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My apologies once again for not keeping the blog current, but personal and professional commitments sometimes speak louder.
With that out of the way i got a little bit of catching up to do. Last time i posted was on the eve of Benfica's Europa League debut, since then, not only did Benfica start their European campaign in the best way possible way, but they have also added two wins in their quest for domestic glory.


Let's take in parts.....

Europa League
There were many that thought that the group that Benfica was drawn into could have been a little easier. I, on the other hand, thought and still think, that the group couldn't have been better. I am of the opinion that if you are drawn into a group with mediocre teams you end up stooping down to their level.
With that into consideration, Benfica's group couldn't have been better. Everton, AEK and Bate aren't necessarily your powerhouses but they are also at a respectable level that will provide Benfica plenty of challenging matches.
Benfica opened up against Bate, in a game where JJ decided to give Aimar and Quim the night off.
The big surprises in the starting 11 were Julio Cesar, Nuno Gomes and Felipe Menezes. Menezes took over the 10 position while Gomes relegated Saviola to the bench, Julio Cesar was once again picked ahead of Moreira,.
Benfica won the game comfortably, as they should have, with a 2-0 result built in the first half by Cardozo and Nuno Gomes.
With the win Benfica, confirmed their favoritism on paper and avoided starting the group stages in compromising fashion...
Next Up, a difficult trip to Greece to play AEK.

Away Game vs Leiria
With only a few days of rest Benfica traveled to Leiria in a game that featured the best attack and the best defense of the early stages of the league. This time Keirrison got the start ahead of Cardozo along side Saviola. In a stadium that registered their biggest attendance in 5 years(22,676), mostly Benfiquistas, Benfica started well and at the 4 minute mark were already up 1-0 courtesy of Saviola. What seemed like turning out to be an easy game became more complicated as David Luiz gave the home team the tying goal. Leiria defended well, and Benfica fought long and hard to find holes in the well organized defensive lines. Benfica's go ahead goal ended up coming in the 78th minute following a penalty on Aimar. A penalty that was contested by the home team, but that in my opinion was a clear foul.
Benfica struggled to win the game but never gave up looking for the win, and fought hard to come away with the win, which in the end was the just result.
On the Keirrison watch, nothing new, the young Brazilian continues to fail to make a real impression, even though there is a visible evolution in his adaptation to Benfica's game.

Home Game vs Leixoes.
This past Saturday, Benfica returned home to face Leixoes, in a weekend where porto and Sporting faced each other, Benfica had the perfect opportunity to gain points, provided off course, they could beat Leixoes. With that though in mind, perhaps it's no surprise that JJ fielded his best 11. Ramires and Javi Garcia who had been reported as doubtful for the game, made the game roster and started along with Quim, Maxi, Luisao, David Luiz, Peixoto, Aimar, DiMaria, Cardozo and Saviola.
Set in defending and stopping Benfica, Leixoes came out playing hard and fouling as the best way to stop Benfica. In the first half, the Leixoes men managed to pick up 5 yellow cards, one of them a double yellow, that left Benfica in numerical advantage after the 27th minute. Fouling, simulated injuries, and decision arguing ultimately rewarded Benfica with 5 minutes of extra time, and it was in those 5 minutes that Benfica got the opening goal.

Coming out of the locker room up 1 goal and against 10 men, the second half looked to be a lot different as the Leixoes men would now have to open up and look to come out of their own half despite being a man down. benfica came out strong again and quickly pushed Leixoes into their half. The second goal came from a penalty after Aimar was brought down in the box following a good combination play. The player that commited the foul picked up the a red, as Aimar was going to be 1 on 1 with the keeper. Cardozo converted and everything became much easier for Benfica, who would get goals in the 75th(Ramires),82nd(Maxi),89th(Cardozo), to obtain their 6th win in 7 matches for the Liga Sagres.

Leixoes can't complain about the referee and their fate in this game, as the aggressive behavior of their players was visible since the dtart of the game.
I find comical that the visitors coach commented on the referee's attitude towards his team, stating that the referee should have been a bit more of an adviser and shown some more leniency towards his players, being that they are inexperienced. The referee's warnings were visible, and there were quite a few plays where more cards could have come out. The fact that Leixoes is the team that fouls the most in the Liga Sagres is no coincidence.

The current wave of enthusiasm felt by the fans, is visible as 42,000 plus were once again in attendance, and how can they not be excited about this team? The team plays an attractive style of futebol, they score, and the fans leave the stadium feeling good about what they saw.

Next up is the second game of the Europa League with a difficult trip to Greece, a win is very much an attainable result, and the fans expect no less than this team.

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Catching Up

With professional and personal obligations taking most of my time during these past 3 weeks, i was unable to post, and for that I apologize. Things seem to have slowed down a bit, and hopefully I will be able to return to my regular porting frequency. In the mean time I wanted to write down some thoughts on these past 3 weeks, starting with the slip up against Guimaraes, that seriously compromised our league title aspirations, to today's game against Estrela.


The Guimaraes Game

Heading into the Guimaraes game having beaten them 4 previous times, was not an indication of automatic "W". Instead the 4 previous wins only served as a sort of mulligan to Guimaraes, who finally got it right. The loss couldn't have came at a worst time, and I would probably trade all the other wins, even the one in the league cup semifinal, for this one. Our team showed their inabilities to put a good game together, once again, and they paid for not being effective in the attacking third. A defensive mental lapse gave one of the few opportunities to Guimaraes and unlike us, they were effective. With Porto's win later on that day we saw the gap increase to 5 points with 8 games left, and our chances for the title diminish.


League Cup Final


In the wake of the Guimaraes disappointing loss, the team started getting ready for the final of the league cup. Despite being in its second year, and considered by many fans of the big three teams as a competition of less importance, much because of the way it has been organized, the league cup is a trophy no less and Benfica wasn't about take this game any less serious than the games they have been playing for the league. In the days prior to the match there was much talk about the referee that had been named for this game. Lucilio Baptista was the name chosen, and if you bother to do the research, you will see the that Lucilio has a clear bias against Benfica. Out of all of the referee's, active and non active, Lucilio is the referee that has shown Benfica players the most yellow and most red cards. He has also called the most fouls and penalties against Benfica than any other referee. In the 38 Benfica games he has officiated Benfica has only won 17. So it's easy to the the apprehensiveness in which we approached the game, and the league's referee nomination. We all know how the game turned out as Benfica got the tying goal from an inexistent penalty, took the game to penalties, and won the league cup in the penalty shoot out.
It's almost ironic that the man who has been our worst enemy so many times, ended up benefiting us in this game. Perhaps a little bit of karma, even though, five other penalties in the same circumstances could not level the disparity in which this individual has hurt Benfica with his biased refereeing. A word has to go out to Quim, as he started and saved 2 penalties to give Benfica the trophy.

Honestly, I don't like winning games like this, as it was clearly a gross error by the referee that gave us a chance to win this game, but taking into consideration Mr Baptista's track record, and the times Benfica has been a victim of bad calls, i'll gladly accept the win and the trophy.
Bad news came at the end of the game has Suazo picked up an injury and needed to be undergo to surgery, which puts him out for the season.

Two weeks of down time, as World Cup Qualifying took precedence to domestic competition.
Our injury bad news continued, as Luisao was hurt playing for Brazil and is projected to be out for the next two Benfica games.
Two weeks to gather strenght and gain back focus on putting together a winning streak to take advantage of any slip ups from our competition.
In these two weeks, the talks about future Benfica players were at its highest, a sort of pre silly season if you may. 5-7 players are being placed at Benfica already for next season, with one of them being a keeper. I'm not going to waste your time writing about these rumors at this time, but promise to get into it at a later date, as many of these were fodder to sell newspapers.

Estrela - Benfica


Injury woes continue as Reyes, who had missed a couple of training sesssions last week, but had recuperated, re-injured himself this past friday and is unavailablefor the game against Estreal. Here's the list of players Quique called:

Keepers: Moreira and Quim;
Defender: Maxi Pereira, David Luiz, Jorge Ribeiro, Sidnei e Miguel Vítor;
Midfielders: Katsouranis, Aimar, Balboa, Rúben Amorim, Urreta, Binya, Di María, Carlos Martins and Yebda;
Forwards: Cardozo, Mantorras e Nuno Gomes.
Estrela has not practiced for the most part of the week, as the players continue to not seeing a paycheck. Nonetheless, a very important game for Benfica.
I will continue to believe, as long as it continues to mathematically be possible, but a anything other than a win tonight can very well shake my belief.

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