Real Zaragoza Preview

Coach: Marcelino Garcia Toral, most recently of Racing Santander and Recreativo de Huelva
Stadium: Estadio La Romareda (34,596)
Region: Aragon
Derby: S.D. Huesca (Segunda)

Sponsor: Telefonica, the primary phone provider in Spain.

Kit Description: Home: A white Addidas kit with blue collar trim. Blue shorts with white trim. Away: Radioactive yellow shirts whith black trim and black shorts with yellow trim. Third kit: looks like the Liverpool home kit with white trip over a fully red kit.

History: Founded on March 18, 1931 by the merger of two pre-existing clubs in Zaragoza, the avispas or wasps of Iberia S. C. and the tomates or tomatoes of Zaragoza CD who played in red shirts hence the nickname. They were given their royal commendation as Real Zaragoza in 1951. The badge is a lion on a red background, the old colors of Zaragoza CD, surrounded by a shield of black and yellow, the colors of their Iberia S.D. Real Zaragoza's nickname is the blanquillos, or little-whites referring to their white shirts, but they are also called the maños which is a term describing the people from Aragon derived from the latin term magnus which eans great or great leader. Their B-team is called Deportivo Aragon. They left their original stadium called El Torrero in 1957 for La Romareda which is located south of the city near the University of Zaragoza.

Trophy Room:

* Copa del Rey (1964, 66, 86, 94, 2001, 04)

* Supercopa de España (2004)

* European Cup Winner's Cup (1995)

* Fairs Cup (1964)

Famous Former Players: Cafu, Pablo Aimar, Fernando Morientes, David Villa, Frank Rijkaard, Jose Luis Chilavert, and the Milito brothers.

Season Review: Second Place in the Segunda Division

Main Story from last year: Securing promotion after being summarily relegated after the 2007 season. Marcelino struggled at first to implement his attacking style, conceding goals, but slowly changed the culture at the club and had them functioning well towards the end of the campaign. Marcelino is getting a reputation of a Promotion Specialist considering he helped in securing promotion for Recreativo Huelva when they returned to the primeraafter the 2005-2006 season . This considering the fact that he was one of the hottest tickets in Spanish Football, attracting overtures from Sevilla to replace Juande Ramos and had signed in Valencia after Ronald Koeman was let go but reneged on his contract when Valencia could not come to terms on personal and professional terms.

Transfers: Granted ex-Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant isn't considered one of the brightest bulbs in the bunch, and on the surface, rejecting AC Milan for a newly promoted side like Real Zaragoza seems like further proof of his mental lapses, but for all accounts the kid (he's only 26) is down-to-earth, grounded, and smarter than the English press have given him credit for. He'll be making about 80,000 pounds a week due to the favorable tax laws in Spain and Pennant could blossom like another ex-Liverpool winger Florent Sinama-Pongolle did under Marcelino.
Squad Overview: GK: Lopez Vallejo will start with on loan-Lazio keeper Juan Pablo Carrizo as back up. DF: Carlos Diogo, ex-Madrid DF Francisco Pavon and Roberto Ayala are familiar faces. The midfield is a weakness with only Jermaine Pennant out wide a talent. They have forwards aplenty: Ewerthon, Ike Uche and Arizmendi are all familiar and talented enough but it looks like they are going to have problems linking well through the midfield, not a lot of spectacular talent there.

Prediction: Bottom third, I'd say 14th considering there age in defense and lack of talent in midfield.