Carlsberg Cup Indifference Fest

By: Greg | October 22nd, 2007

spmm Give me a moment and clear your mind completely. Don’t just clear your mind a-la Ray Stantz, do me a favor and really give it a good mental douching since I don’t want to be held responsible for any 100 foot tall marshmallow men.

Now, keeping in mind the fact Porto have lost only once in the last two months, I’m about to list for you five teams. I want you to pick out the team that actually managed to defeat this season’s inevitable league champions. Ready? Go: Liverpool (A top club in English Premier League and group stages of Champions League), Sporting (2nd in Portuguese Liga and group stages of Champions League), Braga (Top 1/2 of Portuguese Liga and UEFA Cup), Fatima (Portuguese 2nd League Liga Vitalis), and Beşiktaş (A top club in Turkish League and group stages of Champions League). Did you find our lady of Fatima among those larger teams? If you did, and picked them, you win today’s prize: my entire year’s salary from The Offside.

All bullshit aside, the fact that Porto marched out a skeleton squad and lost to lower level Fatima (on penalties) combined with the fact that Sporting lost (again not exactly their first team squad on the pitch at the opening whistle) at home to Fatima 2-1 in the first leg of the current round of the Carlsberg Cup just goes to show that “better clubs” don’t care about these tournaments. Well… that’s not really fair. They care, but not enough. Why? The ultimate prize here (aside from the fantastic sterling silver hydration vessel) is that you qualify for the first round of the UEFA Cup. Big. Fucking. Deal.

Consider that Porto are seven points clear of Sporting at the top of the league. They’re seriously challenging for a top seed in the knockout stages of this year’s Champions League. Do you actually think Jesualdo and Co. are going to throw everything they’ve got at a chance to play in the first round of the UEFA Cup? My local Sunday pick up team almost qualified for this round of the tournament. And we don’t even play in Europe! We play in NEW JERSEY!

The point here, obviously, is that with a Champions League tie in Rome looming tomorrow, Sporting could nary afford to spend any serious energy against Fatima in a tournament with essentially no history and no desirable award. Therefore, an upset can always be on the cards. It certainly wasn’t expected at home against a second league team. However, it’s not the end of the world. Staring down the barrel at Totti and Co. seems like it’s something a bit more pressing than Fatima’s Cicero and Falardo. Hopefully they’ve conserved enough legs and mental energy in gifting Fatima a win to allow them to pull some form of pointage from their trip to the Stad-Stad-Staddy-o Olimpico tomorrow. Check here tomorrow for a preview of that game. Until then, eat your vegetables, take your vitamins, and have your cat spayed or neutered. Kisses ALL AROUND!!