Our pre-season starts in a week but the pre pre-season started today with JJ's return from vacations. And it looks like his workaholic manner has been rubbing off on some of the youngsters. Gelson Martins, João Palhinha and Rúben Semedo are all back from their vacations and started working today at the academy. And even the players who are on vacations back in their countries, like Matheus Pereira, look like they have been working really hard to return in the best shape possible. The team will have a pre-season camp in Switzerland between 11 and 18 July, where we'll be facing four teams yet to be designated. The rest of the games we know so far are: July 23 at 19h30 vs. Olympique Lyon on the Presentation Game at José Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon July 26 vs. Villarreal CF for the Trofeo Ibérico in Badajoz July 30 at 19h30 vs. VfL Wolfsburg for the Five Violins Cup at José Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon August 4 vs. Real Betis for the Ibérica Cup in the Algarve August 5 vs. OGC Nice for the Algarve Summer Cup in the Algarve Cartel oficial de la 22ª Edición del @TrofeoIberico 2016.Conoce la info y los precios en: https://t.co/tOewJU6Qpg pic.twitter.com/C4Ll3en4hA— Trofeo Ibérico (@TrofeoIberico) June 17, 2016
Sporting released the full pre-season game calendar. It's a very JJ pre-season to say the least. The games against Monaco, Nyon, Zenit and PSV will all be in Switzerland.
Daniel Podence trying to win a place in the first team: Magia no primeiro treino #PréÉpocaSCP 🙌🏼⚽️ pic.twitter.com/cF0UnJ5xrd— Sporting CP (@SportingCP) June 29, 2016
Daniel Podence is so damn fast. Really put it on display so far against Monaco, especially on the goal
Unable to watch the game, if anyone can provide details on how the match is going? Sporting 1-2 Monaco in the 1st half.
It's been a very pre season ish game. Monaco scored 2 goals of poorly defended crosses. Podence scored for Sporting on a burst of speed after a through ball from Bryan Ruiz, who has been money with his passes as usual. Not much else to really take from the game. Barcos still trash, the man is invisible on the field.
Matheus Perreira has looked solid as well, had a nice free kick from about 30 yards the was pushed just to the right of the goal
Podence was really impressive. Ton of speed and good with the ball at his feet, good decisions. Looked good today
Would like to see a striker come in regardless if Slimani leaves I'm hoping SCP do well in the UCL Any names being mentioned also is Iuri still on holidays or did he play
Iuri started today, I didn't catch the game so I can't comment on his play but he was in the starting XI
Zenit vs Sporting on right now. Azbe Jug has been really unimpressive... our defense has been horrible, its already 3-1 and only 16 minutes in. Understandable that it is pre-season but our defense has been awful and the GK too, I really don't see Jug as an alternative and our defense has been very slow. Hopefully JJ will knock some sense into them.
Zenit 4-2 Sporting FT Thoughts/Highlights: - Azbe Jug very unimpressive again on two of the goals, could've done better (clearly Rui will have little competition here) - Zeegelar seems to have secured RB spot - Schelotto was exposed at RB constantly by Zenit and needs to correct his defensive positioning - Semedo with a lot of mistakes, although he will likely be starting alongside Coates - Petrovic with an average performance, still getting to know his teammates - Alan Ruiz with a positive first half again, he looks set to play the "Teo" role supporting Slimani up front - Gelson was the best player in the 1st half, Podence came on in the second half with another bright performance - was good to see Iuri and Palhinha get some minutes in the second half - we started putting a lot of pressure on the opposition but we clearly need to learn to balance defense and pressure as we were exposed constantly on the counter With that said, I'm glad we're playing games with quality opposition - we learn more from a friendly loss than an 8-0 win against a minnow
Azbe Jug was awful against Monaco too. Nobody was marked on a couple of those crosses but they were balls the keeper should have claimed. Very unimpressed as well. What happened with Miguel Silva? I thought he was coming over from Guimarães
Unsure, as far as I know he's still at Guimaraes. But I'm worried if something happens to Rui we won't have a decent alternative.
Thanks for this. Is Jefferson in the squad for preseason? I like Zeegalar. Just needs to provide a bit more in attack. Schelotto isn't impressive to me. What are our other options for RB?
Jefferson came on late in the second half but Zeegelar seems to be ahead of him in the pecking order. Even Bruno Cesar has had more playing time at LB so far. Only Joao Pereira is an alternative for RB.
Esgaio is an RB too. Jesus doesn't seem to like Jefferson, which is too bad cause he's much better than Marvin imo. Jefferson doesn't seem to be the most professional tho Our fullbacks have been very weak for years, schelotto and Marvin are decent at best. Jug is trash, should have never been signed. We took on a few rejects from the French league the year we signed him and none have worked out. Petrovic isnt good enough either, he'd do well on a setubal or rio Ave. Hopefully gauld gets loaned out, matheus too. Doesn't seem like they'll get many opportunities here. Shame wallyson wasn't called up, he seemed unreal on the b team.