Brief summary of the season (in order):
Atalanta Centenary Tournament [winners]
Port of Rotterdam Tournament [winners]
Portuguese Super Cup [final]: FC Porto 0-1 Sporting CP (Izmailov 75')
Portuguese League Cup [3rd round]: CD Fatima 0-0 FC Porto (lost 4-2 on penalties)
Uefa Champions League [round of 16]: FC Porto vs FC Schalke 04 (1-1 on agg. / 1-4 on penalties)
BWIN Liga: Champions on MD 25.
Portuguese Cup [final]: FC Porto 0-2 Sporting, AET (Tiuí 110', 117')
We won the league, had a decent run in the CL, reached the final of the Cup, but lost it as well as the Super Cup. And we were humiliated in the mickey mouse cup by losing to second division Fatima. A good season as far as I'm concerned.
Analyzing the season by bits:
The Pre season
SC Irene-FC Porto, 0-10
FC Den Bosch-FC Porto, 0-4
Genk- FC Porto, 1-0
FC Porto-Mónaco, 2-1 - presentation match
Atalanta Tournament:
FC Porto-Red Star, 1-0 (45 mins)
FC Porto-Atalanta, 1-0 (45 mins)
Boavista-FC Porto, 0-3
Rotterdam Tournament:
FC Porto-Feyenoord, 0-0
FC Porto-Shangai Shenhua, 3-0.
We played some decent football in the pre season, nothing fancy but effective. We won 2 trophies which is always good. Our only loss was against Genk, in a match which was a daylight robbery, the ref was disgraceful. Ironically, it was Genk's presentation match..
We weren't really tested though, this pre season was pretty shitty in terms of the quality of our opponents.
Transfers
Players IN (Summer and January):
Lino (Académica Coimbra) - free transfer
Fernando (FC Goias) - 720.000 €
Edgar (SC Beira-Mar) - 2.000.000 €
Kaz (Pogon Stettin) - 1.400.000 €
Milan Stepanov (Trabzonspor) - 3.500.000 €
Luis Aguiar (Liverpool FC Monteviedéo) - 900.000 €
Jorge Fucile (Liverpool FC Monteviedéo) - 400.000 €
Tarik Sektioui (RKC Waalwijk) - returned from loan
Mario Bolatti (Belgrano de Cordoba) - 2.000.000 €
Mariano (Palermo) - loan, 1.200.000 €
Leandro Lima (São Caetano) - 1.500.000 €
Ernesto Antonio Farias (River Plate) - 4.000.000 €
Rabiola (Vitória Guimarães) - 800.000 €
Hélder Barbosa (Académica Coimbra) - recalled from loan
Players OUT:
Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen) - 3.500.000 €
Anderson (Manchester United) - 31.500.000 €
Ricardo Costa (VfL Wolfsburg) - 4.000.000 €
Pepe (Real Madrid) - 30.000.000 €
Lucas Armando Mareque (CA Independiente) - 1.400.000 €
Hélder Postiga (Panathinaikos Athen) - 250.000 €
Edgar (Académica Coimbra) - loan
Luis Aguiar (Académica Coimbra) - loan
Balance: 53.030.000 €
So as you can see above, it was a pretty poor transfer season for Porto. we lost 2 key players in Pepe and Anderson, but we signed no class ones, even though we made a profit of over 50m €. Our most expensive signings were an unknown Serbian center-back and an Argentinian striker whose first experience in Europe was at Palermo where he played 27 matches and scored zero goals. And again we didn't sign a proper LB to solve our chronicle LB problem. We haven't had a top class LB in over 10 seasons, our last decent one was Nuno Valente (4 years ago).
Portuguese Super Cup
And Jesualdo strikes again.
Lucho wasn't available for this one, so Jesualdo decided to play in a never before seen 4-3-3 with 3 DM's and a huge hole between midfield and attack, as shown above:
............................Helton
Bosingwa....P.Emanuel...B.Alves....Fucile
.......Meireles........P.Assunçao.....Cech
[A HOLE OF 60 METERS]
...Lisandro...........Adriano.........Quaresma
We were crap from start to finish, didn't clear a single clear cut chance, all this due to Jesualdo's cluelessness for playing 3 DM's and long balls to Adriano. We only started playing some decent football when Mariano, Leandro and Kaz were brought on, for Adriano, Cech and Meireles. We finally had a decent midfield and create one chance when Kaz hit the post after a fantastic left footed strike.
All in all, Sporting deserved to win this one, in a very poor start of the season for Porto.
Portuguese League Cup:
Not much to say really, we lost in our first match against Fatima. We played with all our reserves and then lost on a penalty shoot-out.
I don't really care though, this is just a mickey mouse cup.
Champions League
Group stage:
1. Porto - 11 pts
2. Liverpool - 10 pts
3. Marseille - 7 pts
4. Besiktas - 6 pts
Our run in the group stage was great. We finished in first place in the group for the first time since 1986, had a good home record (2 wins and 1 draw). Away from home though, we weren't so good, a 4-1 loss against Liverpool (albeit with a match vs Benfica at the weekend which was a lot more important), a 1-1 draw against Marseille (where Marseille's goalscorer should have been sent off.. twice!) and a 1-0 win in Turkey, against Besiktas (Quaresma with a last-minute goal).
Knockout stages:
Schalke 1-0 Porto
Porto 1-0 Schalke, Schalke won 4-1 on penalties.
Well, the match in Germany was a pretty poor display, another tactical error from Jesualdo. In Portugal, we could have and should have won. We had at least 5 very good goalscoring chances, we were just not ruthless enough in front of goal and were unlucky that Neuer had the match of his life. On penalties, the Germans always win.
It was a pretty disappointing way to be eliminated from the CL, I think we would have reached the semi-finals if we had beaten Schalke, because quite frankly, we would have beaten Barcelona, the way they played against Schalke.
We could have done better this season but it wasn't a bad display, we were eliminated but with our heads held high.
BWIN Liga
1. FC Porto 75 (-6) pts
2. Sporting 55 pts
3. V. Guimarães 53 pts
4. Benfica 52 pts
30 games: 24 win, 3 draws, 3 losses, 60 goal scored, 13 conceded.
Complete domination as you can see. Without the 6 pts we were deducted due to the Golden Whistle case, we would have finished with a 20 point lead. We also had the best attack in the league and the best defence.
Our home record was brilliant, only 1 draw against Belenenses (1-1) and 1 loss against Nacional (3-0), however, when we played Nacional, we were already champions. We won all the other home matches and didn't concede a single goal.
This years' league had no story really, it was basically Porto winning all matches right from the start (with one or two slip-ups) and then winning the league on MD 25.
Against the big 3, we finished with a decent record. We beat Benfica in both matches, beat Sporting at home but lost away (thanks to Jesualdo once again...).
All in all, this season was a bit boring, Porto playing in a different league from everybody else. While we were winning our matches, Sporting and Benfica were dropping points and Guimaraes took advantage of that to finish in 3rd place.
CHAMPIONS 
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Portuguese Cup
4th Round: Desp. Chaves 0-2 FC Porto
5th Round: FC Porto 2-0 Desp. Aves
6th Round: Sertanense 0-4 FC Porto
Quarter-finals: FC Porto 1-0 Gil Vicente
Semi-finals: V. Setúbal 0-3 FC Porto
Final: FC Porto 0-2 Sporting, AET (Tiuí 110', 117')
Pretty easy draws until the semi-finals, we won all matches with relative ease. Against Setubal, we played our strongest line-up for the first time in cup matches and we totally owned Setubal, they couldn't create a single chance at goal.
Now against Sporting, that was a totally different story...
We were crap, that is undeniable, Sporting played better and deserved to win. But, the ref was atrocious, that is also undeniable.
On Porto, Jesualdo tried another of his stupid inventions, which again lead to a defeat. We couldn't count on Bosingwa (Chelsea didn't allow him to play) but that is no excuse for Jesualdo to make such a stupid decision of playing a right-footed center-back, at LB.. it just doesn't make any sense, specially when there's Lino in the roster who started in the last 4 matches. To make this worse, Joao Paulo (the new LB of Portuguese football), got sent off after a two-footed challenge on Moutinho (however, I must say that Joao Paulo didn't even touch Moutinho who clearly took advantage of the situation to do a bit of acting)...
On the ref, Olegario proved again why he is one of the shittiest refs in the history of Portuguese football, countless dodgy calls and mostly in favour of Sporting (again, no excuse, it's our fault that we lost this one). I'll name the most important ones:
- Romagnoli's wrongly called for offside (against Sporting)
- Joao Paulo's challenge, not a red card IMO (against Porto)
- Polga with a shoulder block on Lisandro inside the box, but no penalty (against Porto)
- Bruno Alves with an elbow on Djalo, no foul (against Sporting)
- Quaresma with a slap on Moutinho, no card (against Sporting)
- Polga with a slidding tackle inside the box on Lisandro that was nowhere near the ball, but no penalty (against Porto)
- Grimi with 2 ridiculous challenges on Quaresma, both worse than Joao Paulo's red card offense, but no card shown (against Porto)
- Paulo Assunção booked on the 20th minute for a very soft foul, right after one of Grimi's shocking tackles.. (against Porto)
And I could go on and on..
Regardless of how shit the ref was, I'll say it again, Sporting deserved to win this one.
As most of you know, I don't give a shit about the cup, for me it's a pointless and badly organized competition, so I don't really care whether we win it or not.
Player ratings (from 0 to 10):
- Helton - 7.5 -> His worst season yet for Porto. Had some great games but also some very poor performances which cost us a lot. He screwed up against Liverpool at Anfield, against Sporting at Alvalade and against Schalke at the Gelsenkirchen. If he plays like this again next season, I say sell him.
- Nuno - 7 -> Was very good in all matches he played, except one (against Setubal, but we were already champions at the time). He showed he can perform on the big stage, his performances vs Liverpool and Sporting come to mind.
- Hugo Ventura - NR -> Only played one match for the first team, but he was pretty good. He'll be loaned out next season, so I hope he plays regularly and returns in 2009 to take over the goal.
- José Bosingwa - 8.5 -> Had a great season, one of our most influential players. Doesn't get a 9 because again he had some disciplinary problems throughout the season.
- Jorge Fucile - 5.5 -> Very disappointing season IMO, he was supposedly the answer to our LB problems, but he was crap all season.
- Bruno Alves - 9.5 -> Absolute beast, the heart and soul of that defence. IMO he was better than Pepe.
- Pedro Emanuel - 8 -> The captain had a great season, after returning from injury, he proved why he is still with us. Always leading the backline and giving the orders to the rest of his team mates.
- Milan Stepanov - 4.5 -> He looked decent in his first matches but then shown some sort of handball fetish. He handled the ball in 3 consecutive matches, before getting benched for good.
- Lino - 6 -> Only played a handful of games, but he shown he is good enough to stay with us at least one more season, he looked pretty decent.
- Marek Cech - 4 -> I never rated this guy so I wasn't too bothered to see him getting benched. Whenever he played, he showed exactly why he is a reserve.
- João Paulo - 3 -> Abysmal season, was shit in all matches he played. His red card against Sporting will forever be remembered.
- Paulo Assunção - 9.5 -> Absolute class. One of our 5 most crucial players, he had a brilliant season and prove why he is one of the top 10 DM's in Europe.
- Mario Bolatti - 4 -> Very disappointing throughout the season, he was poor in pretty much all matches he played.
- Kazmierczak - 5.5 -> He had very few chances to prove himself and on the ones he had, he showed he wasn't match fit (due to lack of playing time) therefore couldn't show all his ability.
- Raul Meireles - 8.5 -> Still can't pass to save his life, but he has tremendous heart and gives it all on the pitch. I may not rate his ability, but one thing I can't accuse him of not doing and that is working his socks off in every single match. He runs miles per match and never stops running until the final whistle.
- Lucho Gonzalez - 9 -> Our midfield engine, he makes all other players play 5 times better. Genius on the ball and works hard off the ball. He wasn't as awesome as last season, he got more assists, but scored very few goals.
- Castro - NR -> Played 2 matches, about 60 minutes on the pitch. He showed good passing skills and his chasing and closing down is pretty good. I think he'll become class if given enough chances.
- Leandro Lima - 4.5 -> Very promising player, he showed he has skills. Was played out of position IMO, on the only match he played where he should play, and that is behind the strikers, he was great and started the play which led to Quaresma's last-minute winner against Besiktas.
- Mariano Gonzalez - 6.5 -> Absolutely atrocious in the first-half of the season, always losing the ball by dribbling himself and falling on his arse or by making a terrible pass when his teammates was just 4 meters away. But he never quit, always showed a lot of will and his work rate is phenomenal. As the season progressed, he proved himself and had a handful of good performances. A good impact sub.
- Tarik Sektioui - 8 -> Great season he had, proved us all wrong. He was very important in the first-half of the season, scoring many goals. After returning from the ACN, he was a bit poor in some matches, but was still important. His winning goal against Leixoes comes to mind.
- Ricardo Quaresma - 8.5 -> Not his best season for Porto, there were many matches where he was anonymous, yet he contributed a lot for our success this season. The numbers tell their own story really, 10 goals and 12 assists, from about 40 appearances. Last season he had a better record and was more influential, this season he was rather disappointing, but still very important important.
- Helder Barbosa - 5 -> He had a great first-half of the season at Academica, he scored 4 goals and made 6 assists. When he returned to Porto, he barely played, only 10/15 minutes a match. Got just 4 appearances. Hopefully he is given more chances next season, he could be our Quaresma replacement.
- Lisandro Lopez - 9.5 -> 27 goals for the season pretty much tell their own storry really. He started the season as winger, but Postiga was poor and so was Adriano, so Jesualdo decided to play Lisandro as striker. Turned out to be a great move.
- Helder Postiga - 4.5 -> Very poor. Scored a goal in the league and one in the cup, but that's basically it. Was poor in Greece as well from what I read. I really like him, but he needs to get his act together and start playing football again!
- Adriano - 5 -> He was crucial in our last 2 seasons, but this season he was a shadow of himself. Scored just 2 goals in about 15 matches, whereas last season he scored 17 goals from 23 matches..
- Ernesto Farias - 7 -> Barely played on the first-half of the season but then he returned and proved himself. He scored 6 goals in 3 matches, Farias was on fire, but then lost his inspiration. Only scored again after 3 months, in the last 2 league matches of the season. Still, a positive debut season.
- Rabiola - NR -> Made 4 appearances for Guimaraes and scored a goal, which was the winner vs Setubal. Then we recalled him from the loan but he didn't get a chance to play as he got injured.
- Edgar - 3.5 -> He played just once and made an assist, then disappeared for some reason.. We then loaned him out to Academica in January where he scored 5 goals.
Evaluation of Jesualdo Ferreira's work:
Well, we completely dominated the league, but again Jesualdo proved his tactical ineptability.. Whenever he changed our formation or played someone in a different position, we either struggled to win or ended up losing...
- Against Sporting in the Super Cup (explained under the Super Cup part)
- Against Liverpool at Anfield, we played in something between a 4-5-1 / 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-1-2, guess what, we were crushed 4-1. The most humiliating loss in CL, I can remember, ever since I'm a Porto fan (so that's over 10 years).
- Against Belenenses, he changed our regular 4-3-3, by starting Postiga ahead of Tarik and pushing Lisandro to the wing. We dropped points for the first time and at home..
- Against Sporting in the league, I'm still puzzled as to why he started Cech in midfield (he is shit in his natural position of LB, let alone LM..) and why he played that stupid diamond. There was absolutely no need for that, we've been doing great in a 4-3-3 ffs, why change ?! And even if I thought that the diamond was good, he couldn't have played Cech in that position, very poor choice. Why you'll ask, because our midfield was completely disorganized. We were railing our entire play through the left flank, but it never worked because that area was too crowded with Fucile, Cech and Meireles stumbling at each other (Meireles should, supposedly, be playing at RM, but he is shit on the right and likes to play LCM like in the 4-3-3..). Plus, Bosingwa was alone in the right flank against 2 Sporting players, which limited the amount of runs down the flank, he made throughout the match. Also, Sporting's first goal came from the left, Bosingwa was alone against 2 Sporting players..
The midfield was nonexistent, Lucho didn't know whether to go right or center, Quaresma didn't know if he had to play in the center, move to the left or to the right, he was on a free role and we suffered from that.
Jesualdo must understand that real life is not like Football Manager, the players have routines are used to the 4-3-3, they can't just adapt to a new system in a matter of 4 days...
Then he finally made a good call by playing Farias in the second half, but he had to screw that up as well, by pushing Lisandro to the right and Quaresma to the left. WHY ??? We were awesome with Farias-Lisandro-Quaresma (left-center-right) against Braga, why not do that again ?
He then made it worse, by bringing on Mariano, that guy is so shit. Doesn't do anything right. Why not bringing on Barbosa earlier ? A left footed player would have been very useful I'm sure..
- Against Nacional, we played in a sort of 4-2-2-2 or whatever and were absolutely poor, nonexistent up front and lost.
- Against Sporting in the Portuguese Cup (explained under the Portuguese Cup part)
Rating (1 out of 10):
5.5
Player Awards:
Player of the season -> Lisandro Lopez
27 goals for the season, I don't think I need to add anything else.
Most consistent player -> Paulo Assunção
He is the anchor of our midfield and one of our key players, covers a huge area and gives Lucho all the space he needs to roam. I can be laughed at, but I honestly don't care, for me Assunçao is easily a top 10 DM in the world at the moment.
I know that someone will mention Lisandro and how many goals he scored, but Assunçao is yet to have a bad game, at least I don't remember any and I watched every single match this season. Plus, he is usually one of our best players in every single match, even when we play like shit, esp @ Anfield.
According to a stat on RTP's show, Trio de Ataque, Assunçao recovers 9.8 balls per match and misses just 1.2 passes (best average in the team, ahead of Lucho!). Fucking brilliant if you ask me.
Athlete of the year -> Raul Meireles
Not the most technically gifted individual, but he has tremendous heart, he never stops running. Phenomenal work rate. He deserves this award for the commitment he puts in all matches he plays.
Revelation of the year -> Tarik Sektioui
After a very disappointing debut season, where he played 3 matches and then was loaned out in January, Tarik returned to Porto and proved he is a quality player.
Most disappointing player -> Jorge Fucile
Was our signing of the year last season, but this season he was atrocious in my honest opinion.
Most overrated player (by the media & the fans) -> Jorge Fucile
(see above) & for some reason, the media rates his performances and most of the fans think he is great.
Most underrated player (by the media & the fans ) -> Ricardo Quaresma
Well, not his best season, but he is there when we need him. Fact.
He won us several matches by himself throughout the season, against Braga away, against Benfica, against Besiktas, etc.
But still many people thought it was good to boo Quaresma and openly criticize him for his poor displays.. Honestly, all the criticism towards Quaresma is just.. amazing. I'm astonished at how ungrateful most Porto fans have been towards Quaresma this season. Yes he hasn't been our best player like in the season before, but he still has a pretty good share of goals and assists. His stats for the season:
12 assists, 10 goals.
The only match he didn't play was the match against Nacional. And we were absolutely poor, couldn't string 2 passes together and didn't create a single chance at goal. Just shows you the importance of Quaresma. Even if he isn't at his best, his presence still makes a difference.
Best signing -> Ernesto Farias
Most of our signings weren't too good, so Farias' 9 goals earn him the award of signing of the season.
Worst signing -> Milan Stepanov
Considering the price we paid and his performances, he was by far our worst signing.
Top scorer -> Lisandro Lopez - 27 goals
Top assister -> Lucho Gonzalez - 18 assists
Full list:
Quote:
Top scorers, all comps:
1. Lisandro Lopez - 27 goals (24 league goals + 3 CL goals)
2. Ricardo Quaresma - 10 goals (6 league goals + 2 CL goals + 1 Cup goal)
3. Ernesto Farias - 9 goals (6 league goals + 3 Cup goals)
4. Tarik Sektioui- 9 goals (6 league goals + 2 CL goals + 1 Cup goal)
5. Lucho Gonzalez - 8 goals (3 league goals + 3 CL goals + 2 Cup goals)
6. Raul Meireles - 4 goals (4 league goals)
7. Mariano Gonzalez - 2 goal (1 league goals)
8. Helder Postiga - 2 goals (1 league goal + 1 Cup goal)
9. Bruno Alves - 2 goals (2 league goals)
10. Adriano - 2 goals (1 league goal + 1 Cup goal)
11. Joao Paulo - 1 goal (1 league goal)
12. Przemyslaw Kazmierczak - 1 goal (1 Cup goal)
13. Jose Bosingwa - 1 goal (1 league goal)
Top assisters, all comps:
1. Lucho Gonzalez - 18 assists
2. Ricardo Quaresma - 12 assists
3. Raul Meireles - 5 assists
4. Ernesto Farias - 4 assists
5. Mariano Gonzalez - 4 assists
6. Tarik Sektioui - 4 assists
7. Przemyslaw Kazmierczak - 3 assists
7. Lino - 3 assists
8. Lisandro Lopez - 2 assists
9. Bruno Alves - 2 assists
10. Paulo Assunçao - 2 assists
11. Marek Cech - 2 assists
12. Adriano - 2 assists
13. Leandro Lima - 1 assist
14. Jose Bosingwa - 1 assist
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