Date & Time: Sunday 12^th September 2021 – 17:00

Competition: Primera RFEF Grupo II

Venue: Estadio Municipal de La Línea

Author: Les McKee

After picking up a draw with a valiant performance in Sabadell last weekend, Balona will welcome CD Castellón to La Linea for matchday 3 of the new PrimeraRFEF season.

There has certainly been a buzz amongst Leeds fans on the Costa del Sol about the visit of Castellón as they signed Pablo Hernández in the summer. Despite being 36 years old Hernández showed his class coming off the bench to score in Castellón’s opening day defeat to Albacete.

Leeds fans are expected to be in attendance to see the player who was pivotal in their return to the Premier League under Marcelo Bielsa. During his time at Elland Road he scored 36 goals and provided 41 assists in 175 appearances.

There is no doubting the danger he possesses. Victor Mena and Josué Dorrio on the left-hand side for Balona will need to double up on him on occasions on Sunday. Dorrio and Mena were both excellent against Sabadell overlapping each other on numerous occasions to create an attacking threat. Against Castellón we will want to see them continue in this vein, but it may be tempered with the potential for Hernández to hurt Balona in the blink of an eye.

Castellón have the second biggest stadium in group II and are expected to be challenging for promotion this season. They put that Albacete disappointment behind them on matchday 2 running out 2-0 winners at home to Sevilla Atlético.

On that occasion Bilal Kandoussi scored the opener and David Cubillas added the second with a towering header at the back post. Given that the only goal conceded by Balona this season was a header at the backpost should Cubillas play Morante and Loren will need to watch for the big striker exploiting any space between the two on their side.

Mario Barco has started both games up top for Castellón but may find his ship has sailed this Sunday with Cubillas scoring as a substitute last weekend.

Álvaro Campos, the experienced goalkeeper, will once again captain Sergi Escobar’s side. Now in his fourth season with Castellón the former Cádiz CF stopper will be buoyed by his clean sheet last weekend.

Escobar is in his second spell in charge of the club having previously been in charge back in 2017-18. On that occasion Escobar led the team to promotion from Tercera to Segunda B. He will have designs on another promotion push this year.

For the second week in a row Balona find themselves facing a side who were relegated from La Liga Smartbank last season. The relegated sides get compensated to the tune of 1.5m euros. That is a budget Romerito can only dream of.

So once again it’s David v Goliath but as Balona have shown in both games so far, the role of David suits the team just fine. This fact is not lost on Escobar who mentioned the work rate and intensity of Balona in his pre-match press conference.

He also praised Coulibaly, Koroma and Ñito González. This will be a very emotional occasion for the skipper following the passing of his grandfather this week. There is no doubt La Recia will rally round the captain at this sad time.

The fans were impactful in the opening day victory over Real Madrid Castilla. The buzz generated when Koroma and Coulibaly get possession saw both players puff their chests out and they were instrumental in carrying the team to victory. The same again is needed from both on Sunday.

Gerard Oliva and Dorrio’s work rate at Sabadell was top drawer and I can see both players leaving everything they have on the pitch once more. Loren’s emergence as a right back is a work in progress and Balona will expect another big performance from the hometown boy.

It’s yet another intriguing encounter. For the third game in a row Balona are the underdogs. As we’ve seen so far this season these underdogs are prepared to take a bite out of the big boys.

Before a ball was kicked Romerito would have taken a point away at newly relegated Sabadell but at half-time he could have made claims Balona should have had the lead.

By the time the referee blew the final whistle he will have been happy to bring a point back to La Linea.

The result leaves Balona with four points from their opening two games in PrimeraRFEF. The tough start continues with back-to-back games at home against Club Deportivo Castellón and local rivals Algeciras CF.

Sporting the new pink away kit for the first time Balona got off to a pretty start. In the preview I highlighted that Balona could potentially get in behind Óscar Rubio, the 37-year-old full back for Sabadell. Teamwork from Dorrio and captain Ñito González saw this happen early and Morgado came across to cover and ended up picking up a yellow card after only 12 minutes. With a centre back on a booking for 78 minutes Balona will maybe feel they could have got the tricky Koroma to get a clear run on Morgado, but this never materialised.

Óscar Rubio to his credit was potentially the best player on the park for Sabadell he defied his age by getting up and down the flank on many occasions throughout the game. I even spotted him late on tracking back after one of his crosses had been cleared to end up retrieving the ball inside his own half. A great display from an experienced player.

The first half was one of very few chances. Another nice piece of combination football between Dorrio and Victor Mena ended with Mena flashing the ball across the box. Try as he might, it escaped the outstretched leg of Gerard Oliva.

Oliva himself fired over after cutting inside. For Sabadell, Nestor headed their best chance over the bar.

Alhassan Koroma was very quiet but as the first half was drawing to a close, he picked up the ball wide and drove in towards goal. He unleashed a thunderous shot from outside the box. Kike Royo in the Sabadell goal was beaten all ends up, but the shot cannoned back off the post. Gerard Oliva reacted with sharpness to slam the ball into the roof of the net. His celebrations short lived as the linesman raised his flag for an offside.

Sadly, Footters is not Sky Sports or La Liga TV so we will never know for certain if Oliva was offside, it sure looked tight. That’s the second time this season Balona have had a goal disallowed for offside that needed the VAR lines for confirmation. It’s only matchday 2.

At the break Balona could be very happy with their 45 minutes work. Most of the attacks had come down the Sabadell right which meant Koroma hadn’t seen as much of the ball as you would like. However, in the second half the little genius would float a lot more and drop deeper to get on the ball and cause havoc. He was recognised in the post-match press conference by Sabadell manager Hidalgo as a difference maker.

Sabadell as the home side did have a large share of possession in the 2nd half but Balona did manage to stand firm. There weren’t many scares truth be told but when they came the players for La Recia remained calm, composed and dealt with the Sabadell attacks.

The first big chance came when Facu Garcia managed to get a free header from a corner. Nacho Miras saved and threw himself into a swarm of players to gather the loose ball. A real act of bravery from the man between the sticks.

Koroma on one of his adventures off the wing found himself central, he tricked his way into the box but dragged the shot wide with the keeper again well beaten.

It was starting to look very much like one goal would decide the game.

Nacho Miras picked up a yellow for taking a drink of water that was deemed to be time wasting. Loren playing out of his natural wing position at right full back also went into the book. Loren is tenacious and a real battler. However, as a winger when he is under pressure at right back rather than take the easy option and knock the ball out and get organised his winger instincts kick in and he uses his pace, skill and trickery to try and play his way out of every situation. I hope that doesn’t come back to bite him at some point.

Sabadell looked to their bench to freshen things up in attack. New signing Kaxe was introduced and almost grabbed the winner. He watched on in agony as his shot hit the inside of one post bounced across the line and hit the other post before being smuggled to safety by a mixture of Miras and his defence.

Balona continued to try and ease the pressure at the back using Gerard Oliva as the out ball. He fought for every ball but on 80 minutes his race was run as he was overcome with cramp. He had run himself into the ground and was replaced by Cham. Every goal kick that Sabadell tried to play out from the back, Oliva was there tracking left and right to press the defenders and must have covered every blade of grass in the Sabadell half.

There was one more chance for Balona to come home with the victory. Victor Mena shooting from the edge of the box, but the ball landed on the roof of the net.

Sabadell started to get frustrated, substitute Aaron Rey and Alfred Planas picking up late yellows.

The fans of Sabadell would have seen this as a home banker, but they couldn’t cash in against a Balona defence who were a tough safe to crack.

A big turn out is expected next Sunday for the visit of Castellón. Can Balona continue to cause surprises to everyone else but us?