Match Report: Porto v Braga

Two late goals weren’t enough for Braga as Porto clinched a crucial 3-2 win at Estádio do Dragão thanks to a double from Hulk and one from Kléber.

The game was an open one and the visitors perhaps shaded the opening half hour, creating the better chances, but it’s no lie that goals change games and that’s what happened in the 37^th minute. An inviting James Rodríguez cross was met by Hulk whose header flew over and beyond advancing Braga keeper Quim and into the net.

From then on it was Porto who were in the ascendency, and shortly after the goal it was only good awareness from Quim that prevented a possible second; the Portuguese veteran racing out of his box and performing sweeping duties after a ball in behind left his defence struggling. Earlier he had also denied Hulk with his feet after the Brazilian cut inside from the right channel and fired in a low shot.

However, Braga had chances too, usually with Alan as the inspiration. In the 16^th minute he carved open the Porto backline with a pass that sent Lima racing through but his fellow Brazilian dragged his shot wide from outside the area.

Moments later Alan sent in a teasing low cross from the right but Maicon did well to make a vital interception at the back post.

Around ten minutes later Alan, again, sent over an excellent low ball from the right but the sliding Lima couldn’t get a decent enough connection on it and the ball looped over.

Porto began the second half in relative control and in the 57^th minute good defending from last man Paulo Vinícius denied James a chance on goal. About five minutes later a Maicon header brought out a decent save from Quim but the assistant’s flag was raised anyway. Shortly afterwards Quim again saved a close range header, this time after Cristian Rodríguez connected with fellow substitute Souza’s cross from the left.

Alan, so influential in the first, had faded into the periphery in the second half but he popped up in the 72^nd minute to produce a good save from Helton after the ball had been worked to him on the right following some good combination play down the left flank between Paulo Vinícius and Hélder Barbosa, who had just replaced Paulo César.

However, Porto appeared to have sealed the game in a four minute double salvo beginning with a fantastic strike from Hulk in the 78^th minute. João Moutinho in possession on the right played the ball inside to Hulk, slightly right of centre, outside the area, and the forward swiftly bent his shot high into the far side of the goal, sailing beyond the outstretched Quim. It was a great goal and the Dragão erupted in appreciation.

Hulk was involved in Porto’s third as well – but not before the offside flag denied him a hat trick – and this time he was the creator; bursting into the area on the right towards the byline, he cut the ball back to provide Kléber with a relatively straight forward finish.

There was drama yet in this match though and Hulk once again played a central role. The 25 year old, tracking back inside his own penalty area, brought down Braga right back Leandro Salino in an ill judged challenge from behind in the 89^th minute, resulting in a penalty and a yellow card. Lima confidently dispatched the penalty.

In the first minute of additional time Lima scored again, sweeping a Paulo Vinícius cutback in first time from just inside the area after Alan’s neat pass had released the full back.

However it was too little too late for Braga as Porto saw the match out to see the final score mirror that in last season’s corresponding fixture. The result sees Porto remain level on points with Benfica who beat Sporting 1-0 yesterday at Estádio da Luz in the Lisbon derby. Sporting lose ground and are now four points behind the leaders, with Marítimo one point behind after their 2-2 draw at Nacional.

   

Team GB football team Part II

To follow on from my previous post (which, as explained therein, was written some time ago) I will begin by reiterating my beliefs that a) football should not be an Olympic sport and b) that the UK should not enter a joint football team into the London 2012 Olympics. From these viewpoints I have not altered. It may have been a subject I was already slightly weary of when I wrote that piece but even now it is still something I feel strongly about.

Why does it matter so much to me that Scotland retains its footballing independence?

As a proud Scot and a football fan the only national team I could ever truly support is Scotland. I simply could not feel the same way about a UK team; it would ruin international football for me. I do not feel British nor do I identify with the notion of Britain or Britishness in any way. To me the United Kingdom is a political entity and nothing more. Scotland is a nation and hence my nationality is Scottish – despite what my passport says.

However, I would certainly not describe myself as a nationalist (I am indifferent to the idea of Scottish independence politically) and I say none of this out of disregard for the rest of the UK. I am happy to witness the success of all UK athletes at the Olympics (although, admittedly, it is not an event that inspires fervent passion in me) and in the past I have willed on Tim Henman at Wimbledon and backed Matthew Syed in table tennis competitions.

But these are individuals, football is a team sport and my team is Scotland. I believe the Scottish Football Association have legitimate fears that if Scottish players feature as part of Team GB at the Olympics it could put our national team’s future at serious risk. We have always had our own football team and to gamble that over a meaningless, age restricted tournament seems like grave foolishness.    

I have little doubt that FIFA would quite like to unite the UK teams, our independent status is viewed by many outsiders as a privilege and one that some would have no qualms about taking away. A united footballing UK would grant FIFA more power too as no more would the “home associations” have such dominance on the International Football Association Board or such influence within FIFA itself – where they are guaranteed one of the eight Vice-President spots. On the specific issue of how Team GB could affect the Home Nations’ independence FIFA have sent out mixed signals and have in no way offered a guarantee that we would not be putting it in jeopardy were we to compete united at the Olympics. And even if they were to offer one, would anyone trust them?

The FAW (Football Association of Wales) and the IFA (Irish Football Association) have similar anxieties to the SFA which I, of course, empathise with. In the past fortnight photos have emerged of Welsh players Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey sporting the Team GB football kit. I’m sure the sight of these images will have made a few Welsh supporters feel uneasy, and not just because the shirt in question is rather hideous. I’d bet the players don’t quite grasp either the gravity of the situation or the strength of feeling amongst their own supporters. These things must be explained to them, and I believe Gary Speed has indicated that he will talk to the Welsh players about it – hopefully Craig Levein does likewise with the Scotland squad.

No Scotland internationals, to my knowledge, have been as forthright in stating their willingness to play as part of Team GB as Bale and Ramsey have but some players, including Rangers youngsters Gregg Wylde and Kyle Hutton, have conceded they would be open to the possibility.

I can only hope that between now and whenever Stuart Pearce selects his Olympic squad that the SFA makes its stance crystal clear to Scottish players, makes them aware of the dangers and advises them not to be selfish and to not rank personal ambitions ahead of a nation’s passion.  

Team GB football team Part I

The debate over the appearance of an all UK football team at next summer's Olympics seems to pop up every now and again and may get more intense as London 2012 draw nearer.

Here is what I wrote on the subject in January 2009:

Football should not be an Olympic event.

At least that should be as far as the argument should go, however, the reality is that for some implausible reason or another it is and certain people seem determined for 'Team GB' (an inaccurate moniker by the way as it excludes its Northern Irish athletes) to enter a football team in the London 2012 Olympics. I would question the sanity of whoever raised this idea initially as surely they could have foreseen the huge can of worms that it has opened. There are too many irresolvable issues and debates at the heart of this on political, nationalistic and logistic levels and the simplest thing to do would be to acknowledge the fact that football isn't a high profile Olympic event and not bother with the whole farce that is detracting from the efforts of those in other disciplines that are rightfully an integral part of the Olympics and are therefore more deserving of Olympic attention.

Not entering a UK team in the Olympics would also please all the club managers who may have had players taken from them for the start of the league campaign. The timetable clash between Olympic football and domestic football is another argument for its futility. Furthermore, uniquely at the Games, Olympic football has age restrictions, with only a limited quota of players aged over 23 permitted, which only serves to add to the notion that it really is no more than a sideshow that irritates clubs, disinterests fans and, evidently, causes unnecessary discussions.

The Olympics are there for the world’s finest athletes to prove themselves on a prestigious global stage but football has its own platform for this end in the FIFA World Cup which truly brings together the best footballers on the planet and conjures up one of the most popular sporting events around. So, considering this, is it really necessary for football to tag along at the Olympics in a compromised format?

It seems though that by this stage the madness has descended to such an extent that football is here to stay as an Olympic event. However, with the European Championships having preceded it that very summer, interest will, as ever, be low in Olympic football in 2012.

And yet the campaign for British inclusion in it will rage on, led principally by Englishmen who one suspects are secretly hoping for concessions to be made to allow England to solely represent the UK in men’s football as they have already been given permission to do so in women’s football. In any case these people hold no fear of the Home Nations losing their privileged independence in FIFA’s eyes because as the largest of these nations any joint British team would, logically, be comprised in the main by English players.

As a Scotsman I admit that given the choice between an all England team or a British select being chosen to represent the UK at the 2012 Olympics I would be more at ease in seeing the all England team take to the field as I do not wish to see any unnecessary precedent set which may now seem insignificant but could in years to come be cast back up to seize our national footballing identity from us.