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?

At a mere eighteen years of age, Fernandes broke into regular play with Benfica’s first team and began learning his craft alongside Portuguese international Petit. After domestic success and some European failures, Fernandes went under the knife to fix a hernia and the setbacks began.

For the 06/07 season, he was loaned to English side Portsmouth where he continued to heal his groin. Due to the lack of definitive progress, he never really saw steady action. Also, a clause in Fernandes’ contract that required Portsmouth to buy him outright if they played him in consecutive games saw Fernandes on the bench every other match. With both clubs and Fernandes frustrated by the lack of progress, he was sent back to Benfica and then immediately loaned back to England but this time to Everton for the remainder of the season.

He scored two goals in nine matches but again never really was able to make a definitive leap up in ability. Since his sporting rights were half owned by Benfica and half owned by another independent company (think a Carlos Tevez-esque mess), Everton couldn’t settle on an agreeable fee with both Benfica and the other company. Instead of selling him to Everton, Benfica turned around and sold him outright to Valencia.

In a further bizarre / odd occurrence, Fernandes was loaned by Valencia back to Everton this past January with a buy out clause after playing in only three La Liga matches. The reality of the situation is that Fernandes hasn’t consistently been fit for any extended period of time since his hernia operation.

His escapades across European football aside, unless he catches a good spell of health and gets back on an upward track, he’s got plenty of competition in the Portuguese midfield, at all levels. He currently plays on the U21 team and at times looks lost and other times looks like a man among boys. Fernandes should progress to the senior team once he enjoys a run of good play and promising health. Until then, he may end up being one of a long line of players who started off looking like world beaters and then, for whatever circumstances or reasons, never cemented themselves a place on the world’s biggest stage.

Photo: UEFA.com

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…

He doesn’t generally tend to stand out in any given match and will not often be found on the score sheet. Pereirinha is a scrappy utility guy who can be plugged in at a number of positions and hold his own rather well. Look for him in important matches to play a vital role for whatever side he is representing. While he will probably not be a superstar for his club or country, he’ll be the player in the background that’s instrumental in steering his team to the next level. Check out his composure as he scores an important goal for Sporting in this year’s UEFA Cup match against Bolton…

He “belongs” to Porto right now, but they have him on loan to relegation-bound Leixões where he wears the #17 shirt. The relatively stocky forward player has won a European championship with the U17 team and was featured prominently in the U21 team’s recent 2-0 victory over Bulgaria.

In spite of his thicker stature, he has excellent ball skills and a devastating shot. Check the highlights below if you don’t believe me.

The first is some ball work (heheh) for the U21 team (7 shirt) and the second is a club goal. See you tomorrow for another WAGgin Wednesday.

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…

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 the surface and are of some concern headed into the 2008 Euro this summer…

1. Ricardo looks lost – Maybe he’s become shell shocked going from top 3 Sporting to mid-bottom Real Betis, I don’t know. But he’s just not the same assertive, commanding keeper he used to be. Not to take anything away from Karagounis’s two nicely placed free kicks, but Ricardo set up the walls each time and then gave himself no chance or line of sight to the ball based on where he stood. He used to instill a certain level of confidence in me, however, I wish Scolari would have given Rui Patricio a shot at some point last night just to see if I could gauge a definitive difference in poise and assertiveness.

2. Carlos Martins earned a ticket to his couch for the Euro — Another player who looked out of sorts was Carlos Martins. He had just been recently recalled by Scolari based on a number of injuries in the midfield and his superb play in the Spanish league for Recreativo. He did not play well yesterday. I actually forgot he was on the pitch a number of times until he came across the field and gave the ball up (which seemed to be the theme of his night) due to a sloppy pass or errant dribbling. He was over matched in a friendly against Greece. I don’t want him futzing around trying to play any important midfield position against the Czech Republic in the group stages.

3. Nuno Gomes as the lone striker is a joke – I happen to think him being on the pitch is a joke to be honest, but hey, he’s one of those players that seems to have pictures of Scolari humping a walrus so he gets to keep on keeping on under the threat of blackmailing Big Phil. Once Hugo Almeida came on and started to knock wing service back to Nuno, he managed to fall onto a ball and poke it into the net and narrowly miss a few others. Otherwise, he seems to be excellent at falling over and wincing as he walks back. Is he in constant pain or does he have a contract with Crest toothpaste that forces him to show his teeth every time he’s on camera?

4. Scolari said “two athletes earned a spot on the team” – This is actually a tricky comment. If you assume that Miguel Veloso has already earned his spot through his play prior to this game, then who is Scolari talking about? João Moutinho (who came on for Simao after he took an early, non-serious knock) showed flashes of poise and ability to play on this stage. Raul Meireles (the Portuguese Seth Green) and Jorge Ribeiro at around 23 minutes each didn’t really get enough playing time to impose themselves and make a big splash. This was only Pepe’s second run out and he played half the game. While he played well, the limited sample may hurt him. Scolari will probably see what happens at Real Madrid with Pepe’s game to make a decision on him. Bruno Alves looked assertive and effective for his run out, but this was his 7th cap, so he may already be on Scolari’s list. The only other player I can think of that might fit this description is Hugo Almeida. He had a scorching start to the season in Germany and earned himself a place in the team. He cooled off a bit and was kind of teetering as far as international football is concerned. However, once he stepped in last night, his aerial presence was unmatched and he did a superb job of “readjusting” whatever crosses the wings served. If I had to make a guess at who Scolari was referring to at this point, I’d say it was Hugo Almeida (partly due to play last night and partly due to the lack of anyone decent up front) who earned a spot and Bruno Alves. That’s not to say that other players mentioned aren’t “one of the two” Scolari had in mind or to say that the others are not going to make the squad. It’s just the feeling I got given their play and given current team personnel circumstances.

Overall, a crappy showing by a team that has obviously never played together. I wish Scolari would have played some of the less experienced guys more and given them a chance to really shine.

-= Portugal U21 2 – 0 Bulgaria U21 =- (2009 U21 European Championship Qualifiers)

Don’t let the 2-0 score line fool you, the team didn’t play so hot. The first hour was basically them treading water and looking blankly at each other in the pouring rain at the Algarve stadium. Manuel Fernandes featured some nice runs but Bruno Gama never looked like imposing himself on the wing. Bulgaria had some effective play forward at times but keeper Ricardo Batista looked the part and was up to the task. Vieirinha was involved in a number of moves forward but wasn’t able to find a finisher up front to accompany him.

It wasn’t until the 65th minute after a corner set piece was deflected to João Moreira’s feet and he managed to slam it home past the flopping and flailing Bulgarian keeper Mihaylov. Then only minutes later, Carlos Saleiro flew forward and from what seemed like midfield managed to skip what looked like a weak ground ball towards the Bulgarian net and past the diving keeper. It was admittedly a lucky goal but one that basically settled the match and allowed the players to relax and play with less pressure.

If this team is to succeed at all, they have to start asserting themselves in the match far earlier than the hour mark. The team now sits 2nd on 13 points, 6 behind England with a match in hand. The remaining matches away with England and home against the Republic of Ireland in early September are essentially must wins to qualify for the next round.

See you tomorrow for some end of the week fun and antics. Yay!

Portugal are a part of Group 3. The current standings are as follows:

1. England — 7 pld — 19 pts
2. Portugal — 5 pld — 10 pts
3. Montenegro — 6 pld — 6 pts
4. Republic of Ireland — 5 pld — 3 pts
5. Bulgaria — 5 pld — 3 pld

Portugal still have home matches against Bulgaria (Tomorrow, 12:30 Eastern on RTPi, at Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques) and Republic of Ireland. Sandwiched in the middle of those two is an away match against group leaders England who they drew with 1-1 late last November. Portugal have previously lost at Bulgaria, 1-0 and will have to seriously capitalize on the last place opponent coming into their backyard in the second leg. Here’s who Rui Caçador will have to select from:

Keepers: Mário Felgueiras (Portimonense, Portuguese Liga Vitalis) and Ricardo Batista (Fulham, English Premier League)

Defenders: Manuel Da Costa (Fiorentina, Italian Serie A), Nuno André Coelho (Portimonense, Portuguese Liga Vitalis), Vasco Fernandes (Salamanca, Spanish Segunda Division), Vítor Vinha (Académica, Portuguese BWINLiga), and Antunes (AS Roma, Italian Serie A)

Guys who will, at some point in their lives, be called “The Next Figo or Ronaldo”: Pereirinha (Sporting, Portuguese BWINLiga), Manuel Fernandes (Everton, English Premier League), Stélvio Cruz (Inter Milan, Italian Serie A), Paulo Machado (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga), Celestino (E.d.Amadora, Portuguese BWINLiga), Pelé (Inter Milan, Italian Serie A) and Vieirinha (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga)

Forwards: Tózé (Zwolle, Dutch Eerste Divisie), Bruno Gama (V.Setúbal, Portuguese BWINLiga), Saleiro (Fátima, Portuguese Liga Vitalis), Hélder Barbosa (F.C. Porto, Portuguese BWINLiga), João Moreira (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga) and Yannick Djaló (Sporting, Portuguese BWINLiga)

I don’t even want to speculate on how this group is going to lineup, as the shock inclusion of Tózé (who has 19 goals at Dutch side Zwolle) throws a bit of a wrench in here as well as the fact that I’d play Bruno Gama the full 90 and then some just because I’m so high on his game. However, both will probably not even make the starting XI so speculation on those fronts is a fool’s errand at best. You can expect to see some facsimile of the following 4-3-3:

Yannick Djaló – João Moreira – Vieirinha
Paulo Machado – Pelé – Celestino
Antunes – Manuel da Costa – Nuno André Coelho – Vasco Fernandes
Ricardo Batista

Manager Rui Caçador has made Stélvio Cruz a late addition as Pelé has taken a knock and may not be able to line up in his typical holding role in the midfield. There isn’t much else to say here, as this match is, for all intents and purposes, a must win for the Portuguese. Hopefully the home comforts and better overall skill of Portugal will prevail here and they’ll come out on top to the tune of 2-0.

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.

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!