A Bear in Portugal: Ruh-roh (Spring 2012)

Howdy everyone, and welcome back to another update of the Bear’s journey in the Portuguese third tier. When last we left off, our heroes were flying high in 6th place, and were looking to defy all expectations (Media Prediction of 15th) and survive our first season in the third division. Still, the season was only a third over, and there was a lot of work to be done if we were to continue.

Let’s kick off with something I neglected to post last time, our first ten fixtures:

Perhaps not the picture of consistency, but at 6th place, I wasn’t complaining. Unfortunately, I would quickly learn that I knew absolutely nothing about this league. Our next ten fixtures weren’t quite as pretty…

I’m not sure I can expressly say what went wrong here, but I’m willing to absolve myself of all blame and suggest it was simply the lack of depth on the team (caused by the board’s refusal to provide any funding) that caused us to sputter out. We lost games against some of the worst teams in the league, and won them against some of the better ones. We also found ourselves drifting uncomfortably close to the relegation zone:

At the height of our downward spiral, I decided something had to be done in January. Unfortunately our debt was pushing the $160,000 mark, and we only had cap space for a single signing. While I desperately wanted to add another attacking threat, or find that ever illusive left winger, I ultimately settled on attempting to shore up our defense.

He’s pacy, he’s young, and he’s from Paraguay. What else do you need out of a defender at this level? By playing him as a wingback, he’s actually helped alleviate some of my left winger concerns by bombing up the flank and providing some decent crosses in his own right. I’ve been able to move the old left winger further inward to where he’s more comfortable, and the pair seem to be doing fairly well in this setup.

But did it help us down the stretch?

Ehhhh, not so much. We continued to struggle, and we were beginning to drift ever closer to 13th place and the dreaded relegation. To add insult to injury, that loss to Oriental allowed this to happen:

We…we gave them the title…

A bitter, bitter rivalry was born on this day, and I’ll never forget the humiliation and shame Oriental subjected us to. One day, hopefully soon, the time will come when we meet again.

Anyway, you may remember this from the last post:

«Fatima and Esterla V.N. are way better than us, and there’s simply no way we’ll be able to catch them up.»

Yeah, well…

Turns out I was only half correct. Absolutely anything seems plausible in this league. Oriental went from bottom half to run away leaders, and Fatima ended up sacking their manager and barely escaping relegation. While we ultimately finished with a comfortable 5 point cushion, we were at one juncture only two points off 13th. Still, survival is survival, and we even manged to set a record:

A dubious record if ever there was one, but I suppose it’s better than nothing. I also had this little tidbit float across my desk:

Ehrm, okay? I wasn’t even aware we were in the process of building a stadium, so I guess I can’t be too upset that the mysterious project failed?

All in all, I’d call this season a «success». We finished a bit lower down the table than I would have liked, but we survived to fight another year, which is ultimately all that matters. I’m planning on overhauling the squad this summer and trimming a lot of dead wood out of the reserve and youth ranks. I don’t know that we’ll be good enough to mount a title challenge next year, but we’ll see where it goes.

A little sneak preview:

(That’s about half the team.)

Thanks for reading all!