sent the QR code to complete to gain access to the venue. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of the chance to pay a visit to my final ground in central Marbella.

On this occasion, CD Atlético Marbellí were hosting Totalán Atlético in what seemed to be a mid-table affair. I arrived into Marbella for the mid-afternoon and spent a couple of hours at the La Cañada shopping centre, having a look around the shops and grabbing some lunch, drinks and a CD by a Spanish band I’ve been listening to, before making my way to the evening’s venue. I turned up at the ground about 20 minutes before kick-off to find some junior players still leaving the pitch from the prior game, so I made my way in without a problem and sat down in time to watch the teams complete their (brief) warm-ups.

Throughout my time working for a variety of football clubs, one thing I’ve usually found is that the warm-ups determine a lot about a team’s attitude towards the game and (sometimes) what the standard of the match will be like, so in truth I felt quite underwhelmed before this encounter, with Marbellí having a basic (but acceptable) warm-up and Totalán’s being decisively lacklustre. On a positive note, the view from inside the ground was far better than I’d anticipated beforehand, even though there is only one side that’s open to spectators, due to the bar that’s located above the goal only (currently) being accessible by the street. As the evening wore on, we had a lovely sunset visible looking towards the back of Marbella FC’s ground in front of us, with the hills overlooking the town located on the right. Unfortunately, my photos fail to do the views justice. When I first entered the ground there were only two other people inside but, as we approached kick-off the crowd did swell to around fifty, with everyone opting to sit on the back row for a good view of the action.

The game itself proved to be very scrappy and quite reminiscent of many English non-league encounters that you’ll see. We had to wait until the 40th minute to see the first real chances of the match, when the home side’s goalkeeper made two saves in quick succession to deny the visitors the opener, after a low shot and subsequent re-bound. The away team had a final chance to take the lead before half-time, when Javi Gallardo raced through on goal but was denied again by the host’s keeper. The referee blew for Half-Time dead-on 45 minutes with the score-line remaining goalless, but Totalán really should’ve been ahead. Marbellí responded quickly after the break and had two chances of their own to take the lead within the first quarter of an hour of the second period, after a shot following a corner was hit straight at the goalkeeper, before Brayan headed wide from a long throw-in. The next piece of action came in the 73rd minute, when the home side were reduced to 10 men, following what I believed to be a harsh sending off for Javi Tuki for a challenge on the left hand-side of the pitch.

If anything, playing with a man less seemed to spur on the hosts, as they then had three glorious chances to take the lead in the final 10 minutes of regulation time. First of all, Ismael shot wide in what was the clearest chance of the game up to this point, before a wide free-kick was crossed deep into the box and headed against the post, with the visitors being able to prevent a follow-up effort. It proved to be one-way traffic from here on, as the visitors couldn’t muster any chances of their own. The hosts should’ve won the game in the 2nd minute of injury-time, following another chance from a long throw-in finding an unmarked player at the far-post, but he skied the ball over the goal when he really should’ve hit the target. Fortunately for Marbellí they wouldn’t come to regret missing all of those chances, when in the 4th added minute a long-ball played “over the top” from deep found forward Brayan, who was able to take a touch and run clear through on goal, striking the ball past the keeper into the bottom left corner of the net. The home-side were overjoyed in celebration, the visitors were furious that it hadn’t been called as offside and I was just relieved that I’d witnessed a goal, to extend my run of not seeing a goalless game this season!

It took a couple of minutes to get everything back to normal after the commotion, with multiple bookings being brandished for both side’s celebrations or reactions. The opening goal also happened to be the last kick of the game, with the referee blowing the full-time whistle before Totalán had the chance to take the kick-off, which caused even more scenes afterwards when the mix of emotions over-flowed. Thankfully there wasn’t any trouble caused, unlike what I’ve seen in similar situations at some other places here. The referee was still busy after the game had ended, as he sent-off a visitor’s player amid all of the chaos, shouting and celebrating.

With darkness now fully upon us, it was time for me to take a walk down towards the centre for the journey home. In the end, it’d taken me about 5 months to visit this particular ground for a game, but I’ve now finally ticked it off for what proved to be an eventful and memorable encounter. CD Atlético Marbellí was genuinely better than I had previously anticipated and well worthy of a visit, as are all of the grounds in Marbella for that matter, just make sure you get confirmation of the game with the club beforehand…

Overall, it proved to be third time lucky for my second featured game, as I was able to experience two really enjoyable evenings of local football. Stay tuned for another article about Marbella, that’s different to my usual reports, which I hope to complete very soon.

Chris Sharp

(All photos are taken by me, please can you give me credit if you wish to use my photos)