Almeria U19 ‘A’ wave bye to advancing to ‘Copa de Campeones Juvenil de Fútbol’
The 0-2 defeat to ‘Vázquez Cultural’ leads them to relegation battle in the second half of the season.
The UD Almeria Under-19s ‘A’ did not do well and will end the season fighting to keep is their place within the Division de Honor league, since the teenagers were defeated 0-2 by Vázquez Cultural at the Anexo Juegos Mediterraneos. In this way, the homegrown players will have to compete in the relegation phase over the second half of the competition.
Almería began dominating, even having the option of getting ahead but Josemi failed to score. Then both sides seemed pretty evenly matched, although without the scoreboard recording any goal. This result was worth having since the Rojiblancos would qualify for the Copa de Campeones Juvenil de Futbol tournament in the event of a tie.
The second half performance was not a good omen for the Academy hopefuls. Doubts arose over the result and opponents Vázquez Cultural managed to get closer to the goal defended by Del Águila. The referee awarded a penalty to the visitors that Óscar Carrillo converted from 12 yards to make it 0-1. It was the 68th minute.
The Almería Under-19s ‘A’ tried to deal with the hard blow, yet it could be felt on the Anexo lawn that the goal conceded had done a lot of damage. As a consequence, opportunities were created with difficulty and spurned, crossing into the box was essentially part of their tactic, however the lads could not find the way to beat the strong visitor goalie.
The Indalicos woke up and pulled their socks up to equalise. That was when the match official, Sánchez Villalobos did not whistle a clear penalty on Jorge Fernández after 82 minutes. Soon after, he would also interpret that there was no visiting defender’s handball within the box.
Vázquez Cultural were well organised in the meeting. The team from Marbella merited the victory and, in the 91st minute, they sealed passage to the next round once Pablo took advantage of a mistake made by the hosts.
This second goal fuelled the Rojiblancos’ fears of defeat. The Almeria Under-19s ‘A’ destiny was in their hands but things did not work out, so the boys will have to do their very best in the second half of the season together with those teams that are struggling not to be relegated to the Liga Nacional Juvenil. On the plus side, the homegrown players start with an advantage over their rivals by counting on the points collected in the first half of the campaign.
Rest of the Academy sides
The rest of the UD Almeria Academy youth teams had to also face league commitments, some of them playing twice in the week. Almeria U16s ‘A’ hosted Granada (2-0) and visited Málaga (1-0). It is worth mentioning that this squad, despite the fact that the first half of the season is going through its final stretch, are already qualified and will try to lift the Division of Honor Under-16s title.
Almeria U16s ‘B’ also played two fixtures. The Academy products faced Linares on home turf (1-1), while later they visited Pavía (1-0). Likewise, Almeria U14s ‘A’, who have already promoted to the newly created Division de Honor Infantil (under-14s) and will fight for the title in this competition, drew with Granada at home (1-1) and beat Santa Fe in Almeria. (0-6).
The other three Academy teams that are yet to meet had to face a single match. Almeria U19s ‘B’ were outplayed by CD El Ejido (4-0) in the last round of the first half of the season, however, UD Almería already qualified with the chance to win the Liga Nacional Juvenil title in the second half of the campaign, which is to kick off next weekend.
On the other hand, better results were obtained by Almeria U14s ‘B’ in their visit to Pavía (0-3) and Almeria U12s in the village of La Mojonera (0-9).