There are competitions that seem tailor-made for players and coaches and the League Cup, whose semi-finals start tonight in Leiria against Arouca-Sporting (19.45, SportTV1), is a good example of this when we look at Rúben’s incredible record Amorim in the league: won nine trophies and suffered no defeat in 32 matches (!) including his history as a footballer and coach.
Rúben Amorim has by far the highest honors in Portugal in terms of the League Cup (following the list of most-titled Luisão, with seven, and Jorge Jesus and Maxi Pereira, with six, all at Benfica), a history of success that started when he was a player. Between 2008/09 and 2014/15 he won six trophies, five with Benfica and one as an Sp player. Braga.
Even more incredible is the fact that he did not register a single defeat in the competition. As a player, for Benfica and Sp. Braga played a total of 19 games and had 14 wins and five draws, with two goals.
Amorim repaired his boots at the end of the 2015-2016 season in Al-Wakrah, Qatar. And in 2018-19, he started a coaching career. In December 2019 he jumped from Sp. Braga B for the main team of Arsenal, replacing Sá Pinto, and a month later celebrated his first trophy: the League Cup, after beating FC Porto 1-0 in the final.
Since then, and already at the head of Sporting, he won the trophy two more times – in 2020/21, after beating Sp. Braga 1-0; and last season after a 2-1 win against Benfica.
As in his days as a player, Amorim has not recorded a single defeat in the league as a coach. In fact, as a coach, he has won all 13 games played, scoring 33 goals and conceding five.
Does not save a season
Announcing that Trincão is short before tonight’s game, and promised to “present the best eleven” so as not to be surprised again by Arouca (it lost for the championship this season), Amorim revealed yesterday that the team “really go to the final and win”. But he rejected the idea of saving the season by winning the League Cup.
“It doesn’t save anything, we can’t see things that way. Our goal is to fight for the championship, but we lost a lot of points and are behind. We had the Portuguese Cup, where we have a great tradition.” and where there were great ambitions. We know where we failed, but here we can win. It doesn’t save the season, nor does it stop saving the season. It depends on us winning, without thinking about saving the season. We’re in the mid-season I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said.
“This is the trophy that is closer, it depends on us, although we are still in the Europa League, but there are other favorites. In the championship, we do not depend on us. The League Cup will be decided in a week and we are closer. and a big club lives on titles. There are many players here who have not yet won titles, they have to experience those sensations. It is the responsibility of this club to fight for titles,” he added.
Amorim was questioned at the press conference to name Van Ewijk, Heerenveen’s right back appointed to fill in for the Lions to fill in a potential departure from Pedro Porro. “In terms of the market, we have some goals, thinking not only of the present, but also of the future. I don’t see the right-back position as an obsession. At the moment I’m counting on Porro, Esgaio, Travassos and Esteves. See you soon “.
The Arouca coach assured yesterday that his team will enter the field “without fear of losing”, because that is the only way to get closer to beating Sporting. “In terms of our way of playing and our way of playing, there is one thing that worries me: players should not be afraid of losing. If we enter the field without fear of losing, we are probably closer to victory This mentality that I have I try to instill in the players,” said Armando Evangelista.
“Being in these last four is not living a dream. We are living the reality, because we are here. with some success. It is legitimate to believe that we can continue in that,” he underlined.
Tomorrow (19.45, Sport TV1) the other semi-final FC Porto (still without trophies) will play against Académico de Viseu. The final is scheduled for Saturday evening (7.45 pm, SIC).
Source: DN
