Aroma of ASOBAL at El Plantío

Fertiberia Balonmano Puerto Sagunto visit UBU San Pablo Burgos at El Plantío at 12:00 on Sunday, in a match that will conclude the seventh round of the División de Honor Plata and bring to an end an October featuring three away trips.

The red-and-whites come into the match having completed one of their best games of the season last weekend, if not the best, defeating Club Cisne Colegio Los Sauces 29–22 at the Port de Sagunt Pavilion. Burgos, meanwhile, suffered their second defeat of the campaign in their most recent match against Anaitasuna (35–33) at La Catedral.

Both sides come into the match in the promotion play-off places for the Liga NEXUS Energía ASOBAL, with eight points; the home side are second and the visitors fifth. In the two matches played in the regular league last season, the Castile and León side won both the first leg at home (26–23) and the return leg in the Valencian Community (19–31).

Last year, they experienced the bitterest side of sport. They came within touching distance of promotion to ASOBAL on two occasions: in the promotion play-off final at the Quijote Arena against BM Caserío Ciudad Real (31–27), and in the play-out against Sanicentro BM Guadalajara, with the second leg played on the Alcarreños’ home court (24–20 and 28–23).

“This is the most difficult match of the entire season. They are the main favourites to win the regular league. They have the best squad in the division; if we look at them player by player, they could easily be competing in ASOBAL,” comments Toni Malla about a team he coached in 2018–2019.

As for the squad, the partnership of Roi Sánchez and Guillermo Artime, head and assistant coach respectively, came to an end, making way for the duo of Jorge Berzosa and Samuel Trives. In terms of departures, they have suffered extremely heavy losses, including their former captain, Ernesto López, the Javis (Domingo and Rodríguez), Álex Chan, Élcio Fernandes and Alonso Maidana. They have renewed their core with players such as Pedro Martins, Fabrizio Casanova, Tomás Moreira and Adrián Sánchez, among others. As if that were not enough, they added Spanish talent in the form of Asier Pedroarena, Miguel Malo and Jaime Fernández, the Daniel Santamaría–Gerard Fons goalkeeping duo, and the front-line players Nassim Bellahcene and João Furtado.

“We are travelling with the hope of taking both points. If we control what we can control and manage to make the opposition play to our numbers, we will have a very good chance,” concludes the Tortosa native.

Another incentive, according to UBU San Pablo Burgos’s recent social media post, will be the farewell being held for Javier Espinosa, who is leaving the world of handball to begin a new professional career.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.