The firing chased him to the farthest reaches of the football Earth, having him land with Lithuanian champions FBK Kaunas. Today, at home, his new club came back from a goal down against Scottish powerhouse Rangers to win 2-1 and advance in the qualification stages of the UEFA Champions League tournament. In the coming weeks, they’ll face off in the Third Qualifying Round against likely opponents Aalborg BK. Rebirth much?

I considered him, I evaluated his form and the results at Inter Milan ever since he stepped in for a number of injured superstars in their central midfield and saw a boy becoming a man. Therefore, I threw him into the midfield, confident that he’d do a better job than Petit as a sub for either Deco or Miguel Veloso. However, Big Phil didn’t take my brilliant advice and he kept the off-form (albeit more experienced) Petit instead of taking a chance on a kid who’s been showing us scintillating stuff on the boot, all while having been an integral part of Inter’s run in to their third consecutive Scudetto.

To go from the bench at then Liga Vitalis (or Liga da Honra) Vitória Guimarães (who have since catapulted themselves into a Champions League spot finishing 3rd this past year in the bwinLiga) to the center of Inter’s midfield in little over a year says a lot about the kid’s make up. He’s probably going to be a stalwart of the Nerazzurri midfield for some time, and we should see him on the senior level featuring for the Selecção before too long as well.

The video below shows his goal in the Italian Cup vs Lazio. Understandably, video of him is rather limited in availability so we’ll have to make due with what we’ve got…

Since he is my present young gentleman crush, Bruno Gama gets to start off the festivities. He’s currently on loan at Vitora Setubal in the Portuguese BWINLiga where he is in the Starting XI and plays somewhere between and including a striker / advanced winger. He has already earned accolades as the captain of a few of the Under [insert age here] National teams and participated in a number of international tournaments with them. He is currently on the U21 team. He started and played the first half of the match against Bulgaria last week.

I love his game, as he’s a proven leader and has a seemingly never ending motor. He doesn’t look for the foul first when advancing forward and plays like the entire other team burned his house down then killed his puppy. I enjoy watching him play and his attitude when he takes the pitch. Here’s a few highlights from the YouToobles…

This decision comes hours after the FPF board voted unanimously to replace Under 21- 20 coach, José Couceiro, and Under 19 coach Paulo Sousa.

The same report suggests that Couceiro’s future with the FPF is hanging by a string, but a final decision will not be made until Couceiro has an opportunity make his case before the directors.

As Greg over at portugal.theoffside.com has stated, this better not be political theater. The entire world witnessed his incompetence and no amount of excuses and rationalization will change the results. I say sack him without further delay!

UPDATE: FPF delays final decision regarding Couceiro’s tenure until their next meeting, July 27.

“It was wrong. I want to apologize to the Portuguese people and the president of the Portuguese federation, Gilberto Madaíl. They offered us unending support and didn’t deserve this outcome.”

For his part, José Couceiro continued with his usual mediocrity song and dance routine.

“It’s obvious that we left the world cup on a bad note, but we achieved the goal we set for ourselves – reaching the round of 16.”

Really José? I thought the point of participating in a major tournament with a side laden with talent was to win the damn TROPHY! Lets lower the bar even further. Why not set an objective of losing the first game of the group stage in every major tournament we participate in? Oh wait, we seem to accomplish that with every outing.

Resign José and força Portugal!

Shots PT 7 – CH 19
Shots on goal PT 1 – CH 9
Fouls committed PT 19 – CH 12
Possession PT 38% – CH 62%

And to put the icing on the cake, two ejections in the dying minutes of the match. They don’t make them much better then that folks. All-in-all a shameful display!

So, now that Portugal is done and dusted, I’ll turn my attention to this little known squad from the USA that seems to be bending minds and free kicks. I once said that I would probably never root for a US team in a major tournament, but today I’ll eat my words. I’m hoping for a US v Mexico final, with the US making history to defeat an overly smug Mexican side.

Força USA!

Since there were no highlights to speak of, lets check out the high point of the match. Zequinha, where did you learn that trick? I hope you’re at home right now saying your Hail Marys.

Whether it’s the Portuguese media or some of the English speaking blogs we all love so much, the consensus appears to be that regardless of the final outcome in the Under 20 World Cup, José Couceiro should make his exit as soon as possible.

Sorry José but whatever you touch seems to turn to rubble. You accomplished absolutely nothing at FCPorto, almost got C.F. Os Belenenses relegated, and seriously fouled up the Under 21 Euro – with perhaps the most talented youth squad Portugal has ever fielded.

Yes José, it’s time for you to go and..uh, don’t let the proverbial door hit you in the ass on the way out!

Portugal 1 – 1 Gambia

Portugal 1 – 2 Gambia

In the second half, Mexico looked the more fluid and controlled side, while Portugal won corner after corner but only managed to put one or two on target. The opening goal came on a penalty awarded to Giovanni Dos Santos. I won’t dispute the award, but it looked to me that Giovanni had control of the ball and then just plopped when he stepped into the box. The 2 – 0 clincher came in the 66th minute when Pablo Barrera finished off a Mexican counter attack. The consolation goal would come, yep you guessed it, from a dead ball play. Antunes blasted a free kick into the top right corner of the Mexican goal in the 89th minute, but by then, it was too late.

The Good
Like I said, it was an entertaining match and Portugal, as usual, circulated the ball well and never lost their composure. Individually Portugal showed its quality with Gama, Coentrão, Antunes leading the way. The team fought to the end and showed no signs of a broken spirit. In fact, as the Latino commentators point out after Antune’s blast, “Portugal is a footballing nation of winners and fighters.” You wouldn’t hear that in a losing effort ten years ago.

The Bad
There was plenty of bad. I had to grit my teeth far too many times. The finishing was terrible, but there weren’t even that many chances to finish. Portugal secured corner after corner, but failed to win anything worthwhile in the air. In fact, I don’t recall Portugal winning many air battles in this match as a whole.

We proved, again, that we have great wingers, but when the crosses did come, they were of low quality and in most cases, nobody was there to receive them. Portugal could only put 6 shots on target from 16 attempts.

The team also committed far too many needless fouls. Mexico committed more but with fewer consequences. Pele was awarded a yellow card early on and rendered himself largely ineffective for the remainder of the match.

The Ugly
I have to admit it. Couceiro is on my sh*t list. I gave him some props when he qualified the U21 squad for the Euro, but man does he make me nuts. I hate nothing more in football, then a manager that has no capacity to influence a match. Give me the antics of a Mourinho or Scolari any day. I expect a coach to be out there barking orders and kicking ass. Mr. Couceiro is either too cerebral or not enough, I’m not sure which yet. If he ever wins anything, he’ll do fine when they ask him to sit for his portrait.

Alright, I have to comment on the diving crap. There were a couple plays were Zequinha made a meal out of a snack, but does it really justify the nonsense I’m hearing from commentators every time Portugal plays? I’m a big fan of Latino commentators. In my opinion, they are the most fun to listen to and usually pretty appreciative of the nuances of the modern game, but last night they really came across as biased. I guess I can’t blame them, that’s part of the fun, too, but Mexico showed plenty of it’s cheating tendencies as well.

As I wrote above, I won’t dispute the call, but Gio did create the PK opportunity. He wasn’t dragged down as he would claim. Careful analysis of the play shows him clearly leading with his body and with full control of the ball. As soon as he crossed the 18 yard line, he just lost his legs. Again, I’m not complaining, just pointing out the double standard. That wasn’t the only example of Mexican weak knees.

The best example of Mexican slight of hand came in the 56th minute when H. Moreno tried to slam-dunk a goal with his left hand from a corner. A fact that the Mexican commentators quickly glossed over. It was a blatant attempt to cheat! It wasn’t even as artful as Messi’s recent hand trickery. At least he tried to hide it with a fake header attempt.

I’m not crying sour grapes. I’ll take the lumps we deserve, but Mexico fans shouldn’t be throwing stones because their house looks a bit fragile too. Mexico played well and deserved the win, but they better hope they didn’t just peak in the second match of the group phase. I have my doubts about Portugal going much further then the quarters with this kind of play, but in the meantime, I can only hope that Mexico’s coach, Jesus Ramirez, was right when he said to José Couceiro, “We’ll see you in the final.”

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