BarcelonaIt was June 13, 2005. Luis Filipe Vieira, the president of Benfica, approached Ronald Koeman and whispered in his ear. “You have to play in the middle of the field. When you can, shoot from outside the area.” The Da Luz stadium, which opened two years earlier, hosted a match between club workers and managers. Koeman had just landed in Lisbon to lead Benfica. And in a symbolic gesture, it was his turn to receive tactical orders from the president, who instead of making him play as a central defender, put him in the middle of the field. It was not a bad play. Koeman scored three goals, while the president, acting as coach, shouted at Toni Bruins, a member of the coaching staff: “If you don’t do well I’ll take your place!”
Ronald Koeman returns to Lisbon, where he lived one of his first experiences as a coach, precisely at Benfica, Barça’s rival in the Champions League. “He left a good memory, really. Someone with a lot of character, who always wanted to win,” says Fernando Chalana, who became part of the coaching staff to help the Dutch understand a club complicated enough as Benfica. Chalana, considered one of the best players in the history of the Lisbon club, had been part of a golden generation that in 1988 was one step away from becoming European champions, when they lost the final on penalties against PSV where, precisely, Koeman played. “I got there to shine in Europe. The Champions League is an obsession we have at Benfica. We won two in the 60’s and we couldn’t do it again, so the idea was to have a coach to do well in Europe. Chalana recalls. At Benfica there is talk of the curse of Bela Guttmann, the Austrian coach who, after winning the two titles, against Barça and Madrid, would have said that Benfica would never be European champions again. A critique of the way managers of the time worked that ended up causing pilgrimages to Guttmann’s tomb in Vienna to ask him to lift this alleged curse.
Benfica had a new president then. Luis Filipe Vieria had entered the box office in 2003 to stop a streak of years of dominance of Porto. In the 2004/05 season in fact, Benfica cut a painful 11-year drought without winning the league with Italian Giovanni Trapattoni on the bench. The Italian, however, left for personal reasons. And Vieria opted for a Koeman who had good sign with the intention of shining in Europe. At the age of 41, Koeman had led first Vitesse and then Ajax, where he had won the Dutch league. And Vieria asked him precisely to bet on continental competition. Strengthening the team with Greek Karagounis and Italian Miccoli, Benfica started the season strong, climbing to the lead. In the Champions League, despite a defeat at home to Villarreal, Benfica would surprise by leaving Manchester United out of action on the final day of the group stage, whom they defeated 2-1 with goals from the former Barça player Geovanni and Brazilian Beto. In the round of 16, a new surprise. Facing reigning champions Rafa Benítez’s Liverpool, Benfica beat Da Luz 1-0 and sacked Anfield 0-2 on the return leg with goals from Miccoli and another former Barça player, Simão Sabrosa. “He is a person who goes face to face, very honest. I met him when he was in Van Gaal’s coaching staff at Barça and I like working with him,” Simão would say at the time. “He was expected to play more offensively than Trapattoni. And he did,” said Chalana, who admits that in Champions League matches Koeman ordered to be more careful. More defensive.
A scare at the Camp Nou
In the quarterfinals of the Champions League the rival would be Rijkaard’s Barça, who could not get past the tie in the first leg of the quarterfinals in Da Luz in a game that ended goalless, despite a lot of opportunities in both goals. “I see a lot of optimism in Barça’s atmosphere, we can surprise them,” Koeman would say when he returned to Barcelona. They almost did, as Simão had two clear chances in the last minutes of the match that could have put the 1-1 on the scoreboard. In the end, Eto’o made Barça fly to the semifinals. And by the way, the final in which he would defeat Arsenal.
“Those quarter-finals are still Benfica’s best result in the Champions League in recent years. With Jorge Jesús we have lost two Europa League finals, but Koeman left a good memory, although things didn’t end well.” , says Chalana. The effort in the Champions League led to finishing third in the league. And Koeman decided to return home, despite having one more year on his contract. “I have an offer from PSV and coming home is important to my family,” I would say at the farewell press conference. In just one year he won the Portuguese Super Cup. But in Europe, he excited fans like never before incarnate, defends Chalana, who admits that sometimes Koeman did not fully understand the temperament of the Portuguese. “In the middle of the season the team was alive in the Champions League and second in the league. And everyone criticized the team, to the point that Simão had a contemptuous gesture with some fans. And some players did not hide on the grass that they saw things differently, ”Chalana recalls.
Koeman called for unity several times, especially before the duels against Liverpool, and publicly defended Luisão and Simão as mainstays for the team. In fact, the Dutchman has already fondly remembered Luisão, the center-back who led the game on the pitch, currently a Benfica delegate. “At Benfica there are always hundreds of journalists and millions of fans commenting. It’s hard to dominate the press room. I understand that Koeman wanted to go back to Holland, where he felt safer,” explains Chalana. Despite having one more year of contract, the two sides agreed in a few days and Koeman did not have to tour Angola and Mozambique, countries where Benfica is much loved, to close the season. That tour was led by Chalana himself, who would give his place a few days later to Fernando Santos. At PSV, Koeman would win the league and lead the team back to the quarter-finals, but it would last just one year in Eindhoven, as he accepted Valencia’s offer.
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