Pre-season fixtures: Charlton Athletic - July 19th Lepe, Spain Sheffield Wednesday - July 22nd Albufeira, Portugal Triangular Tournament with Belenenses and Atlético CP - July 25th Lisboa, Portugal Saint-Étienne - July 28th Lisboa, Portugal Trofeo Colombino with Recreativo Huelva, Getafe and Maghreb Tétouan - TBD TBD - August 12th Pre-season squad: GK: Rui Patrício (joins pre-season on July 16th) Marcelo Boeck Victor Golas DF: Santiago Arias Cédric Soares Xandão Oguchi Onyewu (joins pre-season on July 16th) Daniel Carriço Emiliano Insúa Evaldo MF: Fabián Rinaudo Gelson Fernandes Renato Neto Stijn Schaars (joins pre-season on July 16th) Elias (joins pre-season on July 7th) Adrien Silva André Martins Zakaria Labyad Marat Izmailov (joins pre-season on July 16th) Bruno Pereirinha Matías Fernández (joins pre-season on July 16th) FW: Diego Capel Jéffren Suárez André Carrillo (joins pre-season on July 16th) Wilson Eduardo Ricky van Wolfswinkel (joins pre-season on July 9th, did his medical exams last wednesday) Diego Rubio
Adrien Silva arriving at the Academia around 8 a.m. Gelson Fernandes and Zakaria Labyad either arriving at the Academia or leaving for their medical exams at CUF Descobertas Hospital in Lisboa. Jéffren Suárez leaving the Academia this morning to have a wisdom tooth removed.
Details on this August 12th fixture??? Is it at home or are we on the road somewhere....I still may be able to salvage Lisbon.
Adrien! I'd like to see him get an extension and make his stay official. Some sales still to come it seems, as our midfield is very crowded right now. Wilson Eduardo is back and hopefully will challenge VwW up top and Capel on the left. Maybe we could even see *gasp* a two-striker formation every now and again? Pumped for the season to start.
B team won 4 nothing today. Goals from Sunil, Kikas (went through all the ranks of the youth squad but we let him go, I guess he's back now) and some guy from the Ivory Coast named Plange.
According to A Bola we won 5-0 with two goals by Kikas, and one each from Sunil Chhetri, Gaël Etock and that Plange dude.
I forgot, the first team also had a training match against Atlético do Cacém. We won 11-0. Goals by Ricky van Wolfswinkel (2x), Wilson Eduardo (2x), Diego Rubio (2x), André Martins, Emiliano Insúa, Adrien Silva, Filipe Chaby and Iuri Medeiros.
lol yea I've seen 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0. I'm basing it off zerozero. You know if Kikas is in fully in the squad or on experience?
Arias and Neto drop down to the B team and Nuno Reis has been brought up to go to Spain with the senior team. I hope Arias gets loaned out tbh, Esgaio has much more potential then him imo and needs to play as much as possible. I still don't fully understand why we even got Arias..
Esgaio is an attacking winger, Arias is an attacking wingback. How much have you seen Arias play? Did you watch the Toulon tournament? He basically orchestrated the attack a la Joao Pereira. Let's wait to see how he develops. Teams were all over him post-Toulon tournament, but we had already grabbed him.
Esgaio is a rb in my eyes. He plays so much better for Sporting than Portugal. I was never a fan of JP, so I guess thats why I don't like Arias.
0-1 vs Charlton Ath. Only watched the 2nd half. Could/ should have been 0-3 with 2 goals badly called back as off-sides. The lads were clearly off their game today. Misplaced passes and poor defending were the order of the day. A free kick specialist is needed for the upcoming season.
^ If Mati stays, it will be between him/Schaars/Insua/Adrien to take the FKs. Just looked at the box score, looks like everyone got some time on the pitch. Interesting that Xandao and Carrico started at CB.
Mati is a good indirect FK taker, but IIRC only scored once in a direct FK for Sporting, same as Insua. I'm talking of someone in the mold of Andre Cruz or Delfim, who scored on DFK regularly for Sporting.
Ok, is see what you are saying. To be fair, all 3 players barely missed or had great FKs saved last season that could've made a big difference. Maybe this year, those close calls go our way?
Matigol = FK from right side Schaars = FK from left side Insua alternate FK from left side Haven't seen Adrien in a dead ball situation enough to know his capabilities, but I'll take all of your word for it.
Schaars is a really overrated free kick taker imo. Wasted a ton of opportunities last year. Mati is still the only real threat that we have I think
B team won 4-1 against Academica's juniors. Plange scored twice, he's looking decent already. Starting 11 was Luís Ribeiro, Santiago Arias, Eric Dier, Fabrice, Atila Turan, Luís Almeida, José Lopes, Renato Neto, Filipe Chaby, Iuri Medeiros e Plange Anyone know who Fabrice is?
Wouldn't it make more sense for Mati to take the FKs on the left and Schaars on the right? Thanks for the update SCP21. Any idea about the subs? Saw the friendly, not inspiring stuff but that is to be expected. Most lively players were Capel, Perereinha and Adrien. Gelson and Reis both looked solid enough out there. Rinaudo and Elias were really sloppy in the middle, rash tackles and poor touches all over. Sa Pinto was telling Rinaudo to chill out and use his head. Jeffren tried something things but none of it came off. He needs to simplify his game. VwW was isolated for the most part, with Adrien starting just behind him and not getting the ball enough. We were messing about in the back way too much. Xandao and Carrico were a bit too frantic and Insua didn't do much right. Nice to see Cedric (looked ok), Wilson (poor touches and looked a bit nervy) and Martins (tried to create but not sharp enough) get some good minutes. Schaars calmed things down a bit when he came on. Carrillo was poor Carrillo in this one. Can't take too much but we didn't create any real clear chances which is a shame. Hope to see some improvement tomorrow.