2016–17 CS Mindelense season

The 2016–17 CS Mindelense season were in the island and top division of Cape Verdean football. The club won the island's 49th title, a record of all the island titles won by any club in Cape Verde. As they were the 2016 national league winners, they qualified into the national championships. Mindelense will qualify to the 2017 regional super cup as champion later in the year.

The club scored a total of 42 goals, about one fifth last season. Of which 24 was scored in the São Vicente League which was a third less and 18 in the national championships, 11 in the regular season and 7 in the playoffs. Their total points was 30 for the island and 11 in the national championships totalling 41.

Mindelense's regional championship titles covers more than 62% of the 79 regional titles.

São Vicente Association Cup First Division

The club finished third in the First Division of the Association Cup, finished with 15 points and had 4 wins, 3 draws and 10 goals scored.

São Vicente Island League

Mindelense won a record breaking 49th title in the island. The club scored 29 goals, two more than last season.

The first match of the season ended in a win over Farense, their third match with that club in the championships, Mindelense started third. A draw was followed in the year's first match and made a goal draw with Salamansa and Mindelense's position dropped to fourth and remained for two rounds. A three match winning streak was followed, first to Ribeira Bote, then to Falcões and lastly Académica Mindelo, the last two won with two goals over one, at the fourth round, they got back the third position. The match with Ribeira Bote, originally for January 15, as the squad were not ready for the match, they played it on March 4, Mindelense that time became second. Two single goals draws were made on 12 and 25 February, first to Derby then to Batuque. A two match winning streak Mindelense made, they defeated Farense in their fourth challenge and the result was 3-0, the second was a 0-5 win over Salamansa and became the highest result in the region for the season, from that round onward, Mindelense took the first place position. A two consecutive draws were made, first with nothing scored with Ribeira Bote on April 1, then with two goals with Falcões, that match the last meeting at the second tier competition as that club has been relegated after about 50 years playing with that club, a total of about 100 matches.

An almighty regional success came once more, it first came as the other club Académica Mindelo fielded a fake goalkeeper. One of the five was the April 14 match where the club was awarded 3-0 by the regional association and the national federation on April 28 over Académica Mindelo, the original result was an 0-1 loss. Up to that time from their win over Salamansa, the club was originally second. It became a part of their three match winning streak, Mindelense defeated Derby on April 22 and the last match of the season was a 0-2 win over Batuque.

Mindelense finished with 32 points and had 9 wins and 5 draws. Mindelense made a 14 match unbeaten streak and currently stands.

Result round by round

• Source: ARFSV, 30 April 2017

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

São Vicente Cup

Mindelense advanced all the way to the cup finals, this time they faced FC Derby on 6 May and brought one of three Mindelo's rivalries to the cup final, the Mindelense–Derby rivalry, the oldest in the nation. Again, the club lost the super cup final match as they did last season. Mindelense finished as runner up after losing 2-4 in the penalty shootout as the match had a goal draw.

Cape Verdean National Championships

Even though as they were the 2016 national winners, as they won an island title, the club achieved entry into the 2017 season. The two group system was replaced with the three group system featured four clubs each and now had two meetings per club. Mindelense played in Group B.

The first two matches featured clubs from the adjacent island, Santo Antão, the fourth and fifth round matches will also challenges with those clubs. Mindelense defeated the North Zone winner Paulense 0-1 on May 14 in Ponta do Sol, at the 2nd round, Mindelense defeated the South Zone winner, Académica Porto Novo 2-1 at home field, it is the only match where Mindelense conceded a goal. Mindelense had 6 points which were shared by Onze Unidos (Group A) and Sporting Praia (Group C). A week later, the club defeated Sal's Académico do Aeroporto 2-0 at home and shared the point totals of 9 with Sporting of Group C, they got the number one spot for two weeks as second placed Académica Porto Novo had 2 points and 5 goals scored. At the fourth round, no goals were scored in the home match with Paulense and got 10 points, also shared by Sporting Praia, from that time, Académica Porto Novo's win of Académico do Aeroporto has the lead only up to the final round. Mindelense was first in the group with 10 points and its away goals scored and conceded equalled with two.. Their next in three seasons at the nationals, a loss, this time to Académica Porto Novo 2-1 on the neighbouring island of Santo Antão, Mindelense is now struggling to get another chance in the knockout stage. Unknown Mindelense made a rivalry with Académica Porto Novo. Their point totals altogether were shared with Maio's Onze Unidos and Ultramarina from Tarrafal de São Nicolau and was behind Sporting Praia's for the remaining week. Mindelense made a win over Sal's Académica do Aeroporto at Espargos with a score of 0-2 and placed first in the group qualified into the playoff stage. Eight goals were scored, six were home goals.

Results summary

Playoffs

Semifinals

The first leg was delayed as no extra keys into the stadium into Estádio Orlando Rodrigues in Tarrafal de São Nicolau were available due to unknown reason. On July 2, the second leg was played. A week later, Mindelense was unofficially awarded 3-0 and the club was still no entrant into the finals. Ultramarina appealed to the problems with their entry into the stadium. It caused the next delay of the national championship finals competition in nine years (but not overall). The first leg was rescheduled and the date of the match was unknown for several weeks, it was put to late July, then early August. As the club did not showed up for a few weeks and after that club failing to appear to play in the first leg, Mindelense was disqualified and its matches were annulled, Mindelense's another hope for another title entirely disappeared and was out from further competition.

Squad

*Source: