Porto Challenging Mourinho For Station in Life

By: Greg | October 30th, 2007

sexyfootball Jose Mourinho once said, when referring to the fact that he could have stayed at Porto and lived the easy life, that in Portugal it was “God, and after God, me.” While The Special One still looms large over Portuguese football and the media in general, Porto may have something to say about that #2 spot in the Portuguese spiritual pecking order. As you may have guessed (or set your watch to) Porto won again yesterday.

They defeated newly promoted Leixões 3-0 yesterday and the match never looked close. Lisandro Lopez netted twice, bracing Tarik Sekitoui’s run, dribble, and strike.

In watching this match, I think I’ve figured out a possible explanation for Sekitoui’s game not translating into the same results in the Champions League. I think it’s simply a matter of the defenders being technically that much better in the CL than in the domestic league. Sekitoui’s game relies a lot on his high activity level, neverending motor, and good dribbling skills. The activity level and neverending motor are there, but his dribbling is somewhat neutralized and until he brings some level of dangerous service to his game, he may be forever on the cusp of being an impact player when it comes to higher level competition.

In the other match played yesterday, Braga drew with bottom-halfers Naval. And with that, to the weekly superlatives and score recaps…

V. Guimarães 2 – 1 U.d.Leiria
Belenenses 0 – 0 Académica
V. Setúbal 3 – 1 Paços de Ferreira
Nacional 0 – 0 Sporting
E. Amadora 0 – 0 Boavista
Benfica 2 – 1 Marítimo
Naval 1 – 1 Braga
Porto 3 – 0 Leixões

Hero of the Week — Freddy Adu, Benfica – I certainly didn’t think he’d be in this category much if at all this season. But he’s definitely earned it. Two high impact late goals in the last two games (to tie Setubal in the first leg of their Carlsberg Cup tie 10 days ago, and the monster goal to win against Maritimo) justify this award. He’s quickly endearing himself to the Benfiquistas and is shaping up to be this year’s Fabrizio Miccoli (whose shirt #30 Adu incidentally now wears). Although I’d hold off on calling him “one of the best players ever in North American football,” as one relatively uninformed Portuguese journalist unfortunately put it. The potential is without a doubt there for that statement to one day hold water. However, that’s a case of putting the cart rather far in front of the horse.

Goat of the Week — Makukula, Maritimo – After a meteoric rise that resulted in a national team cap and goal in the most recent Euro qualification matches, he puts that fart of a shot on goal? Benfica back up keeper Butt has seen stronger wind than that aimed at his goal. This match was Maritimo’s chance to resoundingly stamp themselves as a club that will be threatening the top all year. Unfortunately they took a big step back here. See all the highlights in the YouTubage below.

Clean Sheets of the Week – Pedro Roma (Académica), Costinha (Belenenses), Stojkovic (Sporting), Diego Benaglio (Nacional), Carlos (Boavista), Nelson (E.d.Amadora), and Helton (Porto).

And here she is, making her debut appearance this season… Le Tableau!!

1.) Porto – 24
2.) Benfica – 16
3.) Sporting – 15
4.) V.Guimarães – 15
5.) Maritimo – 14
6.) V.Setubal – 14
7.) Braga – 11
8.) Belenenses – 11
9.) E.d.Amadora – 7
10.) Nacional – 7
11.) Académica – 7
12.) Naval – 6
13.) Leixões – 6
14.) Boavista – 5
15.) Paços de Ferreira – 5
16.) U.d.Leiria – 3

Tomorrow the Carlsberg Cup resumes. It is also the one day of the year that every gal gets a free pass for dressing shamelessly slutty in public, better known as “Halloween!” (Which explains the scantily clad young blonde lady at the top left hand corner of this post.) Kisses ALL AROUND!!