Benfica 2 - Naval 1 - Just Enough

Benfica took advantage of the opportunity and ascended to 2nd place ahead of their direct rivals porto and Sporting. We would have to go back to the 04/05 season to find ourselves ahead of our most direct rivals. Mind you, the 04/05 season was when Benfica was Portuguese league champions. Although it's way too early to start drawing comparisons, one thing must be noted, usually by the 6th round Benfica is already looking up and chasing. Last year for example, at the 6th round mark we were already 8 points behind leaders porto, in 06/07 2 points, in 05/06 4 points from first place. For once, it's good to be ahead, although not yet in the position that we want to be in.

For the reception of Naval, Quique chose the following 11:

Quim in goal, Maxi, Luisao, Sidnei, and Jorge Ribeiro. Yebda and Martins revisited their beginning of the season tandem, while Reyes and Amorim were on the flanks. Nuno Gomes supported Suazo up front.

Quique never fails to surprise with his chosen 11. There's two ways to look at this, on one hand, his changing is something that only a balanced squad permits. On the other hand, having the same 11 week in week out, usually gives the team a more consistent feel and it allows for the players to "gel" a lot better.
Whichever way you look at it, there's pros and cons to both approaches, with a heavy schedule, squad rotation is key to longevity, and I must stress that the only reason that Quique can do this, is because he has a quality and balanced squad at his disposal.

Let's take a quick look at his choices.
With Carlos Martins in the middle, Quique is almost required to play with a more retracted right side midfielder, hence the choice of Amorim. Martins is a player that has the natural tendency to get into the final third, how do you balance this? With a player that can close down the middle, that player is Amorim. There's a balance there, just like there's a balance when Katsouranis is in the middle and DiMaria is on the right.
As far his choice of forwards, it was obvious that Suazo was going to get the nod, the doubt lied on who was going to pair up with him. I had projected Cardozo, as Suazo can play the mobile forward role, but Quique opted for Nuno Gomes.
The choice might have lied on prior Naval observations and Quique opted to have two men that offered a more mobile front line, off course this all ties into the midfield line up choice. With two pure wingers, the team achieves balance with a reference in the heart of the box as a target, with a more "conservative" midfield, the front line will need to be more mobile to find the spaces that will not be occupied by a "missing" winger, balance is what it boils down to.

On to the the game,

Not the usual Benfica start, a bit shy from what they have used us to, and it took for Naval to have a clear chance on goal for Benfica to wake up. Reyes was the player who looked for goal the most, having the majority of shots on the Naval goal. Suazo also had a good chance half way through the half, but Benfica didn't do much else during the first half, but could have had a penalty had the referee not missed an obvious penalty on Amorim.

The second half didn't bring much else, and Benfica has yet to put together a dominating performance over a smaller team. Quique made his first change at the 55th minute mark, when he switched Amorim for DiMaria hoping to add more width and depth to the right side, the change was noticeable, yet it fell short of bringing the domination Benfica needed.
Quique made two more changes at the 66th and 67th minutes, first it was Cardozo for Suazo, and then Katsouranis for Yebda, who up until that point seemed off his game. With DiMaria on the field Benfica needed a target in the box(remember balance) and Cardozo provided that. In the midfield, Yebda seemed to be off his game, and Katsouranis was brought on in attempt to regain possession in the midfield. Honestly, Martins could have been the chosen one also, but Quique felt that with Martins on the field, Benfica would keep a man capable of bringing the ball forward, not to mention the outside shot option Martins brings to the team.
Although far from being the dominating side, Benfica went up at the 70th minute mark, after Luisao met a Reyes free kick, to put Benfica ahead. What followed seemed like a recurring nightmare, and i don't understand how Benfica can't slow down the game and play an anesthetic type of game in the minutes following their goal. There's an instant hand over of game control by Benfica. It's nerve wrecking and infuriating, having to suffer and sit through a tale where you can almost predict the ending.
6 minutes later there it was, the tying goal by a Naval team who were allowed to do everything to reach the tying goal. You didn't need a crystal ball, a Ouija board, or a tarot deck, to predict the Naval goal, it was there in plain sight.
Luckily Cardozo, was able put us ahead for good with his 4th of the season, after he met a perfect cross from Jorge Ribeiro. It was the relief to the anxiety, that had been felt up until that point, but in typical Benfica style, we had to suffer until the final whistle to rejoice the win.

Individually:

Quim - 7
Maxi - 7
Luisao - 8
Sidnei - 7
Ribeiro - 7
Yebda - 6
Martins - 6
Reyes - 7
Amorim - 6
Nuno Gomes - 6
Suazo - 7

DiMaria - 7
Katsouranis - 7
Cardozo - 7

Important win, in an important date, on the eve on an historic mark. The win puts Benfica in second place 1 point from the top of the table, 1 point ahead of porto, 2 ahead of Sporting.
The date marks the 5th anniversary of the new Estadio da Luz, which, from what i have read, is 4 years away from fully paying for itself.
The historic mark is the 5,000 Benfica goal, which the team is now 1 goal from.

The team continues to grow, and even though sometimes mediocre performances will win you games, mediocrity shouldn't be something Benfica should settle or be happy with. There's a clear deficiency and naivety of the team to put the game on ice, and there's plenty of ways to put games on ice or to kill games. Benfica has players capable of doing this, why they fail to do it is beyond me. Still the season is young and there's a long road ahead. Let's hope the team can pick up on this momentum starter and continue to improve and grow.