A day before UEFA released their ranking featuring Spain on top and Portugal in 7th place behind Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England and Croatia in that order. As expected we secure top seed for the Euro 2012 avoiding the likes of the already mentioned teams as well as France (8th) and Russia (9th). The Poland-Ukraine Euro 2012 qualifiers will have 6 groups of 6 teams and 3 groups of 5. The nine winners and the best runner-up qualify directly for the final tournament. The eight remaining runners-up contest play-off matches.

Well it is time to congratulate Carlos Queiroz. Well done man! At times you had us in the opposite corner but in the end you came through for us. Looking at the ingredients you had at your disposal I can’t but acknowledge there’s enormous merit to be had for this moment of glory. The hat is off.

When I drove home like a madman trying to get in time for the starting whistle I was hearing on the radio Deco was on the bench replaced by Tiago. Perhaps he didn’t recover from the injury he picked up last Saturday? I think not. Queiroz has this gene that forces him to try and show how much of a tactical genius he really is. At least that’s what this gene keeps telling him. There is always room for surprise with Queiroz. Had expected some change. But we had all hoped it would occur with at least one of the two weak links who carry the names Duda and Ferreira. But no, they were still in the starting line-up.
Oddly enough I didn’t get a bad feeling about this. A lot was said about the horrible condition of the pitch so this swap made perfect sense to me. Deco isn’t cut out for a match against an opponent that most likely will play a physical game, specially not on a pitch that bad.

It was also good to learn we would stick with our 4-3-3 attacking formation. Yesterday Queiroz had said we would play to win. I was unsure if he was playing mind games. But with this line-up it was clear we would be not be defending the result brought from Lisbon. Good stuff.

When our national anthem was played you could barely hear anything with all the noise the host supporters did. Did we do the same in Lisbon? I hope not. I find it very disrespectful. Something I immediately made sure my five year old boy knows. When the Italian referee Roberto Rosetti blew the whistle I had given up trying to sit down. This is it. Portugal! Portugal! Portugal! Me and my kid were jumping around frantically. Good vibes filled the air. Show time.

It didn’t take long to realize Bosnia was betting on the direct approach to our goal. Very bad home-work Mr. Blazevic. I could see Carvalho, Alves and Pepe just taking turns at sweeping the area. Too easy. Unfortunately it also became evident we would miss a good amount of passes on such an incredible pitch. Lets call it “batatal” from here on shall we? It immediately dimmed my expectations on watching an enjoyable match. How can FIFA sanction a game on a batatal you will be hard pressed to find on any 10th level soccer club in Portugal? Since Bosnia had opted for the shoot-the-ball-forward-and-pray-for-luck approach it obviously didn’t hinder them a bit.

The first half came and went and all that was left to show for it was a great chance created by Meireles. Hasagic managed to put the Bosnian meltdown on hold. I had commented yesterday on another post the only thing I find lacking in Meireles is the lack of goals to support his game. His positioning is sublime. I’ve said it before: the way he moves into a receiving position after passing the ball is simply unmatched by any player in the team. He passed the ball to Tiago and immediately moved to the empty spot ready to carry on, shoot in this case. Unfortunately a big missed chance to get ahead.

Half-time. 0-0
My wife in her infinite soccer wisdom says something like “it’s looking very bad for us isn’t it?”. She must have glanced 2 or 3 times at the big screen. “No its actually going reasonably well. They are clueless and we could already be ahead” I told her.

Well the second half showed us more of the same. Except this time Meireles did make good for his initial failure and netted the ball with disconcerting ease. The house came down. Take that! South Africa here we come! Yaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhooooooooo.
After a firm slap on the wrist from hubby for waking up my baby girl I finally sat down and watched the Bosnian meltdown. Players loosing their cool. Red card. Supporters throwing all sorts of stuff at the referee (even hitting Pjanic in the process). Disgraceful. I’m sure many will blame this on the ref and FIFA wanting Portugal at the WC bla bla bla bla

The fact is Bosnia Herzegovina showed talent only very sparsely through Dzeko and Pjanic. The only two players I found note worthy. Another thing that stood out was the incredible inability to shoot corners into the box. Almost always too short, once or twice too long, never were it should. Never. Do they practice or just get together half an hour before the game starts?

The match ended with 10 man Bosnia trying to prevent us from scoring again. And despite several good opportunities (Edinho managed to blunder an amazing chance from a Tiago pass) the scoreboard remained locked at 0-1. Time to celebrate!

When I took on the challenge to write for the Portugal blog here at worldcupblog.org in May this year I was confident we would get this far. Things looked grim and we (Selecção Fans) had to endure an enormous amount of crap from a legion of gin-rummy lovers that would rather fall asleep watching the likes of Bosnia Herzegovina at the World Cup then a team that actually knows how to produce a thrill-filled match. Well there’s a phrase from a movie that pops to mind. Not a particularly good movie but I often think of it when I see someone in pain. Robocop 1. When the-soon-to-be-robocop gets his hand shot off the vilain goes (and here you have it):
DOES IT HURT!? DOES IT HURT!?

Well? Does it? Good.

Fifth consecutive win during which we scored 10 goals and conceded none. Where will we stop?

Player Ratings:

Eduardo (7): Great saves and always looked solid coming out. Fifth game with a clean sheet. Nice.
Ferreira (7): Was that really Ferreira? Amazing. Very solid defending. Very good going up the batatal.
Alves & Carvalho (8): Masters of their domain. Finally this combo starts showing they ARE able to work together.
Duda (6.5): Just one fuck-up makes me give him half point less then Paulo. All in all a solid performance. Finally.
Pepe & Tiago (8): They held the Bosnians at a distance. Did so many recoveries. Great stuff.
Meireles (9): Man-of-the-Match. Not just for the goal. For the entire display of skill. What a work horse. His positioning makes all the difference. The chances he creates are amazing. Had he scored a deserved second goal and I would have given him my first ever 10.
Simão (6.5): Worked hard to help Duda and tried hard to create scoring opportunities. Unfortunately the batatal hindered his game-style in a big way. Also the team seemed to channel offense mostly through Nani.
Nani (7.5): As always he gave it everything he’s got on the Bosnian batatal. As always he often needs to lift his head and opt to surrender the ball to a team mate instead of trying to take on just-one-more. He did just that when he assisted Meireles for the goal. Great stuff.
Liedson (6.5): Another player that just can’t stop running. Unfortunately he didn’t contribute a lot to any of the clear-cut scoring opportunities. Seemed a bit lost out there today and did a couple of unnecessary fouls.
Edinho (5): Came on for Nani at the 73rd minute. Did a couple of runs down the right flank to no real consequence. Got one shot off defended by the keeper but managed to blunder a pass from Tiago with the goal wide open. Incredible. It looked like he blamed the batatal.
Deco, Veloso (-): Not enough time on the batatal to properly evaluate.

November, 18, 2009
Bilino Polje Stadium, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina
19:45 Lisbon, London; 14:45 New York; 20:45 Zenica

24 hours to go for the all deciding match at Zenica.

Bosnia Herzegovina needs to come back from the marginal defeat picked up last Saturday in Lisbon and win by a margin of 2 goals. Portugal needs to pick up their defensive act if Eduardo’s net is to remain unviolated. All outcomes are possible. This game is definitely not for the faint of hart.

If the 4,000 Bosnian supporters at the Estádio da Luz are any example to go by then the 15,000 that will fill up the Bilino Polje Stadium are sure to keep noise decibels at peek levels. Every single player in our squad is used to packed hostile stadiums with well over 15,000 so I expect it won’t hinder our performance. It will however most likely boost BH confidence levels.

Portugal is without starting XI players Cristiano Ronaldo, José Bosingwa and Pedro Mendes due to injury. They were missed last game. To an extent that can only be fully measured after this one. On the bright side Bruno Alves and Deco recovered from minor injuries picked up during Saturday’s game.

Bosnia Herzegovina lost Spahic, Rahimic and Muratovic to yellow cards during the first game. While the first two are difficult to replace, Muratovic’s absence in exchange for 19 year old Pjanic is not good news. Quite the opposite. While stifling Bosnian playmaker Misimovic proved an easy enough task (read his interresting interview), adding Pjanic to this equation is a completely different matter. One I’m confident our lads are up to and will make for an interesting duel to watch.

As with the first game the team remains intact:

Goal-keepers:
Hilário (Chelsea)
Eduardo (Braga)
Rui Patrício (Sporting)

Defense:
Miguel (Valencia)
Bruno Alves (Porto)
Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea)
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
Rolando (Porto)
Ricardo Costa (Wolfsburg)

Midfield:
Deco (Chelsea)
Duda (Malaga)
João Moutinho (Sporting)
Miguel Veloso (Sporting)
Raúl Meireles (Porto)
Tiago (Juventus)
Fábio Coentrão (Benfica)

Offense:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Liedson (Sporting)
Nani (Manchester Utd)
Simão Sabrosa (Atlético Madrid)
Edinho (Malaga CF)
Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen)

Here is my recipe for success:

————– Eduardo —————
Miguel — Carvalho — Alves — Veloso
—————- Pepe —————-
———- Meireles —- Deco ———
Simão ——— Liedson ———- Nani

The full backs are as usual the biggest source of debate. Paulo Ferreira is most likely to keep his spot although some newspapers here in Portugal report Veloso a likely candidate to replace Duda. Good news.

This game will probably be played in counter-attack. We can’t afford the amount of missed passes we had during Saturday’s game. Bosnia’s need to score will certainly open up their defense and with the likes of Simão, Nani and Liedson I’m way more confident then before. Add to that the loss of Spahic to their side and I can already sense an eminent goal and the game hasn’t even started.

An interesting article in Record newspaper reported Portuguese players to have run an impressive 8,5Km more then Bosnian players. Liedson being the only one passing the 10Km mark. Interesting stuff. It goes to show our lads worked harder for the end result.

Good luck to all. May the best team win.

FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!!!!!!!!

The stage has been set for anything but an enjoyable soccer match. I genuinely fear for what might happen to our players and supporters should we (as everyone expects) qualify for the world cup. Human life is certainly so much more valuable then a qualification to the world-cup.

Are my fears ungrounded?

Just last month the toll of a hooligan clash in Bosnia was 1 dead and 22 injured.

FIFA fined Bosnia and threatened to ban them should incidents such as the ones in Belgium repeat itself:

It was due to this firm slap on the wrist by FIFA that the Bosnian Federation when in talks with the Portuguese Federation on the play-off arrangements specifically asked for a firm control on Bosnian supporters. Fear of exclusion all to vivid in their minds. They even made demands for special cage-like fences to be put in place but they were dismissed because the Estadio da Luz simply doesn’t support any such structure. 450 Police men were called up to manage the Bosnian Hooligans. Immediately after Bruno Alves scored they starting throwing stuff on to the pitch. When an attempt was made to break the police line the Bosnian Federation must have been scarred shitless should it actually succeed and a pitch invasion occur. If you ask me our police should have left a few through and let FIFA hand out what should have been handed out a long time ago. The ban. But to the Bosnian Federation’s content police stood fast and repelled the supporters back into place. VERY unfortunately a women got injured in the process. Now the Bosnian media is spoon feeding the Bosnians with all kind of crap. The police used “extra-force” on the poor law abiding fans. The Bosnian national team got retained at Lisbon airport for 2 hours (so does that make threat and insult perfectly acceptable on our arrival at Sarajevo?). And so on…

Portugal has in Bosnia a military contingent to aid in peace keeping. Some went to the airport to great the national team and applaud their arrival. The team was not allowed to leave until every Portuguese supporter in military clothing had left the premises. After they did the team had to cross dozens of infuriated Bosnians held at short distance to get to the bus. Regrettable.

I sincerely hope this doesn’t get out of hand and we can all simply congratulate the winner at the end of the match and move on peacefully. If however security can not be guaranteed then I just vote we leave and let them carry their banner of truth and honesty to the World Cup.

60000 spectators in the stands providing a fantastic atmosphere. Among them aprox. 4000 Bosnians helped color the Estadio da Luz. The stage was set for a mighty clash.

I was nervous as hell. I knew little of any Bosnian player before the play-off draw and suddenly after too much internet reading (and youtube watching) the likes of Dezko, Ibisevic, Misimovic and Pjanic all seemed like world-class unstoppable, unbeatable soccer beasts, ready to wreak havoc on the Selecção. How wrong could I be? Very wrong.

When I sat down to watch the game and learned Duda and Paulo Ferreira were going to be in the starting IX I got my first panic attack. Duda I had expected, but Paulo? No. No. Please… no! Well at least Queiroz didn’t discharacterize our game style giving up one of the wings in favor of strengthening the mid-field.

When the ref blew the whistle I realized Pjanic wasn’t even starting in the Bosnian team. Good one. The match got under way and… low and behold! It didn’t take long for us to start dominating! When we got the ball it was evident the players were mind set on wreaking havoc at the Bosnian back. Fast paced and fluid play got us rapidly inside or close to the Bosnian box. Good stuff! Well… actually… the same old lack of finishing abilities also became evident. And I’m not just talking about the last touch on the ball, i.e. the shot on the goal. I’m also talking about the cross, the assist. We know how to get the ball close to our adversaries area but those last touches on the ball need some critical attention. Crosses to wide. Crosses to the keepers hands. Final pass too fast or too slow for the striker to get a hold of. Nerve wrecking.

At the 31st minute Nani did manage to get a cross in that went past our striker and their center-backs only to be magnificently headed into the back of the net by Bruno Alves! Yeeeeessss! You are the man! He can be at times shaky in the back but he sure has to be hailed for being at that very spot on a play like this. This was not a corner kick or a free-kick. So Bruno came all the way from the back to appear in the striker’s position! We often talk about how we want our left and right backs to act as wingers and support the attack. Well how about turning your center-backs into supporting strikers in these fluid back to front plays? Bruno Alves can. He’s done it before. He will do it again.

Something very unexpected happened shortly after the goal. The team didn’t wait for the ref’s half-time whistle and headed to the lockers early. Yep. Left the Bosnians playing against poor old Eduardo and his iron frame. Honestly. Eduardo was the only one in there for us. He didn’t read the memo. “Free beer in the lockers to celebrate Bruno Alves’s goal.” It wasn’t like Bosnia suddenly started playing the game. We gave them complete control. Everyone gave a big sigh of relief and went into relax-mode. We were dominating and it showed so much some players thought it was a done deal. Bosnia had caved in and the next goal or two were a matter of minutes. No need to rush things. How wrong could they be. Deco in particular starting simply giving the ball away. I was shocked. Eduardo and the bar allowed us to reach half-time with a narrow win.

I was confident CQ would yell the team back into an alert state during the break and as the second half got in motion things did seem to be a bit better. Bosnia was completely subdued and we pressed them hard in search of a second goal. Liedson got very close when he volleyed the ball over a defender only to shoot just wide. What a chance! Simão also got close twice and so did Deco. Bosnia’s first sign of danger came 22 minutes (!) after the second half started when Dzeko shot one close to the post. Very little for a team that wants to make it to South-Africa.

Just as Bruno Alves’s goal had somehow turned the tide in the first half so did Carlos Queiroz’s Nani substitution in the second half. 70 minutes into the game and off strolled Nani for the young Benfica starlet Fábio Coentrão. I had him picked for our future left-back. Called up to be gelled into the team. Have him playing in such an important match taking out one of our better players. Big frown.

Deco was being a complete disaster. One that only didn’t show so much because Meireles and Pepe in particular were playing a very solid game. Pepe was all over the pitch. What a display! It took CQ a full 84 minutes to realize Tiago had to fill Deco’s shoes asap. Not that Bosnia was any menace. We simply had to score a second goal. To be honest with Deco missing so many passes, Paulo Ferreira playing so poorly and Coentrão ending any play that headed his way I was unsure if any substitution would unlock the score board.

The game went into the final minutes and I grew restless as I always do. The 2-3 loss against Denmark after having so many clear cut finishing opportunities is a game that will forever haunt me. And out of nowhere it almost happened again. Bosnia had been nonexistent the entire second half (safe for the Dzeko shot I mentioned) and then out of the blue a cross was made into our box to the same spot an hour before Bruno Alves had made his mark. This time around it was Dzeko who was given the same opportunity Alves was. Dzeko, the fierce striker who would do just that. Strike us down. Well he… blundered it against the bar. And then, while our unbelievably shaky defense was running in every direction but the right one, the ball got to Muslimovic who with an open goal could do no more then hit the post. Unbelievable. Lady Luck was on our side. She was right to think it would be a very undeserving and disappointing ending to this night’s story.

And to wrap things up:

Eduardo (6) – Good save in the first half. Seemed focused and generally reacted well to most situations.
Ferreira (4) – So many missed passes. I hate it when he doesn’t press the wingers and allows them to cross.
Carvalho (5) – I can’t understand how he seemed so out of it during that last attack that almost got Bosnia a goal.
Alves (6) – Great goal. For that alone he gets the extra point over Carvalho. He does however seem to not connect very well with Carvalho. This pair needs a lot of work.
Duda (4) – Bad at defending. Bad at crossing. Tried carrying the ball and guess what? Bad at it to.
Pepe (8) – He covered so many miles. The entire pitch was his play ground. His back yard. His domain. He owned it. Great display. Man-of-the-math for me.
Meireles (7) – Very solid performance. I had him benched in my match preview but he showed me wrong. Very lucid, great skill and passing ability. Can only remember one missed pass and one interception he ballooned away which I didn’t like to much.
Deco (5) – I talked about his ON/OFF switch in another post. Well he got switched OFF celebrating Alves’s goal and was never seen again.
Simão (6) – He missed a few passes and generally didn’t seem to want to work as much as Nani on the other wing. He did manage to be a threat on a few occasions.
Liedson (7) – No ball is lost to him. He gives it everything he has from the starting to the finishing whistle. Could perhaps have done more after fabricating such a marvelous chance during the second half.
Nani (6) – Great cross for the goal. Showed pace and skill but sometimes lost the ball childishly.
Fábio Coentrão (3) – Didn’t do ANYTHING worth noticing. Didn’t put in a cross or show any skill that warrants his calling. Big casting error by Queiroz.
Almeida, Tiago (-) – Not enough time on the pitch to evaluate

And so we head for Bosnia to face them again on their turf next Wednesday. We have the lead but nothing is decided yet. Some teams transfigure when playing on home ground. Bosnia will not go down easily and I expect a hell of a lot more come next Wednesday. For now I’m not impressed with their armada. But since I’m not at all impressed with our defence… anything can happen.

FORÇA PORTUGAL! ATÉ OS COMEMOS!

November, 14, 2009
Estadio da Luz, Lisbon, Portugal
20:30 Lisbon, London; 15:30 New York; 21:30 Zenica

Carlos Queiroz has released the list of players for the play-off matches against Bosnia Herzegovina.

Miguel and Hugo Almeida are back. The surprises are Ricardo Costa, Fábio Coentrão, Hilário and… Cristiano Ronaldo. So we are now calling up the injured as well ?! This must not bode well with the Blancos. I remember CQ screaming murder when he was at Manchester and CR got called up despite being injured… time and pressure do things to a man you wouldn’t believe…

Ronaldo (lets just consider his calling a CQ prank on RM), Pedro Mendes and Bosingwa are all injured. A big blow to the squad but one that I’m confident will not hinder us from achieving our goal.

These lads will see us through:

Goal-keepers:
Hilário (Chelsea)
Eduardo (Braga)
Rui Patrício (Sporting)

Defense:
Miguel (Valencia)
Bruno Alves (Porto)
Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea)
Pepe (Real Madrid)
Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
Rolando (Porto)
Ricardo Costa (Wolfsburg)

Midfield:
Deco (Chelsea)
Duda (Malaga)
João Moutinho (Sporting)
Miguel Veloso (Sporting)
Raúl Meireles (Porto)
Tiago (Juventus)
Fábio Coentrão (Benfica)

Offense:
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid)
Liedson (Sporting)
Nani (Manchester Utd)
Simão Sabrosa (Atlético Madrid)
Edinho (Malaga CF)
Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen)

I can’t figure out why we keep needing 3 goal-keepers. Hilario is a good keeper but isn’t he normally on the bench? And isn’t Quim playing every other weekend for Benfica? Ah well…

Ricardo Costa has never been a player I’ve cared much about. Below average was my rating when he played at Porto. Haven’t seen much of him since his move to Wolfsburg. Seeing him pop-up now made me wonder why. He was in the starting eleven last Tuesday when Wolfsburg smashed Besiktas in Turkey with a convincing 3 nil (UEFA Champions League match). Bosnian key striker Dzeko is his team-mate. That explains it. Queiroz phoned the lad and asked him if he knew how to handle the Bosnian. He of-course replied with a very convincing “Oh that’s easy! I know all his moves! He’ll fit nicely in my back-pocket the entire game! No worries mister!”

Fábio Coentrão might be our future left-back. If Jorge Jesus grooms him wright that is. His calling is either to ease him into the squad or because he simply had to call someone up from Benfica after ditching Nuno Gomes. I hope it’s door number one.

Miguel is the perfect candidate to replace Bosingwa. Good to see him back.

If CQ calls me up for an opinion this is what he will hear:

————– Eduardo —————
Miguel — Carvalho — Alves — Veloso
—————- Pepe —————-
———– Tiago —- Deco ———
Simão ——— Liedson ———- Nani

It wouldn’t surprise me if he sacrificed one of the wings in favor of Meireles in midfield.

It’s going to be a tough couple of matches. Bosnia has a very strong team. But in the end we shall prevail! FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!!!

He got injured shortly after scoring Ranger’s first goal. He held on until half-time before being substituted. The lack of a fit Pedro Mendes was noted on the pitch as the boys from Glasgow were served a 1-4 defeat against Unirea Urziceni.

This will mean Queiroz has to resort to an already tried format. Pepe in defensive midfield and Carvalho & Alves as centre-backs. It has worked. It will work again.

The first match will take place on the 14th of November at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon. 4 Days later we face them on their turf. I would have preferred playing the second game on home ground but let that not be an excuse. We can win. Anytime. Anywhere.

Carlos Queiroz: “We will have to prepare well. They have a very dangerous attack. It is going to be dificult but for us the world-cup has already started”

Miroslav Blazevic (BH coach): “I think the Portuguese are favorites, but they don’t always win. Portugal has great players but I think we have a good chance to win.”

In fact we were the country that scored the most points in this update: 162. Moving up 7 places we finished in the top 10.

This particular ranking has a bit more meaning because it determines the top 4 seed for the play-offs otherwise I pretty much ignore it. Just consider we were 22nd and Greece was 35th just before the Euro 2004 and after-wards neither were in the top 10.

As expected France, Portugal, Russia and Greece are top 4 for the play-offs. Some speculation went into how many places Ukraine would move up following their win over England… a mere 3 places up to 22nd.

1. Brazil (1632pts)
2. Spain (1629)
3. Netherlands (1340)
4. Italy (1215)
5. Germany (1161)
6. Argentina (1103)
7. England (1101)
8. Croatia (1087)
9. France (1049)
10. Portugal (1042)
11. USA (1025)
12. Russia (982)
…
16. Greece (921)
…
22. Ukraine (857)
…
34. Republic of Ireland (755)
…
42. Bosnia Herzegovina (721)
…
49. Slovenia (663)
…
203. San Marino (0)

Four nil. Another one bites the dust.
Next stop: play-offs.

Led by an amazing crowd eager to sing and dance the team through this match, Portugal delivered. Delivered in goals. Delivered in spirit. From the get go we tightened a net around Malta and didn’t ease up until the first 2 were in. I had hoped for 7 I’ll settle with 4.

When I sat down to watch the game I had an ice-pack in one hand and my 5 year-old boys head in the other. We had just returned from soccer practice where he had bumped into a team-mate after scoring a great left-footed goal (the “great” part might be exaggerated but you know how dads are). As he turned to run and celebrate, a big “GGOOOLLLOOOO” on his lips, a team-mate was running towards him for the big celebration hug and… you guessed it… head-on collision. His face went from shear joy to excruciating pain like only a five-year old can do. An enormous bump forming on his forehead. Why do I start this game review with this little story you ask? Because it gave me an ill feeling towards the game. I was driving home thinking how in soccer you sometimes go from shear joy and unshakable certainties to utter disbelief and complete sadness. Would we be able to show the same winning spirit we’ve shown before? Would the Maltese keeper put out a once-in-a-lifetime performance? Would we end the game with 30 shots and no goals? Would this, would that.

Nothing like watching the first few minutes to shake it all off to a safe distance. We came out guns blazing. Good to see Miguel Veloso for Duda. Pedro Mendes keeping his spot. Pepe playing. But wait. Where is Bruno Alves? Bench? That didn’t seem right. But then again what was Queiroz to do? Play Carvalho, Pepe, Alves and Mendes all at the same time? Against Malta? Don’t think so. The initial line-up did indeed seem like a very decent one. Just Ronaldo missing. Small “just”.

Soon the game showed what was in store for the 90 minutes to come. Malta defending. Portugal attacking. They did hold the fort for about 13 minutes. Nani was once again trying very hard to show he’s a very valid CR replacement. Sometimes the lad overdoes it. And sometimes he scores a nice goal. He had had the best opportunities so far and he managed a nice shot just outside the box.

First one was in. 80+ minutes to go if you include stoppage time. We could be looking at a real treat. My mood had already turned considerably. And so had my son’s. Who by the way got to finish quite loudly that word that was on his lips when his soccer practice was so rudely interrupted.

As the rest of the first half unfolded it grew increasingly evident some players were starting to underperform. Meireles with his terrible finishing and showing signs of fatigue (I’ll be positive here and call it fatigue). Bosingwa with some lousy crosses, insisting on dribbles when a cross or a pass was in order, thus loosing the ball way to often. Malta just couldn’t care less we were ahead and continued playing ultra-defensively. 21 Players on half of the pitch (Eduardo naturally didn’t participate in this party) makes for one confusing setup, it just takes out the flow of the game. No box to box plays. No beautiful string of passes from defence to offence. Not my kind of game. No treat after all. And if you had -like me- a 4 hour online-poker tournament the night before it just brings out a beautiful string of… yawns. Nothing like a goal to spice things up and Simão took care of that at the 45th minute.

The second half started off nicely with a very opportune goal from Veloso. The best part wasn’t the easy finishing but the string of passes that led to it. Deco carrying the ball, to Nani, to Liedson, lucky rebound, easy finish for Veloso. An all-in-one goal.

Three nill. Deceiving score. Not at all reflecting the quality of the game. Not that I think you can blame Portugal for it as it is very hard to play with 21 players on less then 50% of the pitch.

At this point (60th minute) Queiroz rightfully thinks it’s time to spare the players that are at risk of seeing a yellow card and miss the play-offs. On came Nuno Assis for Meireles to please the crowd as he plays at Vitória de Guimarães. Edinho for Liedson and 10 minutes later Moutinho for Nani. The game just went on a break. I went into another string of yawns. In my post on the player ratings from the Hungary game I had written Deco has a ON/OFF switch that went OFF at the 66th minute. Well today it went OFF at the 62nd minute. When he saw Meireles walk off to rest and see the game from a different perspective (the bench) it must have triggered the damn switch.

Oh wait. Just as I was thinking Edinho has no grace/style whatsoever he manages to score one! I was thinking along the same lines about Duda a couple of days ago when he crossed one in for Simão to finish! Perhaps I have a gift! Next game I’ll just think they are all utter crap and seconds later I’m sure to be proven wrong! Bingo.

In the end the scoreboard read 4-0. Nice. On to the play-offs.

Possible adversaries:
Slovenia, Ukraine, Bosnia and Ireland.

Preferences anyone? Slovenia seems the weakest but I think Portugal does better against bigger teams so… Ireland? No? Ok Slovenia then.

Player ratings:

Eduardo (?) – I can’t rate a player that didn’t have anything to do except collect the ball every once in a while. If I start rating that I’ll have to get the names of the ball-catchers.

Bosingwa (5) – Disappointing performance. Not much to do defense wise. Lousy crossing. To often chose the wrong option: dribble instead of pass/cross.

Carvalho/Pepe (6) – Solid.

Veloso (6) – Gets one point more then Bosingwa because he participated in the first and scored the third goal but his crossing wasn’t any fun either. This was not a good test to confirm if he’s a good left-back. Probably better then Duda anyway.

Mendes (8) – Another solid performance. Missed one pass at the 89th minute! After these last two matches I’m now very confident we found gold. His presence on the pitch does not go unnoticed. He is always on the move seeking a receiver position. Tries to keep the flow of the game going. No ball hogging. Fast and accurate passing. Man-of-the-match for me.

Meireles (4) – Not his day. Everyone is entitled to one but I’d rather he chose friendly matches and not WC qualifiers. He was strong when we tightened the net around Malta to score. Moving, applying pressure where needed. The usual stuff. Went to the nearest pub to celebrate after the first goal… after just 15minutes? Come’on Raul!

Deco (7) – When he handles the ball you can see he wants to create danger. Always looking for the best spot to place it. Unfortunately he is soooo much slower at doing it these days. At least that is the impression you get from a variety of his plays but the fact is he’s in ALL of the goals we scored tonight! Has to count for something. He has the moves. He has the pace. He has the switch. OFF too early. Again. Come’on Deco!

Simão (7) – One goal one assist. Simão’s stats are getting better and better. He participated a lot in the game tonight and it didn’t seem to me he took his foot of the gas. Glad to see the old Simão is back.

Liedson (6) – His presence on the pitch simply gives us the cutting edge. Always chasing the ball. Eager to score. The way he seems boxed and manages to elude the defenders to set himself up for a dangerous shot is fantastic. Could have done more on some occasions. Left early subbed by Edinho.

Nani (7) – Almost my man-of-the-match. Great goal. Always looking to create danger. Should sometimes keep it simple but goes on a dribbling spree and more than often looses the ball. Has the place. Has the flare. Needs the fast thought process to figure out his teammates positions on the pitch and act accordingly.

Nuno Assis (5) – I just can’t seem to like Nuno Assis’s play style. It’s inconsequential. He’s very strong at getting the foul called. Hogs the ball a bit too much when he should do like Mendes. Keep it simple.

Edinho (4) – I know he scored but the picture of him getting a pass and as he ran next to the ball it looked like he was afraid of it, running away from it. Yes it –the ball- got caught by a defender and he then managed to tripp on his own feet. That picture. It haunts me.

Moutinho (5) – I know he had 20 minutes on the pitch but all I recall is one shot. Did I miss something? I might be rating him unfairly.

Queiroz (7) – I liked the initial line-up. I liked the way they came out guns blazing, not resting until the first one was in. The substitutions were well timed and seemed coherent although their effect was probably not what was expected. He managed to carry us all into the play-offs. I’m not entirely convinced yet he is the man for the job at hand, I’ll just have to wait and see.