Short-handed Chapi slip up again

Another Saturday afternoon kick-off saw Chapi preparing to take the field against Moralzarzal Vets (try saying that with a gob full of wine gums) with only eight players. Apparently, the lure of barbecues and the necessity of attending drunken Spanish weddings had whittled the available protagonists down considerably. After dragging some bloke off the terraces (who looked uncannily like Goldmember from the Austin Powers movie) to play full back, Francis, George and talisman Arthur arrived as the teams were warming up.

A cagey first half saw Chapi go behind as a long cross eluded Joseph 1 and was headed home by the Moralzarzal centre-forward. Shortly after the break, a characteristic defensive mix-up saw Chapi go further behind until who else but Arthur struck twice to give our idols hope. Unfortunately, further away days by the Chapi rearguard gifted our talented guests two further scores. So a 4-2 defeat but not a bad performance and a nice sunny day between the continuing downpours we've been having recently. Don't have have any match pics due to being forced to play the whole 90 minutes - could be why I can't walk today!
While having a coffee with Luciano (El Negro) before the match, I mentioned cricket. He asked whether that was the game played on horses. Well, to put matters straight, here's a pic of El Davo before his recent reincarnation playing at Madrid Cricket Club with Jonathan from Stony Stratford behind the stumps.

At my appearance in the bar for post-match drinkies, and while Francis was getting severely tanked up, George asked why there was no Spanish content on the blog. So, from now on you may find the odd (probably grammically incorrect) dagoism popping up.

Slack Chapi Battered

Picture: Lucas bearing down on goal with Francis pleading for a pass.

Despite the return of Arthur, Chapi suffered a heavy defeat (6-3) at the hands of an efficient San Martin de ValdeIglesias vets team. That's sixteen goals conceded in the last three games and diminutive keeper Joseph 2 gave the team a post-match lambasting as we queued for the red hot or freezing shower (see earlier post) This is despite him regularly being lobbed from the half-way line by enterprising opposing mid-field players.

Anyway, Chapi stadium was packed (relatively) with curious onlookers and the odd domestic animal on a balmy spring morning. Chapi started off as un-coordinated as a very drunk un-coordinated person overdosed on Valium and consistently maintained this standard throughout. Suffice to say that El Davo has forgotten many details of the match other than his clumsy challenge on one of the opponent's silky midfield players. After flattening said silky individual who had been asking for it (for being a bit good), El Davo had to be be dragged back to show concern for his prostrate victim. It's all a bit different over here.

Interesting fact from Spain. Football vocabulary is Spanish is very similar to that of the Home Counties. For example: football=futbol, corner=corner, penalty=penalti, goal=gol. So, Spanish is easy, it's just a matter of reorganising the vowels. As for "on me 'ed" or "give it welly", I'll need to check the dictionary.

Golfing El Davo impersonater in Spanish press

Those who really know El Davo will not be fooled. Would he really be seen playing a girly, pansy-like game such as golf? And in that sleeveless cardigan! Rumours abound but the most popular theory is that an old-time rock singer, snake-wrestler and devourer of live rats spotted the El Davo blog and climbed on the bandwagon trading makeup for El Davo's current clean-cut look. You have to respect the man but there's only one El Davo. Full details here!

Chapi comeback kids brave the downpour

Picture: Chapi Midfield dynamo Francis (Paco) in the middle of his traditional El Davo (or El inglés) pre-match insult. Usually something about tea drinking and how Gibraltar is Spanish - yeah, dream on!

On another typical English day in Spain, dark clouds and bucketing rain could not prevent brave Chapi from coming from behind three times to eventually defeat Cenicientos Vets 5-4 in a thrilling encounter at Chapi Stadium. An atypical Saturday afternoon kick-off saw Chapi go a goal down in the first few minutes. In a surprisingly skillfull spell, a goal was pulled back only for their dogged opponents to pull ahead again. Further goals for each side before the break saw Chapi trailing 3-2 at half-time.

However, the swift introduction of El Davo for the second half gave Chapi the spirit needed to equalise and despite conceding again, two goals late on meant that Chapi were back on winning ways. As for the scorers, well, prolific Arthur was absent but newcomer Robert scored at least one. As for the rest, as Chapi all play in the same coloured shirts (strange but true), it's often difficult to tell which swarthy Spaniard got the final touch. Eyesite fading or Alzeimers approaching - not sure which.

Interesting fact from Spain. El Davito (little El Davo) now nearly 19 years-old and at 14 arguably the youngest ever Old Pretenders player is bent on becoming the stereotypical wayward teenager and attention seeker. Here he is below pictured with José Bono, ex-Spanish Defence Minister and now leader of the Spanish Parliament who he collared while the unsuspecting big nob popped out for the milk. Not sure Mr Bono quite understood the T-shirt message.

Also below you can see him posing next to Santiago Segura, Spain's answer to Austin Powers (see poster) and rabid Atletico Madrid supporter (Fernando Torres played a cameo in his last film!)

Battling Chapi comeback not enough

Picture: Lewis's 1 and 2 plus Michael enthusiastically cheering on their team.

El Davo, back from his hamstring injury, contributed - in truth hardly anything - to a thrilling battle at Chapi Stadium against a formidable Boadilla del Monte side. Two-nil adrift inside ten minutes and 5-1 down shortly before half-time, Chapi battled on and went 6-2 down shortly after the break as Joseph in goal, watched a Boadilla midfielder bang one in over his bonce from near the half-way line.

Two strikes from the irrepresible Arthur (yes, 6-4 in the end), brought a a degree of respectability to a contest that saw the end of Chapi's long unbeaten run.

Congrats to Chelsea and Man Utd for reaching the Chapions League final. I was desperately trying to follow the Man U-Barça tie on the mobile phone on the train home from work. A surprisingly large bunch of Madridians support the Catalans, but the hard core Real Madrid fans (like me, have you seen my Real Madrid credit card?), are glad they were dumped out by Scholesy's scorcher.

As for the interesting fact from Spain, today is my birthday (and Beckam's) and also a national holiday here as an annual commemoration of some battle in Madrid when the Spaniards gave the frogs a hammering. Luckily not every anniversary of a French defeat results in a holiday or we'd hardly ever go to work!

Photos to follow when I find my phone!