Embarassment of News Riches and Jornada 3 Preview

By: Greg | August 31st, 2007

gal I love being in season. I don’t mean like oysters or soft shell crab in season. I mean in football season. This means that I don’t have to put together a Frommer’s travel guide to Coimbra or a top ten list of local Churrascarias in order to get by on a slow news day. The problem I have now is covering everything and giving it all proper justice. Since it’s the Friday before Labor Day weekend (a 3 day weekend for us in Les États-Unis d’Amérique), I’m really not in work mode. Therefore, I’ve gotten my work for the day pretty much out of the way and I’m ready to cover all that I can within reason for my elite eight readers.

Last Gasp Transfer Bits — Being that today is the last day for transfers, I’m sure everything from Chelsea signing Ronaldinho, Messi, and Eto’o in a package deal to SpiderMan playing in net for Man United will be thrown around. The only rumor which has come out and actually interested me is Ricardo Quaresma to Chelsea. “Das spezielle” has already said that his training room door and checkbook are closed and that the only movement Chelsea will have at this point is someone leaving. Given the Glen Johnson to Pompey deal this morning, I’d say that if you take Mourinho at his word, Chelsea are now set in their 07/08 Squad of Siberian-bought Stars. I personally think that taking on Quaresma without a midfielder/winger going out would be overkill. SWP is always a transfer rumor target and there is recent word of Joe Cole and Mourinho having a “bust up” (easily the lamest way that Brits call a “fight” or “argument”) over Cole’s perceived lack of playing time. The Quaresma rumor could be born out of the fact that if Cole were to be on his way out, that would essentially create a space for Ricky. I’d love to have Quaresma on my Chels, but not at the expense of a bad ass like Joe Cole. At the expense of SWP, sure, but not for a guy like Cole who’s playing for the team he supported as a boy and has a certain fire in his eyes that doesn’t come around all too often. That’s enough Chelsea talk disguised as reporting a Quaresma rumor, let’s move on…

UEFA Cup Draws Are Out — While there’s still eighty frigging teams left, it’s nice to have four Chops in the mix. The format at this stage is a home and away tie which will then produce the forty clubs for eight groups of five. The top three teams from each group are then thrown in with the eight third place teams from the Champions League and a thirty-two team knock out tournament commences through to the finals. As you can see, there’s PLENTY of football to play before we can get excited about the prospects of U.d.Leiria, Belenenses, Braga, or Paços de Ferreira having an impact in the complexion of the tournament’s run up to the finals. U.d Leiria have drawn Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany), Pacos de Ferreira are paired with AZ (Netherlands), Braga have Swedish side Hammarby, and Belenenses were lucky enough to pull Bayern Munich (Germany) out of the hat. Braga are always fantastic in European competition, and should consequently handle the Code of Hammarby rather, umm, handily. The other three sides all have their work cut out for them and you can basically send a Dady-less Belenenses to the guillotine given the fact that they’ve got Bayern Munich staring across the table at them. Paços de Ferreira showed great promise last season but have gotten off to a relatively disappointing domestic start taking one point from two matches and not looking particularly sharp. Paços probably have the best shot of the “other three Portuguese teams” in this draw with U.d.Leiria facing the daunting prospect of Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Regardless of how they do (and regardless of the diatribe I’m going to go on later in this blog), Portuguese football should be proud that almost half of the league’s teams (there are 7 total in European competition, 8 would be half) are involved in these prestigious tournaments.

Hot Chicks of the Week — This probably will not become a weekly segment, but while I was perusing the O Jogo site, I remembered that they always have hot broads (’broads’ is in no way sexist, it’s actually quite the term of endearment du jour!) on their print rag. So I decided to click on it and check out these two lovely ladies and what they have to bring to the world of football (probably nothing other than hotness). The picture may be NSFW, which is a moot point right now since you probably already clicked on it back up there… Bonus: Click on Stephanie and Sara’s picture for past covers and even more ‘insight’ into the beautiful game.

Jornada 3 Preview and FixtureFacts 2.0 — The match of the week is probably Sporting v Belenenses. Benfica will be looking for their first win of the season against Nacional, and Porto have U.d.Leiria to deal with. Here’s a rundown of the rest of what we’re looking at this weekend:

-=Jornada 3=- All Times Eastern (Club’s home stadium in parenthesis, much like this information)

Friday, August 31 @ 4:30 PM — Leixões (Estádio do Mar) v. V.Guimarães (Estádio D. Afonso Henriques)

Saturday, September 1 @ 1:45 PM — Braga (Estádio Municipal de Braga) v. E.d.Amadora (Estádio José Gomes)
Saturday, September 1 @ 3:45 PM — Paços de Ferreira (Estádio da Mata Real) v. Boavista (Estádio do Bessa Sec. XXI)

Sunday, September 2 @ 11:00 AM — Top o’ the Table Marítimo (Estádio dos Barreiros) v. Bottom o’ the Table Académica (Estádio Cidade de Coimbra)
Sunday, September 2 @ 11:00 AM — Naval (Estádio Municipal José Bento Pessoa) v. V.Setúbal (Estádio do Bonfim)
Sunday, September 2 @ 2:45 PM — *Match of the Week* — Sporting (Estádio José Alvalade) v. Belenenses (Estádio do Restelo)
Sunday September 2 @ 4:15 PM — Nacional (Estádio da Madeira) v. Benfica (Estádio da Luz)
Sunday, September 2 @ 4:30 PM — U.d.Leiria (Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa) v. Porto (Estádio do Dragão)

2007 Portuguese Football Sex Symbol Named — And it’s Ricardo Carvalho! No, just kidding. It’s actually me.

It’s Go Time — I was reading through the comments from yesterday’s Champions League analysis and Nelson recorded his sentiments regarding a sad feeling knowing that his beloved Sporting were in a group with Manchester United, AS Roma, and Dynamo Kyiv. I’m sure that the first two clubs upset him the most, but that’s neither here nor there. This made me get to thinking…

Before I go any further I want to preface what I’m about to say by openly admitting that I support Chelsea above all (Sporting are my recently adopted 2nd club of choice). There are no exceptions to this. This fact might make what I’m about to say seem somewhat disingenuous, but it’s not, believe me! In spite of the fact that I’ve supported the Chels since my days as a wee lad (about twenty years total, I’m twenty five) I still get stupid comments from people on the street and other football fans regarding the fact that I support a monster club. No one ever wants to hear that you were there when the club were toiling in mediocrity and going on 30, 40, and finally 50 years until a league title. But I digress. The point I’m trying to make here in perhaps the most circuitous manner is that I support a large club that will almost never be the underdog in its current form. Therefore, for karmic purposes I offer the following outlook and propose the following change for fans of Portuguese sides (as long as you aren’t facing the Blues): Screw these other monster teams. That’s right, I said it: SCREW ‘EM! Portugal has produced some of the most exciting footballers currently taking the pitch (albeit for the monster clubs). Why can’t these teams that have grown the players which other huge clubs covet so much pull off a few upsets here and there with the players that remain? Give me a frigging break! Until it’s proven otherwise, the Portuguese sides have just as much a right to be on the pitch as these other clubs. They ought to play like it.

Like I said after the Armenia debacle last week, PORTUGAL CAN NO LONGER ACT AS THOUGH WE ARE ALWAYS THE UNDERDOG. Even though it may be more the case on the club level, if these squads are to have even a snowball’s chance in hell, they have to play with a flair and swagger that will make these giants stand up and take notice. What is there left to lose? So I say to Nelson and to those in the same boat as my friend, be excited that the road to the finals will be tough. Be excited that the Portuguese sides have a chance to cause the world to stop looking at the league as second rate. Have pride in your team, no matter what the odds! If you stand up and scream for them during league matches, why cower into the corner when big, bad Manchester United or Liverpool come into your house? Get even louder. Talk shit. Do whatever it takes to give your club the energy that’s going to be necessary so we can look at the round of 16 and see all three Portuguese clubs still standing. The same goes for the UEFA Cup teams. It’s no mistake that Portugal are represented seven times over in these tournaments. This statistic is unprecedented. The next level awaits. Pound these teams! Until you play Chelsea, then you can go f’off .

Okay, I’m done with this business for the day. I’ve done my diatribe to try and get you Chop fans riled up and it better frigging work, because I don’t want Chelsea to have to play any of those big teams in the next round. Thank you. Have a great weekend. I love all eight of you. Kisses all around.