Things haven't been too much sunnier at AD Juventud San Sebastian. This season, the club's fourth since adding a women's team to their youth set-up, had descended into "a cluster of misfortunes with no logical explanation" even before coronavirus shut everything down, inexplicable injuries and a series of shellackings leaving them second from bottom of the third-tier Primera Nacional Feminino Grupo Canarias with just seven points from 18 games and a negative goal difference that had outstripped their average attendance at the council-owned Polideportivo Municipal. Nonetheless, with only schoolkids using the pitches at Vallehermoso and Agulo nowadays, the biggest, most easily accessible and least visually appealing of La Gomera's footballing venues was the last remaining tick on my island to-do list.
When I wandered into the ground five minutes before kick-off through a side gate wedged open with a breezeblock and two athletics hurdles, it wasn't immediately clear the match was even on. Flanked by hills on both touchlines, the single stand - once painted red but now more desiccated salmon with specks of sand - was disconcertingly empty. Ageing floodlight pylons towered above a concrete running track, heaped-up high jump mats and side-by-side tea huts with AD Sanse and UD Gomera - a men's team who managed five seasons in the fourth-tier Tercera Grupo 12 before a shortage of both players and money forced their demise in 2015 - written above the hatches. Two women waited for customers while three blokes on the far side of the pitch were attempting to straighten an advertising banner. When the teams marched out the visitors turned to applaud all four sides and a watching crowd of 17, including substitutes, two officials, a couple who'd brought their own roof along and a vociferous travelling army of four.
With no shade except the Walls ice cream parasol that two of the onlookers had disappeared into, I took a seat at the back of the stand for an opening 20 minutes in which nothing happened until everything did. A stabbed through ball put a Sanse forward clear of the pursuing Las Majoreras defence. Three touches took her halfway round the keeper before an outstretched arm sent her tumbling to the artificial turf. The referee had the red card up for so long I thought he might be using it to shelter from the sun. "What are you doing?" the away fans yelled at the flustered official, though he was too busy threatening to send another two players off for what I imagined was some slightly more strongly worded criticism to reply. The replacement keeper went right, the ball left, and Las Majoreras' manager was sent to join us in the stand as the home players noisily celebrated the rarity of a lead.
While the visiting manager moaned on his mobile about the injustice of it all, his 10-woman team turned the game on its head in a 20-minute spell in which they scored twice, missed two one-on-ones and then poked a third goal through the Sanse keeper's legs. The dispirited home side struggled to muster a response, the visitors strolling through the second half at mid-afternoon pace as most of those watching began turning from the pitch to their mobile phone screens. Sanse's stopper made a double save with her legs, watched as Majoreras twice contrived to steer the ball wide with nothing left to do except put it between the posts, and then was finally beaten for a fourth time in the last minute of the game. The hatch came down on the tea hut, we ducked back out past the high-hurdles and wandered towards the cafes in town, little realising that it might well be the last game of football we'd be seeing for quite some time.
Date: Sunday March 1st
Admission: Free
If you're thinking of visiting for the day from Tenerife, San Sebastian de la Gomera's stadium is easy enough to find. Take a left out of the port, a right at the Plaza de las Americas and continue on past the statue of Columbus, passing the well where he drew water, the church where he prayed for the success of the trip and the house he supposedly stayed in before setting off. Continue past a small supermarket, head for the mountains and look out for the floodlights on your left hand side. Games kick off at noon on Sundays; you can see forthcoming fixtures here or on the club's Facebook page.
