Sporting 3 - 1 Benfica (Juniors Round 5)

Goal Scorers:

João Martins at the 3rd minute (a BOMB of a FK).
Alison Almeida at the 44th minute.
Ricardo Nogueira at the 52nd minute.

Substitutions:

Adrien Silva (Midfielder) replaces Fábio Paim at the 67th minute.
Bruno Matias (Forward) replaces Yannick Pupo at the 70th minute.
André Cacito (Striker) replaces Alison Almeida at the 80th minute.

Bookings:

João Gonçalves received a Yellow Card.
Daniel Carriço received a Yellow Card.
João Martins received a Yellow Card.

Observations:

It is the task of the coach to utilize all his players so that they all have a chance to develop and not just field the best possible XI every time out.
Today Vs a serious opponent we got to see a different XI from Professor Luis Martins, an indication of what he trully considers his strongest XI for game hehad to win.
So today Vasco Campos was not in the XI and neither was André Pires but Ricardo Nogueira remained there which surprised me. And lastly João Martins thankfully started in the DM role in an XI with 10 2nd year Juniors and with only 1 "Baby" in Rui Figueiredo.

Yannick Pupo is right footed, when he needs to pass from right to left he uses the inside of his right foot, when he needs to pass left to right he uses the outside of his right foot, could he be another "trivela passer"?
His passes with the outside of the foot showed very good passing ability. Plus in his debut as a starter Yannick showed he's got no problems in helping out in defense at all, often dropping way back to help his colleagues. Not a great debut in the starting XI but some good indications.

Rui Figueiredo played well and he already has 360 minutes in 450 possible ones. When Rui Figueiredo plays with Vasco Campos he is the attacking Full-back but today with Tiago Pinto in the XI it was obvious that Tiago Pinto was on offense a lot more.
Rui is a good player but he is not that fast, he often gets beat on the sprint if he's trying to double-back to tackle the opposing winger he often gets beat on speed. The goal we suffered came from our right corridor where Rui was and in the last 30 minutes Benfica put all their attacks through that flank as they realised RF5 was the weakest link in our defense but eventually Captain Carriço realised that and he started dropping further to the right to double up RF2.

Usually when there's a dead ball situation on the opposition's side we see Luis Martins leave only the 2 Full-Backs at the midfield line to secure from a possible fast counter but today it was not uncommon to see 3 men securing the midfield line, the combination of Tiago Pinto, Rui Figueiredo and João Gonçalves was often used and Carriço also dropped back to combine with the 2 Full-backs but very rarely were there only 2 elements a sign that today's opponents were more than the average foe.
When the dead ball situation is on our side the 2 elements in midfield (preparing to start a possible counter) are as usual Fábio Paim and Alison Almeida.

When Sporting has the ball and is on offense the system is 4-1-2-3 with João Martins at DM and Yannick and João Gonçalves in midfield but when the team goes into an ofense-defense transition it switches to a 4-2-1-3 and the shifting part is João Gonçalves who switches from pairing with Yannick and drops back to pair up with João Martins.
Again today JG8 showed he is not suited for defensive tasks and keeps using short, grass skimming pass when coming out of defense when the right thing to do would be to bomb it out of there.

Yannick was clearly the team's creative engine, João Martins is the sweeper in front of the Centre-Backs and João Gonçalves is the transition unit (ala Tiago Mendes) who helps carry the ball from JM to YP and helps Yannick when the team has the ball or helps JM when the team has lost ball possession.
JG8 has some outstanding technical quality to him, it would be interesting to see the team's 3 men midfield tested with João Martins at DM, Adrien Silva as the transition unit and João Gonçalves in the fantasista role, I think he's really suited for it and looks poor when asked to defend too much.

Ricardo Nogueira is simply not a Centre-Forward, he plays sort of like Liedson in the sense he's not an ofensive reference because he rarely stays in the centre up front (and when he does he plays too deep into the midfield), he keeps dropping to the flanks (particularly the right one) like he's winger masking as a striker and like Liedson once he's won the ball in the flank he crosses to the box but the question is who's he crossing to if you consider he's the team's striker?
He hasn't convinced me at all but he scored a goal today, he's not a pressurizing aggresive sort of player but he's got some guts and he sticks to it and eventually he got it.

Fábio Paim and Alison switched flanks often and "Inside-Left" Yannick also kept switching positions with "Inside-Right" João Gonçalves.

The left footed Free-Kicker is Tiago Pinto and the right footed FKer is João Martins, TP has good technique and JM has a rocket launcher of a right one.

Daniel Carriço is the zonal-marking Centre-Back who plays closer to Rui Patricio defending the box and Marco Lança is the Man-to-Man marker who often plays slightly ahead of DC3 to close out the distance between João Martins and his 2 Centre-Backs.

After Adrien Silva, Bruno Matias and André Cacito had all entered the game the system (which was confusing from Silva to Cacito's entrance) eventually settled on the initial 4-1-2-3 variation of the 4-3-3 only now with Adrien Silva as DM, João Gonçalves as "Inside-Left" and João Martins now as "Inside-Right" and with Bruno Matias as Left-Winger, André Cacito as Right-Winger and Ricardo Nogueira remained as the striker.

MOM: João Martins.
I have to give it to João Martins again. The kid is awesome, he pushed the team forward by distributing the ball quickly like a withdrawn "regista" and when João Gonçalves and Yannick go forward he shifts from the DM to Centre-Midfield to create a situation of numerial superiority in the oppositions's midfield as the team's pressing rises up the pitch.
When one of the Full-Backs goes forward he closes out that corridor by playing closer to it, if the opposing ball-carrier comes through the flanks he goes after him like he was a Full-Back and when he converts FKs you better get out of the way because he's got some right foot on him, a real BOMB.

I'd also like to mention Marco Lança, it's getting to be an habit for everybody to praise the more energetic, more charismatic, more exuberant Daniel Carriço and forget about ML4 but Marco Lança is a VERY good Centre-back, he isn't as flashy or noticeable as our Captain but he is calm, he bombs balls forward when he needs to, he's good in the air and always does all this with a composed demeanour like he's doing the easiest thing in the world and never gets his heart rate up.
Lança and Carriço form quite a tandem at the back and seeing them play together makes it easier to stomach the loss of Simão Coutinho (who is very busy these days with Gil Vicente's hectic schedulle).
I've said it before and I'll say it again, defensively Marco Lança is better than Daniel Carriço and together they complement each other very well, a real "Wall" in our back-line.

Junior Championship after 5 games (450 minutes):

Daniel Carriço, 450 minutes.
Marco Lança, 450 minutes.
João Martins, 450 minutes.
João Gonçalves, 436 minutes.
Ricardo Nogueira, 420 minutes.
Fábio Paim, 378 minutes.
Alison Almeida, 376 minutes.
Rui Patricio, 360 minutes.
Rui Figueiredo, 360 minutes.
André Pires, 321 minutes.
Vasco Campos, 285 minutes.
Tiago Pinto, 165 minutes.
Adrien Silva, 122 minutes.
Bruno Matias, 109 minutes.
Yannick Pupo, 100 minutes.
André Martins, 90 minutes.
André Cacito, 39 minutes.
Vivaldo Arrais, 20 minutes.
André Santos, 19 minutes.
Jorge Abreu, 0 minutes.

Top Scorers:

Daniel Carriço, 3 goals (in 450 minutes).
Alison Almeida, 2 goals (in 376 minutes).
Fábio Paim, 2 goals (in 378 minutes).
Ricardo Nogueira, 2 goals (in 420 minutes).
Bruno Matias, 1 goal (in 89 minutes).
João Martins,1 goal (in 450 minutes)

Bookings:

Bookings:

João Martins, 3 Yellow Cards.
Daniel Carriço, 1 Yellow Card.
João Gonçalves, 1 Yellow Card.
Marco Lança, 1 Yellow Card.
Ricardo Nogueira, 1 Yellow Card.

Daniel Carriço, Rui Patricio, Marco Lança, João Gonçalves, Rui Figueiredo, Tiago Pinto

Bruno Matias

Rui Lopes and André Pires

Professor Luis Martins

André