GoN_

It says Portugal will play in a 4-4-2, but I think just like in the first match it will be a 4-2-3-1.

Japan had me quite impressed.

So after this match, do we get a little more love from EWB?

GOLO GOLO GOLO!

Well, I think we are fucked now.

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLOOOOOOOOOOOOOO RONALDO!😆

Well that was a foul but ok... Let's carry on.

In the qualifiers we played many times with Andre Silva and Ronaldo up front, but Andre Silva has been playing pretty badly, and these 4 have been working pretty well in the last few matches.

We are basically doing a 4-2-3-1, with Guedes at the middle and Ronaldo or Bruno Fernandes either at the left or behind him(they keep changing places I think).

GOOOOOOOOLOOOO😵

I know that so far Lopetegui did well for the Spanish NT, but hell, talk of failling upwards. The man has failed in all clubs he has been (Rayo, Castilla and Porto). In Porto he failed in spectacular fashion, as Porto was spending much more than usual from losing the league the previous year.

The players have a week to go back on their decision to leave, but as of now, they can already sign with whoever they want. And in my opinion, Fernandes was pretty much Sporting's best player last season (the only two cases I could see an argument made would be Patricio and Bas Dost). Gelson is good, but has a few weak points in his game that he needs to improve to get to the big stages (saying he is a diamond in the rough is really fitting in this case), but Bruno Fernandes seems to be ready. Hell, I have a hard time thinking he most likely won't start in this world cup, seeing how he has been playing this past season.

And the club's president just confirmed a 4th man leaving today... Bas Dost is out. So from their base XI from last season this is what they have left: Patricio, Piccini, Mathieu, Coates, Coentrão (on loan), William, Battaglia, Acuña, Gelson Martins, Bas Dost Both Battaglia and Acuña have been rumoured to be leaving since the start, and today it was said Mathieu was leaving too... This means there would only be Piccini and Coates left. And they also lost Podence and Bryan Ruiz is leaving as his contract was running out anyway. And they don't even have a coach right now.

So... 3 more seemed to have left Sporting... Bruno Fernandes, Gelson Martins and William Carvalho... Yeah, they are fuuuuucked.

That was pretty meh.

From what I understand from what the press is reporting, they are free to sign with whoever they want, and will almost certainly be able to play right away. There is a risk that if it is judged as wrongful termination, the players (or whoever signs them) will have to pay Sporting a fee.

So far, officially, William is still in... It seems like a matter of time, before William (and others) follow them, but so far only Rui Patricio and Podence have left.

It took longer than expected but there it is, the first Sporting player to get out of his contract and... it is no other than the team captain, Rui Patricio.

Just a quick update on the Sporting situation. So, on Saturday the club's president said that the "players were indirectly responsible for what happened to them" and on Sunday they obviously lost the cup final. It is expected that today some of them will start the process of getting out of their contracts, as it seems like the relationship between the players and the president is broken beyond repair, and the president refuses to leave the club.

Well, officially no one was suspended over the weekend, but there were strong rumors that the managerial staff had been suspended prior to the meeting with the players. This situations was boiling for weeks ever since there was a clear conflict the players and the president after the match with Atletico. Once they started winning matches, things seemed to calm down, but as soon as they drew Benfica, there was clear tension between the manager (who put himself on the players' side of the conflict) and the president. When they lost with Maritimo in the last match and with that ended third, things started to escalate. There had already been some insults thrown at the players that night at Maritimo's stadium, the airports and even at Sporting's own stadium. The following day, the president public ally asks the players and staff to go to the stadium for the meetings where as far as was known, the staff was almost suspended, with intentions to terminate them, but because the players threatened to go on strike for the cup final, everything "stayed the same". Now this is where things get kinda crazy. Yesterday, the president asked for a new meeting in the club's training grounds around lunch time, but he missed the meeting. Even though there had already been issues over the weekend, security was left on a "normal" level, and 50 dudes get into the training grounds and attack the players and the staff. The president and the "sports director", who are pretty hands on and are many times even on the bench during matches weren't there either. After the whole shitstorm he records a message about it and says pretty much that "These things happen". In the meantime, the sports director has been taken by police today due to a possible corruption scandal both in football and handball.

A dude singing a slow-tempo song with just a few lights behind him won the contest last year.

Yep, the top two was pretty awful.