FC Porto Looks in Mirror, Sees Benfica in Reflection

Hey F.C. Porto, look at your Classico rivals Benfica. That could be you a year from now.

Remember Benfica's wondrous championship season last year? Remember how they used to score goals by the bushel, 4, 5, 6 at a time? Remember how they'd run teams into the ground, literally and figuratively? Looks a little familiar no?

There are a couple of stone-cold facts Porto--a team some are calling perhaps the second-best squad in Europe right now--cannot escape: You play in Portugal. Portuguese teams are a horrid combination of poor and greedy. This year's Falcao and Hulk are last year's Di Maria and David Luiz. They and you will be tempted by shiny new uniforms, big money and a bright spotlight. And you won't turn down the money. It's in your DNA to sell off your best players and reload the hard way--just ask Sporting and Benfica.

Sad, really if you give a damn about the Portuguese league, or any smaller league in Europe. The pattern is the same and the cycles of winning are few and far between.

Benfica was dumped out of the Europa League by SC Braga yesterday. Benfica should have, and would have, cruised to the title game under different circumstances. Economics, greed and those bad genes all conspired to doom Benfica. And it's a safe bet Porto will be in a similar boat next year. Dominant domestically, Porto is going to hoist another continental cup in a couple of weeks and then the fire sale begins. Too bad, because this is a league that desperately needs some consistency. Imagine a three out of four Champions League semifinals, instead of the very NIT-like Europa League? Imagine the spotlight on Portuguese football in that case? All it would take is a little consistency, because apparently, Portuguese clubs are pretty good at developing and nurturing players. They just haven't figured out how to keep them!


And then you have Braga, a true anomaly. A collection of relative unknowns headed by a lame-duck coach who spoiled the party by hanging on by the thinnest of threads yesterday to beat Benfica. It's a great story; everyone loves a Cinderella. And if Braga wins in Dublin, that only further flames the impending Porto fire sale. It's going to be a bittersweet game either way for Porto. Win and the Falcaos and Hulks are gone; lose and guess what? They're gone too.

Yes Porto, take a hard look at Benfica. You too could win just the BWin Cup next year and come ohsoclose to winning more important silverware--if you only had the players.

Which is Better? Champions League vs. Europa League

The UEFA Cup, which goes to
Europa League winner.

OK, before you light up the flame mails, yes there's no comparison between the quality of teams in the Europa League compared to the Champions League. And yes, I get it that some teams in the Europa League might not give two craps about it and would rather focus on domestic competition, especially if they can win a first division title and get in the Champions League and have no shot to win Europa.

Thanks. I got that. We're talking NCAA v. NIT. True Dat.

But for today's purposes and for the sake of altruism, let's look at the two competitions on somewhat level terms. Between the two, I'll take the Europa League.

The Champions League, especially the group stages, is such a money-grab whore of a league, that it should offend every fan of football played at the highest level. Look at the talent gap between the Pot 1 teams and those fighting for third and fourth spots in each group. By the way, those third and fourth placers end up in the Europa League -- lucky them. It's where they belong to begin with.

Hapoel Tel Aviv gets a trip to Lisbon and Lyon--and gets to get smacked around for 90 minutes in each city. Bursaspor? Bursaspor? OK. Have fun at Old Trafford, Valencia, and Glasgow. Oh yeah, and the fans who decide to show up in each of those cities? Sure, you'll see Bursaspor's Starting 11, but what will you see from your home teams? Likely the B-Team. That's Champions League football at its finest.

Shall we continue? Dracula's team, CFR Cluj was the Cinderella team a couple of years ago, but in the end was an annoying speed bump for the top two teams in its group on their way to the Round of 16 and the money rounds of the Champions League. Rinse, lather, repeat this year for Bayern and Roma, just the way it was for Roma and Chelsea in the 2008-09 tournament. BTW, Cluj ended up last in its group two years ago.

I'd rail against MSK Zilina, but you get the idea.

I'll take the Europa League. This first group stage after today's draw is much more competitive. There's less of a gap between the teams and once the Champions League castoffs join for the final rounds, the level of play improves dramatically. You have a better chance for two squads from the same country vying for a spot in the late rounds. You have a better chance to pair clubs from rival nations that normally wouldn't get on the same pitch. You have a better chance, especially in later rounds, for teams to get hungry and pull out all stops to win.

You can't say that in the Champions League, where legitimately, what, six teams have a chance to win? Money talks, and bullshit walks to the Europa League. Sure Tottenham might get out of the group stage, but will it have a shot against one of the top eight? Nope. Benfica, a scoring machine last year. What if they get out? Will it have the legs to beat a Chelsea, Inter or Bayern. Likely no. How about a minnow; a Valencia, Braga or even Auxerre? Let's say they pull off an upset and get into the second round ahead of what we'd consider to be the Top 16. Now you're looking at even more of a lopsided result in the knockout stages.

The Champions League used to be great -- when it was the European Champions Cup and left solely to the domestic champions of Europe. The competition was exclusively knockout style and the competition was fierce. You crowned a true champion that played hard from round one. Today, the champions don't arrive until the final 16, or final eight sometimes.

The Europa League may strictly be NIT to the Champions League's NCAA, but for quality of competition, I'll tune in there for the time being.