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footballportugal Podcast – 25/05/09

Monday, May 25th, 2009

It’s the last weekend of league football in Portugal and the penultimate podcast of the 2009/2010 season; Phil’s kept the tears at bay to make it following Boavista’s shock descent into the dark depths of the Portuguese third tier.

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

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footballportugal Podcast – 18/05/09

Monday, May 18th, 2009

It’s a big fight special on this week’s podcast as we focus on the various battles taking place in Portuguese league football.

Jorge Jesus is the cherry on the cake that nobody is willing to share. The current Braga manager is rumoured to be moving to Benfica at the end of the season, but the speckle-haired manager is refusing to say anything. Other sources are suggesting he is being groomed to be a future manager of FC Porto and there are even suggestions that he will move to Sporting, the team he is allegedly a lifelong supporter of.

At the bottom of the Liga, the fight for relegation will go down to the wire with Belenenses beating fellow relegation fighters Rio Ave and Trofense and Setúbal both losing. If Setúbal and Rio Ave win their games next weekend, they’ll be safe, while Belenenses and Trofense have to win and hope that results go their way in other games.

In the Liga Vitalis, Algarve team Olhanense gain promotion to the top flight. The other place will be decided next week between União de Leiria and Santa Clara. Down at the bottom, Boavista breathe easier with a 1-2 win at Estoril, a game attended by Steve and Phil. The two teams above Boavista, Gondomar and Oliveirense, both lost. So, as long as Boavista beat Sporting Covilhã next week, they’ll be safe.

Please let us know your thoughts on this week’s podcast by leaving a comment on the site.

Thanks for listening,

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 16/03/09

Monday, March 16th, 2009

With the quality of Portuguese football being severely questioned in the wake of Sporting’s 12-1 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, we spend the first part of this week’s podcast asking how it was all possible and who was to blame. We bring you up to date on the reactions in the press and of sportinguistas, some of whom were incensed enough to send a death threat to certain people at the club. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom; both Braga and Porto demonstrated that Portuguese domestic football is alive and well, with Porto going through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League and Braga earning a well-deserved draw away in the first leg of their UEFA Cup last 16 tie against PSG.

In part two we focus on the Liga. Benfica’s first home defeat of the season, at the hands of Vitória de Guimarães, has more or less handed the title to Porto. Sporting are now a point ahead of Benfica but 4 points behind Porto and statistics suggest that they’ll have to make history to catch up with the Dragões. Braga drop not only points but their faith in facsimile communication and life in next season’s Liga Vitalis is increasingly becoming a possibility for Trofense and Belenenses. On top of all this, we tell you about Portugal’s B-Team, predict the winner of next weekend’s Carlsberg Cup and discuss whether Quique Flores likes to get lost on his way to Benfica’s training ground.

Keep the comments coming. We’ll be with you again next week.

Thanks for listening,

Steve and Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – 26/01/09

Monday, January 26th, 2009

With 15 games played, we reach the end of the primeira volta of the Portuguese Liga season and, surprise surprise, FC Porto are in first place after beating Braga 0-2. Braga file a complaint for the second week running after three clear penalties were overlooked by the referee, Paulo Costa (… although we only remember two of them …).

Poor refereeing is one of the hot topics in the Portuguese media right now and the poor reputation of referees is not helped by the President of the Referees Association, Vítor Pereira, who suggests the Portuguese public should stay away if they are unhappy with the standard of refereeing.

Both Sporting and Benfica would draw away from home at the weekend, Benfica putting in an uninspired display against Belenenses, leaving Quique Flores foaming at the mouth whilst he finds yet another of his players to criticise; this week it’s José Antonio Reyes that Quique can’t trust. Beyond the Big Three, Phil gets all excited about Sougou’s magnificent performance for Academica in their 2-1 victory over Vitória de Guimarães.

In part 2 we’ll tell you about Luís Figo’s movie debut, Barbas‘ new restaurant, A Bola’s vote on the best foreign player currently playing in Portugal, and why 5,000 people went to Boavista’s Bessa stadium, but not to watch Boavista. Also, on the 5th anniversary of his death, we remember the tragic passing of Miklós Fehér.

Do keep the comments coming; it’s great for us to be able to share our opinions after recording the podcast.

Thanks for listening!

Steve & Phil

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footballportugal Podcast – Supertaça & New Season Special

Sunday, August 17th, 2008

Welcome back to another season and another podcast. As regular listeners will have come to expect, this podcast is in three parts and aims to bring you up to date with the new 2008/2009 Portuguese football/soccer season.

In Part 1 we review Sporting’s 2-0 Supertaça victory against FC Porto (the Supertaça is played between last season’s Champions and the Taça de Portugal winners). The best team definitely won, Yannick Djalo scoring both goals to defeat what looked like a very much weakened Porto side still trying to recover from the loss of José Bosingwa and Paulo Assunção. Beyond the two Supertaça finalists, SL Benfica have assembled a group of new and exciting players and finally look a bit organised thanks to the modern techniques of coach Quique Flores. Although they lost last night’s first ever Eusébio Cup to Inter Milan on penalties, the future is certainly looking bright for Benfica.

In Part 2 we look at the outside contenders for the Liga title, Vitória Guimarães and Sporting Braga. Neither team were particulalry impressive in European competition this week, and with Porto’s cold shouldering of Guimarães, the family of Dom Afonso look a lot weaker team than they did last year, and with the addition of Benfica rejects Luis Filipe and Nuno Assis, one can only fear the worst for Guimarães. On the other hand, Braga seem rejuivenated, stealing Portista Alan from their neighbours and rivals and making shrewd signings in Meyong and Eduardo. Alongside the great and somewhat psychotic manager Jorge Jesus, they are definitely the team to watch this season.

In Part 3 we look over Carlos Quieros’ first squad as National Team coach and give our opinions on whether he is the right man for the job.

Please leave any comments you might have via the message function on the site, and if you have any queries about the podcast you need us to answer, contact us by e-mail at info@footballportugalpodcast.com .

Thanks for listening.

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