Anybody whose interest in Spanish football extends beyond the bright lights of La Liga will be aware of AD Alcorcón. They’re that small club from just outside Madrid. You know Alcorcón? They’ve been knocking on the door of the top flight recently. Contenders, but always falling just short. Well, I bring news of another team from Madrid’s 1960’s super-suburb: Trival Valderas.
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| Trival Valderas - New-ish Kids on the Block |
Club de Fútbol Trival Valderas Alcorcón is an amalgam, formed in 2004 by the fusion of two clubs from the northern districts of Alcorcón. One, AP Tri-Val was on the way up. The other, Unión Deportiva de San José de Valderas, was heading rapidly in the opposite direction. They had been rivals, playing each other as recently as 2002 in Madrid’s Primera Regional. Following formation, Trival Valderas took over the place in the Regional Preferente earned by AP Tri-Val at the end of the 2003-04 season. The relationship was not an immediate success, as the club finished bottom of the league and dropped back into Madrid’s Regional Primera at the end of their first season. Undeterred, Trival Valderas regrouped. They won promotion back to the Regional Preferente in 2007, and made it to the Tercera in 2009.
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| La Canaleja - Basic & Unembellished |
An impressive first season in the Tercera, saw the club finish 4th in the league and qualify for the end of season play-offs. They were paired with Yeclano Deportivo and things seemed to be going according to their wildest plans, when they won the first leg 2-0. Unfortunately, the wheels came off in the second leg, and Yeclano ran out 5-1 winners. Trival Valderas finished runners-up in Group VII of the Tercera in 2013, but again fell in the play-offs. This time the youngsters of Granada’s B team had their number. The club won their first Tercera title in 2014, and ultimately earned a place in Segunda B. The route was rather convoluted however. They lost to Zaragoza B in the Campones section, before overcoming UC Ceares and Arenas Club de Getxo to reach Spain’s third tier.
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| Suburban simplicity - La Canaleja's five steps & a roof |
Home games are held at the Campo de La Canaleja, a rather non-descript single-stand enclosure at the northern end of Alcorcón. Owned by the municipality and sitting within a larger sports complex, La Canaleja sits uptight to a slip road that links the M-40 and M-50 motorways. Its prominent feature is a covered stand on the west side of the ground. Made up of five rows of concrete benching, it runs the full length of the pitch, tapering away at either end, as the benching makes way for steps. 18 shallow cantilevered struts stand at the back of the structure, on which sits a simple corrugated roof. Advertisements fill the voids between each strut. The only other buildings of note are the changing facilities and a small bar on the east side. Ho-hum.
