Coaching for Pizza: Game Day in Madrid

Saturday, January 25, 2025

After two long weeks of practice since our season opening contest, it was finally . . .

GAME DAY!

We actually had a double header of sorts for our Gijón Mariners organization.

At 5:00 p.m., our Senior Flag Team was playing a home game against a club known simply as Los Norteños, a.k.a., The Northerners.

I do not know the exact score but I did hear that our Mariners (1-1) lost that game.

The second Mariners game was our Serie A Western Conference duel to be played in Madrid with a scheduled 6:00 p.m. kickoff time.

It would be a tad chilly at game time

Let's take a look at the combatants . . .

Gijón Mariners

0 Wins - 1 Loss

Season Reults

17 Coslada Camioneros - 33

Las Rozas Black Demons

2 Wins - 0 Losses

Season Results

21 Osos Rivas - 14

49 Zaragoza Hurricanes - 6

The Black Demons have been the Gold Standard in Spain's top American football league, Serie A, for the past half decade with five consecutive Spanish Super Bowl appearances having won the 2023 and 2024 National Championships.

For some context on our seemingly uphill battle today, our Mariners lost both games against the Las Rozas eleven last season in Mercy Rule affairs, 7-49 and 3-55.

Getting to the game is a little complicated as it requires a five hour bus trip plus a stop for a meal as well.

My day started bright and early as I had to double check that I had all of my items for the trip in order before leaving the apartment to catch the #1 bus at 8:45 a.m. to the team meeting spot to catch the nice recliner bus to Madrid's northern suburb of Las Rozas.

We were meeting in the parking lot

by Gijón's famed soccer stadium,

"El Molinón"

Enrique de Castro Quini Stadium

Home of Real Sporting de Gijón

I was told by our team bus drivers that Enrique de Castro Quini is universally considered to be the greatest player in the history of Real Sporting de Gijón.

Real Sporting de Gijón is currently playing in Spain's Second Division.

El Molinón, as most enthusiasts call it, was built in 1905 making it Spain's oldest soccer stadium still in use. Of course, over the last 120 years there have been several improvements, expansions and renovations to this venerable facility that can now seat up to 29,371 rabid fans.

In typical European functional use of space, the ground floor of El Molinón is made up of bars and a huge supermarket available to the public daily.

I went to high school in

La Cañada, California

This was one of El Molinón's bars.

This was another

Is that Quini?

I bet it is.

As I said, this supermarket was

HUGE!

Bryan, Moha and Angel were the first

three Mariners to arrive after me

Enrique de Castro Quini Statue

near the main entrance to El Molinón

An inscription on the base of this statue it says, "Now Quini, Now and Forever."

Quini played for the Gijón team from 1968-1980 and again from 1984-1989. In between those two stints he played for Spanish powerhouse Barcelona from 1980-1984.

Quini passed away at the age of 68 in 2018.

Our chariot awaits

All hands were loaded aboard and the bus left precisely on schedule at 10:00 a.m. for the long ride to the Capitol.

My only question at this point was "Can we tackle?"

This had been our biggest weakness in our game against the Camioneros and we had worked hard to improve our tackling techniques during the past two weeks of practice.

I would later find out that our tackling was vastly improved, now as to our ability to defend against the deep ball, that would be another matter altogether.

We had a little rain along the way but as we traveled for the first three hours I was awed by the raw beauty of the Picos de Europa mountain range and its foothills.

Absolutely GORGEOUS!

If I were driving a car, this three hour segment of our bus drive would take me at least three days in order to stop, visit and take photos of the many wondrous things that I saw today.

I was fighting three things at this point, the jaw dropping scenery vs. much needed sleep vs. the non-stop talk between our two drivers centered on one of my favorite topics, food.

It's not easy sitting in the front seat.

Our break in the drive came

at 1:25 p.m. at a typical roadside

hotel/diner/mini-market complex

A quick restroom break, some much desired café con leche and a few snacks for the road all made this 20 minute stop more than just worthwhile.

I could have bought that much

desired machete at the mini-market

After all, Ground Hogs Day is just around the corner.

MLB Rober's socks were

EN FUEGO!

We arrived at the stadium at 3:15 p.m.

The local rugby stadium that was

the setting for our game had a

good artificial grass field

I was informed by Iván Canto, our LB Coach, that this is the only Serie A field in Spain that accommodates a full 100 yard gridiron.

Fan rules for Rugby spectators

As far as I could tell during the game, the same rules were adhered to by our American football crowd in attendance.

Defensive End Angel Cobos Friera

He is wearing our grandson Jacob's favorite number, 99.

Angel is a hard worker at practice who lacks experience. I made a vow to myself to get him in the game at some point today to reward him for coming to practice and helping on our Scout Team defense.

He got his break when I inserted him for a series in the Fourth Quarter.

I asked him after the game how he thought he did.

"On the first play the Black Demons' offensive tackle hit me so hard that I saw God! Everything was a blur after that."

And so it goes, welcome to Serie A football, Angel.

Offensive Tackle Moha showing

us some of our sponsorship logos

With Guadalajara Stings potentate

Alejandro Altisent before the game

I first met Alejandro when he was playing WR for the Stings in 2016 and I was working in Madrid for two pre-season months solely teaching fundamentals to both the DIII Stings and their, at that time, parent club, the DI Osos Rivas.

The Stings grassroots project has always been one of my favorites and over the years, as Alejandro became the Stings Team President, Laurie and I have shipped him several boxes of football gear.

As a matter of fact, the last two boxes that we shipped him just arrived in Guadalajara this past week.

It was so nice to see him at the stadium before the game.

Mariners warming up

Mandatory pre-game document check

It was time to play the game.

I have no game photos for you at this time as our team photographer did not make the trip. Hopefully, the Black Demons will post some pictures later this week.

FIRST QUARTER:

The Mariners first play was a 60 yard run but the potentially shocking drive ended with a blocked Field Goal attempt.

The Black Demons hit quickly on a 60 yard TD pass to take the lead 7-0.

Gijón goes Three and Out, Punt.

Helped by some costly penalties, Las Rozas scores on a five yard scamper to extend their lead to 14-0.

The Mariners were driving thanks to some great pass receptions as the First Quarter ended with Las Rozas ahead 14-0.

SECOND QUARTER:

The Gijón drive continued and a 30 yard laser pass for a TD cut into the Black Demons lead, 14-7.

Las Rozas scored quickly again as we could not apply pressure to their excellent QB. This time it was a 75 yard bomb that extended the Black Demons lead to 21-7.

The Mariners are a gritty group this season and refused to fold under the near mythic Las Rozas aura. A 31 yard TD pass served notice that this was a new era in Gijón football history, the PAT was blocked, it was now Las Rozas 21 - Gijón 13.

Yet another Black Demons TD pass, this one of about 60 yards, gave Las Rozas a 28-13 lead.

The Mariners had a pass ricochet off of a receiver's hands into the hands of a Black Demons DB to end a drive.

Las Rozas converted the Mariners lone turnover of the night into a one yard TD pass with eight seconds left in the Half, Las Rozas 35 - Gijón 13.

The Mariners took a knee to end the Half trailing 35-13.

Our halftime locker room was calm and full of confidence regardless of the score, we all believed that we were competing at a solid level, now if we could just slow down their passing game.

In talking the situation over just before Halftime with LB Coach Iván Canto, he made a keen observation that we turned into a solid adjustment that proved dividends the rest of the game.

GREAT JOB, IVÀN!

THIRD QUARTER:

The Black Demons drive ended with a missed Field Goal, wide left. Our Defense played much better on this drive, As I said earlier, we have a gritty, gutsy squad that battles!

The Mariners Offense experienced a Three and Out, Punt.

The Mariners Defense recorded two consecutive QB Sacks and forced a Three and Out, Punt of our own.

A 30 yard pass completion had the Mariners Offense back in business as a scoreless Third Quarter came to a close with the score still Las Rozas 35 - Gijón 13.

FOURTH QUARTER:

The Mariners drive continued and ended with a seven yard TD pass to make the score Black Demons 35 - Mariners 20.

Champions that they are, Las Rozas responded with a solid drive that was capped by a three yard TD run, Black Demons 42 - Gijón 20.

Champions in spirit that the Mariners are, a 31 yard TD pass again changed the marker to Black Demons 42 - Mariners 27.

Our ensuing Onside Kick failed to secure us possession of the ball and gave Las Rozas a short field. Frustratingly, the Black Demons scored on a one yard TD run with again eight seconds left in the Half to extend their lead to 49-27.

The Mariners, with the game out of reach, wisely took a knee to end the game and not risk an injury on the last play of the game.

FINAL SCORE

Las Rozas Black Demons (3-0) - 49

Gijón Mariners (0-2) - 27

Defeated but not even close to being broken, our squad of Mariners are really believing in ourselves. The path ahead is bright I think, if we keeping working hard at practice.

Our next Mariners game will be played at our Las Mestas home field next Saturday, February 1st at 2:00 p.m. against the Zaragoza Hurricanes (0-2), a must win for both clubs.

As for our return trip, we stopped at a large shopping mall near the stadium for dinner with a Five Guys Hamburger the establishment of choice for the Mariners. The burger was ok, the fries good and the banana shake awesome.

We were all back on the bus and on the road again at 10:40 p.m.

We stopped at the same spot as before for a short but needed mid-trip restroom break.

Our bus arrived back a El Molinón at 3:45 a.m. on Sunday and I was finally back in the apartment at 4:05 a.m. for a few hours of sleep before starting another work week on the HUDL app.

Here are the all of Serie A results from Saturday's games:

Western Conference

Las Rozas (3-0) over Gijón (0-2)

Western Conference

Osos Rivas (2-1) beat Zaragoza (0-2)

Eastern Conference

L'Hospitalet (1-2) edged Mallorca (1-1)

There will be one more Eastern Conference game on Sunday, Badalona (1-1) at Barcelona (0-1).

The Week 3 byes went to the Terrassa Reds (2-0) in Eastern Conference play and to the Coslada Camioneros (1-1) in the Western Conference.

For those of you that do not think that Facebook is listening, I randomly got this photo on my feed of an old soccer player who I had never heard of before this morning.