This week the podcast has two parts. First we review the weekend’s games from the 13th Jornada. There were a couple of surprising results, with Benfica and Braga both dropping points. On the other hand, Porto go from strength to strength, wiping the floor with Atlético Madrid in midweek and then this weekend showing Vitória de Setúbal some mercy by taking their foot off the gas after 25 minutes. Despite Porto’s improved form, Hulk is still disappointing. It was a bad weekend for the Madeiran teams: both Marítimo and Nacional lost whilst Académica got back to their winning ways, defeating a Leixões team that once again had a player sent off.

In the second part of the podcast, we look at the Swedish players Sporting fancy and the Brazilian players Benfica have the hots for. We also turn to a familiar topic at this time of year: players not getting paid. This year it’s the players of Belenenses who are a pay-cheque or two short at Christmas.

Please keep your comments coming. We’ll be back next week for our opinions on the big Benfica v Porto clássico.

Thanks for listening,

Steve and Phil

In part 1 of the podcast we’ll focus on the teams that went down from the Liga as well as those who came up. Going down are Belenenses, who lost 3-1 at Benfica. Brazillian striker Saulo will take a large share of the blame, needlessly being sent off before half-time with Belenenses level at 1-1. benfica coach Quique Flores did a lap of (dis)honour after the game and was generally applauded by Benfiquistas. Joining Belenenses will be Trofense, losing1-0 away to Paços, whose goalscorer William came back from a long lay-off to score the winner. Coming up from the Liga de Honra will be União de Leiria, who have had a magnificent turn-around this season largely due to their coach, Manuel Fernandes, who took them from 13th in November to 2nd at the end of the season. Going down from the Liga da Honra are Boavista and Gondomar, with Fátima and Chaves replacing them.

In part 2, we concentrate on the festas do título taking place at Olhanense and Porto as the two clubs take their Liga da Honra and Liga crowns, respectively. Olhanense win the prize for most imaginative face paint and hair dye, but Porto have the far bigger celebration, their open-top bus parading through the streets of the city until the early hours.

As mentioned at the beginning and end of the podcast, we want your votes for player of the season 2009 /2010. Please send an e-mail to info@footballportugalpodcast.com, specifying who you think were the top 5 players of the season and in what order. Get your votes in before midday on Monday June 1st and we’ll compile the votes to create a footballportugal Podcast player of the season.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions and receiving your votes.

Steve and Phil

In part 2 we’ll discuss Benfica’s talismanic match-winner Pedro Mantorras, who scored Benfica’s winning goal in their 1-0 victory over Rio Ave, played in atrocious conditions at Estadio da Luz. Finally we’ll discuss some of the latest transfers to take place before the closing of the transfer window.

Please keep the comments coming; it’s great to hear alternative points of view.

Thanks for listening!

Steve and Phil

In part 1 we cover the two big games of the weekend. Firstly we review Sporting’s impressive 1-0 win away to Braga. Both teams look strong but it was a more aggressive and focussed Sporting Clube de Portugal that came away with the three points. João Perreira loses a little of our respect by stamping on João Moutinho’s inner thigh. Moutinho had only just recovered from a ball being blasted at his nether regions moments before the incident, so it wasn’t the greatest of nights for him. Apart from the battle of the Sportings we review Benfica and Porto’s 1-1 draw at the Luz last Saturday. Benfica suffered from a lack of fitness and fingers are pointing at the new Spanish fitness coach, Pako Ayesterán, who seems to have the ideas but not the practice. We’ll give an appraisal of the brilliant Lucho Gonzalez and Steve will apologise for being so hard on Maxi Pereira last season.

In part 2 we’ll look at the other games that were played over the weekend. Belenenses and Paços de Ferreira play out an exciting 2-2 draw which upset the home team and eventually led to the resignation of Belenenses president Fernando Sequeira. We go over the details in full and also talk a little bit about the structure of the club. Nacional’s 2-1 win over Naval mean they put a halt to Porto’s 1007 day dominance on the top spot of the Portuguese Liga and Leixões get back on the winning path with a 2-1 victory away to newbies Trofense.

In part 3 we’ve got a competition, thanks to www.portuguesefootballmemories.com who are going to give a DVD of any Benfica v Porto game of your choice if you can answer the question set at the beginning of Part 3. Send your answer to info@footballportugalpodcast.com. We’ll then look at the transfers that have happened in the Portuguese Liga and with Portuguese players in other parts of Europe before looking forward to Portugal’s upcoming games against Malta and Denmark. We’ll also look at who the Portuguese club sides will be facing in the UEFA Cup and Champions Leage.

Due to the international games and hiatus in the Liga programme, our next podcast won’t be until 22nd September or thereabouts.

Thanks for listening.

In part 1 we analyse last week’s Taça de Portugal semi-finals. Setúbal choke in a packed Bonfim to a ruthless FC Porto, who book their ticket to Jamor with a simpe 3-0 win. The other semi-final was without a doubt the game of the year and probably the game of the decade here in Portugal. Sporting, 2-0 down to Benfica at home, come back to beat their local rivals 5-3. We have a first hand account of the game, the Olés of the Benfiquistas before half-time, Rui Costa’s four letter tirade to Chalana after Di Maria was substituted for Sepsi, Derlei’s touchline hysterics and the never ending limits to Maxi Pereira’s awfulness. We also talk briefly about Karen Jardel.

In Part 2 we look at the various league results of the past seven days. A run of 3 straight defeats means it’s curtains for Manuel Machado at Sporting Braga, who lost 4-1 away to Marítimo last Saturday. The battle for The Champions League spots gets more perverse as the season draws to its end. Guimarães draw away to Académica 0-0, Benfica unsuprisingly lose 2-0 at Porto and the big surprise of the weekend was bottom of the league Leiria’s 4-1 annihilation of Sporting. Benfica make the news for events off the pitch as their President Luís Filipe Vieira starts to fall rapidly out of favour with the Benfiquistas. In the battle at the bottom Leixões draw 0-0 with Amadora and Paços draw 2-2 with Naval. Serious affairs off the pitch at Boavista where a player’s strike is called off at the last minute as the board of directors struggle to find the money to pay the player’s salaries. Not only that, but the Boavista directors get well and truly duped by a so called multi-millionaire, Sergio Silva, who convinces them he can save the club but ends up being interviewed by police for fraud. Finally, we report on the official footballportugal Podcast day out in Belém as we watch Belenenses destroy Setúbal 5-0. Not only was the game amazing but the gossiping Belenenses supporters share all their knowledge with us about the possible future destination of their manager Jorge Jesus.

Finally, in part 3 we give a round up of the possible ups and downs in the Liga Vitalis/Liga da Honra/Second Division.

Keep the comments coming – either leave them here on the site or e-mail us at: info@footballportugalpodcast.com

Thanks for listening.

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This podcast has now been removed

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