Don’t Make FC Porto Angry

You won’t like FC Porto when they’re angry. Sporting Braga found this out to their immense detriment at the weekend when the wounded, angry Dragões (dragons) absolutely battered Braga 5-1 in a result that almost made a mockery of the latter’s lofty aspirations of winning a first ever league title this season.

In a highly entertaining game at the Estadio do Dragao, Porto simply decimated Sporting Braga with goals by Raul Meireles, Alvaro Pereira, Fernando Belluschi and two from the increasingly exciting Radamel Falcao Garcia. Alan’s late consolation goal for Braga did little to ease the humiliation in a game that was ostensibly considered a key barometer of their championship credentials. In this particular test the Arsenalistas failed miserably.

But what made FC Porto so angry, you may wonder? What was it that left the squad so “disgusted and revolted,” according to goalkeeper Nuno?

The answer lies in the Portuguese league disciplinary committee’s decision to hand Porto players Hulk and Cristian Sapunaru 4 and 6 month suspensions respectively for their part in a post-match brawl after Porto’s game against Benfica back in December. Sapunaru and Hulk were both found guilty of attacking match stewards in the tunnel at the Estadio da Luz after Porto’s 1-0 defeat at rivals Benfica, and after a lengthy disciplinary hearing both players, having been caught on CCTV fighting in the tunnel, were slapped with the lengthy domestic bans.

In the eyes of the Portuguese league’s disciplinary committee, the bans handed to Romanian defender Sapunaru and influential Brazilian forward Hulk were wholly reasonable. “The punishments are exceptionally lower than the legal minimum (of between six months and three years)… because the inquiry concluded that the stewards provoked the players in the tunnel,” stated committee chief Ricardo Costa in a news conference last Friday.

Porto’s players did not quite see it that way however, reacting indignantly to what they collectively described an “injustice.” What followed was a remarkable showing of solidarity with the two banned players from the rest of the team. The day before the Braga game, rather than holding the customary pre-match press conference as is the norm, Porto’s entire squad instead showed up in the club’s auditorium to issue a strongly-worded statement of defiance to the whole of Portuguese football. Dictated by keeper Nuno it read:

“The last time we were all together here it was a moment of joy and honour and a feeling of accomplishment as we celebrated clinching our fourth straight championship.

Unfortunately, today we cannot be the same. We are disgusted and revolted with the occurrences in Portuguese football. What has happened recently has hurt us all. It has hurt Hulk and Sapunaru personally, and we want to show our solidarity towards them.

There is nobody, absolutely nobody, who can sway us from our path or make us give up our goal. We are Tetra-champions! We deserve respect for what we have conquered and we are going to win again. Together, always together, we are going to win again.

There is nobody – I repeat, nobody – no injustice that will take away our unity. With every passing day, every training session and every game we are more united!

Finally I would like to leave a message to our supporters: the board, the staff, the players and everybody who likes FC Porto continues and will continue to be FC Porto. We are going to win and we will win more and more! We are FC Porto and we are united!”

Some statement. Call it a blustering show of arrogance or a powerful display of team unity – either way it worked. The very next day Porto produced their joint highest winning margin of the season with that 5-1 win over Braga, against a team who had previously only conceded 8 league goals all season. “The group is united in adversity and today we showed that we are united more than ever,” Pereira, scorer of the second goal, told SportTV afterwards.

The result fires Jesualdo Ferreira’s team right back into the title race in Portugal, with the Dragons still third but now just 5 points behind Sporting Braga and 6 behind leaders Benfica. Both Hulk and Sapunaru have already served two months of their suspensions, having been out since that Benfica game on December 20th. Sapunaru has since been loaned out to Steaua Bucharest.

With a fair gap still to close to catch the front-runners and games running out fast, FC Porto’s pursuit of an impressive fifth straight league title will not be easy. But if the siege mentality spirit drummed up by Hulk and Sapunaru’s suspensions continues to drive them on as emphatically as it did against Braga, the Dragons might just be able to roar themselves to Portugal’s summit once again.

pic via A Bola

FC Porto, Hulk, Portuguese Football, Sporting Braga