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28/02/06

1 – The statistics don't help Co Adriaanse [the coach of FC Porto, who lost 0-1 against Benfica in the Luz] and nor do they justify his ideas, undoubtedly brilliant. Viz: — in ten games against his compatriot and rival Ronald Koeman, he's lost eight, drawn two and won none; — in nine of the FC Porto games of maximum importance this season, they've lost five, drawn three and won one; — in the five games against the other three clubs that have dominated the top of this championship [Sporting, Sporting Braga and Benfica], they've lost two, drawn three and won none; — in the last seven Championship games, with the 'revolutionary' system of four forwards (so praised by so many pundits who are certainly not FC Porto fans), they've lost two, drawn two and won three, scoring a total of six goals — which doesn't even give an average of one goal a game. When a person has his own ideas and doesn't let them go, they say that he has personality. When those ideas are wrong or give the opposite result to what's intended, and even so the person insists on them, instead of personality, they say that the person has manias. And when, from one failure to the next, the person continues to insist on the same ideas at the expense of others, the mania becomes stubbornness. That's Co Adriaanse's problem. He still hasn't realised that FC Porto is not AZ Alkmaar [his previous club] or any other team without a name, without a budget and without responsibilities, a team to serve as a guinea-pig for its trainer's revolutionary experiments. He still hasn't realised that the team that fell into his lap, unlike its coach, who has never won anything, is stuffed with titles and was, less than two years ago, European Champions and a year ago World Champions. There clearly seems to have been a mistake in interpretation or translation by Co Adriaanse of the contract he signed with FC Porto: he's the one who has to prove that he's up to the level of FC Porto; it's not FC Porto that has to adapt itself to its coach's barren genius. In my brief preview of the game last weekend, I wrote that if Co Adriaanse really wanted to start showing that he was capable of winning a title and any important game, he should play 4X3X3 at the Luz and field the best players in their correct positions, instead of stubbornly insisting that he'll go down in footballing history as the coach who plays an open game everywhere … and failing everywhere. As I wrote that, though, and unlike what Ronald Koeman predicted, I already knew that he would insist on that ploy of three defenders and four forwards, even if only to demonstrate that so-called personality that impresses, and serves, so many. And so it was. The most immediate effect of this super-offensive system was a repetition of what we saw in previous games: the inability to score goals and to create enough chances to score them. The inflated number of forwards meant that that there wasn't enough space or ideas, to the point that two of them, Ivanildo and Adriano, spent the whole game unsure of where to go and what to do. And while there was an excess of forwards up front, getting in each other's way, there was the lack of a midfielder to hold up the game and open up the forwards, and the only reason the defence didn't founder was that Nuno Gomes and Simão [Sabrosa, the Benfica forwards] did nothing throughout the whole game, and once again it was obvious that this whole system depends on having a super-Pepe [central defender] and a super-Paulo Assunção [defensive midfielder]. Co Adriaanse owes them the fact that he didn't leave the Luz with a bigger defeat under his arm when, in a total loss of control, he decided to take off Quaresma, who was the only one trying to open Benfica's defence on the flanks, and put on no less than four strikers — McCarthy, Adriano, Hugo Almeida and Lisandro. At the same time, he inevitably put on the ghost that is Jorginho, all of this opening up veritable avenues for the Benfica counter attack. Once again, as had happened to me in the game at the Dragão earlier in the season, I found myself musing that Adriaanse goes to these games without having done any of the three things that are essential parts of a coach's homework: he doesn't study the opponents, he doesn't work out a game plan, much less one that's adaptable in the light of what happens, and he doesn't prepare dead-ball situations — which in other teams, starting with Benfica, contribute a significant percentage of goals scored and which in this FC Porto rarely result in goals. It was actually distressing to see how the free kicks and corners given FC Porto's way were taken. I'm beginning to understand why the training sessions at Olival [Porto's training ground] are always behind closed doors ...

2 – Co Adriaanse's excuse for the defeat is going to be Vítor Baía [Porto's goalkeeper on the night]— I'm even surprised why he didn't say as much immediately after the game, as is his wont. The extremely unfair end to Baía's career has been scientifically prepared by Adriaanse, first removing him after a mistake at Amadora without giving him a chance to redeem himself, then leaving him out in all the easy games to bring him back for the test of fire that was the Luz, where any slip up by him would have practically irreversible consequences. It's not, of course, Adriaanse's fault that Helton [first choice 'keeper these days] injured himself at the worst possible moment, but he was directly responsible for shaking Baía's confidence, leaving him psychologically unprepared to return for this game. Afterwards, bad luck, the capricious effects of this new ball [the one to be used at the World Cup], the apparently unique talent that [Laurent] Robert has for taking free-kicks, and Baía's lack of faith that he could correct his movement in time, did the rest. They meant a defeat, which may have been deserved because of the way FC Porto didn't play but which was certainly not justified by the way that Benfica did play. The Benfica [of the weekend] would be calmly digested by a normal FC Porto, led by someone with normal ideas — like how to win once in a while.

 
3 – That's something that can't be said of José Mourinho. He's the archetypal winner, someone who, above all else, is there to win — always if possible. Unlike Adriaanse, Mourinho studies opponents in detail and for each game he has a strategy that almost always anticipates what the opponent is going to do in each situation. That's why he wins so often: because he's a perfectionist, a complete professional, addicted to victory. But there's another side to the coin, as always. First, Mourinho doesn't know how to lose. Second, when there are no flair players in the team, his football, although he keeps winning, is like Chelsea's football: terribly predictable and boring, 'industrialised', as someone defined it a few days ago. I've written here before that I'm convinced Mourinho's FC Porto would easily beat Mourinho's Chelsea. [Last] week, the Barcelona of Rijkaard, Ronaldinho, Deco, Messi and Eto'o completely destroyed Chelsea's scientific, soulless football. (And they only didn't crush Chelsea because in the Londoners' goal is one of the three best goalkeepers in the world). That's just as well for football because what Barcelona said at Stamford Bridge was that talent, genius and the unexpected are still decisive weapons in this game. At the end, José Mourinho had the obligation of recognising the fact and complimenting the opponent. Hiding behind the sending-off of Del Horno and attacking the referee was the attitude of a bad loser. First because Del Horno deserved to be sent off for the simple reason that, no longer able to stand the tourada that Messi was giving him, he resolved to put him out of the game once and for all. And second because before and after Del Horno's red card, Barcelona's superiority was so flagrant, the quality and beauty of their football so superior, that any other outcome would have been a tremendous injustice. It's up to Mourinho to prove now in the Camp Nou that Chelsea are more than just an ordinary team with a great coach.

(courtesy of Miguel Sousa Tavares)

21/02/06

1 – Tonight Benfica face an elucidatory test of their real value. They had a similar test against Manchester United, which they passed with flying colours, it's true, but the Manchester United of this season and, above all, of last December, is a pale imitation of the 'Red Devils' of the recent past that scared everyone. Liverpool, apart from being the reigning European Champions, are a better team and more calculated. Against them, Benfica have to be at their best and then we'll see whether their best is up to the highest European level or not. [Benfica beat Liverpool 1-0]

Beginning this horrible cycle of nine days in which all can be dreamed of, all lost, with a defeat [0-2 at Vitória de Guimarães], Ronald Koeman's Benfica seem to have launched disbelief amongst their own people — fans and journalists. Suddenly, that highly praised team of three weeks ago does not now seem to inspire anyone's confidence, and their coach has become a punching bag in range of all frustrations.

Koeman is accused of constantly changing the team, as if he was responsible for injuries and suspensions or for the arrival of a mini-downpour of reinforcements in December, announced by the Board as the supplement that was missing to win the Champions League and that he, logically, had to try out and use ... forgetting that it was one of these unexpected 'revolutions' in team formation that led to the equally unexpected victory over Manchester United. Koeman is even accused of having already tried out four goalkeepers, as if he was guilty of the injuries to Quim and Moreira, of the obvious lack of preparation of [junior] Nereu, or of the 'epic' signing of Moretto, deliriously welcomed by the fans and others.

Although I'm not really interested in what goes on in other people's houses, it seems to me that, more prosaically, the question of hopes dashed at Benfica has most to do with the illusion created about the real value of the team. It all started last season, with a Championship and a Taça won in a manner that was anything but convincing but that, due to fear or reverence, no one dared to question. That's why, when Luís Filipe Vieira said that this was a team of champions, everyone pretended to agree, and when, with reinforcements on board, he then said that this was a team that was capable of getting to the Final and perhaps winning the Champions League, everyone continued to pretend to believe it was true. Then there was the victory over Manchester United and the series of seven wins in a row in the Portuguese Liga, and there was José Veiga [Benfica's Director of Football], chest puffed out, announcing the inevitable conquest of the title and Europe around the corner. But no one stopped to think of how many of those seven games were won without dubious refereeing decisions and with convincing performances, because it's a crime of leze majesty to question the merit of Benfica victories. And thus was the official truth created that here was a great Benfica, that nothing or no one could stop. Now, three defeats later, we've hurtled to the other extreme. And at the worst possible moment, when the team most needs the confidence of its people. But, if between today [Tuesday] and Sunday [at home to FC Porto] everything goes badly for the Benfiquistas, it's a given that those who sowed the winds won't reap the storms of disillusionment. That's reserved for a more convenient scapegoat.

2 – Benfica played in Guimarães under the pressure of having three players at risk of not being able to face FC Porto if they saw a yellow card. Lucílio Baptista was the most appropriate choice [as referee] for the occasion (although I must say right away that none of those three deserved a yellow). But, as for the rest, Lucílio can take all the credit: In a game that was by no means dirty nor undisciplined, with fouls shared equally between the two teams, Lucílio Baptista managed to give double the number of fouls Benfica's way, letting innumerable others go unpunished the other way, and showed seven yellows to Guimarães players against just one to the Benfiquistas.

3 – And as for the 'Apito Dourado' ['Golden Whistle', a legal investigation currently under way into corruption in football and involving some leading figures in Portuguese football, including FC Porto president Pinto da Costa and Liga president Valentim Loureiro], that mega-judicial investigation that feels like it's been dragging on for years, making some people eternal suspects (or even already found guilty, as some would have it) and others strangely immune to suspicion, I awaited with some curiosity the decision from the court to proceed with the case with respect to the president of FC Porto. But in the end, the 'mountain gave birth to a mouse', or worse still, gave birth to the unbearable continuation of suspicions yet to be confirmed. After more than a year's investigation, after that enormous politico-mediatic scene on the day of the hearing of the 'highly suspect' Pinto da Costa, after hundreds of thousands of euros of taxpayers' money have been spent, after I don't know how many extensions of deadline in favour of the Public Prosecutor ... the judicial 'task force' of Gondomar [where the investigation is taking place] decided merely to issue certificates for others to continue to investigate Pinto da Costa. And as for new facts, new evidence, proof collected ... nothing. The 'extremely grave' suspicion is exactly the same as a year ago: in 2004, José Mourinho's FC Porto, already virtually national Champions, eleven points ahead of the second-placed team Benfica, just weeks away from becoming European Champions, apparently bribed, using 'girls', the referee of the game between FC Porto and Estrela da Amadora, about to be relegated, as a way of guaranteeing victory — it seems that otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to win. And this is how we waste time and the taxpayers' money: not doing justice but eternally maintaining the suspicions that suit so many. But the truth is also that, in view of what's at stake — and only because of this — those who believe, or pretend to, only do so because they want to.

4 – And little by little, Sporting are five points from FC Porto and it could be down to two if, at the Luz on Sunday, Adriaanse's team [FC Porto] fail once again in a crucial game. I've realised that recently I 've written very little or almost nothing about Sporting this season. The reason is simple and will seem scandalous to indefatigable Sportinguistas, but I'll take the risk of having to swallow my words later on: I don't think that Sporting have the football to be national Champions this season. They're second, only five points behind FC Porto and have yet to play them in Alvalade? Sure, it's a fact. But even so, they don't convince me. This week, for example, what I saw in the game against Paços de Ferreira was a team that scored from a dubious penalty that fell out of the heavens. They relied on that for the whole of the second half, without creating a single scoring chance, and then near the end they scored a second goal in a move preceded by a foul and then a third in added time. A thoroughly deceptive 3-0, in a game that they didn't even deserve to win. As I said, I may have to swallow this opinion. But if that happens, it will be because FC Porto have handed the gold over to the bandit.

(courtesy of Miguel Sousa Tavares)

14/02/06

1 – Day 22 of the championship restored the habitual hierarchy of our game, with the Big Three now at the top in order of grandeur [FC Porto, Sporting, Benfica] (this is a joke aimed at benfiquistas and sportinguistas...). Playing very little and scoring from two free-kicks, Sporting had no trouble dispatching a Vitória de Setúbal that, after Benfica's raid on their squad [in the transfer window], allowed and encouraged by the unforgettable Chumbita Nunes [ex-president of Vitória], are now in free fall. Playing more than usual and with less bad luck and fewer tactical revolutions than usual, FC Porto also performed their duty in beating Belenenses, a team whose position of relative safety in the first division in itself demonstrates how weak our Liga is. And, playing at home against the already-condemned Penafiel, Benfica also won without any real trouble, although the result was frankly disproportionate given what happened, and they could have done without that third goal, an extreme example of what football cannot be (if it had been Penafiel or any other opponent scoring like that, the Luz would have come down). A word of praise, though, for the president of Penafiel, the former and exceptional player António Oliveira [also former national team coach], who assumed calmly the more-than-probable inevitability of the drop, avoiding the easy solution of sacking the coach, the madness of signings that could not subsequently be afforded in the Liga de Honra [second division] and avoiding also the habitual recourse of blaming refereeing for failure. Indeed, as he says, it's more honourable to drop into the Honra without owing anything than staying in the Liga and owing money to everyone. A message delivered to a lot of people whose ears must be burning. In the group immediately below, the weekend's results were different. While Boavista totted up their fifth straight win [2-0 at Académica] and are now just a point away from the European places, confirming coach Carlos Brito's worth, Sporting Braga, even playing at home and up against ten men for half an hour, lost two points [1-1 at home to Estrela da Amadora], which do not compensate for the point so unjustly and falsely won a week before at the Dragão [Porto's stadium]. Having sold almost all of their defence during the window, they've inevitably started on a downward curve which, if it continues, will be difficult to halt and difficult to digest. Finally, Nacional succumbed with a bump [1-4 at home to União de Leiria], after a tough week spent between Alvalade [0-1 to Sporting] and the Luz [0-0 to Benfica in the Taça], with just one goal conceded in 220 minutes of play!

2 – Benfica's defeat of Nacional in the Luz [in the Taça], on penalties, and Sporting's last-minute defeat of Paredes in Alvalade bring up again the modification that I've been calling for for ages of the Taça's extremely unfair regulations. I'd like to see a dual system: first with positive discrimination in favour of the minnows, and then later, the levelling of the playing field for the semi-finalists. So, up to the semi-finals, the ties, decided in one game, would always be played at the ground of the club from the lower division or, if both clubs are in the same division, at the ground of the club that is lower in the table on the day of the draw. As for the semi-finals, they'd be played over two legs. On one hand, this would decentralise and democratise the Taça, taking it regularly, and not exceptionally, to places where big games don't get to, simultaneously lending more sporting interest and excitement to the competition, and possibly better receipts for the clubs. On the other hand, the fact of both semi-finals being played over two legs would lend more sporting truth to the result and more merit to the Jamor [National Stadium] finalists, apart from reintroducing, at least for one round, the system of elimination over two legs, which currently, much to my chagrin, doesn't exist in any [domestic] competition. Such a system would make it impossible, for example, for what happened two years ago to Benfica to happen again, that is, to go successive rounds until the Final without leaving the Luz (and even the Final was played at their normal training ground, the National Stadium and, given that the other finalist was FC Porto, the referee selected for the game was Lucílio Baptista, who performed as expected [i.e. biased against FC Porto]). Certainly, of all the trophies won by Benfica, that was the one with the least merit.

3 – If I hadn't seen Inter v Juventus on television, I would have believed the patriotic descriptions of the correspondents of our sports press, who gave Figo "half a goal" and an outstanding performance, unlike the rest of the team. I didn't see it that way at all; I saw that Inter didn't play for toffees and Figo had the odd inconsequential burst of activity and took a very ordinary corner that his team mate Walter Samuel met with a great header — that "half goal" of Figo's. This journalistic patriotism, which leads people to write things like "Milan's coach opted to rest Rui Costa", when what he did was merely to opt to leave him on the subs' bench, doesn't help us to have a real understanding of what goes on and has even, perhaps, contributed to us giving our potential emigrant footballers a false impression of the ease with which they can make it abroad, which later turns into bitter disillusionment. Just look at what happened to Dynamo Moscow's Portuguese legion — of whom Costinha has just become the latest casualty — which has left an image in Russia that must have ensured the definitive end of that particular gold-egg-laying goose. And speaking of football emigrants, there are things that make you think. How many Italians started the Inter v Juventus game? One. How many Englishmen started for Chelsea against Liverpool? One. How many Portuguese started for Benfica against Penafiel? Two. Money has no mother country, and nor does football. It's we spectators that go out of our way to pretend that we don't see.

P. S. — Manuel Fernandes, Marcel and Simão [all of Benfica] are on a knife edge: if they get one more yellow card, they don't play against FC Porto at the Luz. We're going to be watching the refereeing of V. Guimarães v Benfica very closely.

(courtesy of Miguel Sousa Tavares)

07/02/06

1 - I've seen this film several times before: FC Porto attack, attack, attack, the other team just defends, and at the end they share the points [FC Porto 1-1 Sporting Braga]. If there were any justice in football FC Porto would have slaughtered Braga 5-0 or 6-0. Three balls against the woodwork, three marvellous saves by Paulo Santos, three shots wide, three dubious situations in Braga's area. But it wasn't enough: even a crazy system of play - which depends exclusively on a super-Pepe [Porto's central defender] to bolster a three-man defence and four in attack - was not enough to win. Braga had their first shot at goal on the hour, finally forcing Helton to his first save in three games as first choice ´keeper. Then Adriaanse gave the order to retreat, just as he did against Inter in the San Siro, taking off a striker and putting on a central defender. And what a defender! - no less than Bruno Alves, one of the authors of Benfica's victory in the Dragão [FC Porto's stadium] - who, in his only intervention of note, gave away the equalising penalty, proving that not just anybody can be Pepe. We have to accept that the penalty was valid, but, by referee Bruno Paixão's criteria, after that there was time for two similar situations in Braga's area, one on Ivanildo and another on Raul Meireles, situations that, let's say, went unnoticed by the gentleman from Setúbal. And (why not?), we also have to accept that the offside at the moment of the decisive penalty also went unnoticed. What remains is what remains: the "Championship is wide open again", that they're all going to write about today. Long live the Championship!

2 - It's obvious that the Super Dragões [FC Porto's claque] have turned into a parallel power base within FC Porto, and it's obvious that, if such a thing happened, it was because it was allowed to and encouraged at the highest level. If you sow winds, you reap storms. But it's also obvious that apart from the thuggish attitudes that are the trademark and the raison d'être of organised claques, what the Super Dragões say today about the inner life of the club (and not only about the coach) is what the majority of fans think but are not organised to say. So that, forced to weigh up the services provided in the past and the potential damage of the present, Pinto da Costa [FC Porto's president] has opted to abandon them. Let's see what happens.

3 - One of the most baffling and attractive things about football is the constant shifting of its truths. One week you're beautiful, the next you're a beast. For nine games in a row, Benfica stacked up wins and filled the stadium, firing up the hopes of the fans and puffing up the directors' chests: Vieira [Benfica president] started to speak openly about winning the European title this year, and Veiga [Director of Football] was strutting about, ridiculing opponents and talking as if they were already national Champions. Then suddenly, in just two games, everything collapsed: the run of victories turned into two consecutive defeats, the unpassable Moretto [Benfica 'keeper] and the defence of steel let in six goals in 180 minutes, the fabulous winter signings turned out to be disappointments, the so longed-for return of captain Simão Sabroso ended up with badly disguised suspicion about his dedication to the badge and his usefulness to the team, FC Porto continued top and even the unthinkable happened, which was that they were caught up by Sporting. However, if we look closely, the two situations were neither a zenith nor chaos. The nine wins in a row, except for the one against Manchester United, were never the result of great performances or clear superiority but rather tangential victories, often dictated by luck or dubious refereeing decisions. And if, against Sporting [1-3], the team seemed strangely to not even get into the game, against Leiria [1-3], in my view, they put on one of their best displays, with periods of great football, ending up being defeated by the tremendous efficiency of the opponent on the counter attack. And the truth is that of the six goals conceded, four were on the counter attack, one was a penalty and the other was a long shot. None of them came from an organised attack.

4 - Three thousand people watched Vitória de Guimarães' last training session and 17,000 their game against Belenenses. The dedication of the Vitória fans is simply remarkable, to a club that has never been Champions nor anywhere near it, and which is supported today in the hope of achieving the bare minimum expected of it: to not drop into the Liga de Honra [second division]. Now the task seems more difficult than ever. Not only because they are seven points away from safety, but above all because the team is not showing that it has the stuff to overcome the situation. I wrote at the beginning of the season, and after seeing just one of Vitória's games, that I thought they would have great difficulty in staying in the Liga this season. With Jaime Pacheco [former coach] sacked and the team renewed with an abundance of players in December, it seems to me that not much has changed. And, unlike their coach Vítor Pontes, I think that the main problem is that throughout this Championship, Vitória have never shown enough football to stay in the Liga. The game against Belenenses was yet one more that confirmed this opinion: defence constantly flustered, midfield systematically missing passes, attack absolutely clueless. It's not a question of going to the witchdoctor because it can't be claimed that Vitória have had bad luck in all of their games. However difficult it might be to admit it, the truth is that one of Portuguese football's historic clubs is about to drop into hell because of its own incompetence.

5 - After Hernâni and Calado, another Benfica player [Nuno Assis] has failed a drug test. Of course, it's yet another player who is innocent - just like Kenedy, Abel Xavier and all the others. It's yet another case where a Portuguese player's organism has revealed characteristics unknown to medicine. While everyone is innocent until proven guilty, it's also time that everyone understood that the laws are the same here as in the rest of the world, and that proof of innocence is down to the person who tested positive, not those who do the testing, and that the way this is done is set forth in the law and applies to everyone. Claiming there's a conspiracy has really run out of steam.

6 - José Mourinho is set to be Champion of England for the second consecutive year. He wins, sweeps all before him and convinces. He destroys statistics, subverts records, monopolises prizes. There's just one thing that I can't explain: why do I systematically fall asleep watching Chelsea play and why do I think that Mourinho's FC Porto (especially the team that won the UEFA Cup) would crush Mourinho's Chelsea? But, if a team always wins without enthusing, who can claim the merit for the victories?

(courtesy of Miguel Sousa Tavares)