PORTUGAL thread

Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

sorry, I guess I should have said "great" instead of just "decent". I think pauleta's nt performances in world cup and euro finals were woeful comparing to his club performances. nuno gomes were much better than him (again, with the nt) but still not "great". I don't know much about the older guys. that one was a little bit of a joke tbh. :)

I think moutinho will be the key for the attack performance. if he has a bad day or a special marking men on him, it will be very very tough game for portugal.
 
Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

Who will be the starting goalkeeper for Portugal? I know Rui Patrício has started throughout qualification, but Eduardo has been playing the friendlies. Will Eduardo or Patrício start?
 
Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

Damjan said:
Who will be the starting goalkeeper for Portugal? I know Rui Patrício has started throughout qualification, but Eduardo has been playing the friendlies. Will Eduardo or Patrício start?
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Yeah it's weird, I also thought Rui Patricio will start as always but in the last friendlies Beto and Eduardo both played but no Patricio.
 
Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

Well, he doesn't look that good atm, he looks tired. Can't even take a simple challenge without bailing out.

Edit: What a brilliant goal from Coentrão just now, nice back-heal from Cris too
 
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Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

Varela was pretty good, could he be a starter? I know nothing about Portugal
 
Re: Portugal Thread - Aqui batem 10 milhões de corações.

reminds me of ronaldo's disallowed goal vs spain (in another friendly) for some reason... :BOP: awesome build-up in this one, though.
 
GO Portugal!
Let's give some "Francesinha" to the Americans.

francezinha.jpg
 
Looking forward to Sunday!! Even tho I like CR7, I can see him limping off with some phantom injury if it looks like they're getting kicked from the tourney by the great US of A.
 
dplane, I can see your point but the guy's playing through tendinitis in his knee. imo, he should've just skipped it like ribery did.
 
Phantom injury? The guy is been struggling for two an half months now. Is making every possible effort to play. Going to every medical treatment available, and more likely will have surgery after the WC.
He's clearly not fit, but he's there for his team mates and country.
 
Kanouté said:
surely hope so. can't see them beating neither u.s. nor ghana, though.
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We are still the better team, even without CR7 and all the injured players. The question is just about chemistry on the back, specially André Almeida at left back.

We have more than enough team both the US and Ghana, specially since none of them were impressive in the first week.
 
andy18cruz said:
Phantom injury? The guy is been struggling for two an half months now. Is making every possible effort to play. Going to every medical treatment available, and more likely will have surgery after the WC.
He's clearly not fit, but he's there for his team mates and country.
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Agree. You can see the frustration on his face. The guy wants to win so bad. Portugal still has a chance though. That's all you can ask for. Let's hope for a good clean game. :))
 
Proud of the heart that team showed in this match. And specially Cristiano. Play very well in the first half. The he was more than physically impaired. And see him, one of the greatest players that I ever saw, after a magnificent season, when he's been battling with tendinitis on his left knee for over two months, and after Ghana's goal when the "Mission Impossible" became even harder and borderline impossible, he was there making dashes, going for every ball, doing everything that he could to win the game. He wasn´t lucky. Miss too much. But the heart was there. No doubt. He could easily give up and no one could blame him after the effort and the sacrifice that he's been put through. Seeing Beto crying for coming out of the field and force to waste a sub in what the players believed that was a reachable objective was pretty touching. We cannot certainly accused this team of lack of unity and solidarity with each others.

The difference that Rúben Amorim and William Carvalho made in the midfield was huge. Meireles is done. He's lost his legs. The quality is there but the intensity is not. Moutinho looked a complete different player not having to compensate for Meireles’s inability to cover ground. Bruno Alves is the same.

It wasn't a well played game by any stretch, but the intensity and the spirit was great. We leave the WC with your heads high, at least.

Our organization was the worst I can possible remember. We made a tour in New Jersey/New England area, which served no purpose other than to capitalize on the 4 year period when USA fans focus on football and exploit CR7 brand. A “Money tour”. Maybe they should’ve had some rock band open the games for them. Portugal arrived four or five days before our first game to a different hemisphere to play in pretty adverse climacteric conditions. Plus we set our camp at Campinas near São Paulo (South), were the climate is completely different form the north and centre of Brazil (Salvador, Manaus and Brasília), in which we played. No wonder the lack of fitness and stamina.

We can mostly blame the amount of muscular injuries that we have on our stupid preparation. Postiga, Coentrão, Hugo Almeida, Rui Patrício, André Almeida, Beto, plus injuries in training to Bruno Alves and Meireles. Two GK injured in a two week period is to say a lot of our preparation, or lack thereof.

Now the tactics. After a Euro 2012 where we were probably the most rock solid defence at the tournament (the only one that not conceived against the mighty Spain, for example), when we show a high tempo, great solidarity regarding defensive duties and an overall positive stamina levels. We showed none of this at the WCPaulo Bento managed to be more stubborn than Scolari at Euro 2004, when we didn’t start most of Porto’s Champion league winners players (Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, Nuno Valente and Miguel from Benfica). He was clearly that, after the Germany game, we needed other players in the middle (Carvalho and Amorim) and on the defense (Ricardo Costa and Neto when Pepe wasn’t). The combination Veloso and Meireles lack both the pace and the stamina that a 4-3-3 requires. And Bruno Alves, outside his physical strength, aerial prowess and leadership, was only a (barelly) walking stone pillar at the centre of our defence.
The lack of true back up LB prove costly, although I understand Bento’s POV. With Hugo Almeida and Postiga injured for most of the season and Éder coming out recently broken foot surgery, he wanted Rafa Silva to give the team multiple options offensively. Since he can play as an AMF, Winger and SS, he could plug Ronaldo upfront if necessary. André Almeida had a lot of versatility, but he’s most a plug guy at LB. He struggles too much position wise to be a true option there.

We had more than enough talent to come out of this group. USA didn’t show me nothing special other than discipline and believe. In our game against them, Portugal could had the second goal a lot of times, and the US could only be effective when we stop pressure the midfield. They couldn’t really control the game. But kudos to them, for never stop believing in their selves.

This is a culmination of a generation of players, in which most of them overachieve. They honoured the Quinas’ shirt. But I hope that we will get a gradual change over the next two years. Our next generation isn’t really ready to step up (other than a few players) in the next 3 or 4 years, but I think we should look at the model of The Netherlands and France that focused in young players, most of them not really great, and certainly not at the level of previous generations, but that with effort, cohesion and chemistry they were able to form a team in the true meaning of the word and achieve a good WC. I personally never thought that the Dutch would get out of that group.

Sorry for the long post, but that’s my view on Portugal’s campaign at the WC.
 
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no need to say sorry, andy. it's a good post, you summed up portugal's journey very well. thank you for that.

imo, among the current xi, nani, hugo almeida, meireles, bruno alves should all be left out. can't say I've ever been impressed with veloso(in the midfield) either. and beto should be the first choice in goal. also liked william and his calmness in the midfield a lot. and too bad varela isn't getting younger anymore as well.

never heard about eder's torn acl before. I hope you have other promising and healthy youngsters to fill the voids I've pointed out. cuz I want CR7 to have another run for the WC challenge :) . except any injury, I have no doubt that he'll still be a very good player(maybe not much as good as recently) at the age of 33. his hardworking mentality will be the key I think.
 
Kanouté said:
no need to say sorry, andy. it's a good post, you summed up portugal's journey very well. thank you for that.

imo, among the current xi, nani, hugo almeida, meireles, bruno alves should all be left out. can't say I've ever been impressed with veloso(in the midfield) either. and beto should be the first choice in goal. also liked william and his calmness in the midfield a lot. and too bad varela isn't getting younger anymore as well.

never heard about eder's torn acl before. I hope you have other promising and healthy youngsters to fill the voids I've pointed out. cuz I want CR7 to have another run for the WC challenge :) . except any injury, I have no doubt that he'll still be a very good player(maybe not much as good as recently) at the age of 33. his hardworking mentality will be the key I think.
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Thanks Man :)

Éder broke his foot. He was Vieirinha who had a torn ACL, such a long post and I mistaken that :)

Our youngster crop is really far from ready. Top Portuguese teams (except Sporting) only lately (with B teams) started again to focus on formation. Let's see what that will get us. For now, we only have as a true impactful young players (William, Bruma, Anthony Lopes, Nélson Oliveira and Éder), plus more as a stop gapers (André Almeida, André Gomes, Adrien Silva, Cédric Soares and maybe João Mário). Éder however needs to work a lot on his game. He's first touch is an atrocity. He fucked up so many plays in this WC that was unbelievable. His finishing is not great either. Let's see how he evolves in the next years. Nélson Oliveira is on track to be a wasted talented. The Kid's ability is top notch. Remind me of younger Benzema. Not the conventional sole striker. But amazing technique for the position. Good scoring ability, movement, etc. Good size. But he seems conformed in what he achieved. Does not work hard, and barely been improved on his flaws (Header=zero; Position: most of the times are out of place, etc.). Two overwhelming seasons at Coruna and Rennes may be proved that he's a flop. Let's see if he goes with a fire to get Rodrigo’s spot at Benfica’s summer camp.

The rest of the youth are still too young (especially in physical terms) to make an impact right away.

My XI for the WC: Beto (Patrício is been injured for long, rumours that's why he barely play in the friendlies, and that fucked up in the Germany game); João Pereira (with Sílvio and Miguel Lopes injured he was the natural choice. Just an average player); Pepe and R. Costa; Coentrão; William (This kid is a beast. Probably to be one of the best DMF of the next decade. Today he's miles better than the more positioning Veloso, who cannot cover ground); Moutinho and Amorim (Not NT level, but we don't have other); CR7 and Varela (I understand that Nani was great against Greece, and the resumé is too good, so we had hope that he showed up some hunger, but a season of injuries and bench warming did him too much damage. Still believe in him, but hope he leave's Utd [although don't see him leave, his salary is too great for most teams to pay]) and Éder (Postiga is the best option, and second Almeida. It's a glaring hole that we have. Both players were not even fit to be called up, but the lack of options force Bento to take them. Éder is not ready to be a NT player yet).
 
A interesting fact today was any team playing in Manaus their last match usually don`t win the next game.Portugal won so that was unbelievable result. I think the conditions of that place is cruel and I heard the USA has traveled farther than any team(32) in the competition.

I personally didnt see US going through in this group. I just wanted to fight and give our opponents hell. Yes, Ghana was us defending after going (1) up.Portugal had a melt down vs Germany. The injuries and the worst condition in Manaus imo gave us the edge. The match could of gone either way chances were on both sides . Bradley had a open gol until Moutinho`s knee (great save) You had CR left us for dead alone vs GK and probably never again would he be so wasteful,but the result stood. Even todays match our both opponents had 21 hrs more rest time ok Ghana had a mini melt down w/ (2) of their players went back home. Ghana could of won and send the US home . Portugal played to win I saw the highlights and saw lots of crossing and wing play a completely different looking team from highlights. Today`s Portugal would of gone through no doubt. The circumstances are incredible and injuries/suspension made it much harder. If US drew w/ Ghana...Portugal would of gone through that`s how difficult this group was.
 
The Portuguese Federation of Football just terminate the contract with the national manager Paulo Bento.

Mix feelings for me. Think he did a good job during most of his tenure, but we were playing an abysmal football. Complete lack of ideas. I feel he lost the team, and cannot think outside the box (always his biggest problem). It's weak set of players that he had at his disposal in recent times, but he was clueless regarding the renovation process. Keeping unfit players that were always his favourites in the line up was the icing in the cake.

Seeing the Netherlands and France setting some youngsters in the line-up with a great deal of success and we, with an good new generation (the under-21 won all their qualification games, the under-19 reach the finals, etc.), and completely absent of plan to renew our squad. Let's hope for the best, but don't imagine who will be our next manager.
 
Yeah it always blows my mind how Bento never called up any young players. I remember the Sporting side at the Next-Gen Series, they were fantastic.

However, I think Portugal will never amount to anything unless they can find someone else to be a goalscorer apart from Cristiano. It has been the case for quite some years now but the striker position is still the main issue. Postiga, Almeida and Éder (as a striker) have never really convinced me. The midfield with Moutinho, Veloso and Carvalho is great, the defense is more than solid and Patricio is a very good goalkeeper, definitely top 15 in the World IMO. If Nani can recapture himself at Sporting the wings will be great too.
 
Signed a coach with a 8 game ban (although pending appeal). We will see him at the bench (on official games) 2 years from now. Great, just fucking great.
 
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