Davey

Our preperations for the game with Huachipato took another blow this week.

Luis Maselli the Argentine coach who had been at the club since I've been here was approached by Argentine Premier Division club Colon. We offered Luis an improved deal in a bid to keep him at the club but he decided to move back to Argentina.

On the transfer front, a DMC called Alexis Jose Garcia who plays for Mineros de Guayana in Venezuela had attracted the attention of one of my scouts. We made an offer for £70,000 for him which was accepted but so too did M.L.S side Real Salt Lake. He agreed to join the American club but transfer restrictions saw the deal fall through. We again bid for Garcia and offered him terms. There's a good chance of him agreeing to join us and whilest he seems a very good player, I'm not entirely sure whether I can justify spending that sort of money on a player who really isn't essential.

Davey

Further news this week saw a reserve player at the club Jose Luis Estefo, mouth off to the press claiming that the reason he was getting selected in the first team was because I was inexperienced and didn't know a good player when I saw one.

Union San Felipe have a limited resources and a small playing squad, I cannot tolerate or be seen to encourage such views from my own players. I decided to fine Estefo 2 weeks wages for his outburst and place him on the transfer list. He apologised the next day but I can't afford to have players should that level of disrespect to the club and he has no future with us.

Alexis Jose Garcia has agreed to join us in July, claiming is looking forward to playing at a higher level. We have asked if we can delay the deal for a week as I really need to decide whether he is an essential signing.

Davey

Our match away to Huachipato continued our run with 3 games without a win.

Reyes again put us ahead after just 2 mins but it took just minutes for Huachipato to level. They continued to pressure us and again our stand in keeper Mancilla pulled of some remarkable saves. We had a great spell of possesion late on in the first half and as the half time whistle blew I felt we could push for our second goal.

We never really got going in the second half, we could only create half chances and Huachipato were a constant thread with their pace up front. This was to finally out-do us, as we conceeded another goal on 63 mins. We again saw plenty of the ball but again failed to carve out any clear cut opportunities. Subsitute Jara was sent off for the home side with ten mins to go for a wild challenge and we pushed on even more. Again we failed to make anything of our posession and Huachipato were deserved winners with the that game finishing 2-1.

The only positive not to come from today was the form of Mancilla our goalkeeper. Some great saves ensured we kept ourselves in the game and with our first choice keeper injured it is a big weight of our shoulders knowing we have sufficent back up.

We seem to of lost our early form and I'm seriously contemplating going with 4-4-2 which will enable us to get more bodies into the box.

Our forthcoming games are-

H - Cobresal
A - Santiago Wanderers (TV)
H - Colo Colo

It's hard to say where we'll be after these three games, the prospect of playing Colo Colo who're still undefeated is daunting to say the least. Cobresal and Santiago Wanderers are both midtable but could really give us a go if our current form is anything to go by.

A healthy win at home to Cobresal could change all that though.

retired_jdupont

Very good story so far! :thup:

Davey

Cheers mate! I won't be adding anymore posts though until tomorrow now.

Merry Christmas tche!

Davey

After the last few games I felt that even though we were seeing plenty of the ball, our options in the final third were too limited with having Reyes operating alone up front. Our league position wasn't a true reflection of our ability and with Cobresal being a position above us with (in our opinion) a considerably weaker squad, it was vital we imposed ourselves onto the game.

We decided to abandon our 5 man midfield to accomadate an extra forward. Whilest our starting XI stayed the same from our defeat with Huachipato, Luis Nunez was given a forward role alongside Reyes.

Cobresal were sent home empty handed as we got back to winning ways with a 1-0 win at Municipal de San Felipe.

The opening 20 minutes was the best we'd played for sometime. Pushing Cobresal back deep into their half and dominating possesion. Despite this we failed to get our goal. Although we couldn't continue our early pressure, we went in at the break 0-0 but happy with our performance despite having the goals to show for it.

We started well again in the second half and finally our pressure paid off, as Fierro swung in a deep corner Cobresal were unorganized and their defender scored an own goal.

We continued our pressure and I decided to make a change
with out-of-sorts Reyes coming off for striker Armijo. With the game drawing to a close we made a couple more changes with Colo Colo loanee Juan Pablo Arenas coming into the midfield and captain Valladares coming off for Jamie Lira at left back.

Cobresal pushed forward and managed to break away clear with minutes to go only for a shot to beat Mancilla in goal but to smash against the crossbar for our defence to clear. It would of been extremely harsh if Cobresal had scored as they were lucky enough to only be 1-0 down!

A slightly lower crowd of 2,460 saw the game come to an end and I was happy with the level of performance today despite the lack of goals. The result is the perfect to begin our preperation for next weeks televised game at Santiago Wanders who find themselves 16th in the league.

Davey

A fairly good week leading up to the Santiago game saw first choice GK Omar Acros return to training from injury and DMC Alexis Jose Garcia's transfer to us from Venezuelan outfit Mineros de Guayana was confirmed for July.

Although back in full training Acros isn't fit enough to be in contention for Saturday so Mancilla will continue.

Alexis Jose Garcia's arrival was taken after a great deal of thought by myself as a DMC wasn't top of our priority list. I think sometimes you have to take opportunities when they come your way and after originally losing out to him to Real Salt Lake in America only for the deal to fall through last minute; I become determined to bring him to Union San Felipe.

Davey

We went with the same formation and team and which started against Cobresal except Robledo came in after returning from injury to replace Munoz at centre back. It was to be a good decision as he was awarded man of the match for his performance in our comfortable 2-0 win!

The watch changed early on after a Santiago Wanderers centre back was sent off as he was the last man when he brought down Reyes broke away through on goal in only the five minute just outside the box.

With a man advantage we pressed forward as Los Wanderers started to become less and less of a threat to us. Luiz Nunez put us in front in the 41st minute then we doubled our lead on 44 mins at Celedon turned and finished superbly.

We continued to press again throughout the second half and never lost control of game. The 2-0 victory was a great follow up from the previous week and saw us move up into 4th in the table and extend Wanderers run to 8 games without a win. Better still Union Espanola beat Rangers 3-1 and Huachipato only managed a 2-2 draw at home to struggling Concepcion. This means we are now joint top of our sub group with just 5 games remaining and are 8 points clear of third placed Rangers.

Results this weekend have eased alot of pressure on us to qualify for the playoff rounds of the Opening League but we have it all to do next Sunday as still undefeated Colo Colo visit Municipal de San Felipe in what will be our most challenging game yet. This is worsened by the fact our regular left winger Gonzalo Fierro and AMRC Juan Pablo Arenas are on loan from the Santiago club meaning that they are both ineligible for the game.

On a positive note though, we should have a big crowd behind us and if the game we played against Universidad de Chile earlier in the season is anything to go by we will a chance.

A big decision will be who will start as GK. Omar Acros our first choice has returned from injury and should be fit enough to play but Gonzalo Mancilla has stepped into the team and has been in good form. Left Wing will also be an open position with Fierro out.

If the San Felipe public turn out and get behind us it should be a great game!

Davey

Feel free to add comments etc... I've posted two pages worth now and only two others have posted here!

retired_aurie

There's nothing wrong mate, sometimes more posts might break the flow of the story.

Basically the only thing missing is the potential womanising exploits by the manager, since he's an Englishman stuck among the hot women of Brazil