Terceira: First Hostel in Angra do Heroísmo opens
Celebrate Mothers Day with a wine from Portugal’s most diverse region

Excited for the 2014 World Cup? So are we!

 

The World Cup is just a  month away… and one place to see world-class soccer is Portugal. With SATA – professional world-class soccer is just 4 hours away. Soccer (futebol) is the most popular sport in Portugal today  - and despite a population of just 10 million people, Portugal ranks 3rd in the world on the FIFA/Coca-Cola Ranking. In fact, there are 135,000 professional players in Portugal, and its top teams are some of the best in Europe - with 2014 being an an amazing year for SL Benfica.

  Portugal-world-cup-shirt-group

The Selecção, the Portuguese national team – that will compete this summer in Brazil – placed 3rd in the 1966 World Cup, and fourth in 2006. They were in the semi-finals or finals in the Euro in 1984, 2000, 2004, and 2012. You can see many of the players who will be stars on Portuguese major league teams right now, before they head to Brazil for the World Cup. 

Soccer has been played in Portugal since 1875. The nation’s top major league – the Primeira Liga, was founded in 1934. Teams like SL Benfica, FC Porto and Sporting are powerhouses, playing in state of the art stadiums.  In fact, Portuguese teams have won the prestigious European Cup four times and the UEFA Cup twice.

As for players, Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best in the world today, and names like Pauleta, Eusebio, Figo and others are legends in the game.

In the Azores, the top team is Santa Clara – based in Ponta Delgada. Santa Clara is the only team from the Azores to ever play in Portugal’s major league, where they competed for three seasons. The team is highly competitive, and offers European soccer in the closest stadium to the US. The best-known player from the Azores is Pauleta – who scored 47 goals in 88 games for the Portuguese national team, a national record at the time.

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Your Information

(Name and email address are required. Email address will not be displayed with the comment.)