The jam-packed Portuguese schedule continued this week with Liga NOS’s 15th round of 2020/21. The league’s surprise package Paços Ferreira continued their brilliant run with a convincing triumph at Marítimo, whilst Belenenses SAD and Santa Clara reversed some recent struggles with important victories over Tondela and Rio Ave respectively.
Braga and Porto responded to last week’s Taça da Liga disappointments with narrow wins, although Benfica’s worries continued in a stalling draw with Nacional.
The aforementioned Taça da Liga disappointments came courtesy of eventual winners Sporting, whose manager Rúben Amorim picked up another trophy in his fledgling career. He followed it up by guiding his team to maintaining their lead at the top of the domestic division against Boavista on Tuesday night, and he is the PortuGOAL Figure of the Week.
Terms akin to “meteoric rise” are often bandied about in footballing circles but you’d be hard pressed to find more clear cut examples than Rúben Amorim’s managerial career. Only turning 36 today, the Portuguese coach this week added his second piece of silverware to his C.V. as he on a personal level ‘retained’ the Taça da Liga, his Sporting side overcoming Braga, with whom he had won the tournament in 2019/20.
The former Benfica midfielder raised eyebrows when he was given the Braga job last season off the back of brief spells in charge of their B team and second tier Casa Pia previously but a sensational start at The Quarry caught Sporting’s eye and they moved quickly to fork out some hefty compensation to bring him to Lisbon. After a slightly inconsistent start to his work with the Lions at the back end of last season, their investment has been richly rewarded in the current campaign thus far.
Sticking religiously to his favoured 3-4-3 formation, Sporting have looked a far harder side to beat this season, aided by the success of two key policies: those involving the transfer market and youth.
The former has seen the acquisition of experienced operators such as goalkeeper António Adán and centre-back Zouhair Feddal, who have added to the solidity of the team as a unit. Pedro Porro, a loan signing from Manchester City, has been remarkably consistent in a right wing-back role while proven Primeira Liga talents Nuno Santos and Pedro Gonçalves have added dynamism to the attack, particularly the latter who has reached another level under Amorim and leads the Liga NOS goalscoring charts.
The youth policy is where Amorim has seen success also. For too long Sporting’s remarkably talented crops of players from their Alcochete academy had felt somewhat improperly unearthed by the Lisbon giants, but from his first weeks in charge Amorim set about changing that and giving the youngsters their chance to shine in the senior side. No player has benefited more from this than the exceptionally promising Nuno Mendes, who seems to get better by the week on the opposite flank to Porro. In attack Jovane Cabral continues to impress, albeit more hampered by injury this season but that in turn has seen the rise to prominence of Tiago Tomas, only 18 but already turning heads in Europe showing great potential and attacking versatility.
Amorim has managed all of these aspects exceptionally well, and disappointments in failing to make the Europa League proper as well as an early Taça de Portugal exit aside he has confounded expectations to see his side lead the division for much of the campaign. A hectic recent schedule in which they overcame Porto and Braga in quick succession to lift the Taça da Liga preceded a trip to struggling Boavista on Tuesday night, in which the Lions looked to re-establish their 4 point lead at the top after Porto had shaved it down to just one the night previous.
Amorim kept his tried and tested formula in place for the match albeit making some personnel changes, bringing Nuno Santos and Andraž Šporar into the attack, as well as João Palhinha taking an initial rest to see Matheus Nunes instead partner João Mário in central midfield.
The selection of Santos in particular paid dividends in the first half as it was he that opened the scoring in the 22nd minute, showing good alertness to turn in Nuno Mendes’ cross.
Mendes had a terrific half and almost doubled the scoring himself with a fierce volley as Sporting mostly controlled proceedings. Amorim’s only complaint might have been that they were not further ahead at the break as João Mário in particular missed a huge opportunity.
Sporting’s dominance continued into the second half but they still couldn’t find the extra goal they were craving, Šporar somehow missing with the goal at his mercy. Os Leões had to wait until the 76th minute to increase their advantage but it was a strike worthy of the wait. Mendes’ cross was not sufficiently cleared and his fellow full-back Porro picked up possession before unleashing a sensational shot past a despairing Léo Jardim dive in the Boavista goal.
By no means Sporting’s most spectacular performance of the season but one navigated with a good deal of control, and if anything that fact potentially reinforces their title hopes as Amorim appears to have instilled a good mentality to get the job done without reaching their peak levels.
Sporting and Amorim will face tougher tests than this one, particularly given the rut their opponents Boavista currently find themselves in. However the young coach’s reputation deservedly continues to grow and he has put Sporting in contention of ending their 19 year wait for a domestic league title. He will be more aware of the need to stay grounded than any other but if his trajectory continues there is likely to be some even bigger names knocking on his door in the not too distant future.
By Jamie Farr
