UD Fuencaliente Vows to Fight On Despite Dismal Start

UD Fuencaliente is having a really tough time right now. They only found out they'd be playing in the Regional Preferente league two weeks before it started. Since then, they've only managed one point in nine games and have let in a whopping forty goals – that's more than four per game! Despite this, the club insists they're focused on "turning things around" and aren't thinking about being relegated.

The problems started last summer. The club wasn't sure which league they'd be in because of issues higher up in the Second Federation and some administrative problems with another team, Ibarra. The president, Miguel Ángel Fernández Hernández, said they were told "by a decision from Madrid" that they'd be in the Preferente league, but until then, it was all up in the air. He explained, "It was a stressful situation, constantly talking to the Tenerife Federation, but they couldn't give us any guarantees because it depended on Madrid."

Once their place in the league was confirmed, they didn't have much time to prepare – just two weeks before the season began. The president admitted that "all the other teams had already sorted out their players, and the local players were already committed," which meant they had to quickly put a team together. He said the main thing was "to have eleven players ready for the first game." He also mentioned that they'd had a verbal agreement with the Federation to postpone the first two games to give them more time, "but that didn't happen in the end."

Even with all these difficulties, the club – from a small town of fewer than 2,000 people – decided to stay in the sixth tier of Spanish football for another season, their fifth in a row. They could have chosen to compete in the La Palma group of Primera, which is much less demanding than the Preferente league. The president acknowledged that "the easy thing would have been to withdraw. It was the obvious choice," but giving up wasn't really an option. He insisted, "The game isn't over until it's over," and said that despite the poor results, they don't regret their decision. "At least we tried. If we hadn't, we'd always be wondering 'what if?' We all agreed to do it, and we're sticking with it," he said.

So, they started the season on the back foot. The club had to rebuild the team incredibly quickly. Until they got the official confirmation from the Spanish Federation, they didn't want to tell the players anything, so they wouldn't affect their decisions. Orestes Martín, a long-time member of the club's board, explained, "We told them that if they had offers from other teams, they should take them because we didn't know which league we'd be in." He even took charge of the first training sessions himself because they didn't have a coach at that point.

The coach they eventually chose, Edrei González Montesdeoca from Gran Canaria, said he started the job "the Thursday before the league started," while he was on holiday. "It was a completely unknown situation. I didn't know the players, the staff, or the president. But I saw it as a challenge, so I accepted," he said.

The situation isn't ideal either. Because their local pitch is being renovated, Fuencaliente has to train and play their games in the nearby town of Mazo. Despite having nine losses and only one draw, the team spirit is still strong. The president emphasized that "you'd expect the players to stop coming to training, but the opposite is happening. They're still coming and they're still enthusiastic." The coach agreed, saying, "The lads are committed. We're still working hard and believing that we can do it. We're treating each game as a chance to get our first win."

That first win could come this Saturday (4:15 PM) at home, where Fuencaliente – who are still rebuilding and adding new players "week after week" – will face Buzanada (who are thirteenth in the league). They're hoping to finally turn things around. As their president said, "The game isn't over until it's over."