when defense is ignored

By: j | September 18th, 2008

When defense is ignored, very good clubs are embarrassed on the pitch, which is precisely what happened when Porto easily defeated Fenerbahçe 3-1 in Champions League action.

Luis Aragonés must be wondering what he has to do to get the idea across but tactically the oppositions attack is dictated by defensive positions but unfortunately while the strategy has been put in place, many players are making crucial mental errors and it is costing the team dearly. Fenerbahçe is not playing very good Football now and they are lucky Porto’s finishing wasn’t dead-on or your guess is as good as mine as to how many goals they could have scored. I won’t bother with endless individual rankings and to be honest, I deplore them. This is a team game and a team loss, pure and simple.

Albicelestes capped Lucho González and Lisandro López owned the match and started with a flurry of assaults. Lisandro López opened the scoring early at the eleventh minute mark on a beautiful pass from Raul Meireles, Porto doubled the lead when Cristian Rodríguez found Lucho González open, who then slotted the ball into the net. With a 2-0 lead, the party was on at Estádio do Dragão and the assault continued. Porto’s finishing wasn’t up to par and at the twenty-ninth minute Daniel Güiza scored on the counter. While there were a few scoring opportunities through the balance of the match it wasn’t until added time that Porto’s Lino, who had just entered the match, added the third and final goal.

This is a gut-check for Fenerbahçe and they rebound quickly as they face Gençlerbirliği this weekend. Learn from this match but also put it behind you and not let it impact your confidence. Now more than ever, Şükrü Saracoğlu must be a fortress. I want to impress upon you, this is a very good club but it is time for the twelfth man to sing out in support of the Yellow Canaries.

Porto
Helton, Bruno Alves, Rolando, Nelson Benítez,Cristian Săpunaru, Lucho González, Fernando, Raúl Meireles (Tomás Costa 67′), Mariano (Hulk 90′), Cristian Rodríguez (Lino 90′), Lisandro López

Fenerbahçe
Volkan Demirel, Gökhan Gönül, Diego Lugano,Önder Turacı, Roberto Carlos,Claudio Maldonado,Selçuk Şahin (Josico 45′, Burak Yılmaz 53′),Yasin Çakmak,Emre Belözoğlu, Uğur Boral (Kâzım Kâzım (Colin Kazım-Richards 77′), Alex, Daniel Güiza