The Algarve is a wonderful place to live. However, there is a shortage of professional sporting organizations to get behind.
Sure, there are semi-professional football clubs and basketball teams, but there aren’t many. Some people, therefore, save their sports viewing experiences for other major locations in the country, including Porto, given the city’s ice hockey team.
In fact, despite most emerging sports in the country having to compete with much-loved pastimes like football, given the impact of world-famous stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, there is still room for some niche offerings to shine. Ice hockey is one of them, with Porto actually being home to the only professional ice hockey team in the entire nation. Called Ice Hockey Club Porto, they play in the Liga Iberica against sides from Andorra and Spain, and the team has fans all over Portugal.
A small community with potential for growth
Portugal’s ice hockey community will never rival football clubs like Benfica and even Porto, but it has the potential for growth. Portugal’s only ice hockey team is leading the charge, with fans of the sport following their progress alongside watching the biggest clashes in the NHL, including the Stanley Cup, where selecting fantasy picks and assessing Stanley Cup odds is a preference for some. When the action in North America is on hold, though, then following Ice Hockey Club Porto’s exploits in their respective league is a preference for many.
Ice Hockey is entertaining
While it might be a tall order for Portugal to eventually end up competing with the likes of America and Canada on the international stage, the sport could still experience some growth in the nation, given its entertaining package. In turn, attendances could increase at Ice Hockey Club Porto, more clubs could be founded, and more Portuguese sides could eventually challenge at the top of Liga Iberica. After all, for a country that adores the beautiful game for football, hockey’s end-to-end nature should appeal. There are also no frequent stoppages in play, the game flows beautifully, and the professionals make it look so easy.
It’s hard to call
As we see in both Liga Iberica and in the NHL, ice hockey is also an unpredictable sport. While it’s fairly easy to predict the teams that will be up there in the Champions League and follow Portugal’s World Cup qualifying campaign with confidence, knowing they’ll qualify fairly comfortably, ice hockey clashes are always filled with twists and turns, given the instant shifts in momentum during a typical encounter between two competitive sides. With players constantly being chopped and changed, moments of brilliance from a fresh presence and defensive errors from a new player adapting to the game are prevalent. This makes for the type of unpredictable sporting package many pastimes simply struggle
to match.
Portuguese fans can watch the NHL
In the past, fairly niche sports like ice hockey have simply never stood a chance of succeeding in nations like Portugal, where soccer is the main sport people passionately endorse. However, with the rise of on-demand streaming services like DAZN, competitions like the NHL are now accessible to Portuguese ice hockey fans. Once you subscribe to NHL.TV on DAZN, you can watch all of the biggest and best clashes from this wonderful sporting competition.
An amazing atmosphere
If, like some Portuguese ice hockey fans, you’d rather support the domestic sport and leave the NHL for North American audiences, then venturing to an Ice Hockey Club Porto game is highly recommended. You’ll be welcomed with open arms, you’re likely to witness an entertaining spectacle, and you can play your small part in Portuguese ice hockey’s emergence.
