Sporting Club : Trying to buy a World Cup!

Chaves match replay

Nov 23 Chaves 2 Sporting 1
Goal: Adrien
 
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Tottenham match replay
Sporting 2 Tottenham 1
Goals: Henrique, Adrien

This was originally a loss and Sporting was eliminated from the Europa League. For the final group match, to make up for this win I will field a team that will almost assuredly lose to Tel Aviv.
 
Braga match replay
Nov 30 Sporting 1 Braga 1
Goal: Andre Martins

Tis was originally a draw, so the results in the league match. Here is the current table, still Porto on top by a point.
View attachment 543492
 
DECEMBER 2014

Liga ZON SAGRES

Dec 3 Pacos 0 Sporting 0

Dec 7 Sporting 3 Arouca 0
Goals: Joao Mario, Cortez, Alan Santos

Dec 14 Sporting 2 Setubal 1
Goals: Andre Martins, Adrien

Dec 19 Nacional 2 Sporting 4
Goals: Marco Benassi, William Carvalho, Joao Pedro, Leandrinho

It was good news/bad news in December for Sporting. We passed Porto in the table, but Benfica has been on a tear, winning 8 league matches in a row, with 9 wins and a draw from their last 10 league matches they have taken the top spot in the table. The race was still tight enough for me to (maybe, stupidly) change my expectations for the season with the board, I now HAVE to qualify for Champions League or I will be fired.

View attachment 400285

Taca Do Portugal

5th Round match vs. Leca awaits, 16 teams remain
View attachment 400284

Taca da Liga

December in Portugal means Taca da Liga time, the 4 groups were drawn and Sporting was given a pretty easy group with Estoril, Olhanense and second league side Farense

View attachment 400283

Dec 28 Olhanense 2 Sporting 3
Goals: Cortez, Leandrinho, William Carvalho

EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP J

Dec 11 Tel Aviv 1 Sporting 1
own goal

Tel Aviv goes through along with Tottenham. Up 1-0 with minutes to go, I switched my AMC and my GK in order to draw. This makes up for the crash and the lost games, now I can put it behind me!

View attachment 400282

3 players have joined the team and will probably spend the rest of the season in the B team or Under 19s
View attachment 400281View attachment 400280View attachment 400279

My scouts are out working overtime checking out players with 6 months remaining on their deals. I do a lot of my player shopping in early January looking for players I can sign for free.

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Looking at the stats from last season something you didn't have was a striker scoring on a regular basis and to challenge for the title it is vital and I feel like you should have put that as a main focus as you didn't have any player over 13 goals in the league... Nevertheless love the new additions and free signings to help boost finances and hopefully you can get the board off your back and bring the title to Sporting! Good save can't wait for the next update
 
JDraper07 said:
Looking at the stats from last season something you didn't have was a striker scoring on a regular basis and to challenge for the title it is vital and I feel like you should have put that as a main focus as you didn't have any player over 13 goals in the league... Nevertheless love the new additions and free signings to help boost finances and hopefully you can get the board off your back and bring the title to Sporting! Good save can't wait for the next update
Click to expand...

Yes, I have been noticing a lot of missed chances and have started to look for AMCs with more finishing. I've sold Henrique (in the January update below) and have started playing Joao Pedro at the tip of the spear and he has responded by scoring much more frequently than Henrique.
 
So, after sitting down and analzing my strategy, it seems that my time table has been a little off. I'm going to need a little more time to assemble a National team consisting only of Sporting players. Because young Brazilians can only come to Portugal when they turn 18, in order for them to be nationalized for 2022 they would have to arrive in Portugal by 2017.Most of the youngsters I've been signing are 15 and 16 years old and a lot of them won't arrive until 2018 or late 2017, so I'm now aiming for Euro 2024 and World Cup 2026.

JANUARY 2014

Some more players were sold including Diego Rubio, who had been languishing in reserves due to his foreign status, he went to Hoffenheim for 500k, Henrique went to Flamengo for 3million, and Mauricio completed his transfer to Santos for 5million.

Six more youngster were signed in the January window.

Liga ZON SAGRES

League play returned after the holiday break and the traditional 'Big 3' are starting to seperate themselves from the pack. With Henrique sold and on his way back to Brazil, Joao Pedro has taken over as the main attacking threat.

Jan 10 Gil Vicente 0 Sporting 2
Goals: Alemao, Benassi

Jan 18 Sporting 3 Rio Ave 1
Goals: Cortez, Elivelton, Joao Pedro

Jan 31 Maritimo 2 Sporting 1
Goals: Alemao

View attachment 399408

Taca da Liga

Jan 14 Rio Ave 1 Sporting 5
Goals: Cortez, Joao Pedro, Henrique, Joao Pedro, Adrien

Jan 24 Sporting 3 Farense 1
Goals: Marco Damasceno, Alan Santos, Adrien

Sporting won their group easily (4 groups, winner qualifies for semi-final), the other semi-finalists were Braga, Benfica and Porto.

The draw was kind to Sporting, we got Braga while Benfica drew Porto.

Taca do Portugal

5th Round
Jan 4 Leca 1 Sporting 3
Goals: Cortez, Alemao, Joao Pedro

6th Round Feb 3rd home to Guimaraes

January fixtures at a glance
View attachment 399400




Sporting Player of the Month for January: Alemao
View attachment 399390
(No photo available, so this is the original Alemao, he's much cooler)

​
 
FEBRUARY 2014
Finally, Fredy Montero has left the club, he was let go on a free on the final day of the window. This leaves only 3 players on the squad who have been capped by another country, all 3 have been on the B team until new teams can be found for them.

Sporting have lost a key man, Andre Martins tore a groin muscle (sounds painful) and will be out for 6 to 7 weeks!


Liga ZON SAGRES


Feb 8 Sporting 1 Estoril 1
Goals: Andre Martins

Feb 14 Olhanense 0 Sporting 3
Goals: Adrien, Vitor, Adrien

Feb 20 Guimaraes 0 Sporting 3
Goals: William Carvalho, Benassi, William Carvalho

The race for top spot is tight, and with Maritimo sticking around, the Champions League spots are still up for grabs as well.
View attachment 399362


Taca do Portugal

Feb 3 Sporting 2 Guimaraes 0
Goals: Joao Pedro, Joao Pedro


Semi Final Draw (2 legs)
Braga vs. Benfica
Sporting vs. Maritimo

Taca Da Liga

Boss Tweed has managed Sporting to his first final as Sporting will play Porto in late April to try and bring home the Taca!

Semi-Finals
View attachment 399360
Feb 11 Braga 0 Sporting 2
Goals: Alemao, Rithely

Feb 12 Porto 7 Benfica 2

Final is set for April 25
Porto vs. Sporting


Sporting Player of the Month for February: Marco Benassi
View attachment 399361
Benassi has filled in admirably following some key injuries to the Sporting midfield. On loan from Italy, Sporting will try hard to sign him permanently

View attachment 399358​
 
MARCH 2014
View attachment 399317
CORTEZ SCANDAL!!
Bruno Cortez Barbosa, or 'Cortez' as he is known in Lisbon was, until recently, the starting left wingback for Sporting Clube de Portugal. Today, he is on a plane back to Brazil after it was discovered that he misled the Sporting brass about his past. It seems that on September 28, 2012 Cortez played an international game for Brazil against Argentina. It was his only cap, but it cap-tied him to Brazil, thereby making him ineligible to play for Sporting. This was conveniently left out by his agent when he negotiated the loan contract with Sporting back in August.

"We apologize for this oversight and have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again", was the quote from Boss Tweed, Sporting's 2nd year manager.

18 year old Pedro Empis will fill the role for the remainder of the season.

In other news Leandrinho is also bound for South America as he signed a pre-contract with Gremio. For the time being, he has been moved to Sporting B.

Liga ZON SAGRES
View attachment 399313
Mar 1 Sporting 1 Benfica 2
Goals: William Carvalho

Mar 8 Sporting 3 Aves 1
Goals: Rithely, Adrien, Alef

Mar 13 Porto 2 Sporting 0

View attachment 399315

Porto looks like they are starting to separate from the pack with three team chasing. We head down the stretch with plenty to play for!

Taca do Portugal

Mar 25 Maritimo 2 Sporting 3
Goals: Adrien, Marco Benassi, William Carvalho

Sporting blew an early 3-0 lead to hold on for the win, the 3 away goals give them a huge advantage going back to Lisbon
Other Semi-Final match:
Braga 2 Benfica 2

Sporting Player of the Month for March: Adrien
View attachment 399314
Adrien continued his MVP calibre season through March.

April started with a surprise, something I've never seen before.
View attachment 399312
592million from the board! Wow! Of course I accept!

View attachment 399311

Oh, okay never mind.

Today being April 1st in real life it was pretty spooky!​
 
APRIL 2014

Weekend of April 5th results (top 5):

Nacional 1 Porto 2
Maritimo 1 Benfica 3
Sporting 0 Chaves 1
Setubal 0 Braga 1

View attachment 399310

In our worst game of the year, Sporting drop 3 points at home to 10th place Chaves while Porto and Benfica both won. The Championship is all but out of reach at this point, second place is slipping away. A more realistic goal is the 3rd place position and the Champions League playoff spot that comes with it

​
Table: pts (Games Remaining)
Porto 62 (4)
Benfica 56 (5)
Maritimo 53 (4)
Sporting 51 (5)
Braga 48 (5)

​
 
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Midweek action Wednesday April 8th, 2015

An early goal by Adrien who volleyed in a cross gave Sporting a huge 1-0 win over Braga. In the other midweek fixture, Benfica romped over Estoril to put pressure on Porto.

Benfica 3 Estoril 1
Braga 0 Sporting 1
Goal: Adrien

View attachment 399309
Adrien: Big players play big in big games.


​
Table -all teams have 4 games remaining.
Porto 62pts -----------Rio Ave (A), Maritimo (H), Estoril (A), Olhanense (H)
Benfica 59pts ----------Olhanense (A), Arouca (A), Guimaraes (H), Aves (A)
Sporting 54pts -------Pacos (H), Setubal (A), Arouca (H), Nacional (H)
Maritimo 53pts -------Aves (H), Porto (A), Chaves (H), Braga (A)
Braga 48pts -----------Nacional (A), Gil Vicente (H), Rio Ave (A), Maritimo (H)

Apparently, I entered emoji codes? The halo faces are supposed to be Away games and the sunglass faces are Home​
 
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Weekend of April 12th, 2014 - 4 games remaining

Fri Apr 10
Rio Ave 1 Porto 3

Sat Apr 11
Nacional 1 Braga 3
Olhanense 1 Benfica 4

Sun Apr 12
Maritimo 6 Aves 0
Sporting 0 Pacos 0

Sporting had another stinker at home, 0-0 draw with Pacos. Sporting had the ball for only 38% of the game and created a season low 5 CCCs. Right now we are lacking in width, the departure of Cortez is really being felt but the philosophy of the team comes first, even before winning.

View attachment 399064
Sporting stumbled again, this time against Pacos Ferreira

Table after the weekends action: (3 games remain for all teams)

Porto 65
Benfica 62
Maritimo 56
Sporting 55
Braga 51

View attachment 399065

​
 
Taca do Portugal April 14th-15th Semi-Final leg 2

Tue Apr 14
Benfica 0 Braga 3
(Braga wins 5- on aggregate)

Wed Apr 15

Sporting 1 Maritimo 2
(Sporting win 4-4 on away goals)
View attachment 399063

Final set for May 24 at Estadio Nacional
Braga v. ​Sporting​
 
Weekend Ending April 19th

Sat Apr 18

Porto 0 Maritimo 1

The weekend could not have started off worse for Sporting. The game I had been looking at as a chance to make up points on Maritimo was this one. Surely, they wouldn't go to Porto and get any kind of result! The win put Maritimo 4 points up on us heading into our clash at Setubal on Sunday.

Sun Apr 19

Arouca 1 Benfica 2

Benfica squander a chance to make up ground on Porto in this topsy turvy weekend!

Setubal 1 Sporting 1
Goal: Joao Pedro

The late goal from Joao Pedro rescued a point for Sporting in what would have been an absolute disaster. It could be the small squad starting to tire but Sporting has had a terrible month and another poor finish to a season could mean disaster for the club, and the save as a whole.

Mon Apr 20

Braga 4 Gil Vicente 1

Braga pulls to within 2 points of Sporting!

View attachment 399062​
 
Taca Da Liga Final

View attachment 399061

Sporting has never won the Taca da Liga trophy in it's 109 year history, I've been informed. A quick check confirms my initials suspicion, the trophy has only been in play since 2008. Nevertheless, every little bit helps in the battle to, once again, save my job. Although, I did sign 5 year extension during the season and I haven't heard a peep from the board so I'm not too sure that my job is in jeopardy.

Still, if I lose out on a Champions League spot to Maritimo (Maritimo!) I think I would deserve to be fired!


So, the final. It took 45 seconds for Alemao to commit a foul in the box, giving Porto a penalty which was converted by Jackson Martinez for his 33rd goal of the season. I'm pretty sure he has outgrown this league and needs to move on asap, I've had just about enough of this guy.

Andre Martins hit back for Sporting just before the break to knot the score at 1 apiece. It stayed that way until late in the game, just after I made some substitutions with an eye towards extra time and penalties when Mr. Jackson popped up again and buried his 34th goal to give Porto the lead.....NO, offside. Phew, that was close. Oh wait, there he is again, GOAL! That one counted and it gave Porto the trophy.

Somebody please buy Jackson Martinez!!!

Porto are 2015 Taca da Liga Champions!
View attachment 399058

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Sporting Player of the Month for April: Joao Pedro
View attachment 399050
Joao Pedro's goals in the second half of the season have put Sporting in position to qualify for Champions League
In other news, Adrien will miss the final season game against Nacional as he has reached the yellow card limit. Certainly a huge loss in a crucial game!

Weekend ending May 3rd, 2015

Fri May 1st

Estoril 1 Porto 2

Porto go three up on Benfica with Benfica playing at Guimaraes on Sunday. Porto hold the tiebreaker advantage so they will win the title with either a win on th final day at home to relegated Olhanense or a Benfica loss in either of their two remaining games.

Sun May 3rd

Sporting 2 Arouca 0
Goals: Joao Pedro, Joao Mario

Back to winning ways, and not a moment too soon. The Joao's combined to give Sporting a much needed home victory to assure themselves a fighting chance heading into the final weekends matches.

Maritimo 1 Chaves 2
The football gods giveth, the football gods taketh away. Maritimo lose to Chaves as home after going to Porto and winning. The loss drops them to 4th due to Sporting having the tiebreker edge (In Portugal it goes by results between teams. Maritimo beat us 2-1 but we beat them earlier 2-0)

Benfica 5 Guimaraes 1

Benfica make a statement in this game, drawing level at the top with Porto and hoping for some sort of slip up by the defending champs in the final match.

Rio Ave 1 Braga 3

Believe it or not, Braga go into the final weekend with a chance at 3rd place. With 57pts they sit 2 back of both Maritimo and Sporting and a date with Maritimo in the final match.

The table with one match left
View attachment 399048

Final Weekend Preview

This will be played tomorrow, unfortunately. I have an early start in the morning and have to turn in. Here are the match ups and scenarios.

The relegated teams have been decided as well as the European teams, the only thing to play for is to determine who goes where. There is also the small matter of deciding who the Champion of Portugal will be.

The Championship Battle

Porto v. Olhanense
Aves v. Benfica

It would take something extraordinary for Porto not to get all the points but that's exactly what Benfica will be hoping for. This is why I'm against this type of tiebreaker. Sure, it adds importance to the big games during the season but it takes a little away from the final day. I much prefer the goal difference coming into play.




The Champions League Battle

Sporting (3rd, 59pts) - at home v. Nacional

If they win -All Sporting needs to do is win. Just win, baby. Win and they're in.
If they draw- A draw also gets them in if Maritimo and Braga draw OR Braga wins.
If they lose-Lose and Sporting is out of the Champions League

Maritimo (4th, 59pts) -Away v. Braga

If they win- They need Sporting to drop points, if that happens Maritimo is in
If they draw- They need Sporting to lose, any other result puts Maritimo out.
If they lose- They are out. Plain and simple

Braga (5th, 57pts)- Home v. Maritimo

If they win- They still need Sporting to lose, if that happens Braga are in.
If they draw or lose- They will be out.

5 teams have it all to play for on the final day of the 2014/15 Liga ZON SAGRES season!​
 
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Brilliant Read this mate, looking forward to the next update and the final game of the season, here's hoping your in the CL next season. And best of luck in your other cup final against Benfica. KUTGW
 
Dean Wilkes said:
Brilliant Read this mate, looking forward to the next update and the final game of the season, here's hoping your in the CL next season. And best of luck in your other cup final against Benfica. KUTGW
Click to expand...


Thanks Dean! Im stuck at work. Been thinking about it all day! Can't wait to get home!
 
MAY 10, 2015

I didn't do any scoreboard watching today because Sporting didn't need any help, we just needed to win, so I focused on the game against Nacional and turned the scoreboard and updates off.


Sporting v. Nacional

Adrien watched the match from the stands as he was suspended, his place was taken by Leandrinho, who has spent the past several months in the reserves after signing a contract with Gremio. The move showed the desperation of Sporting and things didn't start well as Daniel Candeias slotted home a 13th minute goal to stun the capacity crowd at the Alvalade.

There were random cheers and groans from the crowd during the match, reacting to the scores in other matches. The scoreboards were turned off in the stadium but nothing could be done about fans bringing in smart phones.

The out of town scores mattered little as the 1-0 score held up into injury time. I started having visions of being fired when Sporting were awarded a free kick at the edge of the box in the first minute of injury time. It was in a spot where goals are scored most of the time and, sure enough, Vitor blasted it home to tie the score. I immediately turned on the league table pop up and it showed us in 3rd! Braga had defeated Maritimo! We had qualified for the Champions League!!

View attachment 398825

Braga 2 Maritimo 1

The win gives Braga a guaranteed group stage spot in the Europa League while Maritimo also qualify but will have to play a playoff.

Porto scored early and often in a 6-2 win over Olhanense to clinch the championship. Benfica's victory was not enough as they finished second.
View attachment 398822
View attachment 398823

Porto have won every trophy in Portugal since the beginning of the save. That streak will end, however, as the final of the Taca do Portugal will involve Braga and Sporting


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Ayyyy UCL football awesome! can't wait to see how the save develops, this could be the turning point!! Enjoying the story keep up the good work
 
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