In the southwestern most tip of Spain, Andalusia plays host to the oldest club in Spanish football. Real Club Recreativo de Huelva were formed in December of 1889 in the maritime town of Huelva by British workers from the mines of Rio Tinto. At the time the industrial town was growing due to the copper mining undertaken by the British and it’s increasing importance as a Mediterranean port. This burgeoning population and the British influence led to the establishment of one of Spain’s great football and recreation clubs.
Nuevo Colombino
Recre as they are known to their fans have had an illustrious if not massively successful history ever since. Their only major successes of note were actually reaching La Liga in 1979, 2003 and 2006 along with a Copa del Rey final appearance in 2003 when they were soundly beaten 3-0 by a strong RCD Mallorca side. Despite their modest success they have a solid support at the recently upgraded 21,600 Nuevo Colombino and hope to establish themselves as a long term La Liga side.
Their most recent promotion came with great optimism, their coach Marcelino had turned them into a team playing good attacking football and they impressed greatly in 2006/07, their first season back in the top flight. They defeated Real Madrid 3-0 at the Bernabéu and former Liverpool forward Florent Sinama-Pongolle was among the top scorers in the league.
Unfortunately though, after an eighth place finish Marcelino left for the greener (in more ways than one) pastures of Santander to lead Racing to a sixth place finish last season and UEFA cup football. He has since moved on to sleeping giant Real Zaragoza in the Segunda.
Without Marcelino Recre struggled in 2007/08 and finally finished sixteenth thus avoiding the drop, drawing with Real Valladolid on the last day of the season and needing a RCD Mallorca victory over Real Zaragoza to see them safe.
Lucas Alcaraz was appointed as manager ahead of the current campaign and oversaw a disatrous start with only one win in their first fourteen games of the season. They have since steadied the ship however and several unbeaten runs of games have dragged them off the bottom but not yet out of danger.
Recre currently sit in fifteenth position in the league and only two points above the relegation places. They have the worst goal scoring record in the league, a meagre twenty-one goals in twenty-four games and were it not for their improving defence led by the impressive former Villareal centre half César Arzo and South African International right back Nasief Morris they would be in far deeper trouble. That is not to say that the side is without talent going forward, though they need to improve in order to retain La Liga status at the end of the season and must look to retain posession and create more from midfield.
Adrián Colunga
Their diminutive striker Adrián Colunga is top scorer with five of their goals and has shown flashes of talent, if they can find a way to improve service to him and perhaps chip in with more goals from midfield they have the makings of a good team. On loan from Villareal, Argentinian second striker Marco Rubén has looked exciting at times and seems capable of playing at this level. And if another recent Argentinian loan signing, Cristian Maidana from Spartak Moscow can live up to his billing then perhaps they can play themselves safe again. Midfielders Jesús Vázquez and iconic captain Aitor will need to up their contributions as well to cover the loss of dangerous left winger Sisi for the remainder of the season.
Perhaps one area that Recre could look to improve on is the general development of young players, none of their current first team players have come through their youth team, or Cantera. They can look to neighbouring Andalusian teams snagging local talent like Real Betis and Sevilla but ultimately the Cantera could be a valuable source of players for them as they look to grow. Their neighbours Sevilla have recently brought through two of the most exciting wingers in Spain in Diego Capel and Jesús Navas, developing players of that ilk could potentially save and make money for a club of Recre’s stature.
Only time will tell whether or not they have enough to survive this tortuous campaign and they undoubtedly need to improve their capacity to create opportunities to score. As one of Spain’s most historic clubs, ‘El Decano’ or The Dean as they are also referred to, have a solid foundation to build from should they survive and can hopefully build and develop into an established La Liga team.
Written by Steve Atkinson
