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In these times of pandemic, without the noise of the fans, we get used to hearing things never heard before in a stadium, all the sounds that swarm and build a game. In this Famalicão – Sporting match, in the first minutes, there was something new: hearing the rain fall on Dolby Surround.
On a cold night and a terrain in average conditions, that deafening rain in the first minutes was like a signal: there was an intense, uncertain, nervous, wrong game, although the water even stopped falling in the 1st half, to the delight of the players. our ears.
Back in Famalicão, Pedro Gonçalves was, of course, an outstanding man: after a high-level season at Minho, the midfielder has been Sporting’s catalyst, perhaps even the player in the best form of the championship, and history of the game is also written by what the boy did who is also called the boat.
Good and bad.
It was his invention that the first goal of the match arrived, at 37 ‘, probably at Sporting’s worst moment in the 1st half, resenting the team for that penalty missed by Nuno Santos at 22’. In less good moments, they are moments of talent like that of Pedro Gonçalves, meandering between Famalicão players and shooting with his left foot, in goal, at the corner of Luiz Júnior’s goal, who blames us on the importance of an ace. in a team.
But it was also his recklessness that left Sporting lame in the final minutes of the game, sent off with a second yellow in the 80th minute as the lions struggled to hold on to a 2-1 that was far from safe. Nine minutes later, Famalicão would score.
Is Pedro Gonçalves so prematurely a kind of alpha and omega for this Sporting? Is it in your feet and in your decisions that you could be an effective candidacy for anything by the Rúben Amorim team? Perhaps it is exaggerated: it is a lot about Pedro Gonçalves, it is true, but it is not only about him.
For better and for worse.
Octavio Passos / Getty
On difficult terrain, Sporting’s collective game suffered from previous matches and in these tougher encounters the individualities are more noticeable, but also what the team lacks. A different solution than Sporar’s is missing, despite the tireless work he always seems willing to do to help his colleagues, and for whatever reason, Coates went there to serve as the spearhead in the final minutes. And without Nuno Mendes, Antunes also looks physically like holes, more for an always intense game, and more intense than well played.
For the rest, Sporting will also have to regret Adán’s mistake, which allowed Famalicão to draw in the 43rd minute, with the Spaniard going very badly with a free kick, allowing Gustavo Assunção’s header – and without that goal perhaps Sporting I had another tranquility in the 2nd part. Because minutes later, another Pedro, Porro, would make another goal to lift stadiums, if stadiums had fans these days: a direct free kick from the left, a strong and well-placed shot, with no chance for the goalkeeper.
In the 2nd part, the quality declined, despite some interesting initiatives by Nuno Santos and Pedro Gonçalves, with João Pedro Sousa’s alterations, at 60 minutes, taking effect: Famalicão became much more uncomfortable, faster, more pressing and Sporting could not control the game as it had in the 1st half. The expulsion of Pedro Gonçalves, leaving Sporting with one man less, further complicated the task of stopping the local team, which would tie it in another direct free kick, plus a great goal, from Robert.
Shortly after the draw, Coates came forward and witnessed in Famalicão a play worthy of the greatest emotions in American football: Pedro Porro, in a form of attacking player, released for receiver Coates that, in what I would call the NFL Ave Maria, he jumped desperately, at the last opportunity, to the header with goalkeeper Luiz Junior, without dropping the ball to the ground. The ball even entered Famalicão’s goal, the Sporting players celebrated the exotic play, but Luís Godinho, using VAR, canceled the play, considering the Uruguayan’s foul.
And so Sporting lost two points, having secured the lead at the end of the day. In the next round he will be left without Rúben Amorim on the bench, sent off in the protests Ave Maria that ended up not existing.
