UD SIA Benigànim, SIA Academy’s first team, played a match against UD Paterna during the Christmas break. Both teams took advantage of the break to continue training and playing preparatory matches ahead of the return to competition next week.
In this match, fortune fell to two of our academy players. Jill and Giacomo were called up by the coaching staff to take part in this match. In this way, both players had their first minutes in the first team, being still youth players.
What was the match like?
The match was very balanced from start to finish. It was very evenly matched. Paterna took the lead first but the SIA Academy players were quickly able to equalise. The level of the two teams meant that they reached half-time on level terms. There were no great chances to score, although Benigànim did have the chance to take the lead.
In the second half the match was still equal. In this period the academy players came on. They had a lot of protagonism in the game and generated interesting actions in attack. It was a great reward for the work they have been doing during these months in every training session. They were rewarded for their efforts.
The rival, UD Paterna
UD Paterna is a club close to the city of Valencia. Paterna is a town 5km from the city and has 70,000 inhabitants. The team merged in 2021 with four other local clubs. In this way, Racing Paterna, Avant Paterna, Juventud Paternense and CF Casas Verdes became part of UD Paterna, thus becoming the club with the most licenses in the town.
Within the same town is a historic Valencian football club, Paterna CF. Currently a Regional Preferente team, they have been a fixture in the 3rd RFEF for many years. Founded in 1934, they play their home matches at the Estadio Municipal Gerardo Salvador.
SIA Academy team in Spanish sixth division
All SIA Academy players have access to Spanish football. UD SIA Benigànim competes in the Spanish sixth division and is managed by the academy. It is a new project in these categories. The entire squad is U23, giving opportunities to very young players for what is usual. The idea is clear. To develop young talents and give them a chance to grow in Spanish football by competing for a season in this team.
The team competed for 3 seasons in the Spanish fifth division, following its philosophy of betting on young talents. Many of them have later moved on to higher categories such as 1ºRFEF or 2ºRFEF, as close as possible to the professional leagues.
How to play football in Spain?
In Spain there are many categories of football. There are teams all over the country. But the important thing is the project and if you are going to grow in it. Being in a team where you are not going to have minutes doesn’t make sense. This is common for young players who go to higher categories and then the coaching staff has no confidence in that player.
The best option for playing in Spain is undoubtedly to be in an organisation that controls your day-to-day life. It tells you what to do and generates an ideal routine to achieve the objective of playing regularly in the team.
SIA Academy, high performance centre
One of the options to have the opportunity to play is to join an international football academy. In the case of SIA Academy, it has its own team to keep each player under complete control. In this way, coaches and physical trainers are in constant communication to distribute the loads and the amount of training sessions for the player.
In addition, having double training sessions almost every day gives you a faster improvement. The progression of the player in such an academy is exponential. After 10 months the player is a different player. Tactical and technical concepts, his physical level… everything improves.
Methodology of Spanish football
Spanish football is a very tactical game. The players have resources for the different contexts that occur during a match. Changes of systems, positions, offensive or defensive mentality appear constantly. This gives the player a lot of intelligence to adapt to each moment.
At the same time, it is also very high on a technical level. We are looking for players who know how to play with the ball at their feet. From the goalkeeper to the striker. The Spanish way of playing to have possession of the ball requires controlling all the technical aspects of the game. There is no doubt that the best way to adapt to this methodology is to be part of it from the inside for at least a couple of years.
