UEFA Champions League 2014/15 Season Awards
By Ryan Wrenn
Most Promising Team
The Portuguese Liga have long been the farm system for many of the bigger clubs in Europe. FC Porto alone has produced the likes of Radamel Falcao, Maicon, Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez in the past decade alone. This past Champions League campaign has seen them live up to that reputation by fielding a team comprised of youth products, loanees from bigger clubs and rejuvenated cast-offs. It’s been an impressive run that took the club through to the quarterfinals. Along the way they topped their group in the initial stages and beat fellow farm team FC Basel of Switzerland.
Their first leg against Bayern in the quarterfinals was perhaps the surprise of the tournament. They managed to beat the German giants 3-1 on the back of several marvelous performances in all phases of play. Unfortunately they were unable to deny Bayern’s might in the second leg, but that one last victory is as appropriate a capping statement for an impressive Champions League run. Such flashiness rarely goes unpunished for smaller clubs, of course, so the real test going into next season will be to see how many of their young and talented squad they can keep from wealthy suitors.
Next: Least Impressive Team