"Forever Manolo Preciado"

Forever Manolo Preciado

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Summer – Verano 2012

Contents / Contenido

"Forever Manolo Preciado"

Summer-Verano 2012 Club - Levante's European Debut

First Team – Player Focus: Juanlu Season Preview (2012-13) Official Kits (2012-13) Fuera de Juego - Forever Manolo Preciado (Cover Story) Born In The USA - Nuestro más sentido pésame La prórroga - Frog Parking ONLY

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Summer – Verano 2012

agosto de 2012

Levante's European Debut Publicado por DeĂĄn Burrier Sanchis

In 2008, when Levante relegated back to Segunda, people weren’t talking about whether Levante would return to the top flight. Instead talk surrounded on whether or not we would ever see Levante again period. The club was on the verge of disappearing due to its accumulated debts from a reckless and incredibly arrogant owner, Pedro Villarroel.

Now, in 2012, quite a bit has changed. The club is now socio-owned, fastly consolidating and absolving debt, with a President whose trademark has been money-managing and resource-managing, and a sporting director who seeks out the most inexpensive players, as well as a growing fan base that is emerging from the shadows that the previous ownership cast them in. What seemed like an impossibility, has become a reality. Not only have Levante come out into the light, but on this Thursday, August the 23rd, at 2:45 EST, Levante will step out under the lights of a humble Scottish stadium in a two-leg Europa League qualifying match against Motherwell, a modest team with nonetheless a fair bit of experience in European matches.

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Motherwell, Levante’s opponent and a club not all that different from Levante in terms of circumstances and history, will have three key advantages in the opening leg in Scotland: conditioning, European experience and home-field advantage. The first seems to stand out most of the three. Motherwell won their first league match this past weekend and is currently second in the Scottish table after three rounds of play. Levante, meanwhile, have only played one league fixture and are still very much coming together as a team. For starters, the club are awaiting the signing of another striker and another centre back. However, it should not be overlooked that many of Levante’s signings have just arrived in the last week and a half: Christian Lell, Dudka, Nikos Karampelas andGekas. Their adaptation to a new language, club and team is still in its initial phase. In front, Levante has a rival that may be inferior on paper but that will take the field competition-ready and in peak-condition.

Levante will most likely make some alterations to the lineup that took on Atletico Madrid, however, JIM is notorious for sticking to his guns, so those alterations will most likely be minimal. It will be interesting to see if Levante take the field looking to frustrate Motherwell with some lockdown defense or frustrate them by dominating possession.

Levante have shown that they are capable of playing a different style of football other than the counter-attacking they are more known for. In a preseason friendly against Villarreal, Levante dominated possession and created a slough of opportunities, even if the final result was not desirable. The starting lineup will tell us a lot. It would not be surprising to see a Michel enter the starting lineup in a center-attacking role, with Gekas or Angel up-top, pressuring the defense when on the back foot and springing forward through combination play when possible. It also could be that JIM experiments with using Angel as a mediapunta and Gekas as a more true striker. Pallardomay have also shown enough merit against Villarreal and Atletico to start alongside Iborra in the midfield in place of Diop. According to the analysis that Levante have taken of Motherwell, the Scotish club will look to attack from the wings.

Whichever tactic Levante choose, to wait for the counter or to go after the game, the team needs to be convinced of its style of play and be confident that it can take away a positive result from this first-leg. This first-leg proves to be a battleground, a center stage appearance for two of Europe’s more successful modest clubs. Which humble club will carry the advantage into the second-leg in Valencia?

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FIRST TEAM

In a yet another demonstration of class, Levante had the whole roster of players line up for the traditional pre-match photo before playing Athletic Bilbao for the right to play the Europa League

Season Preview 2012-13: Can We Do It Again?

Publicado por Deán Burrier Sanchis Once again here we are, wondering how next season could possibly be any better than last.

Levante fans were overjoyed in 2011 to see their team play out to a 0-0 draw in Mestalla against archrivals Valencia CF to mathematically avoid relegation. No one really ventured to place the bar any higher than it already was, though at the start of the 2011-12 season, Levante had clearly made a huge jump in the quality of its roster. At each position, Levante improved drastically and in retrospect in should have been obvious that Levante were going to be looking up and not down. Though the Europa League and a very foreign-filled roster could prove to be major obstacles for the club’s 2012-13 Liga campaign, I am going to venture to say that Levante can be as good and maybe even a little bit better than it was last year. Let’s take a look at how Levante have improved…

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DEFENSE Javi Venta < Christian Lell  Javi still is solid, however his form really fell off the deep end midseason. Lell will bring youth and profesionalism, along with a real hunger to compete. This should help Pedro López stay in top form with some competition and provide for rest.

Cabral < Hector Rodas & David Navarro & ???  Cabral was quicker than the other center halves, but mentally had lapses, and so did Navarro. However, one has to believe that with a young and inspired Rodas and a tough and experienced Navarro, who will rejoin his former Mallorca mate Ballesteros, in the middle can make fans easily forget Cabral… at least until Celta come to town, that will be a sight to witness. Also, Levante are expected to sign another center back.

Del Horno < Karabelas  If Del Horno had not struggled so much with injury, this would go the other way. If Karabelas can clean up his game (terrible own goal against Villarreal in preseason friendly) and stay healthy, he can probably be better than Del Horno, though Asier’s profesionalism and all-out gifting of himself to the cause will have to be replaced by Karabelas and someone else, hopefully Rodas. For just one of them, that load would be too much to carry.

MIDFIELD Xavi Torres < Pape Diop  Younger, quicker and stronger defensively, Diop will be better than Xavi Torres. Let’s not forget Iborra was the real star midfielder last year, not X. Torres.

Farinós < Dudka  The signing of Dudka from Auxerre seems close to conclussion but is not official. If the deal did produce itself, Dudka´s youth and ability to function at multiple positions (Defensive Middie, Centre Back and Outside Back) would mean he will offer more to the coaching staff in terms of strategy than Farinós did.

Valdo < Pedro Rios  Ríos is faster and ever so slightly more imaginitive. This is perhaps the closest battle, but Valdo clearly must have felt he could not keep up to par this year in La Liga when he packed his bags to go to Cancun.

Pedro Botehlo < Óscar Serrano  Even if Serrano turns out to be a total bust (again?), the mere fact that he won’t look like he went straight from the discoteca (*ehem*, I mean err… the dentist!) to the field makes him much, much, much better than Botehlo. Even a dazzle of good form could be all Levante really need from Serrano.

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Ruben Suarez = Michel  This really is not a fair comparison as its not a direct swap, but Rubén´s free kicks are just irreplaceable. Michel will do his best to post a fair number of goals. Though he won´t equal the style of Rubén, if he equals his goal register from last season, he will be a runaway success for Levante.

ATTACK Ghezzal < Ángel  More agile and quicker in general, Ángel should fit like hand in glove at Levante. Ghezzal struggled and came on strong, but never really showed consistency.

Arandà < Gekas  Much more prolific and much quicker, Gekas should be miles ahead of Arandà, though it remains to see if Gekas has a better attitude than Arandà who had a notoriously poor demeanor in his time at Levante. Do not expect Gekas to learn Spanish. In all his years in Germany, he still refused to speak even a little German. His reasoning, “they pay me to score goals, not to speak”.

KONÉ > ???  Let´s face it, the last signing Levante will make will be a striker and barring some obscenely incredible turn of events (hey, it´s happened: see Caicedo and Koné) the #1 striker will not be better than Koné. He made the Levante counterattack work with his precision and most importantly his quickness. Whoever Levante sign, the shoes may be far too big to fill.

Luckily the other strikers will carry some more weight this year as opposed to last year, where Koné was mostly alone amongst the strikers.

Is it enough?

While Levante have seemingly improved across the board, this alone is obviously not a guarantee of success. The vast majority of the new signings are new to La Liga and Spain. Language difficulties may present a serious problem for the club and the team. A certain amount of adaptation time will certainly be required for many of the recent signings, a time period that the Liga and Europa League calendars, beginning in earnest over this next week, do not permit. Lastly, its not like the rest of La Liga has been sitting by idly. Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Rayo, Granada and several other teams that theoretically would compete with Levante in the table. A weakened Málaga and a disillusioned Athletic could help matters, but the most important thing for Levante is not to focus on other teams, but rather focus on each game and avoiding injuries, a tall task when considering the additional games being played this year with a roster size about the same as last year. All things considered, Levante should be in the middle of the table, hopefully avoiding relegation for a third consecutive year. ¡Visca Llevant!

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Official Kits 2012-13 Publicado por Deán Burrier Sanchis Yesterday, July 4th, Levante presented their new shirts for the 2012-13 campaign in which the club will be represented in European competition for the first time in its history as the club plays a two-leg Europa League qualifier in August.

Expectations were high among Levante fans as the new shirts were the visit ever to be done by the Valencian company Kelmé, based in Elche. Levante signed a 3-year deal with Kelmé during the previous campaign, ending a long partnership with Luanvi, another Valencian company. Luanvi in turn will be doing the kits for Granada this year.

Kelmé has an ambitious plan to build a store in Valencia city and also sell Levante merchandising in 50 countries, including the United States (as reported today by AS).

It had been announced in the press and here at Forza, that Levante would be opting for a Green kit this year in a new marketing effort inspired by the club’s nickname “los granotas” or “the frogs” in Valencian. Here are the kits as seen at the presentation in the Valencian aquarium, L’oceanografique.

The first kit will be Levante’s classic blue and garnet stripped shirt. This year’s design includes a shirt collar, some thin black lining across the chest and at the end of the shirt sleeves and a few more stripes than in past years. Fans are pleased to see that this year, the stripes continue onto the back of the shirt, whereas in past years solid colors have been used. For example, last year the all blue back of the shirt with yellow numbers made Levante look like Getafe from behind.

The second kit will be the Green Granota kit. Worn by Vicente Iborra in the presentation, the kit is a more tame version of the one presented by SuperDeporte last week and is actually fairly similar to the green kit that Barcelona wore in the 2010-11 season. Rather than a bright, neon green, the kit is more of a darker shade of green-yellow. The shirt features a blaugrana hortizontal stripe across the chest in which the logo resides.

Historically, Levante has used its second kit to honor its origins as Levante Football Club by sporting a black and white vertically-stripped kit, similar to Juventus. However, this year the shirt is being dumped to third position and with a design that has infuriated fans. A single white, horizontal bar of white, with slivers of white on the shoulders do not resemble what Levante followers see as a classic shirt. Ángel Ovejero presented a goalie kit that leaves little to comment except that the mostly white design will feature different green and brown stains when actually worn in games by Gustavo Munua.Team captain Sergio Ballesteros sported the new “Senyera Jacket” which pays tribute to the Valencian regional flag, just as last year’s 3rd kit did. Levante will wear this jacket when they enter the field before games, just as Real Madrid did last season with their Adidas jackets.

The first and second kits have pleased fans, while the third kit and team jackets are getting a poor reception. What do you think of the new shirts? Will the Granota Green be a success?

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Player Focus: Juanlu Publicado por Deán Burrier Sanchis The devout club football fan is one who appreciates the players who only ever wear their shirt. Who rise through the ranks of the youth teams to fight their way into the first team roster, proving many of their own cynical fans wrong.

In theory every club has this prototype player, to greater or lesser extent. We are nurtured on the idea that each club has its own unique philosophy. Not just a philosophy of style of play (as perhaps not all do), but a more all-encompassing cultural philosophy of virtues, values and humanity, that only those who are of pure roots can ever fully embody.

The great clubs have their club symbol, much like an insignia of the club itself, a hometown hero. What Steven Gerrard is to Liverpool, what Xavi Hernández is to Barcelona, what Raúl or Casillas is to Real Madrid, what Sergio Ballesteros is to Levante UD. Behind them in the ranks are the aspirants to the throne, or the captaincy, thecanteranos, each arising in a burst of new hope, anxiety and speculation. Can the latest call-up stick to more than just the practice squad?

Football is an ever evolving darwinian ecosystem, where 1 out of tens of thousands battles for years to earn the right to be the standard-bearer for their club. They are legends in the most medieval sense of the word.

At Levante, the current standard-bearer is without a doubt, Sergio Ballesteros. A former canterano, who left to taste European glory with Tenerife, Mallorca and Villarreal and who returned to lift Levante in its 100th year to a historic promotion. Juanfran took a similar road, his tears of pure sentiment after a 3-2 come from behind win against Espanyol the truest indicator of what Levante means to him. Vicente Iborra seems poised to succeed both in the not too distant future as both captain and standard-bearer of Levante if he so desires, himself a true embodiment of Levante values: humility, work ethic and discipline.

However, perhaps more rare even than the 1-club man, the club standard bearer, is that rare breed of player who can come to a club from another part of the world and not only win the hearts of the fans, but more importantly become an embodiment of the club itself and the fans in the way the standard bearer does. A non-homegrown leader, who seemingly still carries the club in his DNA. Simply put, if Levante could be embodied into one sole football player in terms of trajectory, size, personality and sheer fight, it would be Juanlu.

At the start of the 2008-2009, Levante, a storied and historic club in Spanish football, was on the verge of disappearing all together. Levante had hit rock bottom. Fans were disillusioned, the club was bankrupt and there literally was no team. Preseason started with 6 players training.

The same season, Juanlu, once a goal scorer for an Osasuna side that competed in Champions qualifying, was on the verge of disappearing from professional football and becoming yet another irrelevant reject who never quite made it. He went the entire season without playing a single minute for Betis, a club that had signed him to a four year deal and after several loans, left 9|Page

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him for dead. He was not even training with the first team, but rather the fourth division B team.

They made a mockery of him.

At the start of the 2009-10 campaign, Juanlu joined with Levante, and the roads of the two continued similar trajectories. In that season, Juanlu, and Levante, were reborn. Since that magic season, Juanlu has come to be almost a metaphor for the club itself.

In terms of size, Juanlu stands small in stature, just as Levante is known as a “little” club. Both have been belittled and overlooked on account of their size. His personality very much represents the happy go lucky, relentlessly positive and insurmountable spirit of Levante. He can make even the most stern faced fans laugh themselves to tears. Whether its advising fans to put him in their fantasy roster, calling for David Beckham to become a shareholder for Levante, instead of Málaga as has been rumored, or when warning Segunda foes that when they went up against Levante, they were going up against the big *expletive for human excrement*.

In the author’s personal experience, Juanlu can make light of any situation, much as Levante have done over the last 103 years, find the light that keeps you moving forward, even after failing time and time again. When injured last season, Juanlu told me that I had come all the way from the United States to Valencia, only to miss the chance to see ”the best player”. A missed opportunity for which I hope to make amends later this season.

In terms of footballing ability, Juanlu might not look like much to the casual spectator, who makes the same miscalculation some rivals make when they face Levante: underestimation.

His quickness and foot skills, even at 32, are surprising, his wisdom on the field and desire to do whatever it takes to win, even if that means taking one of Di Maria’s elbows to his face.

Metaphorically and figuratively, Juanlu has done it all for Levante.

His 1-0 goal against Castellón pushed Levante to a 3-1 win to guarantee promotion to first division in 2010. His lone strike in Sevilla against the club that dashed his dreams, Betis, vaulted Levante to a virtual tie with Barcelona for first place in the 6th round of La Liga in 2011. One round later a 1-0 volleyed strike against Villarreal put Levante alone atop the table of La Liga, with 7 games played, a historic feat.

Not even a devastating, long-term injury could do away with Juanlu, just as time nor tragedy have done away with Levante. Juanlu recovered and became Levante’s first European goalscorer just a few weeks ago in a historic first european 0-2 win for Levante against Motherwell FC in Scotland.

At the end of the day, it seemed fitting. Newer arrivals El Zhar, Gekas and Ángel will net their goals this season and work their way into the hearts of fans in the future, but a goal so important to fans could only be scored by someone so intrinsically representative of the club and the hearts he fights for when he wears the Levante shirt. Juanlu, you may not be a Levante canterano, not even a native of the Valencian region, but somehow you have entered a place in our hearts where only the most loyal and true have before. Here’s to you Juanlu, Billy the Kid, El Señor Cagazo, the comedian, the welterweight champion, the friend and the little engine that could.

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Fuera de juego:

Forever Manolo Preciado Publicado por Deán Burrier Sanchis Manolo Preciado (August 28th 1957 – June 6th 2012), loved and defiant, a legendary manager in Spain, left us unexpectedly at midnight last night due to a heart attack. He was just hours away from being presented as the new manager of Villarreal, embracing yet again the challenge of promoting a club from Segunda. He accomplished the same feat with Levante in 2004, the club’s first promotion to First Division in 50 years. Just three years later he managed Sporting Gijon to a promotion and a long run in La Liga’s top flight, resisting relegation all the way up until being fired midway through this season. He will be remembered fondly across Spain, particularly in the hearts of those whose clubs he managed: Gimnastica de Torrelavega, Racing Santander (He also played 115 games for Racing and even coached the B team during several seasons), Levante, Murcia, Sporting Gijon and, for one day, Villarreal.

An outpouring of messages and mourning is taking over the footballing world and online communities as so many remember a loving man who resisted and fought on the playing field as much as he did off of it. His perseverance will be remembered more than any on field accomplishment he achieved. His life was rocked by a series of tragedies to his loved ones, losing his wife to cancer in 2002 and his son to a car crash in 2004. Most recently, his father was killed in a pedestrian crossing accident in 2011. It was after this most recent tragedy that Manolo explained his perseverance through so much sorrow and tragedy.

A relentless competitor, a friend to so many in football and an exemplary human being, may you find peace and reassurance with your loved ones now that you have joined them and may your memory fill the hole that you have left behind.

“Life has left me severed. I could have been vulnerable and end up shooting myself, or look to the heavens and grow. I chose the second.”

Rest in Peace, Manolo.

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Nuestro más sentido pésame a los familiares de Manolo Preciado y a todos los seguidores del Levante y del fútbol a quienes les impresionó.

Desde los miembros de la peña “Born In The USA” lamentamos profundamente la muerte de una persona tan importante en la historia levantinista como en los corazones de miles y miles de levantinistas.

Deseamos recordar y homenajear a Manolo por todo lo que significaba y significa para el levantinismo, para el deporte del fútbol y para la humanidad en general. Hay pocas personas capaces de sobrevivir tristezas tan profundas como le sucedió a Manolo y seguir luchando y seguir con ganas cada vez más ganas de vivir. Se nos ha ido una gran luz en esta vida.

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Summer – Verano 2012

En un rincón granota en Estados Unidos, nos encontramos con esto... En la próxima edición "Fall-Otoño 2012" descubrimos dónde se encuentra.

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