Union Deportiva Almería were 2-0 up at the Bernabéu on Saturday – what happened next sums up their season
Poor Union Deportiva Almería, they’re never going to win. They took 16 shots against Celta de Vigo, 17 against Villarreal and 18 against Atlético Madrid and didn’t win. They rattled off 19 against Betis and Rayo, 20 against Girona and Real Madrid and didn’t win then either. Their striker scored a hat-trick in five minutes and 25 minutes, and it was no use. Nothing is, not even scoring two against each of the top three. They have been through three different goalkeepers and three different managers, and all of them have the same win rate: 0%. “You could have 30,” said Gaizka Garitano, the latest of the coaches, but what difference would it make?
Nope, Almería just can’t buy a win, which might be an idea. Garitano said maybe he and his assistant, both grey now, should go down and defend the dead balls and that might be too. Actually having a forward is another. Twenty one-games in and Almería have not celebrated victory once. Bottom on six points from 63, 10 from safety. The last time they won a game was last season, eight months and four managers ago. “Sometimes it seems impossible,” Garitano said recently, and today it feels more impossible than ever. They are the 21st century’s worst Spanish top-flight team; no one has closed the first half of the season this badly since Sporting Gijon in 1997-98, and they were, quite literally, the worst team ever, finishing an entire season on 13 points.