To round-off our double-header weekend, having beaten Augsburg in Germany on Saturday thanks to a Habib Diarra goal, the Stadium of Light played host to the LaLiga outfit as we sought to wrap-up our pre-season preparations with consecutive wins.
Having played a mostly fully-strength side in Bavaria on Saturday afternoon, we were right to expect a much-changed, weaker team when the announcement hit our social media feeds. That said, the fact we are naming players like Enzo Le Fée, Dan Neil, and Wilson Isidor in a so-called “weaker” side is testament to the work undertaken behind the scenes in the recruitment department.
We made Sunday’s visitors feel very at home, ostensibly from the off. Surrendering possession, and allowing the Spaniards to dictate play while we sat back. Having qualified for Europe for the first time in 25-years last season, El Rayo were by no means slouches, with their self-belief, collective mentality, and confidence going into the new campaign abundantly clear.
It didn’t take long for our guests to take advantage of our willingness to let them play, as Jorge de Frutos was presented with an easy tap-in, pegging us back in the 19th minute. While this was perhaps earmarked as the lesser of the two back-to-back games in terms of importance, it also translated on the pitch, as sloppiness prevailed during a game where the visible gulf in quality was in need of being reduced rather than amplified.
Chris Rigg’s first minutes of pre-season were unsurprisingly unconvincing given his lengthy lay-off with injury, highlighted by his naive, albeit commendable effort at Cruyff turning in our box, only to be dispossessed. Niall Huggins joined our fresh-faced 18-year-old in having a pretty dismal showing during the opening 45 minutes, with some questionable decision making and positioning of his own.
I wasn’t one of the few thousand souls who’d given up their Sunday lunch to be in attendance, so when the website stream cut out in typical fashion, I was left to decipher the contents of the first 20 minutes of the second-half via the unofficial channel of live text commentary from the Roker Report group chat. Of course, Vallecano doubled and then tripled their lead during this technical fault, meaning, while I caught the goals from Alfonso Espino and Isi Palazón, I did so in a pixelated manner. Espino’s effort was a tidy strike, regardless of if I only saw it while my buffering stream wreaked havoc.
With Rigg, Isidor, Anthony Patterson, and Tom Lavery making way in the 67th minute for Timur Tutierov, Milan Aleksic, Jenson Jones, and Blondy Nna Noukeu, Regis Le Bris at least gave us some fresh impetus in the final quarter of the game. We certainly looked better for it, too. Tutierov, while still raw, was making his presence felt up front through crafty, well-timed runs off the ball. As we got our foot on the ball a little more, and began to string together some relatively pleasing passages of play, space was being created for the likes of Patrick Roberts and Le Fée to work their magic in wide areas.
With the game finishing in a disappointing 0-3 defeat, it closes the door on an underwhelming pre-season campaign. The success of any pre-season isn’t defined by the results of the games completed within its six-week window, but rather by the subsequent 38-game season that ensues for the nine months thereafter. If we are to take anything away from this weekend, it’s that Saturday’s team that played away at Augsburg is far more closely aligned with the side we can expect to see feature in the starting XI against West Ham next weekend.