José João, FC Porto Under-17s coach: “We want to start winning” | OneFootball

With “a good pre-season” completed – during which the most important achievement was “creating a strong identity” within a group of athletes who already understand “what the culture of FC Porto is” – the time has come to take the field against Vitória SC (Saturday, 11:00 a.m.) and “show what has been done over the last six weeks.” “We really want to start winning,” emphasizes José João, with the ambition to “be Porto every day” and the goal of “developing players so they can become better and be prepared for the higher levels that FC Porto may need.” In tune with the coach, midfielder João Brito assures that the Porto players are “ready for a great season”: “We are all working at our maximum, every day, so that we can be together and be a family.”

The pre-season“The team is doing well, we had a good pre-season. For us, above all, it was important to create a strong identity with the team. The team really understands what the culture of FC Porto is so that we can have a sustained longevity throughout the season. We started to instill in the team what we have in terms of principles, values, and style of play. Of course, not everything has been acquired, not everything is set in stone, but we are already prepared for the start of the championship.”

Growth as the main focus“We are focused on growing as a team, as a group, and we want the players to really absorb what we want for the team. We are at the initial stage and will certainly have time to reach our best level.”

The opponent“Playing in Guimarães is always difficult, it’s an opponent with a lot of quality, they have good players, but our focus is essentially on ourselves. At FC Porto, we really want to win, we want to start winning. We are excited in a good way because we have been working for six weeks and haven’t played any official matches yet. We are very eager to get on the field and show what we have done in these six weeks, to show our fans, the people who support us, what our true value is. We will be facing a tough opponent, they have some particularities, it’s a difficult field because it has special dimensions, it’s synthetic, but we will overcome it, we will be Porto. We have to be Porto every day.”

The team above all“Yes, of course I want to make my debut, but the most important thing is never the coach. The most important thing is the players, it’s knowing that there are many people working every day so that these players can become better and be prepared for the higher levels that FC Porto may need at any given time. That is always our main goal. The coach will never be the most important piece for FC Porto, so we feel we are on the right path, that the players are understanding and grasping what we want. Now it’s just a matter of continuing and, I repeat, bringing the three points back from Guimarães.”

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