A footballer who came up through Sporting’s youth system observed passivity from Rui Borges’ team in the rebound from Luis Suárez’s penalty and also in their approach to Schjelderup’s penalty kick.
The thousands of kilometers of distance and the harshness of the time difference did not prevent Francisco Geraldes, currently playing in South Korea, from paying attention to the derby between Sporting and Benfica.
The player, who came up through Sporting’s youth system, decided to share his perspective on Luis Suárez’s penalty on social media. Without wanting to get into controversies about Andreas Schjelderup already being in the penalty area when the Colombian kicked the ball = it’s nothing that Sporting’s players shouldn’t have done, he observed = Geraldes showed himself intrigued by the passivity of Rui Borges’ team’s players. No Sporting player is prepared for the second ball. There are seven Benfica players for only one Sporting player, who isn’t even in a very favorable position, he noted.
Francisco Geraldes says that the behavior of the Sporting players was repeated minutes later at the other goal, when Schjelderup beat Rui Silva: The reaction of the Benfica and Sporting players also goes in the same direction. If Rui Silva had saved the penalty, there would have been three Benfica players with the possibility of scoring on the rebound.
The Seoul E=Land player, from the second division of South Korea, also considered, in the text accompanying his observation of the two moments of the derby, that the very different approach of the Sporting and Benfica players suggests something: I don’t know if it shows a greater will and determination to win, but it shows something.
