Time once again to take a stab at some international cup predicting. The match before us is the 2nd leg match in the Europa League semifinal between Sporting Clube de Portugal and Metalist Kharkiv of Ukraine. The match kicks off today at 3:05PM ET.
The Sporting logo is simple, but solid. The lion rampant is good, and the negative space of the horizontal stripes is cool. It seems a little redundant to have both “Sporting Portugal” and “SCP” included, but maybe they felt it was too simple without one or the other. The Metalist crest, on the other hand: no. Just, no. This one is a classic of too many symbols all thrown together haphazardly. And it’s the same problem with the colors, there’s no cohesiveness. Based on their badges, I don’t see any result other than a win by Sporting, by at least 2 goals.
Note: today is the last day the Zamalek SC shirts will be available in the shop.
Update: Win some, lose some — and draw some, as Sporting and Metalist did today: 0-0. And that’s the number of points I get on the prediction scorecard.
This month’s FC Shirts group stage is over (have you voted in the final yet?), but UEFA Champions League group stage is still going on. Today’s prediction selection is Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Portugal’s FC Porto.
Porto’s crest is a classic, if a bit on the busy side. I always like a good dragon (or even a half-decent dragon, as here), and the ball/globe is very nice. On the Shakhtar side, I could certainly do with less shiny, but the bold colors and aggressive lines make them my favorite in this match. I predict Shakhtar with the win, narrowly eked out against that globe-topping, unvanquished (“invicta”) dragon. Kickoff is at 2:45 ET.
