Spain’s leaders are looking over their shoulder: the perfect teams are coming
Four rounds into the Spanish women’s season, the top of the Liga Iberdrola has a problem. The good kind.
Club de Campo lead the league with 10 points. They dropped their first points of the season last weekend, drawing 0-0 with RC Polo at the Eduardo Dualde, and the teams behind them did not waste the invitation. Junior won again. Atlètic Terrassa won again. Neither of them has dropped a single point yet.
The women’s title race, as it stands
Campo are top on 10 points from four games. Junior, who beat Sardinero 3-0 last weekend, have won three from three and sit second. Atlètic are right there too, still perfect after Claudia Escudero’s goal settled their game against RS Tenis, who lost for the first time and slip to seven points. Polo are fourth on eight, unbeaten, with two wins and two draws.
And here’s the twist in the tail: Junior and Atlètic were supposed to play each other in round three. The match was called off because of weather alerts in Catalunya, along with Egara v Sardinero, and both still have that game in hand on Campo. The leaders are ahead, but it’s a borrowed lead until those two settle it between themselves.
Sunday’s televised double-header in the Canaries
The game we’ve got circled this weekend is in Gran Canaria, where UD Taburiente’s women host Junior on Sunday at 10:00 am Canarian time, 11:00 am on the mainland, live on Hockeytv.es.
On paper it’s first gear against top gear. Taburiente are still looking for their first point of the season, and they have to do it without their captain Natalia Déniz, who misses the game for work reasons, with Luciana Piersimoni a doubt because of a fractured finger and striker Carolina Carrizo nursing a hamstring problem. Junior, packed with internationals, have won everything put in front of them.
Football and hockey both love a game like this, though. Island trip, depleted home side, nothing to lose. Junior should win it. Should.
The men’s side: Taburiente v Atlètic Terrassa
Straight after the women’s game, same pitch, Taburiente’s men host Atlètic Terrassa in the Liga IATI at 11:45 am Canarian time, also on Hockeytv.es.
Taburiente’s men are chasing their first win too. They took a heavy 6-2 beating at Carpesa last weekend, but the version of them that drew 3-3 with Club Egara in their home opener is still in there somewhere, and coach Eugenio Paulón has spent the week talking about getting that attitude back. They’ll have to do it without captain Ricardo Santana, whose ankle injury keeps him out again, and Alejandro Giraudo, who has a fissure in a finger.
Atlètic arrive ninth with three points from their three games, a place above Taburiente, and with their own point to prove after an irregular start. Two teams who both think they’re better than the table says. Those games are rarely dull.
The men’s story of last weekend, by the way, belonged to Carpesa. Their 6-2 win over Taburiente was the first time the Valencia club had ever scored six in a top-flight game, it lifted them to sixth, one point off the leading group, and Spain head coach Max Caldas watched the whole thing from the stands. When the national coach is in your crowd, you tend to put on a show.
