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| Saturday, 28 May 2011 10:16 |
D-Day in the Liga OranginaGil Vicente and Trofense vie to join Feirense in top flight  After twenty-nine rounds of thoroughly entertaining action, the 2010/11 Liga Orangina campaign draws to a close at 16.00 and 18.00 Portuguese time on Sunday afternoon. In keeping with the highly competitive nature of the preceding fixtures, just three of the eight scheduled matches are dead rubbers, with the other five all very much alive in terms of the final table.
We’ll start at the top. Feirense sealed promotion last weekend with a win at Aves, but Quim Machado and company will undoubtedly want to end the campaign in style and arrive in the top flight as champions. There will be a party atmosphere at the Estadio Marcolino de Castro, with fans expected to turn out in force as the club celebrates their return to the top flight after 21 years away.
They will be joined by either Gil Vicente or Trofense, who enter the round on 52 and 51 points respectively. On paper, the advantage is with Paulo Alves’ side, who host relegated Fatima in Barcelos. Os Galos have arguably been the most exciting side in the division this season, and with Trofense facing a tricky trip to the Azores and Santa Clara, it looks very much as if the boys from Barcelos will seal their return to the Liga after the Mateus Affair of 2006.
Sporting Covilha and Varzim fight to beat dropAt the other end of the table, Sporting Covilha and Varzim will kick off knowing that they are perilously close to joining Fatima in the regional leagues. Covilha are on 29 points, whilst Varzim are on 28. Despite their crop of immensely promising young talent, the northern side have found themselves slipping inexorably towards the drop zone of late, with last weekend’s home defeat to Belenenses representing a hammer blow to their hopes of survival.
Varzim travel to Oliveirense, who have also been in poor form of late, slipping out of the promotion race. Covilha are at home to Aves, who also have nothing to play for. The drop from the professional leagues to regional competition is one that many clubs have struggled to cope with – Boavista and Estrela Amadora being the most high-profile examples. It promises to be a tense afternoon. Speaking of the regional II Divisao, we are three matches into the postseason round-robin playoffs. Top of the table are Padroense on 4 points, with Atletico Clube de Portugal on 3 and Uniao de Madeira on 1. With three fixtures remaining, the race for the two promotion spots is predictably tight, though Padroense can put themselves to within a point of the Liga Orangina with a win at Atletico on Sunday afternoon.
by Ben Shave
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Gil is a club with history. They have great fans, and it would be nice to see them back in the top flight.
It's always great when such big matches happen on the last day of the season.
Please let me state that I haven't watched any of these teams play, and don't particularly have a rooting interest. OK maybe Belenenses due to their proximity to where I stay and Estoril due to the beach. LOL.
Anyways, when I looked up my usual stats I couldn't help notice that Gil Vincent actually had the 9th highest attendance in all of Portugal, with 60,033. That puts them ahead of eight SuperLiga teams.
Let me also add that Trofense was 17th on the list with 30,436 spectators on the season.
On a side note Naval was 20th with 4 Liga Orangina teams ahead of them.
I'm not so sure that the Estadio Marcolino de Castro (Feirense) will be rocking since they weren't in the top 20 in attendance and it only holds 4,667 people.
Keep in mind that Trofense's stadium also only holds 5,074, and that didn't keep them from being in the top 20.
Gil Vincent's Estadio de Cidade de Barcelos looks like a much nicer facility, holding 12,374.
Just due to their club support I would love to see Gil Vincent get promoted to the SuperLiga. The fans deserve to be rewarded.
Lastly, I will be sad if Varzim gets relegated, since their fans deserve better. They finished 18th in attendance, 3rd in Liga Orangina.
(all stats from lpfp.pt)