Fri. August 5, 2022
Preseason Friendly
Dover vs. Real Madrid (Spain LIGA BBVA)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, UK
What can you say about Madrid? The biggest club in the world right now but they are coming off a season where they weren't in the Champions League for the first time in about 20 years so you know they'll be hungry this year! They finished second in LIGA last year to earn qualification back into the best continental competition. They are a pretty young team and managed by Jose Mourinho.
A pretty full squad today as this will essentially be the final preparation for our season opener. We have one more friendly but it is against very weak competition and I don't want to start anyone really important in that game if I can help it. I want to see more from
Shanon Andrea, as he's struggled to find the net in the preseason after lighting the lamp at will last year.
Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - M. Perez
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - S. Henni, N. Cairney, A. Rocca, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho
Dover 2 - 1 Real Madrid
Goals - Rayane Hamon (8.4), Chiquinho (7.7)
Assists - Andrea Rocca (7.3), Neil Cairney (7.9)
Man of the Match - Rayane Hamon
Other Dover Notables - Ingo Wilke (7.0), Salim Loucif (7.0), Renato Gaucho (7.2), Shanon Andrea (5.9)
Attendance - 11,044
The first half was utter DOMINATION, as we held 72% of the ball and outshot them something like 20-2 and outscored them 2-0. The second half was a different story and Madrid played much better but we were able to hold on. We held 63% of possession and outshot them 32-12 (13-8 on target) for the game. Crazy numbers.
Shanon Andrea was terrible and he may have lost his starting job to either
Said Henni or
Paul Moses.
-- Speaking of
Said Henni, he gets hurt in the last couple minutes, pulling a hamstring. He'll miss 2-3 weeks as the injuries mount.
Transfer IN
-- It's not a sexy signing but we gain some additional depth at right fullback by signing 20 year old
Steve Reed on a free transfer.
Reed was part of the youth setup at Liverpool before being let go in June. He's determined and has decent intangibles but he's purely depth and likely reserves fodder. Still, with
Kostas Zagos being injury prone, this was a move we needed to make.
Dover Captains for 2022
-- I decide to keep
Wayne Rooney as captain and
Salim Loucif as vice-captain. Loucif, more often than not, will wear the armband on the pitch.
Next Up
-- Our last preseason game could get ugly, as we travel to former rivals Margate, a non-league team.