Sporting CP 3 F.C. Vizela 2

Sporting CP v F.C. Vizela

Saturday August 12^th, 2023
Estádio José Alvalade 
Matchday 1

The Warm Up

Part of me wonders if Ruben Amorim secretly hopes Guy Ritchie will one day base a character in one of his movies on him. Cut to the character introduction scene as a cockney voice is heard to say 'You wanna watch out for Ammy. They call 'im the butcher of Lisboa. He'll cut your fucking Jacobs off and feed 'em to the pigs if you don't fall in line. He's a ruthless beardy cunt.' Or maybe he just realises that in the world of coaching time isn't something that coaches are blessed with, it's not about building for two or three years time. Success is demanded by the club and fans alike and in Portugal especially it's always about the here and now. So out have gone or are due to go: Arthur, Tanlongo, Fatawu, Chermiti, Sotiris, Marsá, Tomás, Camacho, Vinagre, Rochincha, Bellerín, Ilori. Only Ugarte who departed to the farmers league to ply his trade for PSG would be able to claim that the boss wanted to keep him. Jovane especially would have been out a long time ago if they could only find a permanent home for him.

Last season’s curtain opener saw a real cluster fuck of an away trip to Sporting Braga who would go onto pip the Lions for third place in the table. Despite us taking the lead 3 times the game finished all square at 3-3 and as games go it was a good definer of the season that followed. The starting XI was made up of Adán in goal, Reis, Coates and Inácio in defence. Santos, Nunes, Morita and Porro in midfield and Gonçalves, Paulinho and Trincão up front. Nunes departed soon after for Wolverhampton Wanderers and Porro for Tottenham in January. The other nine are still at the club, so Amorim is as loyal as he is ruthless to those who he feels fit his philosophy and style of play. From the outside looking in you'd say Esgaio and Paulinho are dead men walking should the coach ever leave for a bigger job in Europe. You don't expect they'd make the starting XI for Sporting under a new coach and they won't be going up a grade either.

The money markets

Sporting 2/9
Vizela 11/1

Team News

Year on year tonight's starting lineup for the curtain raiser sees one change in the back three with Diomande coming in though Reis again starts and is pushed into the midfield four. Geny who has impressed greatly pre-season starts wide right where Porro would have operated. Fit again Bragança starts in centre midfield in the Nunes role. New signing Gyökeres starts in the centre of a three instead of Paulinho.

Jerry St Juste and Nuno Santos are still not fit to join the matchday squad.

Geny especially knows that he needs to continue his good form from pre pre-season into domestic competitions. He's blessed with pace and has so far demonstrated he can make use of it to create space for himself. Importantly he can cross unlike Esgaio. His finishing needs some work but potentially he's the solution Amorim needs without going into the transfer market. The fans loved Gelson but I always felt I was a lone voice in saying I didn't buy into the hype surrounding him on any level. I personally think Geny could become a cult hero for Sporting. That or he'll find himself sold twelve months later…

Gyökeres looks like he's going to cause a lot of problems for an awful lot of defenders. It'll be interesting to see how many players pick up bookings for fouls on the young Swede. There's a touch of Bas Dost about him with his finishing. He knows where to be at the right time and Paulinho is going to find it hard to shift him out of the starting XI. Without a ball being kicked in the league I'll go on the record as saying I'll be incredibly disappointed if he doesn't end up with between 20 - 25 goals in the league.

Trincão needs to start to deliver consistently week in week out. There's no denying he has talent but the UB40 song One in Ten could have been written with his goals to shots ratio.

Gonçalves for me is in his last season for Sporting. Yes he continues to score goals but his overall contribution is too often found lacking. He has that same petulance Bruno Fernandes used to carry with him through a full 90 minutes. Too many hand gestures and not enough talking with his feet.

St Juste if he can stay fit will prove to be one of the very best defenders in the league. He looks like he's playing in slippers but that's a big if in relation to whether he stays fit. Mathieu had that style of play and this is a league that when you're playing well, will make you look much better than you probably are given the level of competition and that means adding profit to the bottom line. I hate to write it but it's the truth. Somehow the pigeons across the park keep selling forwards like they're the new Salah and Haaland for stupidly big prices. Maybe in a season or two we'll be doing the same with Gyökeres? Who knows time will tell.

Despite there only being four games played yesterday and today, a win won't see Sporting top unless they equal or better Gil Vicente's earlier 5-0 scoreline but it's imperative they get three points on the board come full time. Adán looks back to his best. Much will rely on him if the lions are to stand any chance of pushing for domestic success come the end of the season.

First Half

2 Quick transition from left of centre out to wide right plays Geny into space. A nice jinking run takes him to the edge of the box but his shot is blocked.

3 Gonçalves floats in a free kick from 35 yards. Coates brings out a superb one handed save* low to the left from the keeper Buntic to push the ball out for a corner. The crowd who were already in fine voice lift the noise once more.

6 Another good ball into the box from the right cleared by the Vizela defence. They've had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at them in the opening minutes. Possession stats come 90 minutes are due to look very one sided on this evidence. This reminds me of the Sporting around the time of last year's World Cup who put five past Braga with consummate ease. Marauding lions ready to rip their pray apart. More of the same please.

11 Corner flicked on and comes to the back at far post to Diomande who tries a bicycle kick but looks more like a swan on ice, legs flailing gracelessly. Ball falls to Inácio but he can't turn it home.

13 GOAL Wowww what a way to mark your league debut. Gyökeres scores with a sublime goal which was made with the cleverest of touches with the instep of his right to open up space and he slots home from close range with his left. Sporting CP 1 Vizela 0

14 GOAL Oh wow wow wow I've not even finished writing the last goal up and Gyökeres has made it two. The defender steps off him as the ball comes into the space in front of the 18 yard box, he cuts between two defenders and just slots the ball into the bottom right from 15 yards. I said he should get 20-25 goals this season - well that's two and we're only 15 minutes into the season. Just needs to head one in for the perfect hat trick now; Left peg, right peg, noggin. You have to wonder if Adán will even get a touch in the opening 45. Vizela have barely made it over the halfway line. Sporting CP 2 Vizela 0

21 Terrific through ball from halfway inside Sporting's half finds Gonçalves. Last ditch tackle from defender saves Vizela more blushes.

22 Clash of heads. Looks like Bragança is the man laid down in the centre of midfield. He doesn't have much luck. New boy from Lecce Hjulmand shown watching on from the stands with his girlfriend. He'll be thinking that he'll need to hit the ground running on this display when he makes his debut.

26 Good work from Trincão on the edge of the 18 yard box finds Gonçalves in space on the left but his shot is blocked for a corner. Gyökeres flick on from the edge of six yard box brings out a save from the keeper who gratefully stays down on the floor and buys his side some much needed breathing space if only for a few seconds.

28 Gyökeres picks up the ball around the halfway line and drives forward. We saw this a lot in pre pre-season and interestingly we saw two bookings for fouls on him in that type of area. This kid just wants to play. You imagine a lot of coaches would try to dissuade him from dropping back that deep but Amorim seems to have no such issues with it. What's the Swedish for winner? - Vinnare. Wait, didn't we just loan him to Hull City? Well close enough.

36 Reis has the wind taken out of his sails on the edge of the Vizela 18 yard box. He's not adverse for making a meal of things but interesting to see under the new rule changes this season he gets up having finally caught his breath back and trudges back. Any player receiving treatment has to wait thirty seconds before rejoining the field of play. Or maybe that's if the opposition player isn't booked for the challenge. Whatever the rule it seems to be having some effect. Apart from the Bragança clash of heads we've not seen the physio come on so far.

41 Half chance Moreira. Miss hits the cross wide. Was probably so genuinely surprised to receive the ball in the box after a one sided half that his mind wasn't focused.

42 Bragança does his best Trincão impression and blasts over the bar from close range after the real Trincão flicked the ball onto him in space. The youngster grimaces. He knows he should have done better.

44 The run of sliding tackles from Coates continues from the end of last season, through pre-season and into the new. His body is clearly repaired

45 Gonçalves gives away a free kick wide on the right. Trincão heads clear for a corner. Vizela have woken up finally.

Three minutes additional time indicated

+1 Kiko hits a cross-cum-shot… in the end it was neither really and goes out for a goal kick having evaded everyone. Always sounds better saying that out loud than it does written down if you are infected with a dirty mind.

+1 Samu hits a tame shot at Adán who finally gets his gloves dirty.

Half time

Sporting CP 2 Vizela 0

Well Vizela can claim they had the better of additional time - all three minutes of it. For the first 45 minutes though that was as one sided a game as you will see in any league all season. It's doubtful Sporting can retain that pace and intensity for another 45 minutes but you certainly can't have any complaints in how they played. 

Second half

Bragança replaced by Edwards. You'd imagine that was precautionary after the bang to the head mid way through the first half because they're not exactly like for like. I imagine Gonçalves will drop back into midfield to allow the Englishman to play in a deeper role.

50 Sporting started the first five minutes of the first half hammering away like a 16 year old boy losing his virginity. It's no surprise with a two nil lead to see them employ the style we've grown more accustomed to under Amorim where they sit back, soak up pressure and try to hit the opposition on the counter.

53 The game plan nearly worked as Sporting took the ball from the edge of their own 18 yard box to that of Vizela. Trincão was eventually too swamped by numbers getting back and got the ball stuck under his foot.

54 Big round of applause as Geny is replaced by Esgaio. The youngster has looked impressive again and will keep growing in confidence. He's certainly done enough to warrant starting over the more experienced Esgaio for me on what I've seen of him so far - So guaranteed Esgaio will start next week. I'm sorry Geny if it's found to be true.

56 Gonçalves drives a shot low with power from the edge of the 18 yard box. Keeper saves.

57 Diomande first name in book for foul on #99 Essende. Not sure what the referee saw that the cameras didn't because that never looked like a booking in a million years. Soft like the 99 ice cream. There was barely enough force to have stuck a flake in that ice cream as he went down. Do other countries have the 99 ice cream?

60 Trincão has certainly looked like he's finally woken up in the second half but as I mentioned earlier he's certainly living up to the UB40 tag of one in ten ratio clocking up the chances and misses. He'll be due his first goal of the season in game three. I wonder if Gyökeres gets pulled soon? Pep would do it with Haaland despite having a chance to complete a hat trick.

63 Trincão and Reis shanked. Paulinho and Bastardo on. No sniggering at the back. You imagine he's got the name of a Rick Myall character if the late great man had been Portuguese. Gyökeres for now can chase that all important third and the match ball.

74 Gonçalves fires another long range effort easily saved

75 GOAL Oh no Sporting CP 2 Vizela 1. Adán came out of his box and got to the ball but the deflection fell back to Essende who won't get an easier chance all season. That's the problem when you play the high defensive line

76 GOAL Fucking hells bells, the ball is in the net again and it's Sporting CP 2 Vizela 2. Sporting have capitulated in the space of two minutes. What the actual fuck? Ball whipped in from the right. Diomande knocked it onto Moreira and the force saw the ball cannon into the net. You couldn't write those last two minutes. I'm getting flashbacks from last season’s opener. Vizela have not been in this game at all. Sporting's fans who've been in superb voice all evening have been silenced apart from a few whistles ringing out from a now subdued crowd. Is there another twist in this game to come?

84 Usual shit housery from Paulinho as he goes down in the box. Referee immediately pointed the other way and quite rightly following the VAR review gives nothing.

87 Genuinely part of me 20 minutes in thought we could get five tonight and end the day top. You'd think I'd have learned by now. To be fair five minutes into the second half I did also think to myself that there's a mistake waiting in this Sporting defence after a mix up at the back. I didn't think there were two in two minutes to come though. Should have cashed out on my Sporting to win Gyökeres anytime double when it was a penny off what I could have won. Lesson learned. Yeah I'm clearly that tight and self confident in my pre game betting choices. Look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves.

88 Coates booked for a sloppy challenge

Eight minutes indicated. Where's that come from? Genuinely? I know rules have changed this season but apart from one review for VAR and a couple of substitutions there's surely not been eight minutes to add on. Mind you if Sporting find a winner I'll shut up...

+1 Corner finds Paulinho. His header goes out for another corner. Looked like he just missed the ball totally to me with no deflection. Harsh on Vizela

+3 Third corner in quick succession for Sporting but again amounts to nothing.

+4 Double substitution for Vizela. Does time get added to the time already added I wonder?

+5 Vizela clear their lines like they're Barcelona with a series of crisp passes. Where has that come from all of a sudden?

+6 Amorim booked for protesting **

+7 Esgaio booked for a late lunge. He was suckered into that one by the Vizela player.

+8 GOAL What was I saying about additional time… Paulinho volleys home from six yards. I'm not going to lie you'd have thought we'd just won the Champions League the way I celebrated that goal Sporting CP 3 Vizela 2

+10 Bastardo for Neto. The substitutes been substituted not that he'll care as Sporting try run out the clock.

Full time whistle blows. Three points in the bag…just!

Full Time

Sporting CP 3 Vizela 2

Breathe…

The Final Word

Fuck me I went from bouncing fifteen minutes in to finally calming down after 50. Feeling like I'd been kicked squarely in the bollocks from the 76th to the 98th minutes and then dancing like I was ten pints in at the club twenty years ago with Free from Desire banging out. My heart won't take many more of those in my lifetime. Fuck me.

Man of the match - Gyökeres. Could only be one player after two goals on his debut. Geny played his part and deserves praise for his cameo. Bastardo looked lively on the left even if some of the English outlets will insist on calling him Moreira.

Post game having calmed down I've watched the winner back. Anderson does well to win the header from a high looping ball into the box with Coates applying pressure from the jump behind but he couldn't have put it on a plate any better for Paulinho if he tried to smash home the ball from six yards. You've got to feel for the defender because it was his mistake that led to the opener. The cross in cannoned off his legs to Gyökeres. To be fair to the Swede it was by no means a given that he'd score. He had to create the space to get his shot away and it was a moment of real brilliance but Anderson certainly could claim an inadvertent assist for both the first and third goals.

* Later in the week the save is awarded save of the week in Portugal.

** Yellow in 96th minute apparently shown to Neto and not Amorim.