Even before I took the National Team blog over, my predecessor joined me in lamenting the fact that our youth teams were being helmed by an inept moron by the name of José Couceiro. Long story short: he hopped around a number of Portuguese Liga teams before being placed in charge of the youth [...]

If there ever was a poster boy for a career that began so huge and then got hampered over and over again by injury and circumstance, Manuel Fernandes would be that guy.
At a mere eighteen years of age, Fernandes broke into regular play with Benfica’s first team and began learning his craft [...]

When I evaluated the selection of talent before Big Philly Style put out his list of twenty three men for the Euro, I gave serious thought to midfielder and U20/1 capped Pélé.
I considered him, I evaluated his form and the results at Inter Milan ever since he stepped in for a number of [...]

This week’s featured footballer is twenty year old right midfielder / winger / back Bruno Pereirinha. Pereirinha not only plays for the U21 team but also has featured a number of times this season for Paulo Bento’s second place Sporting CP side. Bruno is the eptiome of a blue collar player: he does [...]

I figured I should change it up this week, so let’s take a look at a position Portugal really aren’t known for producing that many of: Winger / Attacking Midfielder.
He “belongs” to Porto right now, but they have him on loan to relegation-bound Leixões where he wears the #17 shirt. The relatively [...]

I know I’ve been covering the Under or “Sub” 21 team already in various ways, but I think a nice discussion/thought provoking/glimpse of the future feature would be nice, so here it is. Every Tuesday (within reason, we can always run out of these things eventually) I’ll be posting a young Portuguesian’s name and [...]

-= Portugal 1 – 2 Greece =- (International Friendly)
I don’t really want to pay too much lip service to the final scoreline of 2-1, which saw the Portuguese team lose at the hands of Greece in Dusseldorf yesterday, as the match didn’t count for much. However, I noted some key points that came to [...]

Portugal’s oft-maligned U21 squad is under relatively new guidance with boss Rui Caçador and are involved in qualifications for the 2009 U21 Euro Tournament. The qualification is so frigging convoluted and has more stages than the video game Gauntlet had. Put simply, there are ten groups of teams which all play each other [...]

According to reports from Portuguese radio outfit Antenna 1, the board of directors of the Portuguese Football Federation has scheduled a meeting, later this week, that will likely decide the fate of Portugal’s Under 21 and Under 20 coach, José Couceiro.
The same report suggests that Couceiro’s future with the FPF is hanging by a [...]

The web is abuzz regarding the recent poor showing from Portugal’s Under 21 and Under 20 sides. There’s plenty of blame to go around for players and coaches, but all (media and fans) seem to agree on one thing: José Couceiro must GO!
Whether it’s the Portuguese media or some of the English speaking [...]