José João, U17 boss: “We must be at full strength” for Real SC | OneFootball

Leading the Championship Round standings with a comfortable advantage, FC Porto’s under-17s head into matchday 12 with a clear warning ahead of their trip to bottom side Real SC. Between the danger of easing off, the characteristics of a “small” pitch, and the need to preserve the team’s competitive identity, José João and António Neto delivered a message of vigilance and ambition. The coach summed it up plainly and assured: “We have to be at full strength.”

There may be an advantage in the table, but there is no room for complacency. In the preview of the match, FC Porto under-17 coach José João presented a team determined to stay true to itself, resilient to the circumstances and immune to the temptation of seeing the standings as a cushion of comfort. The central idea ran through his entire speech: at the top, the demands do not ease.

When asked about the challenge awaiting the team against Real SC, José João rejected any simplistic reading of the game and highlighted the details that could make the task more difficult.

“It’s going to be a difficult game because it’s a tricky pitch, small, where the ball doesn’t move perfectly. Real SC are a team with many quick players up front and, because we are facing the team at the bottom of the table, there may be some relaxation here, but we have to be very cautious about that,” he said. “We have to understand that every game is worth three points and we have to be at full strength to continue this winning run and maintain the gap to second place.”

In the coach’s words there was a double warning: to the opponent and to his own team. FC Porto go into the match on top, but their advantage in the standings does not remove the need for total concentration, especially in a context that demands adaptation and competitive maturity.

This message fits with the way José João looks at the team’s day-to-day work, more than any single match. When speaking about the group’s internal response, he evoked the club’s identity and the idea of consistency built daily.

“At FC Porto, we always have to be at the maximum of our abilities. We have to look at each day as if it were the last day of our lives and always face it with our values and principles as a Club and as a team,” he stressed. “From day one, the team has identified very well with this way of being, with these habits, and that is why we have worked normally; we have not changed anything compared to the first phase. We have simply continued to feed our process, our idea, our values and our principles so that we can become more and more consistent and more capable of being at our maximum.”

More than promising intensity, the coach described a routine of high standards. His words point to a team that wants to extend its good form without distorting the process, viewing leadership not as an end goal, but as a daily responsibility.

José João also made sure to offer direct recognition to those who support the team from the stands. The memory of the last match was recalled as a concrete example of the emotional impact that support can have in moments of greater tension.

“I would like to mention that in the last game we truly felt the strength of our supporters. At the moment when it was 2-2 and the corner for 3-2 came, we felt a push from the people who follow us, and that was gratifying. It was good for us to feel that support because it pushed us a little towards 3-2, and we hope that away from home, the people who follow us, namely our families, can continue to make us believe and keep pushing us so that we can always be at our maximum.”

The coach thus drew a link between performance and belonging, reinforcing that the energy coming from outside also helps sustain the response on the pitch. In a potentially uncomfortable match, that connection may once again be an invisible but decisive resource.

In the dressing room, António Neto reinforced the same line of controlled confidence. The midfielder spoke of a united group and of a week of work that prepared the team for a test with its own specific characteristics.

“In the dressing room we have been very united, very confident for another game, and we have worked very well during the week.”

The midfielder also stressed that the team knows it will have to be switched on from the very first play, without letting previous references interfere.

“We have to go in at full strength and with maximum concentration because it is a different game; we must not think about the first-leg match.”

In António Neto’s words, you can sense a group trying to balance confidence and alertness. It is the same message that runs throughout the preview: anyone who wants to maintain the gap over the competition has to approach each round as if the standings still offered no comfort at all.

Before finishing, the midfielder also left a simple appeal to Porto fans, in line with the ambition of maintaining the path the team has been following in the league.

“We want you to support us strongly because we are doing well in the league and we want to keep it that way.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.