I became a Porto fan for one day summarized

Val Carvalho put himself in the guise of a Porto fan. Thanks to a whim and an ill-thought out bet (who hasn’t been there before), Val brings us a vivid account of his fraught emotions on Monday night as Porto were undone by Arouca... 

Sérgio Conceição sat in the home dugout following the frustrating tie with Rio Ave. He rubbed his hands roughly over his eyes. Was this statistically an unjust result? Perhaps yes, but the enigmatic coach has seen this before and hopes it does not signal a bad turn. Sérgio took a deep breath and looked to the heavens for solace. None would be offered. In fact it was soon to get way worse. 

The following week and just 36 seconds into the game v Arouca, Porto were down 1-0. A slick run down the wing by Cristo González after a fine move and a crisp accurate pass between both Porto centre-backs found the flying head of Rafa Mújica. Diogo Costa can only watch as the perfect header sails out of his reach. A fantastic goal followed by a horrendous goal celebration. 

For me you can close the "goal of the season" competition right now. This is Arouca scoring 36 seconds after kickoff, with every one of their players touching the ball, and NOT ONE Porto player able to get a touch. Magnificent. https://t.co/dnPhByQqKk

— Tom Kundert (@PortuGoal1) February 14, 2024

Porto didn’t panic. In fact they did what a Sérgio Conceição coached team always does. They roared forward and applied the pressure. At the 9-minute mark Evanilson was donkey kicked down in the box. A clear penalty. He then stepped up and confidently buried the penalty.

1-1

We have all seen this scenario before and as I watched the match in the almost tropical February temperature of +5 Celcius in southern Ontario, Canada, I expected Porto to now go out there and vaporize a hapless Arouca. As a matter of fact, after Porto went down 1-0 I had immediately dropped 30$ on a Porto victory. I daydreamed about what I would do with my winnings, even informing a local Portista of my big brained bet. His retort:

“You just use us for exploitation"

Nico and Varela were eating up every ball in the midfield, and pushing forward at every opportunity. Galeno then came close with a blast that required a top save from Ignacio de Arruabarrena in the net for Arouca. I clapped my greedy hands together in anticipation of the goal that was sure to come and it did indeed at the 28:37 mark, except not for the team I bet on.

Pedro Santos cracked a fierce cross into the box, it was met by the boot of Jason Remeseiro and hit Pepe in the hand. It was not intentional nor do I believe Pepe had any time to react and the ball was moving away from Pepe with no Arouca player in site. However, the gratuitous handball rules are clear and applied in every instance of this infraction. Much to my wallet’s disgust the PK was awarded. Cristo González stepped up and buried a rocket into the ceiling. Diogo Costa expressing what every Porto fan was feeling with his foul-mouthed outburst. Not directed at his opponent but at the circumstances his team now found themselves in.

The Arouca celebration this time was much better.

2-1

At the 33-minute mark Porto struck back with an imperfect through ball by Galeno finding the in-form Evanilson for a tidy finish. A few seconds later the excitement balloon was deflated as Evanilson was shown to be offside by a cat’s whisker.

I texted my anger to the local Portista.

In order to maintain a professional environment here at PortuGOAL and to keep my friendly relationship with Tom I won’t post what I wrote but it had many words starting with F and perhaps I even questioned the parentage of the VAR ref. Am I becoming a true Portista? Is this what it is like?

The rest of the half ran by with Arouca, not Porto, pressing forward, Mújica again rampaging down the middle and missing the right post by about half a metre. As the halftime whistle blew I wondered if my sure bet had turned into a black hole. I looked to the past Porto greats for inspiration and asked myself, what would Mourinho do? What would Hulk do? So as a 45-minute long Porto fan, I steeled my jaw and kept the faith.

“Vamos Porto!” I said with lame confidence “please...”

The second half started with the Azul e Branco on the attack. Mini Conceição forcing Arruabarrena to make another strong save at the near post and then inexplicably Nico González blasts a tap-in directly at the Arouca keeper’s chest.

“What are you doing?” I said and threw my pão com queijo at the wall.

Arouca kept countering and if not for Diogo Costa’s heroics Porto would have been down at the 57-minute mark from a precise Jason strike. On 60 minutes the oatmeal raisin cookies hit the ceiling as Jason flew down the flank, cut inside on a stiff and passive Fábio Cardoso to plant a bomb in the far side of the goal. Adeus thirty bucks.

3-1

Mini Conceição got one back in the 86-minute mark but it was a consolation goal only as Arouca continued to press and then a second yellow to Fabio Cardoso for a foul on the impressive Jason killed the match for good. The red card matching my red face.

3-2 final

“Fire everyone!” I texted.

“Yep” came the Portista reply.

At the end of the match this wasn’t the same case as the previous week against Rio Ave. This time Arouca were the better side, in my opinion. They attacked non-stop, created more, got some deserved luck, had a steady keeper and the win was fully deserved.

As for Sérgio Conceição, the future Porto presidency elections, the fanbase and the title chase, that’s all up in the air but admittedly it has become murky for Porto as Sporting show no signs of slowing down and are scoring goals for fun at this point. Porto sit seven points back of both a renewed Artur Cabral led Benfica and Sporting, with the latter still with a game in hand.

As for me I learned a valuable lesson. Never count your dragons before they hatch.

Related: Arouca’s Spanish armada destroys Porto for historic 3-2 victory