Feed: Sport Yahoo UK
Posted on: Saturday, May 04, 2013 00:04
Author: Sport Yahoo UK
Subject: Unfashionable Jesus brings back good old days to Benfica
Jorge Jesus' unfashionable coaching style and rhetoric may be the butt of jokes in Portugal but as Benfica grabbed a berth in the Europa League final to continue a memorable season few are questioning his knowledge of the game. The fiery, no-nonsense coach was so agitated during Thursday's 3-1 semi-final win over Turkish club Fenerbahce that a piece of chewing gum clumsily fell out of his mouth as he shouted instructions from the sideline. Footage of the moment was played out on the social networks on Friday while fans and media lauded the 58-year-old who has guided Benfica to their first European final for 23 years. "He is the great tactics master. He may not know much about verbs but he does know about football," wrote aBola sports daily columnist Jose Freitas, referring to Jesus' occasional grammar mistakes at news conferences. Jesus brushes off those who mock him and exudes a confidence that has rubbed off on his team since he took over in 2009. "Portuguese coaches are between 10 and 20 years ahead of all others," he said recently. Besides the Europa League final against Chelsea, Benfica are also in the domestic cup final and top the championship with a four-point lead over great rivals Porto. To the amusement of fans Jesus mispronounced 'Amsterdam' on live television as he hailed his team for reaching the May 15 final in the Dutch capital. "It's better to say the right things with the wrong words than the wrong things with the right words," Manuel Sergio, a sports professor at Lisbon's Technical University, said. "We should look at Jesus as the self-made man that he is. Someone who started from scratch," added Sergio, who has worked with Jesus and taught Jose Mourinho at university. Benfica recruit versatile and pacey attackers like Nicolas Gaitan, Eduardo Salvio and Lima and their playing style is rooted in Jesus' admiration for the "total football" philosophy of the Johan Cruyff-inspired Dutch side of the 1970s. "I was in love with how they played and wanted to find out how they did it," Jesus told an audience of aspiring coaches in March. "That's why I once took my chances with an internship with Cruyff at Barcelona." That inspiration was key to his breakthrough as coach at lower-tier club Amora in the early 1990s. "I was 36 and playing for (fourth-tier club) Almacilense. At the end of one match the opposing team's president called me and asked: do you want to be a coach? I saw that you were the boss on the pitch," Jesus told the young coaches. That same season, Jesus led Amora to promotion and he hasn't turned back since. |
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