Seven heaven for the new team in town as CD Almuñécar City cruise in league opener:
It has been four long years since senior football has been played at the Estadio Municipal Francisco Bonet and it returned with a bang on Saturday night.
Following two years of planning and paperwork, one month of non-stop promoting and one week of wrestling with the RFEF, George Jermy was able to select the first ever line-up in the history of CD Almeñécar City for the opening day fixture with CD Granada Base.
With a crowd of 50-100 hoped for, the players stepped on to the pitch in front of an impressive 206 Almuñécar Alpacas, the name given to the supporters as per a recent online vote. They were in fine voice as they eagerly anticipated both the unknown quantity of Base and the promise of CDAC.
Due to the slow nature of the federation to complete the international clearance of many of the squad, Jermy worked hard right up until the 2pm Friday deadline to secure the signings of Spanish free agents. David Cuenca, Juan Manuel and Diego Assandri all started and it was the striker Assandri, most recently with Segunda B side Velez Malaga, who made the early impression, leading the line intelligently.
Granada Base settled reasonably well in the first ten minutes, and Kasper Mikkelson was busy in the holding midfield role breaking down any potential attacks by the visitors. One such tackle led to a quick pass to the left where Assandri fed in Chris Sanchez, his shot firing over from the edge of the box.
Sanchez was not to be denied for long. Chris Ramsell, busy in midfield, fed his fellow American and Chris Sanchez scored the 
first goal in league football for CDAC.
Base tried to get back into the game immediately, and once again good defensive midfield work from Mikkelson denied them time and time again. CDAC skipper Dallas alongside Gangi were comfortable dealing with the rare attack coming at them, but it was clearly a case of if, and not when, CDAC would double their lead.
The second goal came in unusual circumstances, direct from an inswinging corner by Kasper Mikkelson. The ball evaded everyone, including Sanchez straining at the far post to get a final touch. CDAC led 2-0 with under 20 minutes played and the penny dropped for Base – they were in for a long afternoon.
Chris Sanchez made it 3-0 after 26 minutes, shortly after Assandri was ruled offside putting the ball in the net having followed up a shot from Chris Ramsell. Two minutes later and it was 4-0 CDAC, Juan Manuel put clean through and slotting calmly past the Base goalkeeper Fernandez.
Chris Sanchez, who scored four coming off the bench in CDAC‘s final preseason game 10 days previously, clearly had it in his minds to set some more records on day one. Once more breaking in from the right he completed his hat-trick just after half an hour, leading to more loud celebrations from the Alpacas.
Base were finished, and it was now down to whether CDAC could continue the momentum through the remaining hour.
The answer was yes, and no. With the pitch starting to get heavy and the inevitable loss of rhythm following substitutions the game became broken up in the second half. However, there was only going to be one team that could and would score more and that was the hosts. Sanchez helped himself to his 4th of the early evening, lobbing the ball over Fernandez on the angle after 51 minutes. Sanchez should have ended the game with 5 goals, having been harshly judged to have fouled Fernandez who was already falling over following a poor headed pass back from his defender.
There was one final goal for the Alpacas to enjoy in the shape of Chris Ramsell, who fully deserved to get his name on the score sheet having been at the heart of a lot of the good attacking play on show. Racing through from his own half, his first touch knocked it past Fernandez who had raced out of his area, his second held off the two defenders rushing back and his third managed to defeat the incoming bobble and roll it home.
With a final score of 7-0, CDAC must be confident of being there or thereabouts come the end of the season. Man of the Match
(sponsored by the Seaside Gazette) Chris Sanchez certainly felt so after the game saying, “the boys feel confident. We will get better and better, but even playing like that I feel we can win this league”. Head Coach George Jermy was naturally pleased saying, “we played as well as we could considering the conditions. We are just pleased that we were able to give all the people that gave up their time to support us today a good performance to watch”.
The future is very bright for CDAC, and with six other players who have featured regularly in preseason likely to be cleared for next week’s trip to CD Sporting Padul there will be competition for places.
CDAC will be back in the local area on October 7, facing Alhendin at La Herradura before they take a trip over the road the following week for the Almuñécar Derby against fellow league new boys and Almuñécar residents Juventud Sexitana. They will return to the Estadio Municipal Francisco Bonet on October 21, with a promise of a pitch in far better shape from Town Hall.
The club are also launching their shop this coming week where you will be able to become an official member of the Alpacas in return for some very cool incentives, sponsor individual players like four-goal hero striker Chris Sanchez and buy the official club scarf – follow their Facebook page here for all the up to date information.