FA Cup draw

We all get excited about the FA Cup.
Some people who dont follow lower league will probably not have even paid attention that there was a draw.

What does the FA cup mean to lower league clubs?
Apart from the much needed money from TV coverage and also higher attendances which in turn bring in a bit more money, it is also the enjoyment of the locals with the aim to see their team upset one of the big boys.

There are a lot of talented players in the lower leagues and with a good run in the FA Cup it is also a good shop window from where the talents such as DJ Campbell are discovered playing for a local non league side.

In bold are games I will follow closely.


Full FA Cup first round draw

Ties to take place on 6/7 of November

Colchester United v Bradford City

Corby Town v Luton Town

Harrow Borough v Chesterfield

Notts County v Gateshead

Stevenage v MK Dons

Southport v Sheffield Wednesday

Rotherham United v York City

Havant & Waterlooville v Droylsden

Bury v Exeter City

Cheltenham Town v Morecambe

Hayes & Yeading v Wycombe Wanderers

Dagenham & Redbridge v Leyton Orient

AFC Wimbledon v Ebbsfleet United

Lincoln City v Workington or Nuneaton Town

Mansfield Town v Torquay United

Hereford United v Hythe Town

AFC Bournemouth v Tranmere Rovers

Carshalton Athletic or Chelmsford City v Hendon or Metropolitan Police

Swindon Supermarine or Bath City v Eastwood Town

Rushden & Diamonds v Yeovil Town

Southampton v Shrewsbury Town

Cambridge United v Huddersfield Town

Burton Albion v Oxford United

Gillingham v Farnborough or Dover Athletic

Tamworth or Grimsby v Crewe Alexandra

Darlington v Bristol Rovers

Guiseley v Crawley Town

Brighton & Hove Albion v Woking

Macclesfield Town v Southend United

Rochdale v FC United of Manchester or Barrow

Carlisle United v Sheffield or Tipton

Leiston or Dartford v Port Vale

Forest Green Rovers v Northampton Town

Fleetwood Town v Walsall

Barnet v Charlton Athletic

Plymouth Argyle v Swindon Town

Accrington Stanley v Oldham Athletic

Hartlepool United v Vauxhall Motors

Stockport County v Peterborough United

Brentford v Aldershot Town

Liga Zon Sagres

A review on the weekend games in Portugal

Portuguese teams had a mixed week in the Champions League. 
Braga won their first game, in the Champion League group stages, Braga also scored their first CL goal from Lima and then Matheus scored the second in their 2-0 win, over FK Partizan of Serbia. 

 In the other Champions League game, Benfica lost against Lyon 2-0 after being reduced to 10 men early in the first half.  Jorge Jesus will now have some work to do to get into the next stage.

In the Europa League, FC Porto beat Beskitas in Turkey 3-1 despite being reduced to 10 men in the first half goals from Hulk (2) and Falcao.  Sporting CP managed to outclass their opponents AA Gent with a 5-1 score line Goals from Liedson (2), Salomao, Maniche and Postiga. 

The Liga Zon Sagres is still on its 8th game of the season; FC Porto leads the table with 19 points followed by Benfica on 12 along with Olhanense who have been a surprise package this season having gained promotion in the 08/09 season.

FC Porto now under management of Andre Villas Boas whom most will remember as the assistant manager of Jose Mourinho. Vilas Boas will try to keep the advantage over the rest of the teams with the visit of Uniao de Leiria.

Leiria have recently enlisted controversial former Portuguese international Ricardo Sa Pinto as their assistant manager. Sa Pinto famous for punching the national manager Artur Jorge in 1997 for not picking him for an international, has also recently left his role as director at Sporting CP over a dressing room punch up with striker Liedson.

The game promises to be highly entertaining as Leiria will be a tough opposition, given their mid table placing and having established themselves as a team capable of upsetting the big boys.  Manager Pedro Caixinha will be thinking outside the ''Caixa'' to bring the 3 points to Leiria.

Benfica look to put behind their bad start of the season, and with the game against Portimonense who will look to upset the Red Devils from Lisbon to climb up the table from 13th place. 

Benfica's coach Jorge Jesus is confident that despite the 6 defeats the team can turn their season around.  Despite six defeats in all competitions so far, which is the same number of defeats that Benfica had the whole of last season, Jesus will be taking a the same squad that he had available Wednesday for their trip to the Algarve.

Sporting will be on a high from their midweek win over AA Gent, Paulo Sergio is still without seven players. Although he will soon be able to count on Yanick, Grimi and Saleiro.  All three have left the physio's table and are now doing some light training.

Sporting's position in the table isn’t a pretty sight, they lay 10th but they may be glad to face a Rio Ave who are bottom of Liga Zon Sagres.

Academica's game against Nacional da Madeira has been delayed until Saturday as it was due to be played on Friday, but Nacional were unable to travel to the weather in the beautiful island of Madeira.

Ivo Vieira will take his squad into the continent hoping to get a result against the 'students' of Coimbra, saying that although it might be a hard task, it is not impossible.

Academica however have kept working, whilst they wait for the islanders to land in town, they are without Pedrinho.

Olhanense will travel to Braga in what will be an interesting clash, the team from Braga known as 'gverreiros' due to the steam region of Minho will look to keep the stream flowing, following their champions league victory during the week, Paciencia will also want to get back into the top two or three very soon, so not to be labelled one season wonderers.

The full fixtures are:

Saturday 23rd

Académica 2-1 Nacional

P. Ferreira 1-1 Beira-Mar

V. Setúbal 2-1 V. Guimarães (tv)

Sp. Braga 3-1 Olhanense (tv)

Sunday 24th

Marítimo-Naval

Sporting-Rio Ave (tv)

Portimonense-Benfica (tv)

Monday 25th

FC Porto-U. Leiria (tv)

Portuguese Third Division Grounds (northen section)

Here is a guide to some of the grounds of the Portuguese 3rd Division A (Northern Division).
Portuguese football clubs as you might want to know differ in a big way to the English clubs from lower league to EPL.

As you go down the list you will notice not a lot of clubs end of start with the letters (FC) and this is because they offer along with the ones who have (FC) in their names different sports, from Cycling to Running, Swimming, Archery, Swimming etc...
Portugal apart from producing great footballers also have great sports such as Handball, Hockey (roller Blades), Basketball and obviously Futsal and Beach Football.
Many grounds have a complex to provide all these sports, you would wonder why the grounds are big if not a lot of support goes out of the big 3 (Benfica, Porto, Sporting), its because they do accommodate from time to time other sports and events such as concerts.

A 3rd Division or even Lower is more involved with its own community it provides a diversity that i think miss in the English game.
We see many grounds in England being shut until there is a game and nothing else goes on around it, well most Stadiums in Portugal have always something on from a Hockey match to a basketball game.

This is the case in many European countries and i guess it offers a bit more then 1 sport for the nation to enjoy thus keeping a lot of young people entertained and appreciating the values of sport!

And going by the Initial picture at this level the grounds are not rusty at this Amature Level.

Enjoy and comment! I will add Youtube links to some fo the clubs games and also other info!

F C Amares

Stadium: Parque Desp Engº José Carlos Macedo

Location: Amares- Braga

Capacity 5000

http://www.fcamares.pt/

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Clube Caçadores das Taipas

Stadium-Campo Montinho
Loaction: Caldas das Paipas-Guimaraes
Capacity: 7122

http://www.cctaipas.com/
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Associação Desportiva de Esposende

Stadium: Estádio Padre Sá Pereira
Town: Esposende
Capacity: 5000

http://www.ade-esposende.com/

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Clube de Futebol de Fão

Stadium: Complexo Desportivo Clube de Futebol de Fão
Town: Fão
Capacity: 5000

http://www.cffao.pt/

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Associação Desportiva «Os Limianos»

Town: Ponte de Lima, Viana do Castelo
 Stadium: Campo do Cruzeiro
Capacity: 2500

http://www.limianos.com/

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Sport Clube Maria da Fonte

Town: Povoa do Lanhoso, Braga
Stadium: Campo do Moinhos Novos
Capacity: 1500

http://mariadafonte.pt.vu/
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Sport Clube Melgacense

Town: Melgaco, Viana do Castelo
Stadium: Centros de Estagio de Melgacos
Capacity: 1000

http://www.melgacense.com/

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Sport Clube de Mirandela

Town: Mirandela, Braganca
Stadium: Estadio Sao Sebastiao
Capacity: 7000

http://sportclubemirandela.com.sapo.pt/

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Santa Maria Futebol Clube

Town: Galegos Sta Maria, Barcelos, Braga
Stadium: Estadio da Devesa
Capacity: 4000

http://www.smfcv.com/ ---------------------------------------------

Sport Clube Valenciano

Town: Valenca do Minho, Viana do Castelo
Stadium Name: Dr Lorenco Raimundo
Capacity: 2000

http://www.scvalenciano.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------

Sport Clube Vianense

Town: Viana do Castelo
Stadium: Dr Jose de Matos
Capacity: 3000

http://www.vianense.pt/ --------------------------------------------------------

Vieira Sport Clube

Town: Vieria do Minho, Braga
Stadium: Campo Municipal Vieria do Minho
Capacity: 2500

http://www.vieirasc.com/

Estoril de Praia
A Portuguese sports club(Sports club as they have more than one sport)  Estoril, is a posh area of Cascais, District of Lisbon. Founded in 1939, it has a football and basketball section and have been in and out of the major Portuguese league over the years.
It adapted its Badge and color to coincide with the natural beauty of the area, Yellow for the sun and blue for the sea.
President
Eng.º José Manuel Romão

Manager:

Vinicius Eutrópio

Cléber (gk)

Jefferson

Anderson Luís

Lameirão

Luíz Alberto

Luciano Bebé

Vinícius Reche

Tiago Costa

João Coimbra

Paulo Sérgio

Alex Afonso

Subs-

Vagner da Silva

Tiago Bernardin

Clodoaldo

Erick

Steven Vitória

Nelsinho

Tony Taylor

Portuguese Cup 3rd Round

The 3^rd round of the Portuguese cup will take place on the weekend of 16^th and 17^th of October which will see many of the top league clubs take on 3^rd and second division clubs.

The previous week we saw the League Cup first leg where some of the lower teams upset the big boys, Stay tuned for some upsets

Here is the equivalent of the Portuguese league to the English Leagues

*(LZS) Liga Zon Sagres ( Portuguese Prem)

*(LO) Liga Orangina (Portuguese Championship)

*(2^nd Div) II Liga (League 2)

*(3^rd Div) III Liga (Conference)

As you will see the difference is big in Portuguese football. In England the conference will offer a better set up then in many Portuguese 3^rd division, which if going down in order would be equivalent of league 2 in england.

The 2^nd  Division is divided into 3 zones (north/Central/South) and 3^rd league into districts (8 Serie’s) giving it more of a Ryman type of set up.

The Matches are as follow:

Matches taking place on the 17^th October 2010

-Gil Vicente (LO) 2 - 4 V. Setúbal (LZS)

-U. Leiria (LZS) 1 - 2 U. Madeira (2^nd Div)

-Estoril (LO) 1 – 2 Sporting (LZS)

-FC Porto (LZS) 4 - 1 Limianos (3^rd Div)

-Benfica (LZS) 5 –  1 Arouca (LO)
-Rio Ave (LZS) 4  - 1 Estrela Vendas Novas (3^rd Div)

Matches taking place on the 17^th October 2010

-Paços Ferreira (LZN) 3 - 1 S. João Ver (3^rd Div)

-Lagoa (2^nd Div) 0-0p Torreense (2^nd Div)

-Mondinense(3^rd Div) e2-1 Coimbrões(2^nd Div)

-Santa Maria (3^rd Div) 1-0 Penalva do Castelo (3^rd Div)

-Ribeirão (2^nd Div) 2-0 Belenenses (LO)

-Sertanense (2^nd Div) 0-0p Olhanense (LZS)

-Naval (LZS) 0-2 Marítimo (LZS)

-Varzim (LO) p–p Gondomar (2^nd Div)

-Bombarralense (3^rd Div) 2–1Louletano (2^nd Div)

-Portimonense (LZS) 2–0 Cinfães(3^rd Div)

-Carregado (2^nd Div)  p0-0 Fátima (LO)

-Atlético (2^nd Div) 3-1 Macedo Cavaleiros (2^nd Div)

-Pinhalnovense (2^nd Div) 3–0 Fafe (2^nd Div)

-Sp. Espinho (2^nd Div) 4–1 Pontassolense (2^nd Div)

-Tirsense (2^nd Div) 5–1 Sampedrense (3^rd Div)

-Operário (2^nd Div) 0–2 Moreirense (LO)

-Merelinense (2^nd Div)  2-1 Farense (2^nd Div)

-Juv. Évora (2^nd Div) 1-0 Santa Clara (LO)

-Mirandela (3^rd Div) 1-1p Beira Mar (LZN)  

-Anadia (2^nd Div) 1–2 Feirense (LO)

-Cesarense (2^nd Div) 1–2e Académica (LZS)

-Tourizense (2^nd Div) e2-1 Aliados Lordelo (2^nd Div)

-V. Guimarães (LZN) 4-0 At. Malveira (3^rd Div)

-Nacional (LZN)  4-2 Padroense (2^nd Div)

-Leixões (LO) 3–2 Mafra (2^nd Div)