A Win, a Familiar Face, and the next Jurado?

By: Jeremy | September 2nd, 2009

Mallorca opened the La Liga season with a 2-0 home win over newly promoted Xerez and followed the weekends performance with some last minute transfer deals to strengthen a squad, that despite the win, clearly is lacking the overall talent to be a factor in La Liga this year.

Any win is a good win and this is especially important to Mallorca who recently has started the season badly only to recover in time to avoid relegation but not be where the talent and performance should be in the standings. It did not look good early as Xerez dominated the game and should have scored. But as luck would have it, they get a guy sent off around half time and Mallorca takes advantage. New strike force Aduriz and Tuni set each other up for goals and the end result was a 2-0 win and a happy opening day.

A team that wins or loses when the game is decided when the teams are not at equal strength cannot be analyzed to the good or bad. We can discuss the stupidity or the injustice of the sending off, but the result is typically a foregone conclusion and not indicative of where the teams would be if they played at equal strength. Either way, luck was on our side this time and we got a valuable three points against a relegation type team. These are must wins, make the final part of the season less stressful, and could lead to a nice run or some confidence to keep a bad losing streak from starting.

Despite the win, Mallorcas management and coach Manzano clearly understood the talent level is down and some help was needed. The team made two last minute signings that could make a difference. The big name is Borja Valero who returns to Palma after a year in the EPL with West Brom who were relegated. If you remember 2007-08, this guy was great for us and an up and coming talent. WB paid us 6 million for him last summer which is not a small price. He flopped in the EPL and was happy to return to Spain. He is now on a loan deal and we have the option to buy him at the end of the year. This is a great signing with no risk high reward potential. He shores up the weak midfield that was destroyed by the loss of Jurado and Arango.

Speaking of Jurado, maybe we also found his replacement in Uruguayan player Paulo Pezzolano. He is another attack minded midfielder who lead the Uruguayan league in scoring so he clearly has a knack for goal. While Uruguay is not Spain, scorers are still scorers and the potential is there and he will get plenty of time on the field. This is another deal that could be permanent if we like how he performs. He is additional depth added to our weak midfield so he will get every chance to win a spot and with his family living in Spain already, he will be extra motivated to earn a meaningful place on the team.

There is still a lot of unknown with this team and the new players are not as well heralded as what we brought in last year. However, an opening win with a little momentum could lead to a start that does not bury us early and if the talent comes together quickly then we could finish higher then expected. Right now we are still relegation material in my mind, but we have moved up. Lets see how we do against Villarreal on the road in two weeks before we get too excited. Either way, we are in a much better position then we were a week ago so lets hope the momentum continues.