VITORIA!!! VITOOORIA!!!

Incredible. After an exhausting season, Vitoria finally managed to stamp its ticket and remain in the superliga (the Portuguese equivalent of the English premier league). Its hard to believe we made it since it was one of those rather improbable events: two teams had to loose or draw and we had to win away. One of those teams, Beira Mar, had a cushy job since they were playing at home against a reasonable but beatable Pacos de Ferreira. In the end, after much, much suffering, the boys managed to bring it home. There were hundreds of faithful Vitorians who made the trip all the way up north to cheer the team on, and I don't think we would have done it without them. The victory was so huge that it even caused some fans to slightly lose track of reality over at the forums, so let me just clarify this: no, we're not the champions, we just managed to stay in for yet another season of pain and excitement.




Vitoria does make things hard for itself. It was yet another of those soap opera seasons, with managers getting fired, money gone missing, wages unpaid, players threatening to leave, players leaving, new Presidents, new financial partners that never quite materialise, the whole nine yards. A pretty standard season as far as Vitoria is concerned but hell on earth for any other club I can think of. No wonder Carlos Cardoso does not want to take up the job next season. I secretly believe that he spends the first few months of the season recovering from the previous season and getting mentally ready to take over as caretaker manager... Let's see what the new boy is all about...