good luck tonight…

… to Horchata, Merchandising, Minidientes, Papito, Frodo and company.  Who are they?

They are Jesús, Víctor Merchán, Jorge Casado, Jesé and José Zamora, respectively, all members of Castilla!  Castilla takes on Mirandés tonight at 20h in the first leg game of the match-up to determine the winner of the Segunda B division!  Castilla has so far achieved two of its three goals this season, to win its group, to ascend to the second division, and now its sights are focused on the third one.

By the way, we found out the nicknames the boys have christened each other with during their recent visit to Marca; they also stopped by AS as well.  Here are all the details of those visits, plus the nicknames.

All of Castilla’s players and staff – minus Nacho, Denis, Pedro Mendes and Omar Mascarell, who are on national team duty – paid a visit to both Marca and AS on Wednesday.

While speaking to the journalists at AS, Alberto Toril said his boys had done very well and that they had deserved to be promoted, while the players said they were excited about playing the “mini-clásico” next year against Barcelona B.  None of them could remember the last great feat accomplished by Castilla, as none of them had been born yet when Castilla played in the final of the Copa del Rey in 1980 (when reserve teams were still allowed) or when the Quinta del Buitre won the second division in 1984, though Toril, who is 38, said he did watch it, although he was “just a kid.”

During the chat, they also talked about how normal the team is (Álex says they travel by bus everywhere, except to Cádiz, when they got to take the AVE) and how they can’t overdo it with desserts (“we have a weigh-in tomorrow”).  MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín says he’ll ask Pablo Infante for his shirt when Castilla plays Mirandés.  Toril also says he hopes the team will stay intact next year, even though “eight or nine of them have received good offers… it’s better to take steps that are small, but secure.”

Over at Marca, everyone received a special Marca cover celebrating the promotion of Castilla.  The newspaper also investigated the various nicknames that the boys have for each other.  Many of them are based on physical traits, others came about due to personality or character, and some resulted from the player’s place of origin.

Tomás Mejías – Palmera [palm tree, for his height I assume].

Jesús – Horchata [a drink made from tiger nuts, maybe because his skin is quite light?].

Issac – Mandíbula [jaw].

Carvajal – Piecitos [little feet].

Pablo Gil – Calvo [bald one].

Nacho – Capi [short for capitán].

Mendes – Portugués [Portuguese].

Iván – Gordo [fat one].

Casado – Minidientes [small teeth].

Ríos – Sevillano [person from Sevilla].

Juanfran – Brasas [literally, hot coals].

Lucas – Picota [big nose].

Álex – Pelirrojo [red haired one].

Mandi – Animal [animal].

Merchán – Merchandising [I love this one].

Mosquera – Pecaditos [the name of his restaurant].

Omar – Saharauí [person from the Sahara].

Denis – Ruso [Russian].

Zamora – Frodo [from The Lord of the Rings].

Joselu – Ojos [eyes].

Jesé – Papito [because he always uses this word].

Morata – Cabeza [(big) head].

Plano – Rana [frog].

I think that if there were first team equivalents, these could be some of the match-ups: Iker would be “Horchata,” Rafa Varane would be “Palmera,” Xabi would be “Pelirrojo,” Mesut would be “Ojos” and Antonio “Cabeza.”