It was an exciting and dramatic season in which the victors were Porto. Having one of the better starts, they were consistent through and through and reaped the rewards in May. Sporting Clube de Lusitânia came second, due to some slipups that could've been avoided (for example a draw against Faro), leaving them with more draws. Sevilha were third by a point. Requiring a lot from a handful of players, it was a tough season for them and so it's a respectable result. Their loss to Sporting in Nervião by 1-3 probably cost them the runners-up place. Francisco Gama's injury mid-World Cup Qualifiers had affected them, in particular against Braga but third is still a decent classification for the Alvorubros. Next up are Braga and Belém respectively. Now, the defending champions didn't get the best of starts, and had a rollercoaster season. Their draw at Académica (2-2) put them out of the qualifying area, meaning Braga would take it. Braga had a positive season for the most part, but the fact they qualify ahead of the others is interesting and is or probably in the top half of the expectations, as it would be very hard to get in.
Following these teams and already mentioned Belém, we enter the mid-table teams. Next came S.Miguel. The Azorean club did their best efforts at home, but didn't seem to find the same form outside of the archipelago. Managing to get good results at the Sta.Clara, things are looking up for them in this new season. Beira Mar, Académica Coimbra and SCUT all finished on 57 with the same record. Académica were a stone in some teams' foot but could also enter a bad break of form. Either way, they finished in a respectable position, which still continues their recent tendency to get better. Beira Mar were expecting better after a few good seasons but 57 is their final tally. Rafa Guerreiros' injury did not help their efforts in defence. Meanwhile, SCUT have been a very weird club ever since they won the championship. They have had very good innings but have also sometimes been just outside relegation. This season puts them back around their usual location - mid-table. Their new investment in youth has been seen with the Ascension of central midfielder Estevão Eustáquio. Their objective next season should be to better their performance of this one.
União Tomar are mid-table along with Portimão. This is mostly owed to Jaime Virigínia's many saves, despite conceding 60 and ending on a +4 goal differential. Their counter-attacking style suited them well in their first season up from Honra. It'll be interesting to see where this will go next season. As for the Algarvian side, their attack was much superior to the Templars' but they also had a weaker defence. They were in and out of from and it's been a wild ride, depending on what they do this summer, it's a question mark where they'll land next.
The Leiria side managed to stay well afloat this time out, scoring as many as Portimão but only bagging 51 points (6 less than the referred). The young revelation of the year came from Leiria. Young Bernardo Veiga was part of Bemfica's schools but after a transfer to Leiria last season, he has gradually becoming one of their most prolific players, with this season culminating with his Selecção callup.
A gap into the forty points now, with some teams that would usually be up competing for the Globe Cup. Flaviense managed to complete their objective to remain in the top flight however. Things were never certain for the Trás-os-Montes club but it worked out positively for the club. Belavista, Bemfica and Covilhã managed to get 47 Points this season. The eagles of Bemfica are still struggling from the investigation five years ago financially. This is an improvement on narrowly escaping relegation though. The players in their lineup haven't been playing particularly well this season. As for Belavista, they finished with a superior goal difference meaning they led the three in the end. SC Covilhã were in trouble at the start of the season, spending some time down in the relegation area. Their previous manager was sacked and it took them a while to find a new one. Pedro Correia, former Braga and New Lusitania manager and coach, would take on the job in January, with an interim filling the job for one and a half months, doing a decent job of actually getting away from Faro and Bético. As usual, he managed to not only stay afloat, but by a considerable margin aided by the assistant's time ending up over ten points over relegation. Marítimo and Vitória Guimarães both led interesting seasons for the neutral spectator, as they were surprisingly the other two to finish afloat. That part wasn't the surprise, but the fact that they were so low in the table was, with their season was redeemed by their Cup win at the Jamor Stadium. Marítimo had a good home record but their away adventures were absolutely atrocious this season, leading to their 16th position this season. This meant that this year's relegated sides were Sporting de Faro and Real Bético, reducing the number of teams from the South. Both teams had unimpressive seasons and in the end, most would agree that they are the weakest links and should therefore go down.
LIGA DE HONRA
TAÇA DA LUSITÂNIA
•QUARTER FINALS
Sevilha FC 2-1 Académica Coimbra
Vitória Guimarães 1-1 (3-2 aet) Marítimo
Sporting Clube de Lusitânia 4-2 Sporting Faro
FC Porto 1-2 Belém
•SEMIS
Sevilha FC 1-2 Vitória Guimarães
Sporting Clube de Lusitânia 2-3 Belém
•FINAL
Vitória Guimarães 1-1 (2-1 aet) Belém
Other Trophies
SUPERTAÇA
Belém 1-0 São Miguel
TAÇA DA LIGA
Belém 1-2 Porto
TAÇA PORTUGUESA - FINAL
União Tomar 2-1 SCUT
TAÇA ANDALUZA - FINAL
Sevilha 3-1 Real Bético
TAÇA DO IMPÉRIO
Porto 2-1 Desportivo S.Jorge
New Lusitania Qualifiers (NLA)*
Champions Cup: FC Porto
Globe Cup: Sporting Clube da Lusitânia ( formerly registered as SC Lusitânia), Sevilha FC, SC Braga
Series "B" Champions Cup: CDA Elvas, Real Bragança, Matosinhos SC
Cygnus/CWC Cup: Vitória Guimarães
*NEW LUSITANIA is currently in the process of changing their trigram to NLA because it makes more sense than LUS. If this isn't possible, please use LUS.