Casa Pia: The Quest to Turn Lisbon Into a Three-Team Town

Casa Pia Atletico Clube are a unique team with an interesting history who hail from Portugal’s capital city. Newly-promoted to the country’s top flight this season, the gansos (geese) are producing a string of solid results that see them sitting fifth in the table. An opportune time for us to take a look at this curious club and its quest to turn Lisbon into a three-team town.

The other two teams of course are (in no particular order) Benfica and Sporting. In recent history these two have battled over the soul of Lisbon’s soccer fandom and — together with FC Porto — dominated Portugal’s league seemingly at will.

Recent history, yes, but if you go back a little further things were quite different. Indeed Casa Pia, from its humble origins as a team for orphans from the eponymous charity, were originally the source of Portuguese soccer talent. Its students formed what would later become Benfica and one was Portugal’s first-ever football export, captaining Lazio. Curiously, Casa Pia themselves only played a single season in the top flight prior to 2022. That was 1938/39, Portugal’s first-ever league season. The casapianos played abysmally, winning just one of 13 games and were relegated with a -44 goal difference.

There is a great piece on the club’s history at the excellent site Portugoal.net that you should really check out. We don’t wish to hijack any historical discussion as our interests are primarily with the team of today.

Casa Pia are a veteran side whose players hail mostly from Portugal or its former colonies. They are managed by Felipe Martins who took over in September 2020. At the time the Geese were in big trouble, having avoided relegation the previous season only because Covid canceled the LigaPro campaign after 34 matchdays (Casa Pia were dead last at the time). Martins led the team to a respectable ninth place in 2020/21 and last year the Geese finished second, good enough for direct promotion to the Primeira Liga.

This is just the fourth club Martins has managed. Only one of these prior to this was in Portugal’s top flight; he took over at CD Feirense late in the 2018/19 campaign and led the team to a decent record but was unable to avoid relegation.

One of the cool things about Casa Pia is the kits. They play in all black and appear to be one of the only teams in Europe to do so (maybe Venezia FC in Italy’s Serie B? Second or third kits don’t count. No, not Eintracht Frankfurt. They are black-and-red).

Unfortunately Casa Pia do not play at their historical ground, the Estadio Pina Manique this season as it is being renovated. Most home games are held at Portugal’s national stadium, the Jamor, or the Estadio Municipal de Leiria. The latter is where they hosted Benfica in the second matchday of the season, a 1-0 loss.

The team appear to play a physical brand of direct, no-nonsense football. There is little tiki-taka to observe here. They don’t score many goals (only 15 from 15 matches so far this season), though their 11 conceded is second-best in the league. The defense is anchored by the team’s captain, 36-year old Vasco Fernandes and the excellent goalkeeper Ricardo Batista, a 36-year old Angolan whom Fulham fans may remember. Joao Nunes, a product of Benfica’s youth system, also plays a key role for Casa Pia’s defense.

The main lynchpin for attacking play appears to be Saviour Godwin, a 26-year old Nigerian who mostly plays out wide on the left. Clayton Silva, a 24-year old Brazilian, started the season as a substitute but became a starter at some point. He and Godwin are tied for the most goals scored, with three each. Leonardo Lelo, who slots in behind Godwin in left midfield, also has some creative flair and leads the team in assists.

Casa Pia also have the services of Romario (no relation), a 22-year old loanee from Porto who has been capped for Portugal at the youth level but has only recently started seeing the pitch. Speaking of caps, there don’t appear to be any current senior internationals in the team’s ranks. So you won’t have seen any of their players at the World Cup.

Casa Pia had a bit of trouble out of the gate this season, playing a scoreless draw at Santa Clara and succumbing to cross-town (perhaps) rival Benfica 1-0 in their first two league matches. Then the Geese took flight, winning five of their next six games and drawing just one for an unbeaten September month. Their games have all been close — only the 3-1 loss to Sporting on Oct. 22 came by more than one goal.

The most recent league match against powerhouse FC Porto on Jan. 7 was a good illustration of the team’s style (YouTube highlights here). Casa Pia held Porto to a scoreless draw despite having to play the entire second half with 10 men after Soares was sent off. Goalkeeper Batista was their best player and earned man-of-the-match honors for his efforts.

The team definitely shows a bit of fight. Twice already this season Casa Pia have gone down a goal only to win the game. The players aren’t afraid to get stuck in and see their share of yellow cards — occasional red ones too (though not entirely sure what Godwin did to deserve a straight red here in a cup tie last month).

Casa Pia are alive in all three domestic competitions. They’re through to the quarterfinals in the Taca de Portugal for the first time ever after defeating Vitoria Setubal in the Round of 16 today. They next host CD Nacional, a second-division side from Madeira, in the quarterfinals. Should they win that, a date with the winner of Braga v Benfica looms in April.

In league competition, as the fifth-placed team Casa Pia trail just Portugal’s big three (that would be Benfica, Sporting, and FC Porto) and Braga, who actually sit second this year, six points adrift of Benfica. Casa Pia are 13 points back but just one behind Sporting in fourth. The top five make European competitions next year.

Os Gansos’ next three league games are winnable. They next visit 14th-placed Estoril Praia (doesn’t that mean ‘star beach’? Whatever) before hosting 16th-placed Gil Vicente and 15th-placed Santa Clara. Then things get tricky with a trip across town to Benfica before visiting Boavista, a traditionally strong team who sit just 10th this season.

If this team hits its stride, makes a deep cup run, and somehow manages to finish fifth in the league it is hard to see how Casa Pia will not attract international attention. One can see this becoming a bit like the St. Pauli of southern Europe — a non-traditional upstart without much in the way of funding that punches above its weight while serving as a kind of countercultural icon for fans worldwide. (Though preferably without Pauli’s far-left politics, which for whatever their virtues, are quite annoying to deal with on the regular).