Sporting CP 2 Casa Pia 0

Sporting CP v Casa Pia
October 5th, 2024
Estádio José Alvalade
Matchday 8

The warm up 

“Adversity is the first path to truth.” Let's face it Tuesday night away in Eindhoven didn't go to plan. In fact at points in the first half you'd have been hard pressed to convince me that we even had a plan. In my final summary I questioned how many of the players had started the game in moulds rather than studs and it came as no surprise that Amorim highlighted the exact same point in his post match press conference. Difference is he could have done something about it prior to kick off where as I was merely trying to raise a valid point about choice of footwear in piss poor conditions. Somehow though instead of it going fully Pete Tong they came away with a point. Some of the quotes from the players saying they deserved the draw were for me somewhat laughable. Maybe the rain got between their ears? We got away with one. However we overcame the adversity, we showed character, didn't give up and came away with a point we didn't deserve. 24 hours later Real Madrid travelled to a Lille side who Sporting rolled over with consummate ease 2-0 and they lost 1-0 which put the point at PSV in context I guess as an even better result. Football as they say is a funny old game. There's a reason I went in hard before the PSV game and it wasn't just the memory of how bad we were when we went there five years ago. Their home record is ridiculous. To come away with a point is a massive achievement when you put that into context and now the dust has settled that little fact has at least entered my brain. Another blank for Gyökeres but he had similar spells in the opening half of last season. The good thing about this team is they're not reliant on his goals in the same way we would have been with a Bas Dost or Slimani. The goals are spread around. Two in two for Bragança who is making it harder each week for Amorim not to start him, however rather tellingly Morita has regained his form the last two games and let's be fair unless he chooses to rest his captain he's not coming in for Hjulmand as a starter and we know how wedded he is to his two wide players so not likely to go 4-3-3 all of a sudden. 

Back to focusing on the league and Casa Pia the visitors as Sporting look to get back to winning ways. They were one of two sides who felt the full force of Sporting at the Alvalade last season coming away with 8-0 defeats. They did at least keep it at a more respectable 2-1 loss at home. The two sides have only ever met competitively 5 times with Sporting holding a 100% record and given that 8-0 defeat you don't imagine any of their fans are making their way down the A1 to Lisboa thinking this is going to be the night where that record changes especially given Tuesday night was the first time Sporting had conceded a goal in 600 minutes. So far this season they've at least avoided having their arses handed to them in spectacular fashion and to their credit they finished 10th in their first season in the top flight and improved one place to 9th last time out and go into the weekends fixtures currently in 9th place on 8 points after 2 wins, 2 draws and 3 defeats. They finished their last game with a point at home to Vitória which is not to be sneezed at despite a pass completion rate of just 67%. If they have the same against Sporting then they'll be on the end of a proper hiding. Vitória had 17 efforts but only an XG of 0.6 compared to Casa Pia's 12 shots at 1.98. Only two of those efforts came from outside of the box, one of which was blocked and the other from Moreira may still be travelling it went that wide of the left hand post. Otherwise all the chances were concentrated in the area in front of both goal posts compared to Vitória's shot map which was all over the place and a sign they were getting all the more desperate to find a winning goal. 

Having lost their opening three games Casa Pia now find themselves undefeated in four. Their victories have come against Estrela away winning 1-0 and Moreirense 3-1. Losing 3-0 away to the dirty pigeons won't have come as a surprise but I'm sure they'd have been disappointed with a 2-0 home loss to newly promoted Santa Clara. 

Duplexe Tchamba the man of the moment for Casa Pia and possibly the player with the best name in Portuguese football right now to boot. The centre back has one goal to his name to add to his burgeoning reputation. Brazilian forward Cassiano has two goals in his two games since his summer transfer from Avai. Not to be confused you understand with cousin Avi in Snatch “You know - fish, chips, cup o’ tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary Fucking Poppins…London!” 

Maybe the purists would argue against me but this game is a dérbi … of sorts. It doesn't stand up to the levels of Sporting vs the Dirty Pigeons but they're a Lisbon based club and they all count in the same way Belenenses would if they hadn't disappeared into obscurity following financial issues. You can throw Estrela-ela-ela-eh-eh into that mix as well. The fact that both Casa Pia and Estrela are in the top flight is surely a testament to both clubs given the fact that most of the city will gravitate to either the green and white half or the red side. The club took their name from the Portuguese Children's Charity Casa Pia and follow in the great Portuguese tradition of being a proper sporting club and not just a football team. I genuinely think if you asked the average football fan in England about sporting clubs in Portugal they genuinely wouldn't have a clue, it would genuinely be such an alien concept to them all. Even international football is merely seen through the prism of their club teams; West Ham won England the World Cup as did Arsenal for France some 30 years later. The fact you have a multitude of teams operating in a variety of sports all competing under the umbrella of the one organisation such as handball, basketball, judo et al truly is lost over here. In England especially a football club is no longer the heart of a community, fans are no longer fans they're customers. As an outsider I hope fans of sporting clubs in Portugal are really proud in the part they play in their communities because I think it's really beautiful and well done to Casa Pia because in terms of the football side especially, they really are minnows punching massively above their weight. Yes they got their noses bloodied against Sporting away last season but there's no shame in that. Two top ten finishes in their first two seasons in the top flight is huge and you'd not bet against them making it a third on the spin. 

In the summer Casa Pia added a face familiar amongst not only Portuguese football fans but European wide with the signing of the seemingly evergreen 40 year old José Fonte. I can remember football writers stating the death of his career when he departed from West Ham in 2018 for Dalian in the Chinese Super League. The defender clearly had other ideas and after the briefest of stints in China moved to Sporting's recent Champions League opponents Lille where he would make 166 appearances, scoring an impressive 8 times. Last season he made 19 appearances for Braga and tonight will be like coming home for the boy who was with the Sporting academy from 1984 to 2002 and made 59 appearances for the B team. In England fans have sung about their heroes on the pitch to the tunes of some really obscure records, from 'We've got Payet' at West Ham set to Billy Ray Cyrus' 1992 shower of shit UK chart topper Achy Breaky Heart through to the 'Torres Torres,' song at Liverpool about striker Fernando set to the kids nursery rhyme the Animals went in two by two. I always thought Fonte ended up with a pretty cool track for his chant to the tune of 1980s cult classic Don't you want me by the Human League. Whilst simplistic in nature whoever came up with it I salute you because even now some seven years later everytime I see his name my first reaction is to sing José Fonte baby, José Fonte ooooooohhhhhh.

The injury woes continued Tuesday night as we saw Diomande turn his ankle over early on in the first half. Quaresma looked like he finished with a knock too. I'm not sure how bad Reis’ injury is that kept him out of Tuesday night's game in Eindhoven. I'm also not sure whether Esgaio or Fresneda are really capable of filling in at centre back but stranger things have happened. This is the last game before the international break thankfully so if it's a case of having to make do then so be it. Sporting don't play again until October the 18th when they face second division opposition Portimonense away in the Taça de Portugal. I'll happily take a 1-0 win in this game and 11 men finishing fit and no new injuries. Three points is three points however many goals are scored in that process. Casa Pia will be desperate to put the 8-0 loss to bed and give their fans a better performance. Sadly for them if Gyökeres really is aiming for 50 goals this season he may well have other plans and have ear marked this game as a golden opportunity to add to that tally especially having gone those two games now without a goal. That's an itch he will want to scratch without a shadow of a doubt. He did only manage a brace in that 8-0 win. The goals were spread about considering they finished with 8 with 5 different scorers. Shout out to El Patrón who scored a brace as well. Fucking karma biting me on the arse when I wrote Diomande has played so well we've not missed him and bosh there he goes over on his ankle and sidelines him. I'm sorry Ousmane if I jinxed you. I'll try to tell myself I didn't but the OCD part of my brain is going could you not have kept your big mouth shut? Look what your words did to the poor boy. I'll try work some magic instead and say that this feels like a game for the 17 year old wonder kid that is Geovany Quenda to go out and do some serious damage to the opposition's left back. Guarantee that'll mean Geny starting on the right now I've written it. 

In the markets 

Sporting 1/9
Draw 17/2
Casa Pia 12/1

Gyökeres anytime 4/6

Team News

Starting XI

Israel, Debast Debast, Quaresma, Inácio, Araújo, Bragança, Hjulmand, Geny, Harder, Gyökeres and Trincão 

Substitutes

Kovačević, Ramos, Gomes, Morita, Nuno Santos, Fresneda, Esgaio, Quenda, Nel

This season is only 58 days old and our injury roster in that period has totalled eleven players; Kovačević, Nuno Santos, Gonçalves, Reis, St Juste, Edwards, Inácio, Diomande, Quaresma, Nel and Pinto. So it comes as no surprise to see more youngsters on the bench to make up the numbers. Nel returns, Bruno Ramos the 19 year old Brazilian defender gets his first call up to the matchday squad and Gomes is named on the bench for the second straight game. After two goals in two games Bragança gets the nod over Morita who you imagine will feature at some point during the forthcoming international break for Japan. Having lost his place in the starting XI to Debast, Diomande's injury midweek allows Quaresma the opportunity to start and it's the first full start for Araújo who set up the equaliser for Braganca against PSV. Of course having given it the biggun about Quenda, Amorim starts with my boy Geny out wide ride. 

First Half

As they say in Lisboa ‘Mi Casa Pia es su Casa Pia’ and Sportinguista's will be hoping for the same level of generosity from their visitors which saw them tonked 8-0 in this fixture last season. Sporting play in pink to highlight awareness of breast cancer. I believe 25% of the monies for all shirts sold will be donated to a relevant charity. Nice touch by the club. 

Casa Pia get us underway. Sporting will attack right to left in the opening 45.

1 Debast fills the central role with Quaresma on the right of the three 

1 Double chance for the visitors. Shot fired in from wide left of the box by Svensson saved by Israel and the rebound is headed over the bar by Larrazabal. Shots fired 

3 Casa Pia defending in low blocks of 6 and 4. No space given 

6 500 minutes since Sporting last conceded a goal in the league. Remember they've only conceded 2 in the league to date and 3 goals in all competitions 

8 Shouts for handball and whistles from the crowd as Gyökeres tried to flick the ball over the defender. Nothing given. Replay suggests it was chest and at worst hit the top of the shirt which again isn't a penalty

10 Wow an assistant referee with the flag up for an instant offside decision. Don't see those anymore very often. I'll add that to last week when the keeper punted the ball up the field rather than trying to play out from the back 

12 Casa Pia seems to have definitely learned their lesson from last season when you could have sailed a yacht through the gaps in their defence. It's now a very disciplined 6-3-1

13 Geny finds Araújo at the back post but the ball bounced before reaching him and he heads at the top of the balls flight and sees it fly high and wide 

14 Long ball for Gyökeres to chase. He's flattened outside the area. Free kick shown in a dangerous area. 

15 Araújo goes for goal 21 yards out, goes over the wall but dips onto the top of the net. Can he be the answer to our long standing free kick problem? Been a long time since we've had a player capable of finding the net from a free kick

16 Harder shoots from inside the D. His shot pulls wide right and goes harmlessly wide. Sporting finally just starting to get the measure of how to find the gaps. I think Araújo might be key this game. He's made a good start. 

18 Whistles from the crowd every time Sequeira takes his time over a goal kick 

23 Sequeira down and calling for treatment. Again the home fans making it clear what they think of his actions. 

25 Sporting have failed in only one league game to go into half time winning, that being the Clássico. 

26 Trincão with a nutmeg gives the crowd something to cheer about but the ball ends out for another goal kick and the whistles start again. Fair play to Casa Pia, Sporting are going to have to work hard if they're to make it an eighth straight win at the start of the league campaign. Casa Pia of course the fresher side having not played in Europe midweek. 

29 Harder goes closest so far but his shot was two sides yard of the right hand post. Turned on the edge of the area, took another touch to make room and connected centrally from 20 yards. He's definitely got something about him. Having laboured under the likes of Tomas and Phellype it's amazing the difference two Scandinavians have brought to Sporting as an attacking force in terms of overall quality 

34 Corner to Casa Pia. Header wide from ten yards by Kluivert son of the ex-Barca player and coach Patrick. 

35 Yellow to Zolotic for a foul in midfield

38 GOAL Sporting CP 1 Casa Pia 0 Hollywood makes it 3 in 3. That was all down to the brilliance of Trincão. He went past his marker, through the middle of two defenders and cut the ball back to Bragança who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner from 7 yards unmarked. 

Additional time 3 minutes 

45 Hjulmand with an unmarked header ten yards out straight at Sequeira 

Half time 

Sporting CP 1 Casa Pia 0

My biggest takeaway from the opening 45 is that Larrazabal definitely has the look of a poor man's Fábio Coentrão with his dodgy barnet. It's been a longtime since I've seen highlights that bad at the Alvalade. The former Sporting defender is apparently now a fisherman so hopefully he's gotten rid of the same style haircut otherwise he'll have scared all the fish away. Casa Pia have made it hard for Sporting but they'll have been reminded how bad and open they were last season before kick off without a doubt. All credit to them, they could well have taken the lead in the first minute and haven't come to just make up the numbers. I don't care who you are, when you've basically got 20 players converging in the space of 24 yards length of pitch times by the width it's near impossible to get anything going. When the chances come you need to put them away and that's what Bragança did to perfect effect for the opening goal. I think I write this every game but that's because we've led in all but the Porto game at half time, if the opposition want to get anything from the game they'll now have to push up and that will open space for Sporting to run into in the second half. Another tough night for Gyökeres but close marking on him allows for space for the likes of Harder and Trincão to operate around him. Trincão is occupying the same sort of space Geny likes to run into so he's having to play a different type of game. He's been aiming for the far left post and at some point you have to think he's going to find his man to Sporting's advantage. Big 45 ahead for both teams before the international break. Playing ahead of the likes of the dirty pigeons and Porto and hopefully picking up another three points just puts that added pressure back on both of them even if it is only eight games into the season. 

Second half 

Beautiful shots of the Alvalade lit up at halftime. Quite interesting to see in big letters on the side of the stadium ‘we are our legacy.’ Is that for idiots like me who can't read Portuguese? Maybe we could re-record Sister Sledges 'we are family' to now be ‘We are our legacy, I got all my Sportinguista's with me.’ You can tell I got my halftime copy in early and posted and now killing time until they kick off again. You don't get these types of valuable insights anywhere else be honest with yourselves.

➡️⬅️ Morita with a little handshake from Paulinho and a quick arm round the shoulder from Inácio as he waits to come on. Harder the man to make way interestingly. Sporting get us back underway. 

46 Great little passage of play ended up with Morita firing a ball into the corridor of uncertainty and it being cleared for a corner 

47 Trincão dances round his marker once more but this time there's strength in numbers behind. Sporting clearly determined to try put this game out of reach and keep Casa Pia on the back foot. They came in for criticism from Amorim for taking their foot off the pedal in the Estoril win. International break to follow so no excuse to not go full gas for those not going away with their national sides 

50 We've pretty much seen more from Sporting in five minutes than we did in the opening 45. With this side you believe if they get a second they'll follow it up with a third time allowing 

52 Clever play from Sporting. Just inviting Casa Pia on like a tactical game of chess to make that space. Geny runs in from the right and whips a shot from a yard outside the box saved by the keeper. This half is night and day from the first. Casa Pia are clinging on. This second goal is coming 

54 Oh so nearly as well as I finished that last sentence. Ball looped up over a defenders leg and Morita was off like Usain Bolt in his prime and onto it like a flash. Side footed effort from 8 yards saved and out for a corner 

55 Morita blasts a shot high into the crowd from 20 yards. He's the main man right now and the substitution has clearly worked 

58 Casa Pia push up in numbers, lose possession and bang there's that first time ball for Gyökeres to chase in acres of space. Didn't come off that time but I bet the defenders bum was twitching 

63 Araújo replaced by Nuno Santos. 

63 Turn and shot from Gyökeres from the edge of the D goes through the defenders legs and saved by the keeper. He's just starting to wind that engine up. 

64 What a save from Israel who came off his line like a whippet to stop a point blank effort from Svensson. Don't think it would have counted looking at the replay, he was just ahead of the last defender. By just I do mean just. 

65 Trincão with a beautiful technique fires in a shot from 20 yards that just goes over the bar. That was proper travelling with no spin on the ball. I'd not like to have caught that one round the chops in the crowd if someone wasn't paying attention. 

66 ➡️⬅️ Geny and Inácio replaced by Fresneda and Quenda although not in that order. 

68 Cultured hoof from Hjulmand outside the box all the way through to their keeper who was midway inside his own half. See I don't mind that. Sometimes you just need to get your team up the pitch. Sod the tippy tappy bollocks, get it launched and the danger cleared and the opposition back on their toes running away from goal not at it. Apologies replay suggests it was actually Gyökeres with the cultured hoof. Typical forwards defending as the cliché goes 

70 Yellow card shown possibly to the Casa Pia coach 

71 Svensson’s night ends. He went in a foot race with Debast and pulled up sharply with what looks like something pulled. He's impressed me tonight and I'm rarely impressed by opposition players in this league. Feel sorry for the lad but not from a Sporting perspective. May he cause other teams many problems for the rest of the season 

73 Huge cheer goes up but to no avail as the net ripples from a Trincão header on the edge of the six yard box wide on the left. Keeper was down quickly and saw it out on top of it finding the wrong side of the net. 

75 Sporting just need to be careful at the back. Nuno Santos doing a great impression of Debast in midweek loses the ball but Hjulmand recovers possession 

76 ➡️ ⬅️ Esgaio on for Quaresma. I think that leaves Debast central, Esgaio on the left and Fresneda on the right. I'm glad Svensson has gone off even more now. This is only the second time this season I've felt a little pang of nerves 

77 Clear penalty as Kluivert is shown the yellow for bringing down Gyökeres. Not sure why he's even trying to claim otherwise. Night and day young man. 

79 GOAL Nuno Santos hands the ball off to Gyökeres. Sequeira gets a hand to it but it's not enough to stop it going in to make the score Sporting CP 2 Casa Pia 0. Just the 12 goals now for the Swedish striker. I say hand, might have squirmed under his body. It's hard to type on one phone and watch on another phone at the same time. Try it if you don't believe me.

81 Bragança catches the top of the boot of Sousa and rightly shown the yellow

82 Well I said if Sporting get two they'll get a third. See if they can prove me right. I kept willing the equaliser midweek and believed if I said it enough I'd manifest it. They did have 20 minutes to go at that point and not 8 to be fair 

86 Fábio Coentrão’s love child exits the stage far left. 

88 I don't think even I can manifest a third Sporting from here unless there's an additional five or six minutes added. To be fair Casa Pia have been time wasting and there's been all ten substitutions made. 

Plus four shown 

+1 Nuno Santos must have shot from fully 30 yards there and shanks it wide right. Wasteful 

+3 Corner to Sporting. Jesus that was fucking woeful. I'd forgotten Quenda had even come on as he misses the ball on the edge of the box 

Full time

Sporting CP 2 Casa Pia 0 

The final word 

The fact we finished with a back three which included Esgaio and Fresneda will probably be an indication of how close a game Amorim thought it was. That's not me being rude to either player that came on by the way, that's merely because they both traditionally operate as right wing backs. 

I'll start by giving credit to Casa Pia. They may have come away empty handed but they vanquished the ghosts of that dreadful thrashing last season. Svensson has got some chops about him and as I alluded to earlier I'm rarely impressed by opposition players. I'll add him to my tiny list of João Felix now at Chelsea, Jota Silva now at Nottingham Forest, Simon Banza now somewhere in Turkey and Milutin Osmajic currently serving an eight game ban presumably for not being fed enough Turkey pre-game and taking a bite out of the neck of a Blackburn Rovers player. I'm not sure Svensson's effort would have counted second half but Israel pulled off a tremendous save. He's looking proper gravy at the moment in between the sticks just to continue my seamless links with all the talk of eating and Turkey. Whatever he's done in the summer months he's come back a different keeper. Kovačević doesn't look like he's going to get back in between the sticks anytime soon. Well no I lie I think it's Portimonense next up in the Taça but you know what I mean. 

Eight wins from eight. Sixth consecutive clean sheet. Casa Pia made it hard for Sporting but they did enough to get the win. It took them 45 minutes to work out how to get through a packed final third and let's say Gyökeres was fortunate to see the ball go in with his penalty but they all count. 

Araújo started well but ran out of juice after half time. Geny struggled on the other flank but again as I alluded to earlier that was because the space he likes to run into was being occupied by Trincão. Morita looked effective coming on and with Harder coming off it allowed for a bit more intricacy in and around the box. 

I don't ever give marks for a team performance but it was probably around a 6.5/7 out of 10. It genuinely doesn't matter though with this current Sporting team even with their injury woes. Pinto and Nel injuries aside what other team in Portugal could have operated with the loss of the other 9 players mentioned in the team news section at various points since the opening day and be sat with eight straight wins still? At no point since I've watched Sporting have we had a side that capable of just grinding out wins. It may just be the case they're doing enough - but they are doing enough. We don't need to win 8-0, we just need to score one more than the opposition and keep everyone else on their toes having to chase us down. Pressure makes Diomande's which as we all know translates into English into…Yes well done all of you. 

So man of the match - I gave it to Israel midweek and he'd be in my final two for this game as well. I think Trincão just gets the nod. Got the assist for the first goal with a wonderfully entertaining dribble down to the byline and cut back. Could have had a goal with a rasping effort in the second half. All the moments really worth watching in a 90 minute game of chess came through him. Incredible turn around of fortunes for him from this time last season where Edwards was the main man in the same position. Of course he's currently benefiting from the Englishman's injury but he ended last season first choice, he's back in the national team and he's finally starting to fulfill the promise that saw him go to the likes of Barcelona and Wolves in the Premier League. He's clearly enjoying himself out there and long may it continue. On his day he is a real joy to watch and finally we're seeing the consistency of his talent game to game rather than in fits and spurts.