Benfica 3 - Celtic 1 - Fifth Trophy of the Season

Benfica won their fifth trophy of this young season by beating Celtic in the inaugural CNE Cup in Toronto. Benfica who, like Celtic, fielded a team of mostly second stringers and some cantera players, played well enough to deserve the win.Both the artificial turf and Benfica's second line conditioned the quality of the game, but Benfica were better than Celtic for the majority of the game.
With JJ worried about the artificial turf and the dangers to Benfica's regular starters, Celtic ended up being the real danger, as Ruben Amorim suffered a late game injury, and needed to be substituted after a hard challenge by a Celtic player, and that can be the real loss from tonight.


JJ Lined up the following 11:

Julio Cesar in goal. Luis Felipe, Sidnei, Roderick and Shaffer. Javi Garcia, Ruben Pinto, DiMaria and Cesar Peixoto were in the midfield. Up Front, it was Keirrison and Nelson Oliveira.

8 non-starters, two of them juniors. DiMaria was given the captain's armband, and was without a doubt the best player on the field.

Benfica started well and at the 2 minute mark were already up on the scoreboard. After a good play on the touchline by Nelson Oliveira, the ball hit the post and cleared to the top of the box where Kerrison picked up the rebound, to put Benfica ahead. Benfica showed themselves stronger and more dominating, with the already traditional high pressure this team his known for, but Celtic started playing their game, and leveled things off midway through the first half. Off course with the fears expressed by JJ about the turf, Luis Felipe was brought out of the game at the 20th minute after what seemed like a muscular injury.
The last 15 minutes of the first half were clearly Celtic's, and Benfica's only bright spot was DiMaria who delighted all of the fans in attendace. It was right at the end of the half that Celtic got the equalizer, after a 1-2 left the Celtic player one one with Julio Cesar who was able to stop a close range shot, on the rebound, Celtic found an open net.

In the second half, Celtic continued in the same way they ended the first half, faster, more concise and more dangerous. Benfica's defense held Celtic, and Benfica would end up putting an end to Celtic's domination, the best way possible. After a turn over, all caused by Benfica's high pressure, Di Maria "pulls" two players to himself and finds junior Ruben Pinto in the heart of the box by himself, the junior put Benfica ahead. The goal woke up Benfica, stop Celtic's domination, and Benfica would dominate the rest of the way.
Saviola got the third, after another excellent DiMaria play and shot, to which "El Conejo" put the final touch on, after picking up the rebound from the save.
It was all Benfica after the second goal, and Benfica could have very well scored more. Keirrison had a good chance after DiMaria and Saviola combined in the box, and found the Brazilian in a privileged position, the Brazilian took the defender out of the way with a subtle touch, but could not finish.
At the end of the game, Amorim had to be substituted as he was a victim of a hard tackle by a Celtic man. Amorim limped over the touch line and quickly signaled to Benfica's physio. Benfica's Physio signaled the bench as Amorim seemed to not be able to come back into the game. Let's hope it's nothing serious. Luis Felipe is out, Amorim is out, Maxi is out, we could be seeing Miguel Vitor at right back.

A couple ending thoughts, The refereeing was very poor, the amount of fouls not called against Celtic were a joke, while Benfica was called for every little thing. Although state of the art, and FIFA Approved, the artificial turf provides for quite a different game. With both teams not used to the playing surface i think the turf was a big factor to some of the poor quality of futebol played. A lot of missed passes and overplayed balls.

Good game for JJ to give players time. Julio Cesar made a couple of good saves but had very little work. Roderick is talented, and can be one of the best center backs Benfica has ever had. He still shows some inexperience but his quality is indisputable. Ruben Pinto played well, and showed himself confident, also a player to watch. Keirrison, has yet to have a performance that is convincing of the money the Barca has paid for him, but there's a noticeable evolution.

Oh yeah, did i mention DiMaria played well?
I hope i'm wrong, but this can very well be the last year we see DiMaria wearing the Sacred Mantle, if he keeps playing the way he's playing, it'll be very hard for Benfica to keep the young Argentinean.

#Photo Credit - AP