Real Sociedad

Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (pronounced: [reˈal soθjeˈðað]; Royal Society) or La Real, is a Spanish football club based in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 September 1909. Its home stadium is Anoeta, which seats 32,200 spectators. Real Sociedad won the La Liga title in 1980–81 and 1981–82, and last finished runners-up in 2002–03. La Real has also won the Copa del Rey twice, in 1909 and 1987. The club play the Basque derby against Athletic Bilbao. Real Sociedad were founder members of La Liga in 1928, and their longest spell in the top flight was for 40 seasons from 1967 to 2007.

The club has competed in the UEFA Champions League twice. In the 2003–04 season the club made it to the round of 16 before losing to French club Olympique Lyon.

Real Sociedad has also several sports sections: women's football, track and field, field hockey and basque pelota.

Name and colours

The club's name means Royal Society of Football in Spanish. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1939), it was renamed "Donostia Club de Fútbol". The club is nicknamed in Basque as Erreala or the txuri-urdin ("white-blue" due to the colours of their kit). The colours stem from the flag of San Sebastian: a blue canton on a white field.

Sociedad, Morazán

Sociedad is a municipality in the Morazán department of El Salvador.

Coordinates: 13°42′N 88°01′W / 13.700°N 88.017°W / 13.700; -88.017

It lies between La Unión and San Miguel, both of which are deparments of El Salvador

Villarreal

Villarreal (Spanish: [ˈbiʎareˈal]), officially Vila-real (Valencian: [ˈvila reˈaɫ]), is a city in the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Community, Spain.

The city is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital (Castelló de la Plana), which it is separate from by the Mijares (or Millars) River. it has 51,367 inhabitants (2010 data), most of them living in the urban area that covers about 10.72% of its comarca's 55.4 km² surface. Ranked by population, it is the second-largest city in the province (after the capital), and fifteenth in the Valencian Community.

The city was founded with royal status by King James I of Aragon in 1274 during his campaign to regain Muslim territory in present-day Valencia during the Reconquista. It later became an agricultural centre for orange cultivation, and more recently a centre for the ceramics industry.

Name

Both the Castilian Spanish Villarreal and Valencian Catalan Vila-real are cognates meaning 'Royal Village', due to the city's foundation by King James I of Aragon. Throughout the Middle Ages, as were most European settlements, it was known by its Latinised name Villae Regalis. A 1592 tapestry of the Valencian Parliament shows the city's representative with the old Valencian name Vilareal. It was in the late 18th century, as Spain became more centralised, that the Castilian name took over. The city was renamed in 1939, after the Spanish Civil War, as Villarreal de los Infantes (Royal Town of the Infantes), to avoid confusion with other Spanish localities with the same name. It is sometimes still referred to under this extended version.

Villarreal CF

Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. (Valencian: Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or just Villarreal, is a Spanish football club based in Vila-real, a city in the province of Castellón within the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, it plays in La Liga, holding home games at El Madrigal, with a capacity for 24,890 spectators.

The club is nicknamed El Submarí Groguet or El Submarino Amarillo (Yellow Submarine) due to its yellow home kit, and due to being a low-profile team compared to Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, whom they have challenged for trophies over the last decade. Villarreal has often been touted as an example of a small but successful club.

History

Early years

Villarreal CF was founded as Villarreal CD on 10 March 1923 "to promote all sports especially Soccer." The stadium was rented for 60 pesetas a month and ticket prices were set at half a peseta for men and a quarter of a peseta for children. Women were granted free admission. On 17 June 1923, Castellón, a modern rival of the club, played the first match against a club named after Cervantes. On 21 October of that year, Villarreal played their first game ever, playing against Castellón. Villarreal started off with a kit of white shirts and black shorts, reflected in their first badge.

Xabi Prieto

Xabier 'Xabi' Prieto Argarate (born 29 August 1983) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Real Sociedad mainly as a right midfielder.

A player of good dribbling skills, he is also a penalty kick specialist.

Club career

Born in San Sebastián, Prieto made his La Liga debut with hometown's Real Sociedad on 26 October 2003 in a 1–0 home win over Navarrese neighbours CA Osasuna, going on to collect a further eight substitute appearances – seven of them late in the game – during that season. However, on 23 May of the following year, as the league's outcome was already decided, he profitted from his second start to score twice against Real Madrid in a 4–1 away success, one of the goals coming from the penalty spot.

Subsequently Prieto was definitely promoted to the first squad and, in 2005–06, participated in all 38 games and netted nine times, six of them being penalties. In the following season he was also everpresent, but the Basque dropped down to the second division.

Prieto played in 35 matches in the 2009–10 campaign, totalling exactly 3,000 minutes and contributing with seven goals as Real Sociedad returned to the top level after three years. In the first game of the following season, at home against Villarreal CF, he scored the game's only goal, after a backheel pass from newly signed Joseba Llorente.