Real Mallorca's final friendly before the start of the new season saw them concede three soft second-half goals to lose 3-2 to La Liga's Granada at a sticky Son Moix on Saturday in front of 5,000 fans. Some lackadaisical schoolboy defending in the second half enabled the visitors to lift the massive City of Palma Trophy and pull off a surprise win. Coach Fernando Vazquez made eleven changes in the second half as we spectacularly fell apart in the last half an hour.
Mallorca looked on course for a comfortable win with goals from Colunga (after Granada's Mexican international keeper Ochoa slipped while trying to clear) in the eighteenth minute and rookie Angel Sanchez rattled in the second (his third in two games) after 52 minutes, thanks to Lago Junior's pace leaving Granada's defence in his wake.
A shot from Brandon on the hour mark cannoned off the far post and if that had gone in the game was over. Three minutes later, after we had Granada on the ropes, the rot set in with a strong degree of controversy. Ponce looked to have used a hand as he scored but the local referee waved aside protests. Then for some reason we became jittery, making too many square passes and passing back to the goalkeeper on numerous occasions. Santamaria was being put under needless pressure, having to hack the ball into row Z three times. I have to say the jury is still out on this new goalkeeper: Cabrero could well be the number one choice next Saturday.
Granada now had their tails up and the equaliser wasn't far away. It was Ponce again who danced through the nervous defence to make it 2-2. With time running out Granada grabbed a late winner. This time they had three players lining up to score but it was Toral who tucked away the winner.
Then the game's talking point. With just seconds left, man of the match Culio put new striker Lekic through and on a one-on-one with Ochoa. The keeper came out to narrow the angle, and the new Serb signing unbelievably tried to chip him. His effort went tamely wide, which was not the best introduction he would have wanted.
Summing up: The pre-match presentation was kept to a minimum with just the first team squad being introduced. Then came a piece of farce. Granada refused to change from their fluorescent orange ensemble. It's customary for the away side to change into their second colours so as not to clash with the home team. It turns out that Granada refused because they hadn't done their homework in researching what colour we play in and they had no alternative jerseys with them. The referee rightly decided orange and red clashed, so the visitors had to change. After much brow-beating, Granada finally succumbed and wore Mallorca's white away shirts.
Fans who missed this game shouldn't read too much into the result. We were the better team until the last half an hour when the wheels came off. That's what happens when the coach makes so many changes. We look a much better outfit this pre-season but that means nothing until we start in earnest on Saturday. At this time of the summer, last season's feeling of dejection and regret evaporates and a breeze of speculation and hope takes over. All those banging on about us needing two strikers have had their wish granted. We've brought in Majorcan-born Adrian Dalmau from Espanyol. The 22-year-old was leading scorer for the B side in Segunda División B last season with 12 goals. Both Dalmau and Lekic will be introduced to the media on Tuesday.