Preview of the Taça de Portugal Final: Sporting CP v FC Porto

By: Greg | May 16th, 2008

eurfc The climax of the season is upon us, as this Sunday’s Taça de Portugal final will be contested between Paulo Bento Box’s second place Sporting and ~~Geraldo Rivera’s~~ Jesualdo Ferreira’s first place Porto in Jamor at the Estadio Nacional.

The match itself represents the last shot at salvaging some sort of silverware this season for Sporting (alliteration much?) while it provides Porto with the opportunity of a League and Cup double. Both teams have major absences of note, as Sporting’s leading scorer Liedson will be sidelined by arthroscopic knee surgery. Meanwhile, Porto will be without their starting keeper Helton who is lost to knee tendinitis, as well as Chelsea’s latest signing, defender Jose Bosingwa.

Porto have been dealing with the shitstorm of bad press resulting from the Final Whistle decisions and now will have the cloud of uncertainty following them from UEFA as they will learn their Champions League fate in the coming weeks. Therefore, Porto may look to really take this game and make it a statement match for them. If they can pump in three or four goals against the second best team in the league, it’s probably a somewhat satisfying end to the season. It would be Porto’s way of saying “Screw you, Portuguese Press and UEFA, keep your Champions League spot, we know we’re the dog’s balls.”

Sporting, on the other hand, will have to manage without their leading goal scorer and offensive spark plug Liedson. As if slaying the Porto dragon weren’t hard enough, they’re going to have to do it without their most potent offensive weapon. However, Yannick Djalo (just pronounce his last name “JELL-O” it’s more fun) has been scoring more often than I did in college (that’s right, I used to get plenty) as of late and is an option for Boss Bento to fill the void left by the player Sportinguistas affectionately call “Levezinho” (loosely translated into English as “The light one”).

Enough mouth diarrhea, here’s who I guess will be taking the field for Porto at kickoff:

Porto - 69 pts, Finish: ~~Jussi Jääskeläinen~~ 1st Place - Manager Jesualdo Ferreira
Quaresma - Lisandro Lopez - Tarik Sektioui
Lucho - Paulo Assunção - Raul Meireles
Lino - Pedro Emanuel - Bruno Alves - Jorge Fucile
Nuno

The green and white hooped Lions will probably look something like this …

Sporting - 55 pts, Finish: 2nd Place - Manager Paulo Bento
Izmailov - Yannick - Simon
Romagnoli - João Moutinho
Miguel Veloso
Abel - Tonel - Polga - Grimi
Rui Patricio

Obviously, the rigid nature of text makes it difficult to precisely illustrate EXACTLY where the guys will line up, but I’m sure you get the drift. While Izmailov and Simon will be expected to track back, they’re primarily in the side as attacking mids. I hope (if Bento goes with the above) that Yannick can thrive up front alone, as he isn’t particularly big and isn’t known for being able to hold the ball up à la Didier Drogba.

If the average fan is asking why they should even bother with watching this match, consider the fact that there’s about four or five serious prospects that have been linked with huge moves abroad playing in these teams’ starting XI. I’m sure the stands will be filled with scouts deciding where to throw their club’s millions in the coming summer.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict an awesome match, with Sporting taking home the Taça after a 4 - 3 thriller. Have a great weekend and enjoy the match as well as some alcoholic beverages. Beverages make everything, including football, that much better.