A Home Debut With Many Firsts

The diving header is one of the most exciting way to score a goal in football, it takes timing, decision and bravery since sometimes you don’t know where other people’s foot might be – and it can happen that they’ll land exactly on your face. Yesterday’s match against Naval 1° Maio was instead decided by a play that you seldom see on a football pitch: the “diving chester”.

The newly signed Cameroonian striker Yontcha threw himself in the air, in my opinion badly misjudging the time of the dive, and with a spectacular chest movement netted the ball for the first Belenenses’ goal of the season. Yontcha was also instrumental for the set up of the second goal, when he received the ball from right-back Mano and crossed the ball that Ivan Santos left-footed into the net for the final goal of Belenenses 2 – 0 win against Naval.

The win is the first ever at home against Naval for the Azuis (and I have crystal clear memories of that horrible scoreless draw back in October 2006 that had been my first ever game at the Estàdio do Restelo) and avenged last March’s 1-2 defeat that sent Belenenses deep into the downward spiral that led towards relegation.

The game was a two-faced one: it was terrible, to say the least in the first half, with both teams focused more on preventing their opponent from scoring than on build dangerous attacks. Naval was probably the better team throughout the half, but they never managed to pose real threats for Nélson. The Belenenses’ defensive line proved to be rock solid for the second game in a row despite having a former midfielder at right back (Mano) and a 19 y.o. youngster at left back (André Pires).

The second half of the game developed differently from the first especially after Fredy, who was active but in a Denilson mid-‘90s style until then (read: useless), skipped past his man on the right side of the area and crossed the ball to Yontcha who scored in that unusual way. The game sped up after the tie was broken but Naval’s reaction was sterile and fruitless with Belenenses attending their opponents in their own 25m ready to counter-attack. A funny and frustrating event occurred in the 74th minute when the referee, instead of focusing on the game, booked centre back Rodrigo Arroz while the player was outside the pitch waiting to re-enter the contest. Even the – boring and not-so-competent Portuguese commentators were surprised by this decision and said that the ref should have focused on the play instead of doing such a theatrical act.

The only real scare for Belenenses came in the 88th minute when a freekick from the edge of area was sent inches above the bar by Diego Ângelo. Moreover, three minutes later Mano came out of his own half with the ball, timed perfectly his forward pass down the right side for Yontcha who then centered the ball where another new signing, Ivan Santos, one-timed it into the net to put an end to the ballgame.

This season has then, so far, started very differently than the last one, and Belenenses was able to capitalize on the chance of getting immediately a win on their home debut (while last year we had to thank Rodrigo Arroz whose 95th minute goal evened the score against Paços de Ferreira). It’ll be fundamental for this young Belenenses side to win as many games as possible against fellow mid-table contenders such as Naval in order to, firstly, have a quite and sufferance-free campaign (something that we fans would love after last year’s struggles) and, secondly, who knows maybe aim higher.

Next game will be Sunday in Braga against a strong Sporting Braga side which won its first two matches. I’d personally be more than happy to come out of the pitch with a point, something that can be possible if the Azuis keep playing like they did in the second half of the game yesterday.