Final adds to Villas-Boas’ Mourinho comparisons

Posted Tuesday, May 17, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

DUBLIN (AP)—FC Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas may brush off comparisons to Jose Mourinho but a Europa League final win against Braga will put the young Portuguese coach on a parallel track to that of his predecessor.

Porto goes into Wednesday’s final at the Dublin Arena as the second Portuguese club to finish a league season unbeaten after Benfica’s 1972-73 team. Villas-Boas now has a chance for a treble in his first season in charge with the Portuguese Cup final against Guimaraes on Sunday.

Porto is on the brink of success not seen since Mourinho’s reign, when the self-anointed “Special One” guided the team to the 2004 Champions League trophy to follow up on a treble-winning rookie season, which included a UEFA Cup title.

The 33-year-old Villas-Boas can become the youngest coach to win a UEFA club competition.

Villas-Boas was once the “eyes and ears” of Mourinho at Chelsea and Inter Milan as he worked as a head scout before eventually going his own way.

“I respect Jose, but don’t want to be a Mourinho clone. I want to be able to work freely, without restraint, without worrying what he thinks,” Villas-Boas said earlier this year. “It’s very easy to compare things, but if you look at our personalities and what we have achieved, it’s very different. I don’t see myself reaching that level of success.”

Villas-Boas’ impressive season has garnered interest from European clubs and Porto swiftly extended his contract one extra year to keep him until the close of the 2012-13.

Porto won 27 of 30 league games this season after Villas-Boas joined from Academica, where he took over last season with 23 games to play and relegation a possibility. He kept the club in topflight football with an 11th-place finish.

“This will go down in history and remain in people’s memories forever. Completing a league campaign without defeat is something that’s unlikely to happen again in the years to come,” Villas Boas said.

Former Porto coach Bobby Robson gave Villas-Boas his first chance as a teenager when he offered him an apprenticeship with the club’s youth-team coaching staff. By 17, Villas-Boas had a UEFA coaching license.

He coached the British Virgin Isles national team at just 21 before finding his way back to Porto, where he compiled statistics and scouting reports during Mourinho’s impressive UEFA Cup and Champions League campaigns in 2003 and ’04.

Villas-Boas’ philosophy is rather different to Mourinho’s as the Porto native prefers flamboyance and creativity over tactical strategy.

“I believe that for the players to express themselves to their full potential, they must be able to take choices during the game. I’m not a dictator,” Villas-Boas told British newspaper The Times. “I give them freedom of choice, bearing in mind the foundations of our organization. I believe that with freedom the players can achieve their potential and make better decisions.”

Led by strikers Hulk and Radamel Falcao, Porto has scored more than 130 goals this season including 36 in the Europa League. To show it’s long-term ambition, Porto has already inked Hulk to a contract extension until 2016 while Falcao is next on their list.

While Villas-Boas seems to be carving out a piece of history with Porto, Braga counterpart Domingos Paciencia has already secured his place in the club’s record book.

Paciencia has helped Braga set 19 club marks over the past two years, including reaching its first European final after disposing of Sevilla and Benfica along the way. Last year’s second-place finish got the small club into the Champions League, where it failed to reach the knockout stages despite a memorable home victory over Arsenal.

Now Braga has a chance to win just its second ever title and first since a Portuguese Cup victory in 1956.

Paciencia, a former Porto striker who Villas-Boas openly admired as a teenager, will be coaching his last match for Braga on Wednesday, with reports putting him at Sporting Lisbon next season. He can become the first coach to beat a team he played for in the competition.