Real Mallorca play fellow holiday island team Tenerife at their Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez, kick-off 8.15pm Palma time tomorrow evening. The game will be the last one away for the Palma side this year and so far we’ve failed to win any of our fixtures on the road this season.
Mallorca had some bad news on Thursday when in-form striker Brandon Thomas failed a fitness test and will miss the game. It’s not, however, the knee injury that kept the Cala D’Or youngster out for several games but a muscle strain, and he’s not to be risked. As if his absence wasn’t bad enough for interim coach Pepe Galvez, Michael Pereira pulled out of the squad at the last minute through injury, leaving Mallorca minus two of their best players.
History will be made tonight when, for the first time in 50 years, two Majorcan coaches, who both had distinguished careers playing for Los Bermellones, will pit their wits against each other in the second tier of Spanish professional football. For Tenerife it’s Pep Luis Marti, aged 40, and for us it’s Pepe Galvez at 41. Pep has been in charge of Tenerife for five games and his record reads : won two and drawn three. Pepe has only been in charge for one game and it’s so far so good, with a pretty emphatic 2-0 home win against Albacete last Sunday.
The local press have been waxing lyrical about our winning performance in that game, with the team’s more attacking policy pleasing the majority of Mallorca fans after five months of “Chapi” Ferrer’s pragmatic, defensive-style, boring football. Galvez has had three open training sessions this week (Ferrer’s were mostly conducted behind closed doors) and on Tuesday’s fiesta over 100 fans turned up at the Son Bibiloni training ground. Wednesday saw another team photograph session at the Son Moix and afterwards there was a low-key Christmas get-together in the club’s offices. During the chillout, owner/president Utz Claassen wished all players and staff peace, good health and stated our main goal was still promotion.
Tomorrow's game and next Saturday’s home match against Girona (6pm kick-off) are two fixtures where we could well pick up maximum points which would move us into mid-table going into the short Christmas break. There was more good news on Tuesday when the injured Paraguayan striker Carlos “El Torito” Acuña, who’s been out for almost two months, returned to full training and took his seat on the plane to Tenerife.
I’m really hoping that Real Mallorca’s change in fortunes will continue tomorrow as I’m going to the game along with around 40 other Mallorquinistas. Temperatures are set to be at least 10º higher than here so it looks like I’ll have to dust off the speedos again (not a pretty sight these days)!!
Our biggest test of the season will be on Sunday, 10 January when we visit league leaders Cordoba. That game has been scheduled for a 7.15pm kick-off.