week 1 preview Belenenses

By: j | August 23rd, 2008

This must be one of the most unusual opening matches for a club so steeped in history and success. In a quest for their sixth Portuguese Liga title in the decade and fourth in a row, they are facing the start of the season without the talismanic Ricardo Quaresma, looked somewhat anemic offensively in the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira and most of their upper-tier players were on international duty this Wednesday and are surely dealing with fatigue. With Bruno Alves, Raul Meireles (Portugal), Candeias (Portugal U-21), Jorge Fucile, Cristian Rodríguez (Uruguay), Cristian Săpunaru (Romania), Freddy Guarín (Columbia) and Lucho González , Lisandro López and Mariano González (Argentina) all of questionable recovery since their International duty manager Jesualdo Ferreira has an interesting test at Estádio do Dragão.

Given this he has taken the precaution of excluding Candeias, Fernando and Lino to ensure full recovery and named the following list for the match:

Benítez, Bolatti, Bruno Alves, Farías, Jorge Fucile, Freddy Guarín, Helton, Hulk, Lisandro López, Lucho González, Mariano González, Nuno, Pedro Emanuel, Raul Meireles, Cristian Rodríguez, Rolando, Cristian Săpunaru, Tomás Costa

In discussion of the Supertaça defeat, Jesualdo Ferreira wisely commented that while defeat is never a positive, the lessons learned are worthwhile and he has corrected the problems. He further went on to note that preparation takes time and while he is pleased for those who received International call-up, he wants to make sure they are full recovered physically. He expects a very tough match from the visitors, noting their tenacity and passion in play.

I will report on the match upon its conclusion.