(written November 19)
Taking a week off in the sun of Costa Adeje Tenerife I decided to get the bus to Santa Cruz to the Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez home of Tenerife FC to sample life in the Spanish Second Division
So away from the cold of Prestwich and a week in the sun takes me to Tenerife and being the footy nut I am one always looks at the fixtures of local teams if in season.
I take a look at the Tenerife Fc website and see they are struggling 16th in the league are at home to 2nd placed Andelucian side Almeria in the Spanish 2nd Division
So throwing on the Heys shirt (as you do) I set off to the town of Santa Cruz where home games are played.
Arriving 4 hours before kick off I find a sole man in a ticket booth and ask if tickets are available for today's game,smiling he said "always"...so prices start at just 10 Euros (you wouldn't get that in our equivalent championship) to sit with the 'ultras' a regularly used word across Europe and beyond for football fans and roughly translates into mancunian as 'nutters'.
I politely decline and opt for a seat in the main stand on the half way line for a still reasonable 20 Euros not quite prawn sandwich brigade more paella brigade!.
I find a cafe bar close by and while sipping my €1.20 pint of local beer I see the locals treat it as a family day out dad wife's and kids and soon feel quite relaxed.
On entry to the stadium the first thing I notice are that the programmes are free..so I grab eight quickly as i know a few of our fans collect them to take home as a small gift.
I proceed to go up the stairs and up and up...(if anyone has been in the away end at St James Park Newcastle in the last fifteen years you will know what I mean and I was dripping in sweat by this point) it's a huge treck certainly not the leisurely stroll from turnstile to clubhouse at our beloved Adie Moran Park.
I get to the concorse and find the drinks stall ready for a beer duly served one for €3..ok I thought..upon tasting it looked at the bottle of this local brew that had and 'odd' taste to find its 0% alcohol..oh dear!..one has been had over by the barman..can you imagine if our bar staff did that?..a riot would ensue.
I take my seat on the half way line on row 16 out of 20 and the teams come out and do a minutes silence which the announcer plays music over..I know not why.
I take a look over to the away end..not a single Almeria fan in it,the two hour flight from mainland spain and a weekend away showed no interest with the visiting support or did they do research and realise the beer was non alcoholic?!..you decide.
The game gets underway the ultras are banging drums harder than Phil Collins in a drumming competition ( so glad we banned them at Heys) but silenced as Almeria are soon 2-0 up with winger Jose Carlos Lazo getting both goals and running the show..Tenerife pull one back before half time through defensive midfielder Borja Lasso and I chuckle as a man in a yellow vest comes round offering cornettos..nowt else just cornettos.
To the second half and Tenerife really go for it, miss a host of chances with the lack of a decent goalscorer up front and you can see why they are in a lowly 16th in the league, Almeria catch the home side on the break late on through midfielder Sergio Aguza for a 3-1 win.
The 12394 crowd stormed out chanting rude words in Spanish and pointing to the manager on the home bench in an aggressive manner ( and that was just the kids!).. I looked on and thought this was brilliant the passion is still as rich in the 2nd tier as in La Liga
with the game kicking off at 5pm we got an amazing sunset over the stadium which made up for the 0% beer and joking aside it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience to see life in the spanish 2nd tier and my moral to this article is be it this the Premiership our beloved North West Counties or watching your kids play on a Saturday morning football truly is the best game in the world..better luck next game Tenerife.
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