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footballportugal Podcast – 21/12/09

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Welcome to our Christmas, New Year, last of 2009 and last of the noughties footballportugal podcast special! With 3 special parts, each more festive than the one before.

In Part 1 we concentrate on one of the most special Portuguese football fixtures of the year: the Benfica v Porto clássico. As ever, it was a tight game, fought tooth and nail between the two rivals, but the result was a little different from normal: Benfica won! It was their first victory (1-0) in this fixture for 4 years, the winner scored by Saviola.

In Part 2 we focus on all the other games in the league this weekend, which weren’t quite as special as the clássico but which all had their interest. Nacional fought Académica and fog to win 4-3 in a game which was delayed for a total of over 55 minutes. Braga failed to impress against Paços, but still got the three points. And Sporting narrowly beat Naval in a game that was so awful it was perhaps … special.  Setúbal beat Marítmo with two goals from Keita, who looks a bit special. And Belenenses manager João Carlos Pereira was sacked after Belenenses lost 0-1 in a tight game away to Leiria. You can’t be feeling very special if you lose your job just before Christmas, so our best wishes go out to Pereira, who comes across as being quite a nice chap.

In part 3 we concentrate on “bits and bobs” as Phil likes to call them [edit: Thanks, Steve ...]. The bits are reports from the lower leagues and news on clubs in crisis, like Atlético de Valdevez and Boavista. The bobs are our mid-season awards, including player of the year so far, best buy, worst buy, most impressive team and most disappointing team.

Please let us know your opinions, especially regarding the mid-season awards we gave. We both hope you have a very special Christmas and an even more special New Year.

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 23/11/09

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

A two-part podcast after a week’s break, focussing on the past weekend’s Taça de Portugal fourth round ties and Portugal’s successful World Cup play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In the Taça, Sporting’s new manager Carlos Carvalhal got a victory from his first game in charge of the Leões, but only after quite a scare as their opponents, Pescadores da Costa de Caparica, went into the break with a 1-0 lead. Sporting’s Lisbon rivals Benfica were dumped out of the Cup at home to Vitória de Guimarães thanks to a goal from Gustavo Lazaretti. There were other shock exits, too, with Leiria, Leixões and Académica all being defeated by lower league opposition.

In part 2, we talk about Portugal and Bosnia-Herzegovina. We ask just where Raul Meireles found his form after playing so poorly all season, and why did the Bosnian football authorities show such disrespect to Portugal?

Please let us know your thoughts about the podcast and give us your predictions for this weekend’s Lisbon clássico (Sporting v Benfica).

Thanks for listening,

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 02/11/09

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

On October 27th 2009 at 7:32pm, Steve posted the following comment,

“I’m also thinking about putting some money on Benfica to beat Braga with a 4 goal handicap if I can find good enough odds. Anybody else believe Benfica will wipe the floor with Braga next weekend?”

Oh, what a hopeless fool I can be sometimes. In the end, it was Braga wiping the floor with Benfica and the possibility of Benfica beating Braga by 4 clear goals seems as remote as Jorge Ribeiro getting another call-up for Portugal’s World Cup squad.

In this week’s podcast we focus on the fortunes of the big teams in Portugal. We say “big teams” because it’s hard to call Benfica, Sporting and Porto “Grandes” with Braga being so dominant right now. Then in part 2 we focus on the other teams in the league, Pecnik shines for Nacional, Kerrouche scores yet again for Naval and it’s two wins out of two for new Leiria coach Lito Vidigal. We also give the results of the Makers of Electrical Appliances First XI.

Thanks for all of your contributions over the last week and we’re sorry if we forgot any names when passing on the opinions of our listeners! Keep the comments coming and we’ll be back next week.

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 28/10/09

Wednesday, October 28th, 2009

A three part, fifty minute plus podcastão this week because we can’t stop talking about Portuguese football in English, or soccer, or futebol, or whatever.

In part 1 we concentrate on the teams who played games with new managers last weekend, there were 5 games in total in which managers served their debuts for their new teams. Our favourite game involved Manuel Fernandes, moving from Leiria to Setúbal where his new team beat Leixões 1-0 in a highly entertaining game. His old team, Leiria are now managed by Lito Vidigal and they beat Naval 2-0. Marítimo played against Paços, a game featuring two new managers which the home side won 3-1. Ex-Paços manager Paulo Sergio’s new team, Guimarães, played well in a 1-1 draw with Sporting who are looking severely lacklustre. Finally we analyse André Vilas Boas’ debut in charge Acádemica, who put in a fine performance but lost 3-2 away at Porto, who are being described as the worst Porto team in a decade.

Part 2 is dedicated to teams with more stable management structures, Braga dropped points for the first time away at Rio Ave and Benfica thrash their opposition yet again, this time Nacional 6-1. The game had a fantastic performance from Fábio Coentrão in the unconventional position of left-back, leaving observers to wonder just what his future holds if he decides to maintain this position permanently.

Finally, in part 3 we talk about Portugal’s strange ticketing procedure for the World Cup play-off game, the Taça de Portugal draw and we invite listeners to help us form the Makers of Electrical Appliances 11. We’ve got Jean Sony of Leixões playing on the right flank and Cassio of Paços between the sticks, are there any other players from the world of football to complete the team?

Please keep the comments coming, give your electrical appliance maker suggestions and we hope you enjoy the podcast.

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 07/10/09

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

Another midweek podcast before a two week tense international break. This week’s podcast comes in 3 parts:

Part 1 – Are there still 3 “grandes” in Portugal? With Sporting lacking funds and their supporters deserting them and those who remain spending all their time booing them, can we still consider them as one of the big teams in Portugal? Whilst they struggle to draw at home with Belenenses, their neighbours Benfica are making mincemeat of Paços de Ferreira and Porto are easing their way past Olhanense. 10 points in front of Sporting are another Sporting, this one being Sporting Braga, who beat Setúbal 2-0 at home with an impressive display from Hugo Viana. Nacional climb up the table beating Guimarães 2-0 thanks to two penalties from Edgar and an impressive performance from Ruben Micael. The defeat leaves Guimarães manager Nelo Vingado out of a job, the sixth manager to be sacked so far this season. Also, Naval’s Kerrouche scores his forth goal in two games.

In part 2 we analyse the “Benfica Stars Fund” and also talk about the amount of players Porto loan to other teams in Portugal.

Finally in part 3 we preview Portugal’s vital games against Hungary and Malta and also talk about our visit to Atletico Clube de Portugal.

Keep the comments coming and we’ll be back in two weeks time.

Steve and Phil

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