Vitória F.C - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Golden decade
The years from 1964 to 1974 may be considered Vitória's golden decade. In 1964/65 and 1966/67 Vitória won two Cup of Portugal, and another one was recently won in 2004/05. Those victories, resulting from ten presences in the competition finals (Final da Taça de Portugal), are among the club's greatest achievements. But Vitória had also several 3rd place finishes and a remarkable 2nd place in the 1971/72 National Championship. Back then, Vitória had some of the best Portuguese football players ever, like Jacinto João, José Augusto Torres and Vítor Baptista.
The magic of JJ's (Jacinto João) football in the match
Vitória FC 3 - Fiorentina 0.Still, in the most remarkable season of all time for Vitória the club earned merely a 3rd place: In the 1973/74 season Vitória de Setúbal ended 4 points behind the Champion, (Sporting, with Golden Boot winner who holds the record for the most goals scored in one season in Portugal, Yazalde), and 2 points behind the runner-up (Benfica with their best player ever, Eusébio). Despite that, people of Setúbal still argue that if Pedroto (the most successful manager to ever command the Sadinos) had not left the team in the middle of the season, Vitória FC would have had overcome its giant opponents and would have gone on to become the National Champion for the first time.
In those years Vitória disputed and won several tournaments around the world, making history with its quality of game, a wonder to football fans. Nowadays, the club is fighting to reach that kind of performance, inspired in the recent Portuguese cup conquest, as well the Iberian cup against Real Betis, and the three presences in the UEFA cup in the past six years.
[edit] UEFA raiders
Despite never winning the UEFA Cup, Vitória are always considered dangerous opposition. They are four times quarter-finalists, having defeating such powerful teams as Liverpool, Fiorentina, Anderlecht, Internazionale and Leeds United.
[edit] The 8th Army
The club supporters are known as Vitorianos or Sadinos. In 1943 on the occasion of Vitória's first Cup of Portugal final against Benfica, thousands of people from Setúbal invaded Lisbon and, notwithstanding the defeat by the score of 1-5, celebrated in a demonstration of fair play. In the next day's press, the people from Setúbal were nicknamed 8ºExército (the 8th Army) because of their massive following of the team, ending in a final journey to Lisbon -- all this in comparison with the British Eighth Army and its World War II massive campaign in Africa. Referring to this in the late 1990s, the first official supporters' association was baptized VIII Exército. They show great dedication to the club and are recognized as one of the most orderly organized supporters in Portugal. There used to be another supporters' association, the "Furacões Sadinos" which ceased to exist in 2007. They co-existed in peace with the "VIII Exército".
[edit] Derby: Vitória F.C. vs Vitória S.C.
There is a traditional quarrel between Vitória de Guimarães and Vitória de Setúbal, with both teams claiming to be the one and only "Vitória", the other being solely named the "Guimarães" or the "Setúbal" with a curl of the lip. The matches are somewhat tense with both clubs contesting who has the higher number of supporters. Nevertheless the quarrelsomeness is bigger on the Vitória de Guimarães side, since the club is 12 years younger and, as they wrote in their history books, the people from Guimarães adopted the name "Vitoria" as a tribute to Vitória de Setúbal, who at the time was capturing the attention of the country due the quality of the football team. So they changed the name to «Vitória Sport Clube» because «Vitória Futebol Clube» was already chosen by the Setúbal side.
[edit] Present and Future
[edit] New Stadium
The Estádio do Bonfim stadium was inaugurated during the club's 50th anniversary commemorations on September 16, 1962, with a capacity of >35,000, reduced to 21,530 when plastic seatings were placed. With rare exceptions the additional room for 2,800 standing spectators (1,400 behind each goal) has been closed since some years ago because attendances do not justify it anymore. Furthermore UEFA officially recognizes only the 18,728 seating places; eitherway, since 2006, the stadium is not allowed to be used for official international games, due to its decaying condition. There are plans underway for a new stadium. The new stadium is expected to be completed by the centennial commemoration in November 20th 2010.
The financial situation is very shaky, as seen on the first half of the 2005/06 season, when the whole team had several months of wages delayed, a situation which led to the resigning of the then manager, Luis Norton de Matos. The club has been experiencing many financial difficulties since the April 25th's Coup d'État which brought an economic disaster to the Setúbal region with its mass layoffs and industrial collapse. Thus the stadium never saw significant repairs for lack of funds. Each year the stadium feels more uncomfortable and attendances keep on dimishing [1] while others rise [2]. Gone are the times when more than 40,000 jostled in the stadium every weekend.
There is festering resentment in the hearts of the Vitorianos, as they experienced rejection in their quest for a place among the Portuguese cities awarded with new stadia for the Euro 2004 in favour of the wealthier tourist regions with smaller clubs but more influence on the political scene (the Leiria Stadium, the Aveiro Stadium and the Algarve Stadium). These three stadiums are nowadays known in Portugal as the White Elephants on account of being luxury stadia for meagre attendances [3] [4] [5] [6]. Furthermore, there never was a Superliga team playing at Algarve Stadium as its seeded home.
Setubal wins vs Liverpool, Inter, Fiorentina, Anderletch, Leeds etc
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