Franky Vercauteren’s debut-Another Sporting Loss

Sporting took a trip to the Estadio do Bonfim to play Vitoria Setubal in what was Franky Vercauteren’s coaching debut, a struggling Sporting that failed to capitalise on opportunities, which ended in another loss. With the loss, Sporting drop to 13th place with 7 points, 13 points off leaders FC Porto and Benfica, 1 point from the relegation zone.

Aside from a few of the players, Vercauteren didn’t really change up the formation, Sporting started with a 4-3-3 with Izmailov pressing up the pitch to create somewhat of a 4-2-3-1. Insua at LB, Xandao and Rojo at CB, Cedric at RB, Rinaudo at CDM, with Schaars and Izmailov next to him, Ricky Van Wolfswinkel with the start at Striker again, flanked by Jeffren and surprisingly, Zakaria Labyad.

The first half as usual saw a stuttering Sporting fail to maintain any consistency in attack, Jeffren proved to be the only threat with a few solid shots that were saved by Vitoria keeper Pawel Kieszek. Vitoria Setubal’s Pedro Santos scored in the ’27 minute after a great ball threaded the Sporting defense. In the ’42 minute, Jeffren’s hard work finally payed off with a great finish from a Stijn Schaars pass, leveling the score at 1.

The second half saw Sporting take control of the game, pressure mounted on Vitoria Setubal who were pressed in their own half. A wicked shot by Insua stung the fingers of Kieszek, followed by a shot off a corner kick by Izmailov right down the middle of the goal.

In the ’68 minute, Sporting’s defense decided to take a nap, Cedric wasn’t watching his man, that’s when Meyong Ze ran right by everyone and struck a shot into the left hand corner of the net, Sporting stunned and looked defeated already.

Things started to look up for Sporting in the ’75 minute when Miguel Lourenço was given a straight red card after a horrible cleat to shin tackle on Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, Setubal down to 10 men. Subsequently, Vercauteren thought it a good idea to bring on the more attack minded Elias in place of Rinaudo and Valentin Viola on for the fairly ineffective Zakaria Labyad.

In the final 10 minutes Sporting pushed for an equalizer, Jeffren had another great opportunity to score in the ’82 minute, again a huge save by Setubal’s Kieszek. In the ’86 “B” team striker Bentinho was brought on in (in place of Izmailov) Vercauteren’s last role of the die. In the final minutes, Sporting seemed to be camping just outside Setubal’s 18 yard box, shot after shot being thwarted by Ney Santos who had an incredible game for Setubal at the back, followed by a horribly scuffed shot from Ricky which was his best opportunity of the night.

The game ended 2-1 for Vitoria Setubal, again, that’s 14 games (including Europa League matches) and only 2 wins. The nightmare continues for Sporting, Franky Vercauteren certainly has A LOT to do. I’d like to point out that with the   loss, it’s clear that Sporting’s problems don’t necessarily lay with the coaching, in my opinion it’s more to do with the understanding on the pitch, these players just don’t seem to know how to play together, that shouldn’t be all on the coaching staff, as professionals they should be able to work this out themselves, unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case.

Sporting’s next match is a Europa League group stage match on Thursday November 8th 3:05pm EST vs Racing Genk at the Estadio Jose Alvalade, a win is vital for survival in this competition.

Sporting tie Academica

Another unconvincing display from Sporting at home, more dropped points, in what was Oceano Cruz’s last game (this time for real) at the Alvalade.

Sporting on Monday night hosted mid table side Academica de Coimbra. Coach Oceano Cruz once again deployed a 4-3-3 with Insua at left back, boulahrouz and Rojo at centre back, and started Arias over Cedric at right back. In midfield nothing was changed with Rinaudo being flanked by Schaars and Adrien Silva. On the wings were Pranjic and Viola and Ricky Van Wolfswinkel at striker.

Sporting started off very well, controlling the pace of the game not allowing Academica much time on the ball. Unfortunately, most of the first half involved typical wing play with high hopeful crosses into the box that Ricky was unable to reach, only two decent shots were mustered by Valentin Viola. Positive notes include the great movement by Rinaudo once again from defense to attack, he moved all over the pitch breaking up plays and tried his best to supply the forwards but to no avail. Defense looked fairly stable, with the exception of a few bad passes from Rojo and Boulahrouz (who has yet to convince me that he can be a starter for this team).

In the second half, Arias was subbed off for Gelson Fernandes (in the ’46 minute) and for a short while, Sporting played with Rinaudo and Gelson as the holding midfielders which allowed Silva and Schaars to push further up. As the half progressed Sporting hit a proverbial wall thus, in the ’58 minute, SIlva was replaced by Marat Izmailov in the hopes that his superior offensive ability could spark something. All was going in Sporting’s favour until the ’70 minute when Boulahrouz picked up a hamstring injury and was forced to leave the game, “B” team striker Betinho was brought on which really changed Sporting’s shape. Gelson dropped back to RB, Rojo at centre back, Insua at LB, Rinaudo dropped even deeper almost to centre back, which allowed Izmailov and Schaars to supply the balls to the widemen Pranjic and Viola, Ricky and Bentinho stayed up front. 

Right away with less pressure on Ricky, he was able to free up some space for himself and tested the Academica keeper Ricardo in the ’76 minute. Then, Wilson Eduardo (the Sporting Loanee) was subbed on for Academica which immediately provided them with some life in attack, suddenly, Academica were much faster and came close to scoring on several occasions.

In the final ten minutes of the game, the faster Sporting attack began to press more and more, Sporting were coming closer and were finally generating some shots in the final third of the pitch. Ricky picked up a foolish yellow in the ’86 for simulation in the box. In stoppage time, Sporting had their best chances of the game, Pranjic blasted a shot from outside the box which resulted in a juicy rebound, the ball was played to Ricky who lost control to a defender, and in controversial fashion seemed to play a pass back to keeper Ricardo, the referee ignored the situation and the game was ended at a 0-0 draw.

There isn’t much else to say about this game, Sporting simply were not good enough. I had a few qualms about the player selections, in particular I didn’t like the fact that Viola started over Andre Carrillo, he is in my opinion one of the most talented on the team and needs to play in order to develop. Diego Capel was also not utilized, he could’ve proved very effective in the second half instead of Pranjic. I also feel that with the players Sporting have, perhaps a different formation could be used. Something akin to a 4-2-3-2 with Rinaudo and Schaars/Gelson has the holding midfielders, Silva, Izmailov and Capel/Pranjic as the more advanced Midfielders and Carrillo/Ricky the strikers. Too often, Ricky is left alone up front and all we try to do is cross the ball into him, teams pick up on this quickly, not to mention we make it easier for them because of our limited movement through the middle of the park. With the point, Sporting move up the 10th place in the league with a record of 1 win, 4 draws, and 2 losses.

Alright, I’m finished ranting for the night, hopefully Franky Vercauteren can turn things around next Sunday when we go up against Vitoria Setubal.