Walls do come down.
Yesterday was celebrated the anniversary of the Berlin's wall fall. The majority of the people present on that moment think that it took too much time, near 30 years, to fall down. To commemorate the reunification of the West and Eastern Germanys in 1989, was produced an event watched all over the world, where pieces of Domino fell down. Well, also yesterday our team SL Benfica played for the Portuguese League and the difficulties faced were so much that it seemed that the Eagles were playing against a wall. The similarity of the Berlin wall and the Naval wall cannot be made in terms of suffering, but one thing is coincident, both walls took too long to fall.
Last night, Benfica received the team of Naval, coming from Figueira da Foz. The visitant team disposition proportionate almost 90 minutes of game in only one side of the pitch. The away team coach A. Inácio, probably to honour the Berlin event, told his players to defend with all their forces. The strategy delineated made that the almost every players of Naval hardly passed midfield. When a counter attack occurred only two or three players expected to score benefiting from some mistake of the red defenders.
When a game has this type of characteristics and we do not see many goals, there are only two reasons possible. The first is that the red players are inefficient and the other is that the defenders were much better than our attackers. I frankly believe that this last hypotheses is the most correct and the public also in Luz, more than 40 000 spectators, probably would agree. A strong factor called Peiser, the goalkeeper of Naval avoided the success of the Benfica players for several times. A tremendous actuation from the French goalkeeper almost guaranteed the success of his coach and team. The red players felt on their legs the European game played on the middle of the week before, nevertheless they had plenty of good opportunities to score, unfortunately to us only one, break the wall, but it was worth it. It was almost at the end of the game, 89', when J. Garcia scored a great goal, responding positively with his head to a cross from a free kick marked on the left.
Maxi Pereira told the Press, that they the team needs to get used to difficult victories, like this one against A. Naval 1º Maio. Probably many other teams that will visit Benfica will play like that. We need to adapt to that kind of posture.
Rúben Amorim and Di Maria are two players who were evidently with "low batteries" yesterday. It is strange to say, but they were tired, for a good reason. They made a brilliant game in Liverpool, last Thursday against Everton FC. This two young players, with the rest of their companions, made a very good exhibition which allowed an important victory. Their performance in Goodison Park was so good that they took all the possibilities, of the English team to reach a positive result. Everyone knows that the games of the Portuguese teams in England are not easy and the European home games of the Toffees , are always very difficult to the visitors. It is needed to say that the goalkeepers from both sides, Tim Howard the USA Squad goalkeeper and the Brazilien Júlio César, made a good job. Saviola and Oscar Cardoza scored the two red goals and silenced Goodison Park.
As always the British remembered and honoured our "Black Panther". Eusébio went to the middle of the pitch before the beginning of the game and received a deserved gift from the Everton FC people. A return to a stadium where he scored 6 goals in the 1966 World Cup tournament representing Portugal and where he would have faced England in the semi-finals but the Football Association decided to switch the game to Wembley at the last minute. It is good to know that the star he was, is still remembered by the ones who had the opportunity and the pleasure of seeing him playing in the land of the Beatles.
