There were some big games this weekend, none more so than Braga’s 5th consecutive victory over the tetracampeões FC Porto. Permanently on-loan Portista Alan got the vital and rather fluky goal that won the game. At the bottom of the league, there was an early season relegation six-pointer which permanently-managerless Setúbal amazingly won against a Naval side whose chicotada psicológica (check the glossary) must have left a lot to be desired. The other big game, on one of Portugal’s islands, was the Madeiran derby between Nacional and Marítimo, whose manager Carlos Carvalhal must be feeling the heat after his side failed to beat a Nacional team down to ten men for the whole of the second half.

In part 2 we review Leixões’ first victory of the season against Guimarães whilst covering the young Leixões striker Tiago Cintra with plaudits; he really does look good and is Portuguese! There were two boring 1-1 draws, and we skate over them before talking about Benfica’s victory over Leiria – possibly fortuitous depending on whether you think Benfica deserved the penalty which won them the game. Here’s FIFA’s rule on “Dangerous Play”,

Playing in a dangerous manner is any action that, while trying to play the ball, threatens damage or harm to someone (including the player himself). It is committed with an opponent nearby and prevents the opponent from playing the ball for fear of injury. The action becomes an offence only when an opponent or the player himself is affected.  Playing in a dangerous manner involves no physical contact between the players. If there is a physical contact, the offence becomes a careless, reckless or excessive force offence punishable with a direct free kick or penalty kick.

Finally, in Part 3 we give you an update on the new direction the ‘Apito Dourado’ (Golden Whistle) scandal has taken and we talk a little bit about next weekend’s Portuguese general elections.

Keep the comments coming, spread word of the podcast far and wide, and thanks for listening.

Steve and Phil

Braga maintain their 100% record with a hard fought but impressive victory away at Maritímo. Benfica are looking amazing, thrashing all comers and scoring 4 away at Belenenses at a Benfiquista packed Restello. Porto overcome a weak Leixões, Hulk returning to score a penalty but without Lucho Gonzalez, they still don’t look a cohesive unit. Rio Ave are the suprise team of the season so far, getting a good win over Nacional who seemed to be concentrating more on their Europa Cup fixture against Werder Bremem. Sporting got a good win against tricky oppoistion Paços de Ferriera, Liedson resolving once again. The two promoted teams both won, Leiria heaping the misery on Setúbal fans, their team has conceded 12 goals in 2 games and Olhanense beat Académica despite being reduced to 9 men. Guimarães recorded their first win of the season with a comfortable 3-0 victory at home to managerless Naval.

Keep your comments coming and let us know whether you agree or disagree with our opinions. Apologies for our time spent on beaches in Italy or pubs in England, but we’re back and 100% podcast-focussed, so any comments will be replied to with the greatest of promptness!

Thanks for listening,
Steve and Phil

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

In part 2 we report on the problems at Vitória de Guimarães, whose likeable manager, Manuel Cajuda, seems to be under pressure following the 0-1 home defeat to plucky Trofense. One manager whose time is up is Marítimo’s Brazilian Lori Sandri, who, despite guiding the Madeiran team to just outside the UEFA qualification places, is not deemed good enough by the Marítimo president following his team’s 3-1 defeat at Academica.

Along with the reviews of the rest of the weekend’s games, we touch on the main topic of conversation in Portuguese football right now: Liedson’s probable Portuguese naturalisation and the subsequent availability for the Portuguese national team. Will the Brazilian be able to resolve Carlos Queiros’ striker headaches?

Please keep the comments coming, especially your opinions regarding Liedson … and any corrections regarding who Paulo Bento played for in Spain will be gratefully accepted.

Thanks for listening,

Steve and Phil

Porto’s misery at the weekend only built upon the despair felt by the Portistas who witnessed their side’s first home defeat (0-1) in 20 Champions League games against Dynamo Kiev last Tuesday. Despite Porto’s failure, it was a great week for Portuguese teams in Europe, with victories for Sporting and Sporting Braga, and Benfica came home from Berlin happy to take a point which could have been three were it not for a terrible tactical decision by Quique Flores, replacing the effective Katsouranis with the ineffective Carlos Martins in the 71st minute of the 1-1 draw, inviting Hertha Berlin to score the equaliser. This will all be discussed in part 2 along with our reaction to Portsmouth’s sour grapes after being royally whipped by Braga in the UEFA Cup.

Finally, in part 3 we give an update on Vitória the eagle’s bid for freedom from the Luz, on Nacional’s old lady claque, and a blow by blow account of each stone thrown (allegedly) at Cristian Rodrigues’ car by the Porto claque Super Dragões last Saturday night.

Keep in touch! Please leave your comments; we know you’re out there and listening so please let us know what you think of the podcast or what’s happening in the Portuguese league right now. Leave your messages on the comments section of the site, or e-mail us at info@footballportugalpodcast.com

Thanks for listening!

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 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.

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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