Sporting is lining up with this 11 for the match against Braga.
Rui Patricio, Cedric, Mauricio, P.Oliveira, Jefferson, William, Adrien, João Mário, Carrilo, Nani and Montero
This would always be a big match for me but when I woke up this morning I never could imagine that it would have an huge emotional impact in me. My grandfather was the one who made me so interested in Sporting, he was a huge fan and I started following them because of him. There was a point in my life where I lived with my grandparents and the match day was always exciting. Most of the times he didn´t want me to watch the game with him because all my fussing around and complaining to the TV made him even more nervous so he would stay in the living room and I would go to another TV near his bedroom but every time Sporting scored we would run to each other, hug it out in the middle of the corridor and then we would back to our respective spots for the rest of the match.
Due to me living more than 1000 kms away and some family discussions between me and my grandmother, we drifted apart a bit. I last talked to him 4 months ago and all though things weren´t all fixed up between us, he was so happy to be talking to me and told me how much he loved me.
Earlier today, my father told me he had bad news for me...I couldn´t believe it at first, I rushed to the computer and searched for it on the internet...The news articles kept popping up but I still couldn´t believe it. I turned the TV on and searched through the recording of the news until it appeared on the screen. There it was, my grandparents apartment and a fire truck on the outside. I kept reading the headline over and over again : "86 old man died in a fire in his bedroom"...
5 hours and I´m still a bit shocked. It´s surreal opening news sites and seeing that news on almost all of them.
I´ll be sitting down in a bit to watch the match, hoping that he would be there sitting with me. Today there won´t be cheers in the goals, no more hugs in the middle of the corridor...
Every Sporting match will feel a bit more special now, it was one of the things that bonded us and I have so many great memories of Sporting matches with him.
Thank you for everything, grandfather.
I love you