Atlético Saguntino faces Castellón B in fifth pre-season test
Atlético Saguntino take on Castellón B this Wednesday at 19:30 at the Gaetà Huguet sports facilities, their fifth pre-season friendly after a 2-1 defeat to Reus.
Atlético Saguntino, the club that represents the town of Sagunto in semi-professional football, play their fifth pre-season friendly this Wednesday against CD Castellón B, kicking off at 19:30 at the Gaetà Huguet sports facilities. The Castellón reserve side sits one tier above the Sagunto club in the Spanish league system, which adds extra value to the test as the coaching staff fine-tune the squad ahead of the official league season.
Guillem Beltrán's team has had a mixed pre-season campaign so far, with more setbacks than victories in the warm-up games played to date. The opening game ended in a 4-1 loss to UD Castellonense, even though Marc Bonafé had put Saguntino ahead early in the match. Next came a narrow 1-0 win over CF Gandía, still the squad's only victory of the summer so far. In the most recent test, Saguntino lost 2-1 to Reus FC Reddis: Aitor Sáez scored an equaliser to level the score, but the Catalan side found a late winner in the closing minutes to take the match.
Castellón B, for its part, has already settled its own season: the reserve team will remain in Segunda Federación after filling one of the category's vacant spots, and it is going through a deep squad rebuild under coach Juan Casajús. For Saguntino, facing a side from a higher division works as a useful gauge before the league opener against Atlético Levante.
That gap between the two clubs has a precise meaning inside Spain's league pyramid: Tercera Federación, where Saguntino's first team plays, is the fifth tier of Spanish men's football, while Segunda Federación — Castellón B's group — sits one level higher, in fourth place. That is why the opponent is being described as a higher-category side, and it gives a concrete sense of the step up Beltrán's team is facing in these pre-season games.
Facing higher-tier opponents during pre-season is a common approach in non-professional football: it lets the coaching staff test the squad's physical and tactical level against better-resourced teams, without the result affecting any league table. For a club competing in the fifth tier of Spanish football, this kind of test also helps spot weaknesses before the official competition starts counting, which is especially useful after a run of mixed results like the one Saguntino has had this summer.
The club's own history adds some perspective to what is otherwise a low-key pre-season. The only time Atlético Saguntino has played in Segunda División B — the forerunner of today's tier system — was in the 2016/17 season, when the club not only stayed up comfortably but also won the Copa RFEF (the Spanish Football Federation's own cup competition), beating Fuenlabrada over two legs, 0-0 in Madrid and 3-0 back in the Valencia region. That title remains the club's biggest achievement and a reminder that the project has, in the past, been able to compete above its current level.
With the league calendar approaching fast, the point of these friendlies is less about the scoreline and more about getting real minutes against demanding opposition. The coaching staff are using the games to fine-tune tactics, test different line-ups and arrive at the season opener with match sharpness. Wednesday's friendly against Castellón B, a side ranked higher in the football pyramid, is shaping up as one of the last big tests before Saguntino officially begins its Tercera Federación campaign. For local supporters, who follow every pre-season test of the team that represents Sagunto in semi-professional football, these friendlies are also the first chance to see the squad that will wear the club's colours this season, before the official calendar kicks off. According to Golsmedia, with additional background from Wikipedia on the club's honours and the structure of Spanish football's league tiers.