Welcome to our bandwidth busting 10th podcast running at an almighty 53 minutes, everyone of which is jam packed with all the latest news and views about the current happenings in Portuguese football alongside some idle chatter about which Brazilian players are the prettiest.
In Part 1 we celebrate Boavista’s 2-3 victory at Belenenses and discuss whether Jorge Ribeiro’s current form is good enough to sneak him into the first 11 of the Portuguese national team, maybe at the expense of his more famous, older and fatter brother Maniche. Sporting go back to their normal habit of losing, going down 0-2 at Guimarães whose chances of European football next season seem assured whilst Sporting’s are looking ever more precarious. Porto win as ever and somewhere in the podcast we might mention that José Antonio Camacho has left Benfica. We’ll have an analysis of why Camacho left and also review the names already being bandied about as possible replacements, like Fatih Terim, “The Turkish Option”.
In Part 2 we review the mixed fortunes of the Portuguese teams in Europe. Large sighs of despair as Porto’s target men miss their chances and the team go crashing out on penalties against Schalke 04. Sporting produce an impressive display away at Bolton and Oscar Cardozo proves that for every sweet left foot there is a sour right elbow.
Finally, in part 3 we look at the budgets of Portuguese clubs in the Liga BWin, which go to show just how excellent a job Carlos Carvalhal is doing at Vítoria de Setúbal and why he may well be the next foolhardy manager to warm the Benfica hotseat.
This being our 10th podcast, we’d like to thank all of you that have discovered us, bookmarked us in your favourites or subscribed to one of our RSS feeds. We’d like to give a special thanks to any of you who may have mentioned us in football messageboards or on blogs, your support is greatfully appreciated.
Contact us by email at info@footballportugalpodcast.com or by leaving a message on the site. We always want your questions, even if sometimes we take a bit too long to answer them!
Thank-you for listening.
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This podcast has now been removed
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Apart from pfutebol.com, are there any other websites you’d recommend?
Well, Phil’s website http://www.footballportugal.com.pt/ is obviously excellent. Recently I discovered a page maintained by Jase at SoccerPulse which is a fantastically comprehensive listing of almost all sites containing information about Portuguese football, the link is http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=141357 however, many of the sites are in Portuguese.
Cheers. I was amazed by the stats of how much moneythe bottom teams
in the league have.I wonder how it compares with other leagues in Europe, not to mention how far you’d have to go in the English football pyramid to find a club with a 1 million pound budget.
On Ronaldo, interesting observation that he’s universally loved in England now, hmmm! How do his look at me goal celebrations go down in Portugal – find them obnoxious myself.
A thoroughly enjoyable listen. Apologies if you’ve previously answered this, but what is the music you use?
The song is called “Isto é Que é Bom” and it’s by a singer called Florinda Maria. It’s taken from a second hand LP called “4 Vozes do Fado” (4 voices of Fado) which I bought from Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market) in Lisbon. It’s a popular folk song and the record label it was released on is no longer in existence, so I don’t think we’re breaking any publishing laws but if Florinda happens to be reading this, we love the song and hope she doesn’t mind us using it.
“On Ronaldo, interesting observation that he’s universally loved in England now, hmmm! How do his look at me goal celebrations go down in Portugal – find them obnoxious myself.”
I quite like Ronaldo’s celebrations, he never hides his emotion for a goal even if he is being slightly arrogant. I loved his celebration at the weekend with his goal against Derby, the man is a natural show off and without wishing to generalise, the Portuguese really like to show off, whether it’s with fancy tricks on the field, looking good at the beach or driving an extraordinarily expensive car that is way beyond their finances (as most people in Lisbon seem to do) public appearance seems very important to many Portuguese. What I like about Ronaldo is that it’s obvious he cares, compare his celebrations with those of Thierry Henry, where Henry would make the gesture as if the goal meant nothing to him. Give me a million show-off Ronaldos any day.
Your point about a English teams on a similar budget to Portuguese teams is an excellent one. When you see teams in the Liga BWin outside the top 5 or 6 you realise that in terms of facilities they aren’t much different to a full-time non-league team.
Yes, when I went to see Boavista a few years ago I was shocked that the crowd was only 4,000 (in a 30,000 stadium). I couldn’t understand how the second team in Portugals’ second city could attract crowds similar to that in league 2 (the 4th division) in England.
As for Ronaldo, I don’t agree he’s “universally loved in England”, respected, yes, for his goal scoring record but definately not loved (unless you’re a Man U fan).