Pescadores 2 - 3 Sporting (Juniors Round 4)

Goal Scorers:

Alison Almeida at the 19th minute.
Daniel Carriço at the 38th minute.
Fábio Paim at the 60th minute.

Substitutions:

Tiago Pinto (Left-Back) replaces Vasco Campos at the 45th minute.
Yannick Pupu (Playmaker) replaces Alison Almeida at the 60th minute.
Bruno Matias (Forward) replaces Fábio Paim at the 75th minute.

Junior Championship after 4 games (360 minutes):

Daniel Carriço, 360 minutes.
Marco Lança, 360 minutes.
João Martins, 360 minutes.
João Gonçalves, 346 minutes.
Ricardo Nogueira, 330 minutes.
André Pires, 321 minutes.
Fábio Paim, 311 minutes.
Alison Almeida, 296 minutes.
Vasco Campos, 285 minutes.
Rui Patricio, 270 minutes.
Rui Figueiredo, 270 minutes.
Adrien Silva, 99 minutes.
André Martins, 90 minutes.
Bruno Matias, 89 minutes.
Tiago Pinto, 75 minutes.
Yannick Pupo, 30 minutes.
André Cacito, 29 minutes.
Vivaldo Arrais, 20 minutes.
André Santos, 19 minutes.

Top Scorers:

Daniel Carriço, 3 goals (in 360 minutes).
Fábio Paim, 2 goals (in 311 minutes).
Bruno Matias, 1 goal (in 89 minutes).
Alison Almeida, 1 goal (in 296 minutes).
Ricardo Nogueira, 1 goal (in 330 minutes).

Bookings:

João Martins, 2 Yellow Cards.
Marco Lança, 1 Yellow Card.
Ricardo Nogueira, 1 Yellow Card.

Observations:

I've said it before twice and I'll say it again this team is clearly weaker than last year's. Vasco Campos and Rui Figueiredo are both weaker than André Nogueira at Right-Back, João Martins is weaker than Zezinando Correia at Defensive Midfielder, Alison and Paim are too similar and neither of the 2 is the sort of winger that makes diagonals to score goals like David Caiado was and lastly Ricardo Nogueira is no Diogo Tavares.

If we looked uninspired last week Vs Portimonense then this weak we looked downright pitiful, we really looked very beatable against a weak team. This was in part due to some tactical and individual mistakes but beyond that it's clear to see that this team is different than last year in it's composition and different in the sense we are more unbalanced in talent and weaker overall.

The real major mistake here was placing João Gonçalves at DM and João Martins at "Inside-Right" this is hardly the first time that Professor Luis Martins decided to start JM6 out of DM only to realise his mistake and switch him to DM at half-time. It's not just that JM6 was out of his position but what trully scared me was watching João Gonçalves playing at DM, our defensive midfield was awfull and Pescadores soon started bombing out long balls from it's keeper straight to our defensive midfield where we were clueless.

Individually I also must chastise JG8 (João Gonçalves), Pescadores first goal happens because JG8 is caught 10 yards ahead of our box and instead of putting the ball out of the pitch, bombing it out forward or even making a delayed ball backward pass to his keeper he instead decide to actually driblle the ball backwards in the direction of his Goal-Keeper only to lose it outside the box and pretty much making the assist for Pescadores goal. Unforgivable showmanship.

Had JM6 started the game at DM I think there would have been a lot more pressure in our defensive midfield and we wouldn't have suffered those goals, JG8 doesn't have the tactical culture to play in that position.

André Martins played at GK and Tiago Jorge was his sub, André Martins looked about 25% of the quality that Rui Patricio usually shows, would we have suffered those 2 goals with RP on our goal? Maybe but frankly I don't think so, AM shakes like a leaf on a tree and comes out of goal too much and too soon, he looked very poor in this game, very poor indeed.

And lastly Ricardo Nogueira again showed he is no Diogo Tavares, he is shorter in stature, he is physically weaker, he doesn't press anywhere as much, he keeps falling to the flanks instead of unmarking himself in the box. When Bruno Matias came on we could see the difference in dynamic of movement and pressing between one and the other.

If we play like this next week against Benfica we are in deep trouble. Enough with the mistakes, João Martins must play at DM and André Cacito has to be our striker and maybe gambling on Adrien Silva instead of João Gonçalves wouldn't be such a bad idea either.

Similar to last week when Tiago Pinto comes on to replace Vasco Campos (who was at Right-Back) Tiago Pinto goes to Left-Back and Rui Figueiredo who was at Left-Back again switched to Right-Back.

Same as last week André Pires started as Inside-Left and JM6 as Inside-Right but they kept switching positions and in the 2nd half with André Pires remaining at "Inside-Left" and João Gonçalves went to "Inside-Right" but they also kept switching positions.
Fábio Paim started on the right wing and Alison on the left flank both they also switched often to confuse Pescadores' Full-Backs who were marking them.

When there's a deadball situation outside the opposition's box we always see the 2 Full-Backs remain in the midfield line (the 2 Centre-Backs go forward to provide heading ability) but in the closing moments of the game with a tight victory at hand we saw that Marco Lança also remained at the midfield line as Professor Luis Martins did not want to take any chances and only sent 7 men into the opposition's side of the pitch and kept 3 "safeties" at the mid-line
When there's a deadball situation on our side only Fábio Paim and Alison Almeida stay in the midfield line in case a counter-attack opportunity comes up beyond them everybody else drops down to our box to help defend.

We played in our usual 4-1-2-3 variant of a 4-3-3 and we stayed with it up untill Yannick Pupo (YP16) entered the game and then the system did indeed change as we switched to a 4-1-4-1 with João Martins at DM, João Gonçalves, Yannick Pupo, André Pires (AP10) and Fábio Paim in the midfield line and Ricardo Nogueira ahead of them. When Bruno Matias came on the system switched yet again, this time to a 4-1-3-2 with JM6 at DM, JG8, YP16, AP10 all 3 in midfield and Ricardo Nogueira and Bruno Matias up front with Nogueira on the left and Matias on the right of a 2 striker system.

MOM: João Martins.
Frankly nobody played that well today but JM6 is a real bulldog and deserves mentioning.
Rui Figueiredo for a kid that just turned 17 years of age 12 days ago played well and now has 270 minutes of a possible 360 in this Championship, interesting attacking Full-Back that can play in either flank.

Bookings:

João Martins received a Yellow Card at the 86th minute.

The boys getting ready to go to work

Inside the media center section of the stands. There weren't even any chairs to sit on, LOL

Captain Carriço talking with the referee

Rui Figueiredo and Vasco Campos securing the midfield during a dead-ball situation

Some of my notes, without them where would I be?

André