|
27/12/06
Miguel Sousa Tavares reviews his team FC Porto's season so far.
[Coach] Jesualdo Ferreira's FC Porto is crushing the competition: they're the only Portuguese team still left in the top competition in Europe, after a brilliant recovery in the group stage of the
Champions League; they're top of the Liga with a good lead over their two direct rivals; they've scored the most goals and conceded the fewest; they have the Liga's top scorer, its best player and its
most valuable player; they lead the BES Trophy [among FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting] and the Discipline Trophy; they're the team with the greatest number of assists per game and perhaps the only one that doesn't
owe a single point to refereeing decisions. To be honest, it's as good as it could possibly be. Congratulations to Jesualdo Ferreira and all who are contributing to the Dragon's fiery breath. Here's the A to Z of
these four triumphant months.
ADRIAANSE – The first and most decisive entry in this glossary. His leaving, before any official game, was the best news and most important acquisition of the season. It wasn't merely by chance that all
anti-Portistas praised him so much: his irrationality, stubbornness and arrogance ended up making a great team fall apart. He must be eaten up with envy to see that with exactly the same team and a natural system, Jesualdo Ferreira has got FC Porto winning and scoring goals, he's united the team and the changing room, he's brought back players who were banished and made peace with the public.
ADRIANO – It seems that he's on his way to Sporting Braga, confirming that he would never be more than a reasonable substitute.
ALAN – Inconsistent and insecure, capable of good things and meaningless meanderings. Can do better.
ANDERSON – One of the three geniuses in the team, the central tip of a truly luxury triangle: Pepe, Anderson, Quaresma. He's an attacking midfielder that only knows how to play forward and in constant movement. With
him, play isn't held up and there are no breaks in rhythm – he's a hallucinatory carrousel that has opponents in knots. It's ages since I've seen a player like that, and I think that all those who, above all, like
to see great football can only lament that foul by Katsouranis [Benfica] that removed him from our sight for four or five months. If he comes back the same as he was, he's easily worth 40 million euros – especially
is he comes back in time for the decisive games against Chelsea [in the Champions League].
ATTITUDE – It's the big plus of this club and the teams that represent it year in year out. FC Porto's players are better professionals and have more respect for the club than any others. At the moment,
[goalkeeper] Vítor Baía is an example of this: where are the vítor baías at Sporting and Benfica?
BOSINGWA – Also irregular and inconsistent, but is clearly improving. It did him good to finally have competition for his place – Fucile. He should try to move inside more because he dribbles well and moves play
forward.
BRUNO ALVES – In relation to him and Postiga, I have to applaud; I never thought that Jesualdo would be able to turn them into good players. Maybe he caught it off Pepe, or maybe it's because he's been given more
chances and is more secure, but this Bruno Alves is light years away from last season's version, who didn't know when to attack the ball and got rid of it any old how. He's improving with each game.
BRUNO MORAIS – Just one game that I saw him play in, pre-season, was enough to understand why Mourinho signed him. Despite the bad luck and injuries, despite Postiga's renaissance, Bruno Morais has already shown
enough signs that here's a great player, ready to explode on the scene. Good luck to him.
CAROLINA SALGADO [former companion of FCP president Pinto da Costa] – She doesn't play for FC Porto but for their opponents, and how! With her betrayal and abject pamphlet [her book 'I Caroline'], she wanted to stain
the work of all these players and coaches, who fought on the pitch while she showed off in the executive box. But I believe that in the end, the truth will out, although no one can wipe away the dishonour and damage
already done.
[Marek] CECH – A good but not extraordinary player. He attacks well, but doesn't defend so well. But he has space and years to progress.
CSKA MOSCOW – The decisive victory, the proof that was lacking that this FC Porto is an heir of the great FC Portos that have honoured this country and our football, much as this is hard for some people to swallow.
DIEGO– There's one [now at Werder Bremen] that left, and for the best, and another that's on his way in. The one that left was the opposite of Anderson: he held play up, got lost in intricate little moves and didn't
know where the other goal was.
DIOGO VALENTE – It seems he's going to be loaned out, but I'd like to have seen him play more. It's amazing to think that of Porto's seven signings this season: Paulo Ribeiro, Ezequias, João Paulo, Tarik, Sektoui,
Diogo Valente, Vieirinha (through the ranks) and Fucile – only the latter is used regularly.
DEBTS – 30 million euros for the last financial year: a collapse which, fatally, will have to be corrected sooner or later, with the sale of the jewels in the crown. This fever of buying players that are good for
nothing other than being loaned out explains a lot. All that needs explaining now is why buy them.
ESTÀDIO do DRAGÃO – The most beautiful football stadium I've ever seen. One of the best works of Portuguese architecture ever. And every time I return home, it feels like the first time.
EZEQUIAS – Whoever bought him should explain.
FUCILE – At least they got one right! Great kid, great personality, great courage! He's going to leave his mark.
GOALS – In the end, it wasn't Adriaanse's crazy system that got them. This year, back to 4x3x3, FC Porto have only failed to score in the Champions League.
HÉLDER POSTIGA – The impossible resurrection. Those who saw him in the previous three seasons will find it hard to believe it's the same person. It's not only that he's started to score goals, it's all the rest: he
shoots, runs, loses his marker, looks like he enjoys playing. Before, he didn't move, he couldn't be bothered. But will it last?
HELTON – Elegance between the posts and quick reflexes. But he still lacks something to keep me from worrying: he needs to learn to come out for high balls like Baía does.
IBSON – Worth more than he shows. He'll be worth more when he has a good look at Anderson and understands that no move, however spectacular, is of interest if the ball ends up at the opponent's feet. Lift your head
up and look at the game!
JESUALDO FERREIRA – At last, a normal coach! At last, someone for whom intelligence overcomes vanity! He deserves all the credit for the quiet revolution that he's conducting at FC Porto.
JORGE COSTA [now assistant coach at Sporting Braga] – He had an unnoticed and unjust send-off, but he'll be back because he's a part of this club's life.
JORGINHO – A mystery to be eternally clarified: how is it that he was so good for Vitória de Setúbal and so abulic at Porto? But he's had his chances – he only has himself to blame.
JOÃO PAULO – Whoever bought him must have had something in mind: mind saying what?
KATSOURANIS – He plays for another team [Benfica], but he single-handedly caused us greater damage than all the opponents and enemies put together. Come the game at the Luz, it's to be hoped that Jesualdo keeps
Quaresma on the bench!
LISANDRO – Sometimes good, other times not so … Still doesn't stop us from missing Derlei [at Moscow Dynamo].
LUCHO [González] – Two classy performances and two fantastic goals – against Hamburg and Nacional. Apart from that, way, way below what he can do. He owes the team much more.
PAULO ASSUNÇÃO – Miles away from the level of last season, and the midfield feels it.
PEDRO EMANUEL – Injured at the beginning of the season, returning's going to be hard.
PEPE – You can call it club bias, but this is what I think and have thought for a long time: he's currently the best central defender in the World.
PAULO RIBEIRO - ?
PINTO da COSTA [president of FC Porto] – He's facing his most dangerous year. Carolina and the debts are two fights that won't allow any subterfuge.
RAUL MEIRELES – Clearly the weakest element in the team. He wanders around the pitch without any visible usefulness. Someone told him that he had a great long shot; he hasn't been on target once in six months.
REINALDO TELES [Director] – The man who's always there … 'For All Seasons'.
RICARDO COSTA – has no place in the team. Naturally on his way to Marseilles.
RICARDO QUARESMA – He took up the baton after Anderson fell in combat and took the team with him, demonstrating that he's currently the best Portuguese player and one of the best in the World for his positions. An
absolutely exceptional player, as he was last season and two seasons ago, and now we can see what a crime it was to leave him out of the 2006 World Cup. Instead of meaningless explanations, Scolari [National Team
Coach] should apologise – to him, to the Portuguese people and to all those who like football and couldn't see him in Germany.
RUI BARROS [Assistant Coach] – Mission accomplished. Yet another one. And the SuperTaça in his pocket.
SOKOTA [always injured] – The unluckiest and the most expensive at the club.
TARIK SEKTOUI – Maybe a reasonable substitute.
VIEIRINHA – the great revelation of the pre-season, which Jesualdo didn't follow through. And it's a shame because he seems potentially to be a great player.
VÍTOR BAÍA – Captain in the changing room, official assistant coach, substitute goalkeeper, whatever you want; Baía is this team's Torre dos Clérigos [the city of Oporto's ex libris], a unique footballer and sportsman and one I miss seeing play.
[courtesy Miguel Sousa Tavares]
24/10/06
1 – Last week's European games confirmed the worst expectations: that none of the Três Grandes will make it through to the next phase of the Champions League and that Braga will die at the group stage of the UEFA Cup. Braga and Benfica were beaten by a margin that leaves no room for doubt: 3-0. Yes, I know – luck wasn't on their side; unlike their opponents, the only thing they failed to so was score; the results were deceptive as they dominated their games for long periods; and so on, the same as always. The truth is that neither managed to really put the result in question. The same whingeing was heard after Sporting's compromising home defeat: they "dominated 80% of the game" (for half of which they were up against ten men), that the only thay failed to do was score, and so on - more of the same. The truth is, however, that Bayern ran on at Alvalade and put Sporting in their place from the very first minute, only easing up when they scored and were reduced to ten. FC Porto, after a highly negative start in the competition, did their duty and won at home to an under-strength Hamburg, and actually put in their best display of the season. They could have been back on course for second place if, far away in Moscow, a Spanish referee hadn't decided to disallow a perfectly good goal in the closing stages by Arsenal's Thierry Henry. It was two points given to CSKA, which, it seems likely, will prove decisive, unless FC Porto can pull out two wins from their remaining three games and draw the other.
I look upon this scenario with a large dose of fatalism and pessimism. I think that European football at the highest level, which is the Champions League, is practically inaccessible today to any
Portuguese team. Mourinho's FC Porto was an epiphenomenon resulting from a mixture of good fortune and merit that happens once a generation, if that much. When I was leaving the Arena AufSchalke, in Gelsenkirchen on
that unforgettable night, I remember thinking that I would never again, in my lifetime, see my club or any other Portuguese club be European Champions. When we look, for example, at Real Madrid and Barcelona's
bench, at the Spanish classic last weekend, or when we see CSKA playing against Arsenal with three Brazilians, two of whom internationals, and Arsenal playing without any English players and 11 internationals from
eight different countries, we can see that the traditional Portuguese way with the ball is now not enough to face up to these footballing multinationals.
That's why I understand [Bola journalist] José Manuel
Delgado: I don't care that Benfica concede three at Celtic, but they could at least play in red and white, because opting for that horrendous kit the colour of a dug-up worm is more than losing – it's undoing
history. At least that: give us back our teams' kits just as they were before the marketing men decided to sell our clubs like bars of soap.
2 – Sporting v FC Porto, the first clássico of the season, was a bad game marked by the bad state of the pitch, the teams' European fatigue and the absence of the biggest star currently gracing Portuguese stadiums: Anderson by name. [Porto coach] Jesualdo Ferreira admitted that Porto had played badly — as he could have admitted the mistake of breaking up the double-act of Fusile-Quaresma, which was putting Sporting in their place, or as he could have admitted the vain stubbornness of persevering with Lucho González, who seems like the pained spirit of the other Lucho from last season. But Paulo Bento [Sporting coach], revealing more ambition, thought that Sporting played well and had various chances (?!), and he even shamelessly claimed that Paulo Assunção should have been sent off (it would have been two fouls, two yellows...), so that, for the second time in a row, Sporting could benefit from playing the whole of the second half a player up. Apparently, 11 against 11 is an insurmountable problem.
3 – And with everything getting bunched up at the top of the table, here comes a Porto v Benfica — with, as all we Portistas hope, Anderson, who, as Alvalade showed, represents 60% of the team's offensive capacity.
Unfortunately, Porto v Benfica has already started off badly, with the ticket affair [Porto are not allocating any tickets to Benfica because the Lisbon club applied for them after the deadline], where FC
Porto took the opportunity to take tit-for-tat revenge for the villainy that Benfica did to them two years ago (allocating only 1500 tickets). Acts like these are a direct message to spectators: when it's a big
game, we don't need the presence of away fans. This has undoubtedly contributed to attracting public to the stadiums!
And as if the ticket episode wasn't enough, Benfica's president, most probably trying to
make Benfiquistas forget the Glasgow slaughter and with a view to livening up the most boring electoral campaign in the history of democracy, resolved to open fire, on a personal level, on the Porto president, who responded in kind, in the same highly elegant tone. Here's their contribution to a good atmosphere at the Dragão next Saturday.
4 – An equally eloquent image was that of [Boavista president] João Loureiro turning his back on the team when they went down 3-0 [at home to Nacional]. If there were someone higher than him at the club,
maybe they would have sacked him on the spot. As there isn't, it was he that sacked the coach [Petrovic].
5 – Another striking image, repeated almost every week and this time worth seeing: all FC Porto's
young players that score running to hug ... Vítor Baía. It's curious to note that Baía is apparently more important on the subs' bench than some of those that are on the pitch. And it's curious that its the
youngsters who remember what some seem to have forgotten: that it was Baía's generation of players that brought to the club the celebrated and inimitable changing-room spirit that made FC Porto a winning club. Today
there's just Pedro Emanuel left.
It was because he understood this that Mourinho went and brought back Jorge Costa, and it's because he understood these things that he was European Champion. It's because they
didn't understand it that Octávio Machado and Adriaanse spurned Jorge Costa and that's why neither went beyond ordinariness.
For years on end, Jorge Costa was also scorned by almost everyone who wasn't a Portista. He was slow, a clogger, he was this and that. But we Portistas were smiling inside: we knew what he was worth and we knew that his importance to the team began long before and continued long after the 90 minutes of a game. And we knew, for example, that what has been and continues to be lacking at Benfica are one or two players like Jorge Costa to teach the others what a club is, what spirit of sacrifice is and what the will to win is. Now, as he's retired, Jorge Costa has received all the praise in the world, and now that the FC Porto captain is a foreigner [Lucho Gonzalez] who arrived last year, the voice of inspiration and command for the youngsters that play in blue and white is Baía, even when he's sat on the subs' bench!
[courtesy Miguel Sousa Tavares]
17/10/06
1 - At 20.45 Central European Time today, 19.45 in Portugal, Benfica and FC Porto will be able to get a better idea of what's in store for them from their European seasons 2006/07. Defeat in their
respective games will mean, almost inevitably, the prospect of being limited to fighting merely for third place in their groups and the consolation prize of access to the UEFA Cup — in the case of FC Porto, even
that will be difficult. In case of victory, Benfica will have a reasonable chance of getting one of the top two spots in the group, which will mean they go through. FC Porto can only really be interested in victory,
which will guarantee no more than a chance to fight for second place, depending also on an Arsenal victory over CSKA for their hopes to be more than just mathematical. A draw wouldn't be bad for Benfica as they're
playing in Glasgow against a direct rival for second place, but for FC Porto it would mean the end of any illusion. Experience shows that beginning the Champions League at home is an advantage if you don't let
victory slip through your fingers; if you do, it almost always means missing out on qualification. FC Porto's draw in their opening game against CSKA felt like a pre-sentence of death, and from then on, the team was
obliged to run to catch up, trying not to drop any more points at home and trying to recoup away what they lost in the first game. That's why today's game is a matter of life and death for Portistas: anything
but victory against Hamburg will leave us in the intensive care unit. As for Benfica, in the event of a defeat against Celtic, they may yet regret, as I predicted at the time, the two points dropped in Copenhagen,
in a game which was perfectly within their reach, but in which they merely played for a draw.
Sporting's situation is better, and will go from comfortable to excellent if they have the skill and courage tomorrow
to get past Bayern in Alvalade.
2 – It's to be noted that we had yet another jornada without refereeing controversy in games involving the grandes, which is always to be applauded. In fact, it's been five jornadas since there has been a controversial decision in games involving FC Porto and Benfica. Only Sporting have had two mistakes that have had a direct influence on the result – one in their favour, one against. All in all, the balance of these five jornadas is abnormally positive. May it continue that way!
I didn't see Benfica's game in Leiria, which they tell me was the best that they have played in ages. I saw bits of the second half of Sporting in Estoril, which seemed to have been played scientifically for
the result, against a team that is more than banal [Estrela da Amadora]. I obviously saw the whole of the FC Porto game. I saw Postiga score two excellent goals, which, I have to sincerely admit, surprises me: I was
used to a Hélder Postiga capable of spending entire games running away from the striker's area of operation and never risking a shot at goal. Is it possible that a player can recover from four years of frustration?
I hope so! I also saw the symbolic return of Bruno Morães, whose 50 minutes played in a friendly in Holland left me thinking that here was the only reliable striker in the FC Porto squad, if anyone could solve the
mystery of his permanent physical problems. Finally, I saw yet another exuberant exhibition from that lad Anderson, a prodigy like I haven't seen in Portuguese stadiums for a very long time, and I saw yet another
muted performance from Quaresma and Lucho, both unrecognisable this season. And, may Jesualdo Ferreira forgive me, but I still can't see any idea or strategy thought through in FC Porto's play; it looks like the
players don't know what they have to do at any given moment of the game.
3 – Truly terrifying were the financial results for the year 2005/06 presented by FC Porto SAD (Sociedade Anónima Desportiva):
a 30.4 million loss. Even more terrifying were the reasons given for this operating deficit: being knocked out in the first phase of the Champions League and the option not to sell any of the top players (which is
not quite correct, seeing as how the club did sell McCarthy and Diego and only bought second or third-raters). It's frightening because this means that FC Porto SAD admits that it can only balance the books, or at
least minimise the losses, via extraordinary income, which it hopes to make every year. In other words, just like the country, FC Porto is living on what it doesn't have, above its means. But while the country is
starting to react and the main objective of economic policy today is to reduce the balance of payments deficit until equilibrium is reached, FC Porto continues to count on the extraordinary sale of assets or
sporting success to be able to continue to spend what it spends on the rest. Apparently, FC Porto is only financially viable if it manages to win the Champions League or to sell a player for millions. The only thing
is that you don't win a Champions League every ten years, and a Deco or Anderson doesn't come along every five years. In fact, the two are incompatible: you can't win a Champions League without a Deco or an
Anderson. You'll say that you can first win with them, and then sell them. Yes, you can: but to win the lottery twice, you have to buy the winning tickets after the draw.
4 – It's always the same: first
you spend the whole mandate campaigning for the next one and fostering a personality cult, to such an extreme and ridiculous extent that only you can't see it; then you constantly threaten to resign so that they
organise dinners and movements of support for you; you repeat ad nauseum that the club mustn't be handed over to adventurers and ambitious types, and it's only because of that that you don't leave, as is your wish; finally, after thus dehydrating all around you and achieving the sad quality of single candidate, you start panicking because you realise suddenly that the response of the electorate to such an exciting battle may be an uncomfortable abstention. Democracy can certainly be annoying. [Campaign of Benfica president Luís Felipe Vieira for re-election]
[courtesy Miguel Sousa Tavares]
10/10/06
Taking advantage of this break in domestic football [international matches], here's my first analysis of FC Porto's start to the season — on the sporting front and others — following and commenting on the
themes addressed by Pinto da Costa [FC Porto president] in the long interview he gave yesterday to the sports daily O Jogo, breaking months of silence.
The two consecutive defeats, in London and Braga, were also viewed with concern by the Porto president. Especially the second, about which he allowed himself rare criticism of the team's lack of
attitude, saying that it won't happen again. In fact, there was indeed a lack of ambition and attitude, but they weren't the only factors behind the defeats. In both games, particularly against Arsenal, the team
also showed that it lacks quality players in some key positions and the coach himself committed beginner's mistakes in both cases: in London, changing the usual system to reinforce defensive capability, and in
Braga, trying out Anderson on the right wing — both experiments failing.
The hiring of Jesualdo Ferreira
for just one season, and after paying a million euros compensation to Boavista, was not explained by Pinto da Costa. Nor was the fact of an agent being necessary to negotiate with Boavista, instead of negotiating directly.
Co Adriaanse's behaviour
may have surprised everyone, as Pinto da Costa says, but it was within the logic of his normal behaviour, which was always far from logical and really rather tempestuous and unbalanced. Only the Porto president seems to have missed this.
The release of players, imposed by Co Adriaanse and accepted by Pinto da Costa, was bound to be a mistake — particularly that of McCarthy and Hugo Almeida, when the club was looking for a striker and
could find no one (while we're at it, it's a mystery how Hesselink would have cost FC Porto eight million and only cost Celtic five).
The transfers of Anderson
and the others that the club received offers for in the close season (Quaresma, Lucho and Helton — see how those interested in them aren't stupid and only want the best...), are for the moment suspended, according to the Porto president, which explains well why it would be a mistake, for the club and the players, to sell them too soon. Regarding the jewel in the crown, Anderson, Pinto da Costa denies the idea that I had aired here that FC Porto had recently sold 10 % of his pass. In fact, the club bought another 15% and now holds 85%. This is good news for Portistas. This doesn't prevent him inevitably being sold soon, but at least it will be a better deal.
On players bought
this season, Pinto da Costa doesn't say anything in this interview. But the topic is interesting because if the majority of shareholders are prepared to accept yet another year of "high losses", which will soon be revealed, in return for the club keeping the assets represented by its main marketable players, it's also true that maybe there wouldn't be any losses if there were better management of purchases. I repeat that I don't understand why the club buys a load of players in a season (Paulo Ribeiro, Ezequias, Diogo Valente, Fucile, João Paulo, Tarik) who don't have the value to become first-choice in the team. And I don't understand how it is that, with three left backs in the squad, a player like César Peixoto is released, a player who has proven that he can play as left back and left winger and who has spent a year recovering from injury, and another player, Leandro, is kept on loan in Brazil, with the club paying part of his salary … and then, after letting these two go, the club goes and buys ... Ezequias.
Dynamo Moscow's debts, which I think is the first time that they've been mentioned by Pinto da Costa, is also a topic for concern. FC Porto sold to Dynamo, Costinha, Maniche, Derlei and Seitaridis.
Apparently, he sold them without guarantee of payment and he sold to the Russians again even after Dynamo failed on the first payments. Meanwhile, Dynamo have sold Costinha and Maniche on to Atlético Madrid, and you
have to ask if these two are now paid for or if Dynamo made money out of players that they didn't pay for without FC Porto having guaranteed their right to redress in relation to Atlético de Madrid. The complaint to
FIFA does not in itself guarantee payment and the poor performances of the Portuguese players for Dynamo can't really motivate the Russians to pay their debts.
On Apito Dourado
['Golden Whistle' – the investigation into the bribing of referees] Pinto da Costa says that, of the 11 possible proceedings against him, nine have been filed without them even being heard, which means that the Public Attorney magistrates found that there weren't enough grounds for proceedings. There are, then, two left. And all the documentation on Apito Dourado still has to be seen, the transcription of all the phone taps and the defence have to be heard, to see if there are criminal or just disciplinary grounds for proceeding, if there is corruption or merely trading in influence, if it was all organized and almost generalised cheating or the typically shabby Portuguese trick of 'I know a man who knows a man', centred on the figurehead of 'major' Valentim Loureiro [former Liga president].
This is the FC Porto universe of today, reviewed by its president and with my comments. It's clear that the golden days of Mourinho will not return as quickly as all that. It's clear, unfortunately, that the
financial situation is bad and that no advantage was taken of the exceptional profits made in the golden years of 2003 and 2004. It's a time of transition, to try to consolidate domestic supremacy, without great
European triumphs. When, with just two games played in the Champions League, Pinto da Costa himself says that the minimum objective is qualification for the UEFA Cup, the dreams can't be what they were just a short
time ago.
[courtesy Miguel Sousa Tavares]
|
