Sunday was a warm day in Bournemouth where The Cherries faced Rayo Vallecano in a preseason friendly. It’s preparation for the upcoming 2024/25 Premier League campaign where Bournemouth plays Nottingham Forest on August 17 (televised via Peacock).
The friendly served as a reunion between Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola and his former team from Madrid, Rayo Vallecano. Iraola was their manager for three years and brought success to the ‘’Rayistas,’’ managing to take them back to the top flight of Spanish football, making them reach the Copa del Rey semifinals and even allowing them to dream of European football. (’’Rayo-Liverpool’’ was a popular chant during Iraola days at the Estadio de Vallecas).
It was also a match between two teams celebrating their 125th and 100th anniversaries since they were founded.
It was a chance for Iraola to experiment and try new players in the Bournemouth starting eleven, such as the latest signings Dean Huijsen and Daniel Jebbinson.
For Rayo Vallecano’s coach, Iñigo Pérez (who used to be second in command during Iraola’s time in Vallecas), it was an opportunity to turn things around after not being able to win a single game out of the four friendlies they had played so far before this one.
The match itself resulted in a 1-0 win for the home side. Luis Sinisterra scored the only goal of the day. After a series of mistakes and poor tackles from Rayo Vallecano’s defenders, the Colombian player managed to get the ball from the halfway line, ran past goalkeeper Dani Cardenas and calmly put the ball in the back of the net 31 minutes after the beginning of the game.
What followed were very few attempts from both teams to change the score.
After the game, many fans gathered outside the stadium to meet the players. While the number of Bournemouth fans was larger due to being the home team, Rayo Vallecano managed to attract a good number of fans.
Fans from Romania with Andrei Rațiu shirts, students from Barcelona and even locals got to meet most of the players as they stopped one by one to take pictures, sign different memorabilia, and talk to the fans waiting for them almost a thousand miles away from Vallecas.
Having grown up in Vallecas, this is the kind of respect and closeness that you can always expect from the players of this team, whose identity is very much in line with that of the fans. In Spain, many clubs declare themselves to be the ‘’neighborhood team,’’ but with little actions like these, Rayo Vallecano proves they might just be it.
Photo: Alvaro Solorzano
