It’s Our Turn… It’s Our Time.

By: Greg | August 11th, 2008

Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the brand spanking new Sporting CP Offside. For those of you who’ve been reading the Portugal League branch here, you know me from my fantastically witty commentary on Portuguese Football as well as my penchant for obscure cult pop culture references and public humiliation of my wife.

If you aren’t acquainted with my brand of blogging then try reading some past stuff I’ve done (if you really care that much) and you’ll get a decent idea of what type of writing you can expect here, with a few differences, and they are:

1. This is a club-specific blog (I know, you’re thinking “No, shit dude”) which means that I don’t have to be semi-impartial as I am when I write for the league wide blog. This means you can expect me to talk plenty of shit on the other clubs, especially Futebol Corrupto do Porto and our beloved neighbors, SL (or) Second best in Lisbon Benfica.

2. I’m a Chelsea supporter as well. Don’t kill me for this. I don’t have a huge history with a childhood of growing up as a Sportinguista. Watching Portuguese football for over two decades now with a father who is impartial, I came to appreciate the passion of the Sporting fans, especially the derbies against Benfica. However, when I first met my future mother-in-law almost two years ago, she asked if I was a Sportinguista and I couldn’t answer any other way. Since then I’ve followed them most closely out of all of the Portuguese teams and with the Portuguese blog I’ve been working on for over a year now as well as a mother-in-law who owns a shotgun and two pistols, I’d say my status as Sportinguista is pretty much cemented. (Unless I get a divorce, then you can bet your sweet ass I’m jumping on the Porto bandwagon. Kidding!)

3. I don’t pretend to know everything. I actually do happen to know it all. In all seriousness, if I’m ignorant to certain historical aspects of the club, be it from fifty or five years ago, don’t kill me for it. I’m a passionate supporter and my involvement here with the blog as well as my constant support of the Leões for the past two to three years should be enough that you hardcore “Been a supporter for life” guys can cut me some slack.

4. A fan blog like this is driven by intelligent, insightful commenting that turns into dialogue. Come here and talk shit on the other teams all you want but don’t make stupid racist comments or anything that you wouldn’t say if the person were right in front of you. The chanting at matches and saying teams are shit are obviously all in good fun, but once the line is crossed, you’ll be facing the business end of the banhammer.

5. I’m going to continue to helm the Portuguese league and national team blogs as well. That’s three blogs plus I have a full time job. I’m not paid for this. If I don’t immediately report on the new urinal cakes or churrasco cart in the stadium, take a deep breath and relax. I’ll get to it.

I figure the best way to start this off would be to have some YouTubage of the ultras celebrating goals and chanting some lovely words to the opposing supporters. For those of you who don’t speak or understand Portuguese, I can assure you that “benfica é merda” simply means “Benfica, good luck to you, and I hope we play an entertaining match.” Força Sporting!

Directivo Ultras XXI