Monday Mixtape: Sporting win the SuperCup and A Dady’s Love is So Fickle Sometimes

By: Greg | August 13th, 2007

tape Finally, a decent amount of “stuff” to write about. This must mean that the real season is almost upon us. I put together an old school mixtape for this past weekend’s events that you can listen to while you avoid doing work:

**SuperCup: Sporting 1 – 0 FC Porto — In a game wrought with teams who looked like they were simply lightly probing one another (you’re sick!) for the majority of the match, Marat Izmailov (aka Nani’s Russian replacement) managed to absolutely SMOKE Porto keeper Helton in the 75th minute with a shot from about 32 yards out, thus marking the only breakthrough. Porto looked the more dominating side for periods, with shots hitting the posts a number of times. I don’t recall exactly how many, but if I had to guess, I’d say that Porto probably hit the woodwork around 2-3 times with shots that had gone begging. All in all, it was an exhibition game that’s got a trophy attached to it, so it really doesn’t mean too much. Especially since the two teams are set to meet in about two weeks for the 2nd round of the BWINLiga, a game that WILL carry larger implications.

**Your Dady’s leaving because he doesn’t love you anymore — Belenenses striker Dady, who finished second in league goals last year, apparently now wants out. This should do wonders for my prediction of him as the league’s leading scorer, which I figured would then push O Belem into the upper echelon of the BWINLiga this year. Here’s another case of a player in the Portuguese league who wants to go play elsewhere (namely Spain) for a markedly worse team. Belenenses are in the UEFA Cup this year, while Osasuna are not figuring in any European competitions. Osasuna finished 4th in 05/06 but are usually well entrenched in the bottom half of the Spanish Liga table. They have offered the 3.5 million Euros required to buy Dady out of his contract, but Belenenses reportedly want 5 million. I’m surprised that other teams haven’t begun offering to buy snack stands from Portuguese stadiums at this point, I mean, that is the next logical step.

**Quick Notes — Everton have proposed to buy the remaining 50% of Manuel Fernandes’ contract from Benfica. Fernandes has been left out of the squad for tomorrow’s Champions League qualifier tie with FC Copenhagen. Nani saw some first team action on Sunday in ManU’s tie with Reading, 0-0. Wayne Rooney’s first half foot injury opened the door for the former Sporting player, and given the present diagnosis, Nani may see more of the pasture than originally thought this year.

Damn, it feels good to have the season back.