Taça de Portugal Final: Sporting 2 – 0 Porto

By: Greg | May 19th, 2008

rtu In front of what looked like about three hundred people at the Estadio Nacional in Jamor, Sporting won this year’s Taça de Portugal, defeating Porto 2-0 with a pair of extra time goals from late substitute Rodrigo Tiuí (shown left).

The match itself was dominated offensively by Sporting (catch some highlights below), in spite of the 0-0 score line after 90 minutes. Porto looked tired and disinterested in expending any real energy on the pitch. Recently suspended Porto president Pinto da Costa was featured a number of times on the broadcast and his presence as well as the weight of the Golden Whistle scandal seemed to loom large over the Porto players.

A number of Porto players, including Ricardo Quaresma and Raúl Meireles were playing as though they had already been signed by a larger club and had been told not to play in a manner that would injure them. Whenever Quaresma touched the ball, it was as if his mind was on another planet. If he wanted to increase his prestige and value to a club through his play in this match, he did an extremely poor job of it.

Porto striker Lisandro Lopez appeared to be the only player on the team who was actually concerned with getting the result. The team’s leading scorer had gone down under pressure in the penalty area twice but the referee was not interested and the plays seemed to be borderline at best. They were certainly not penalties that deserved to be called in a tie match where the teams are playing for silverware. This considered, he probably expended more energy arguing the calls than actually trying to make something happen on the pitch. A great deal of his ineffectiveness wasn’t his fault, as the midfield and wingers did nothing to give him any real, consistent service.

Sporting, on the other hand, were willing to take the attack to the apathetic Dragons and came close on a number of occasions. The final scoring touch of Liedson was missed as his replacement Derlei should have had two before the break that were shot too close to the keeper to find the net. Derlei’s strike partner Yannick Djaló used his speed and craftiness to create a few chances but also had trouble finding the killer strike. I’d say that Yannick probably played himself into a definitive starting spot next year and onto a number of clubs’ radars for the coming season.

On the other hand, the players with one foot allegedly already out the door (Miguel Veloso, Quaresma, and João Moutinho) really didn’t feature too well. Veloso went close from a corner kick, but João Moutinho’s main contribution to the game was simply being on the pitch in the 71st minute so Porto defender João Paulo could be shown red for a two footed, spikes up challenge. None of these players did anything substantial in this match to increase their transfer fees for their clubs.

It took the desire, creativity, and energy of sub Rodrigo Tiuí to get Sporting the tallies required to lift the Taça. With his first chance sent sliding by the post, he remained determined to impose himself on the match. In the 110th minute, he got in close and sent a shot off a Porto defender and past a helpless Nuno to give Sporting a deserved 1-0 lead. A little more than six minutes later, he cleaned up a cross into the box with an overhead bike into the back of the net and Sporting fans were sent into ecstasy.

In all, Sporting had the most effective attacking play and deserved the win. Neither team played particularly inspiring football and the best man on the field until Tiuí got out there was probably the referee who did an excellent job of keeping the game rolling evenhandedly (unless you’re Lisandro Lopez and have two penalty shouts go begging). Porto looked a shadow of themselves and appeared ready to pack it in so they can put the tumultuous end to the season behind them. Tiuí cemented his place in Sporting fans’ hearts and the team got to salvage some silverware to show for an otherwise relatively inconsistent and underwhelming (in spite of their 2nd place finish and Champions League qualification) season.