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S.C. Braga

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Braga
File:Sporting Clube Braga.png
Full nameSporting Clube de Braga
Nickname(s)Os Arcebispos (The Archbishops)
Os Arsenalistas (The Arsenalists)
Minhotos (Those from Minho)
Os Guerreiros do Minho (The Minho Warriors)
Founded1921
GroundEstádio AXA, Braga
Capacity30,154
ChairmanPortugal António Salvador
ManagerPortugal Domingos Paciência
LeaguePortuguese Liga
2008–09Portuguese Liga, 5th

Sporting Clube de Braga (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈspɔɾtĩɡ ˈklub(ɨ) dɨ ˈbɾaɡɐ]) (Euronext: SCB), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club, from the city of Braga, that was founded in 1921. Its football team plays at the AXA Stadium, also known as The Quarry, which was built for UEFA Euro 2004. In the 2000s, the club gradually became one of Portugal's most successful clubs after the Big Three, and they have also competed with relative success in European competitions, winning the last ever UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2008. Sporting Braga is currently sponsored by Italian sportswear company Macron.

History

Braga celebrate the Cup

In 1966, the citizens of Braga were at an all time high as Braga won the Portuguese Cup. This came as a surprise, as not even the people of Braga expected their club to win. This was the first time Braga had won an honor. Braga have come close on several occasions since then.

The Ferreira years

Jesualdo Ferreira is an icon at Braga as he led the club to glory as they reached fourth in the Portuguese Superliga. Many fans were hurt when Ferreira left, but Ferreira led the club to a high finish in the league, which led Braga to European competitions for the first time in decades. Ferreira left for Boavista, the club that many Braga fans consider arch-rivals for the UEFA slot in the competition. At Braga, Ferreira was known as "The Professor" for his tactical decisions when deciding the starting line-up that led Braga to fourth place. Miklós Fehér was a key part while at Braga. He managed an impressive record of 26 matches and 14 goals in the 2000–01 season for Braga. He then pursued his dreams when he arrived in Lisbon to play for Benfica, although Fehér's dream would be short as he died from a heart-attack on the field, in January 2004.

Fans of Braga

The fans of Braga are known as Arsenalistas due to their teams uniforms that resemble that of English club Arsenal. They are also known as Bracarense because of the Bracara Augustus region of Portugal that is now known as Braga. The club's attendance record was broken in May 2007 against Belenenses, in a game that gave Braga a final fourth place in the league.

Symbols and Europe

The emblem of Sporting de Braga is the city of Braga's shield with Mother Mary and baby Jesus. On the top of the emblem is the golden Mural Crown of Braga, with the name Sporting Clube de Braga on it. Many fans of Braga have said that Mother Mary gives them luck. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Braga began to climb up the league ladder and eventually participated in the UEFA Competitions. The club also participated in the 2007–08 UEFA Cup. The team is also expecting a top three finish in the 2007–08 season. Braga finished fifth in Jesualdo Ferreira's first full season and brought UEFA Cup football to the Municipal stadium. Then in the 2005–06, they challenged for the championship until the penultimate round, ending fourth. Braga's success was due in part to Jesualdo's astute management of his human resources. His pragmatic tactics also paid dividends, skills acquired in a varied career taking in spells with Estrela da Amadora and the Moroccan army team FAR Rabat, plus four years with the Portugal under-21 side. Braga, who owe their Sporting Club tag to the better known Sporting Clube de Portugal, after whom they were named, have been known as Arsenal do Minho and changed their kits from green-and-white hoops to their Arsenal-style red in 1920 when their then-coach Jozef Szabo, following a trip to England and Highbury, ordered the club to adopt new colours to establish their own identity (Braga even renamed their youth team Arsenal do Braga).

European ambitions

In 2006–07, Portuguese up-and-coming manager Carlos Carvalhal became manager of the club and started with a poor start to the season, where Braga lost to AZ in the UEFA Cup despite crushing Czech Republic champions Slovan Liberec 4–0 (who had drawn against Sevilla only a week before), and a 4–1 loss to Madeiran side Marítimo. These losses proved to be the end of his season, despite success in European competitions, with an overall score of 3–2 against Italian club Chievo in the first round of the UEFA Cup. Somewhat unexpectedly, Carvalhal resigned and was replaced with Rogério Gonçalves with former Portugal captain Jorge Costa as assistant manager of the club. Gonçalves' first game in charge couldn't have gone better with a 3–1 over Benfica and a week after a hard-fought loss against UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup champions Sevilla in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. After a 1–0 away defeat to União de Leiria in a league match on 18 February 2007, Gonçalves resigned, one day afterwards. Braga president António Salvador announced on the same day that assistant manager Jorge Costa would be in charge until the end of the 2006–07 season. In his first game, Braga beat Parma 1–0 (2–0 on aggregate). They then played Tottenham Hotspur, where they lost 6–4 on aggregate in the last 16. However, they were not favourites to win, and after this result, attentions had been focused on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League. Braga eventually finished fourth in the league for the third successive time, just beating Belenenses by a point on the last day.

During the summer of June 2007, it was presented that AXA would be the club's sponsors in a multi-million dollar deal in which the name of the stadium was changed to Estádio AXA, with this being the first in Portugal.

After the 2006–07 season, Braga qualified for the UEFA Cup, where they faced Hammarby IF. Despite losing the first leg in Sweden 2–1, Braga won at home 4–0 to qualify to the group stage for the third consecutive time. There, their first game was against Bolton Wanderers where the game finished 1–1. Braga then played German giants Bayern Munich, who were the favourites to win the competition; despite the negative feedback, Braga drew 1–1 with Roland Linz scoring the vital goal. After that impressive display, Braga faced Aris with another 1–1 draw, with Linz scoring another vital goal for the Minhotos. Braga then went into the last game against Red Star Belgrade of Serbia where they picked up a 2–0 victory, which was enough to take them into the next round. They went on to face Werder Bremen but lost the first leg 3–0, which Braga missed two penalty's, and the second 1–0.

The 2008–09 UEFA Cup season saw the Minho club go against Bosnian club HŠK Zrinjski Mostar, who dropped from the UEFA Champion's League second round. Braga started as favourites and beat Zrinjski Mostar 3–0 on aggregate. In the next phase, the Minho side were paired with Slovak giants Artmedia Petržalka, who were then beaten 6–0 on aggregate with Albert Meyong scoring a hat-trick in the process for Braga.

After successfully qualifying for the UEFA Cup group stage proper for a third successive season, the Portuguese side were paired with FA Cup winners Portsmouth, Italian giants Milan, Wolfsburg of Germany, and Heerenveen of the Netherlands. Braga started the game at home to Portsmouth and were convincing 3–0 winners with Luis Aguiar scoring from a freekick and setting up the other two goals. This game proved to be Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp's last game as he then moved to Tottenham Hotspur. In the next group game, Braga faced a daunting task at the San Siro against the competition favourites Milan. The game finished in a 1–0 defeat for the Portuguese side. Despite the loss, Braga dominated the game for many long periods of time, holding the Italians to 0–0 after 93 minutes, but an individual goal from Ronaldinho from 35 metres out gave the Italians the full three points. The next game was against Felix Magath's Wolfsburg where Braga lost 3–2, despite scoring the first two goals. The last game was at the Abe Lenstra Stadion in the Netherlands against Heerenveen. Braga won the game 2–1 and progressed to the next stage. After getting further in the UEFA Cup than any of their ten fellow winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup, Braga were declared the last outright champions of the competition.

Minho rivalry

Aside from the loyalty of the supporters, which earned the Arsenalistas a big part of Portuguese football culture, the Minho derby against Vitória de Guimarães is a match that both sets of fans eagerly await. This match is more than football: it is a way people from the north view other cities. The derby is one of Portugal's most intense derbies, and children under 13 are restricted from entering unless an adult is with them. The rivalry goes back to when the City of Braga was the ancient capital of Galicia and Guimarães, who were led by the first Portuguese King, Afonso I of Portugal, was one of Portugal's biggest cities.

Honours

Domestic

International

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK Portugal POR Eduardo
2 DF Peru PER Alberto Rodríguez
3 DF Brazil BRA Paulão
4 DF Brazil BRA André Leone
5 DF Brazil BRA Moisés
6 DF Brazil BRA Evaldo
7 FW Brazil BRA Osvaldo
8 MF Brazil BRA Mossoró
9 FW Brazil BRA Paulo César
10 MF Uruguay URU Luis Aguiar (on loan from Dinamo Moscow)
11 MF Portugal POR Diogo Valente
12 DF Portugal POR Tiago Pinto
13 MF Brazil BRA Olberdam (on loan from Marítimo)
15 DF Portugal POR Miguel Garcia
No. Pos. Nation Player
16 MF Haiti HAI Joseph Peterson
18 FW Colombia COL Wason Rentería (on loan from Porto)
19 FW Cameroon CMR Albert Meyong
20 MF Venezuela VEN Angelo Peña
22 MF Brazil BRA Rafael Bastos
23 MF Argentina ARG Andrés Madrid
27 DF Portugal POR Filipe Oliveira
30 FW Brazil BRA Alan
31 GK Poland POL Paweł Kieszek
42 GK Portugal POR Cristiano
45 MF Portugal POR Hugo Viana (on loan from Valencia)
81 FW Brazil BRA Adriano
9 FW Israel ISR Eli Zizov
88 MF Brazil BRA Vandinho
99 FW Brazil BRA Matheus
— DF United States USA Gale Agbossoumonde (on loan from Miami F.C.)

Notable former coaches

League and cup history

The club has 51 presences at the top level of Portuguese football. Its best placing ever on the league table is 4th place, which they've accomplished seven times. The table below shows the club's performance since its first presence in the 1st Division in the 1947-48 season.

Season Tier Finish GP W D L GS GA P Cup Europe Notes
1947–48 1 13 26 6 4 16 47 69 16
1948–49 1 8 26 11 2 13 39 54 24
1949–50 1 8 26 11 2 13 52 53 24 Not held
1950–51 1 7 26 10 5 11 42 57 25
1951–52 1 8 26 8 5 13 32 49 21
1952–53 1 13 26 8 2 16 37 58 18
1953–54 1 5 26 12 4 10 54 36 28
1954–55 1 5 26 12 5 9 52 42 29
1955–56 1 14 26 5 3 18 36 84 13 Relegated
1956–57 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Promoted
1957–58 1 5 26 9 7 10 51 52 25
1958–59 1 7 26 9 6 11 48 51 24
1959–60 1 12 26 6 8 12 24 39 20
1960–61 1 13 26 8 3 15 41 62 19 Relegated
1961–62 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1962–63 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1963–64 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Promoted
1964–65 1 10 26 8 4 14 36 51 20
1965–66 1 10 26 7 7 12 39 64 21 Champion
1966–67 1 9 26 9 5 12 33 33 23 CWC 2nd round
1967–68 1 9 26 9 3 14 29 48 21
1968–69 1 12 26 6 7 13 20 47 19
1969–70 1 13 26 6 5 15 25 52 17 Relegated
1970–71 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1971–72 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1972–73 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1973–74 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1974–75 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Promoted
1975–76 1 7 30 9 10 11 35 43 28
1976–77 1 8 30 10 9 11 36 36 29 Runner-up
1977–78 1 4 30 16 6 8 42 27 38 Best league finish
1978–79 1 4 30 16 5 9 49 35 37 UC 2nd round
1979–80 1 9 30 10 6 14 34 40 26
1980–81 1 6 30 10 10 10 34 39 30
1981–82 1 7 30 11 8 11 34 42 30 Runner-up
1982–83 1 6 30 13 3 14 41 43 29 CWC Preliminary round
1983–84 1 4 30 15 7 8 40 32 37
1984–85 1 8 30 9 10 11 46 43 28 UC 1st round
1985–86 1 9 30 9 8 13 34 47 26
1986–87 1 9 30 10 6 14 32 34 26
1987–88 1 11 38 8 18 12 32 42 34
1988–89 1 6 38 14 12 12 42 37 40
1989–90 1 12 34 8 12 14 32 41 28
1990–91 1 7 38 13 8 17 42 45 34
1991–92 1 11 34 12 5 17 41 49 29
1992–93 1 12 34 12 6 16 33 34 30
1993–94 1 15 34 9 10 15 33 43 28
1994–95 1 10 34 11 10 13 34 42 32
1995–96 1 8 34 12 9 3 44 47 45
1996–97 1 4 34 15 10 9 39 40 55
1997–98 1 10 34 11 12 11 48 49 45 Runner-up UC 3rd Round
1998–99 1 9 34 10 12 12 38 50 42 CWC 2nd round
1999–00 1 9 34 12 7 15 44 45 43
2000–01 1 4 34 16 9 9 58 48 57
2001–02 1 10 34 10 12 12 43 43 42 Semi-final
2002–03 1 14 34 8 14 12 34 47 38
2003–04 1 5 34 15 9 10 36 38 54
2004–05 1 4 34 16 10 8 45 28 58 UC 1st round
2005–06 1 4 34 17 7 10 38 22 58 Round of 32 UC 1st round
2006–07 1 4 30 14 8 8 35 30 50 Semi-final UC Round of 16
2007–08 1 7 30 10 11 9 32 34 41 Round of 32 UC Round of 32
2008–09 1 5 30 13 11 6 38 21 50 Round of 16 UC Round of 16

References

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