Working Class Heroes: The Story of Rayo Vallecano, Madrid's Forgotten Team by Robbie Dunne

Author:Robbie Dunne [Dunne, Robbie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fans, Football, Non-Fiction, Soccer, Spain, Sport
ISBN: 9781785313189
Google: 9Ux3zQEACAAJ
Amazon: 1785313185
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2018-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

4

Rayo in the market

Rayo Vallecano 1-1 Sevilla Atlético, Saturday, 14 January 2017

RAYO played their first home game of the new year on Saturday, 14 January, and were looking for their first win too, or to at least avoid their first defeat. The big news, in a relatively slow news week for the club, was that there was a new pitch laid after some disparaging remarks by the likes of Miku about the state of the surface. He said there were better pitches back in his home country of Venezuela as he managed to insult both Rayo and Venezuela in one fell swoop; he was probably right though, about the Estadio Vallecas anyway.

Rayo’s ownership had decided to use the winter break and the fact that Rayo played away from home on the first weekend of 2017 to lay the new pitch. That might not seem like big news but, before I make it to Estadio Vallecas, pictures start to emerge on Twitter of the field with double pitch markings. The photos are accompanied by news that there is going to be a delay, or at least there was a risk of delay given the situation. The referee walked the field and had his doubts, and to be fair, it did look ridiculous. There were two flags per corner and two sidelines.

There was the aesthetic problem and also the issue involving which sideline they would use and then there was the issue that Spanish journalist Isaac Fuoto mentioned about what was contained in article 205.2 of the rules. It states a team could not change the dimensions of their field once the season had started. It was just a training ground line but something had to be done. And fast.

It would have caused all sorts of confusion if they went ahead with the double-lined field and they would have incurred a significant fine, but, instead of a delay, the field workers broke out the green paint and painted one of the sidelines to blend it with the grass. It wasn’t the exact right hue of green but it was close enough. I thought there would be a delay so I waited for an extra minute or two before making my way to the turnstiles as I stood and chatted with the lads at Meson Moreno’s.

I was going to be a minute or two late. No big deal, I thought. I was most certainly wrong. When I walked in and took my seat, Rayo were 1-0 down. A nonchalant back pass by Dorado was jumped on by a lurking Ivan Lopez before rounding Ze Castro and scoring past Gazzaniga in a one-on-one, to leave the home side down by a goal and facing an uphill battle to turn the tie around. Given Rayo’s most recent goalscoring record, I was not confident. There were spells when they might score one or two but there were inexplicable patches where they couldn’t buy a goal.

My pessimism was warranted because, despite peppering Sevilla Atlético’s penalty area with crosses, they created very little throughout the first half.

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