Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto want to celebrate five years in Asobal with a victory

This Saturday from 18:30, Fertiberia Puerto Sagunto face Ángel Ximenez Puente Genil at the Alcalde Salas Pavilion in the Cordoban town.

The red-and-whites left on Friday afternoon so they could rest on the night before the match in Puente Genil. They did so on a particularly significant date for the club, as on 11 September 2010 they played their first match in the Asobal league after forty years outside the top tier of Spanish handball. From that first Asobal squad, David Bruixola, Ángel Fernández, Nacho Nebot, Javier Tarrasó, Sasa Dukic, and the captain and academy graduate Rubén Ruiz remain, and he says that “so much time spent suffering and waiting. Everything was positive, and during that first season every point we earned was a celebration.”

Now they must continue preserving their top-flight status. Following their emphatic opening-day victory over Ciudad Encantada, it is the turn of the Pontanos, a team Fertiberia have not fared well against, as shown by three defeats in four Asobal league meetings. The travelling squad is complete apart from the familiar long-term absences of Alegre and Bernatonis. They want to maintain their winning momentum and hope to pick up points at the Alcalde Salas. Defence will be key to stopping two familiar faces, Moya and Chispi, who, alongside the young left-hander formerly of Juanfersa, Potic, are the three regulars in the Pontanos’ back line, well supported by a Guille de la Sierra in excellent form. The two Andalusian goalkeepers, Oliva and De Hita, are a safe pair of hands, while the pivot partnership tasked with making supporters forget Baena consists of Kramarz and Paraja, who will be joined by the classic Olea. The group is being managed for a second year by Fernando Barbeito and, after a hesitant end to pre-season, including a defeat in the Andalusian Cup against División de Honor Plata side ARS Palma del Río, made a strong impression in their league opener against the formidable Fraikin Granollers, whom they had on the ropes and who only escaped without dropping points in the Olímpico thanks to a late Blanxart goal.

The manager Pachi Martí offers us his preview of the match and says that “we are facing a very well-established, completely cohesive and balanced team that plays almost instinctively. By contrast, we are also more balanced than last season. Playing at home and making few changes gives them a certain advantage, but we are eager to beat them there once and for all. It will undoubtedly be an even contest. Tactics and managing the players’ rest will decide the match.”

So this is a high-voltage clash between two teams expected to compete for the same objectives, and one that will undoubtedly produce an exciting match as both sides’ ambitions in the 2015–2016 Liga Bauhaus Asobal begin to be gauged.

Translation produced using artificial intelligence.