A whole team

So Costinha is in starting 11, I still thought it was a toss-up with Petit. I’m not sure which I favour right now, probably Petit since he has been in form and does possess skill to pop in a long one if teams play too deep in defence…although with Petit comes the fear everytime he tackles that a red is coming, Scolari will need to sub Petit immediately if he picks up a yellow, as he doesn’t seem to alter his play yellow or not. With Costinha comes proven steadiness and a more dedicated Trinco, allowing Tiago to surge forward which he must do!

Posted from  Canada

Petit might play. Scolari prefers Costinha but there’s been a while since he played. He could get a place on the team after the first game.

Posted from  Brazil

I’m always prasising Costinha and here are some reasons. Had this on the other post:

http://www.ojogo.pt/22-101/artigo556460.htm

In my mind, there’s no real replacement for Costinha. He’s not even a defensive mid. He’s more of an anchor, playing immediatelly in fron of the 2 central defenders, commanding the team movement. The man is always on the right place, before people realize it is the right place. As a pure defensive mid, Petit can do the job maybe even better. Like Maniche and Tiago also does everything in that place, going a bit more up front – another luxuary to have him on the bench. But Costinha is the real comand voice and brain in the back.

Posted from  Netherlands

i agree i think costinha should start, after the first game he will hav regained his fitness again so it wont b a prob, as 4 who shud play along side him id just go 4 maniche becos of the partnership costinha/maniche hav built up thts always very helpfull, but the options on the bench r of gud quality showing a gud depth 2 the squad which is excelent. on another point wud ne1 els start with simao instead of figo?? plus is it just me or is all of the media overlooking portugal to win the comp altho this is a gud thing yes??

Posted from  United States

Portugal is chronically underrated. Except 4 years ago, when Pele said we could win. That you/everybody saw what happened… Didn’t do much for the “prestige” challenge… You can also see what happened to Spain… No matter what they do, nobody believes in them anymere. Not even themselves. Another case is C Ronaldo. The opther day I was talking to and english friend of mine and the guy was saying C Ronaldo is hugelly underrated. I agree, although I also think he still has a lot “to eat”…

So, in short, I prefer they don’t see us. We’re not the best team. But we don’t come far – we have conditions to believe we belong in the top 8. So, after groups, anything’s possible. It really is. We have enough to allow ourselves believing the possibility of wining.

So, fingers crossed, a lot of foccus, and wish for the best. I believe the work so far has been good. This is a competition and we’re not only fighting our negative aspects. We’re fighting others as well.

FORCA PORTUGAL!!!

Posted from  Netherlands

Well said Pedro. We don’t need the ‘favorite’s’ tag. The pressure of being one of the ones expected to take it all is crushing the English.

Lets concentrate on getting thru the group stage, hopefully in first and without injuries and/or red cards. Anyone of those could spell disaster. And after that it’s one game at a time and then it becomes anybodies game.

In the knock-out stages we have just as good a chance of winning as any of the other 16 that get out. Hopefully the soccer gods will smile down upon us and with a little bit of luck we might write some history.

Pauleta the scoring leader of the tourny, C Ronaldo the young player of the tourny and Deco the player of the WC. Simple, done!

Posted from  Canada

i agree abt wot u say its gud they ova look us, and in wat u say abt c.ronaldo he is underrated but ur rite he dus hav abit 2do yet but this cud b the tourney 4 him 2do it which wud b ace. the difference with this team 2 four years ago is the coach i reckon finaly a gud coach n hopefully wen he leaves we will get sum1 in of the same class 2 continue the development. but as 4 this tourney its gud they underate portugal cos it means i can put money on them at very gud odds instead of slashed odds hahaha. go on portugal!!!

Posted from  United States

Hey Luis
Love to read all the stuff on your bloogg.

I have a question, will Gomes play from start in the World Cup?

Best regards, bjorn

Posted from  Sweden

Hey Bjorn,

Maybe Scolari calls Luis up and uses code to let him know Gomes will be starting ala CIA/KGB. It will be a shock to see Gomes start! Even if this were true and Luis somehow knew, he probably wouldn’t release the info on this blog.

Gomes will have to play super sub. Although a forced change to 2 strikers or playing Gomes later in the tourny if Pauleta isn’t cutting the mustard is possible, NO WAY this is gonna start off this way.

Posted from  Canada

That’s it. One step at a time. Now it’s Angola. A defeat there means getting the calculating machine from the pocket again – Portugal’s history, almost.

I believe Iran’s gonna surprise everybody (not only in group D). Let the others say they are weak, because the others aren’t gonna play Iran. We are.

Mexico looked weak in attack, yesterday against HOL. But that was a match for peanuts…

Bjorn: Gomes is going. Unless something goes wrong, I don’t believe he’ll be in any starting 11. Scolari sometimes likes to place 2 strikers halfway in a match. He the most likely, if “play ball” is needed from a striker. Postiga is more like Pauleta – a guy whose habitat is the box. Nuno Gomes is also the natural substitute for Pauleta, should he be substituted.

Posted from  Netherlands

lets suggest the 11 starters come on evry1…ricardo-ferriera?? yes??–carvalho-meira-valente-ronaldo-costinha-maniche-simao/figo,which1 do we think??-deco-pauleta….

Posted from  United States

ahhhhh, Luis had it right on, but I think Tiago, with Miguel on right,

Only 2 maybe are:
1) Costinha vs Petit
2) Ferreira on left but I doubt it.

FORCA

Posted from  Canada

ok yea sounds gud 2 me i agree with it, but the main question is simao or figo?? discuss…

Posted from  United States

I believe Figo will always start, unless he’s falling apart. Scolari has also showed he loves puting Simao in, sometime in the 2nd half…

Posted from  Netherlands

Bjorn, Gomes won’t start but he probably will be playing a lot on the competition

Posted from  Brazil

Figo clearly and only subbed if Scolari needs to make a tactical change or he’s really tired. Although Scolari has tried some options with Figo in the midfield and Simao on the wing.

Posted from  United States

woteva the line up the team spirit is there n the team understanding is there which has been built up ova sum time n this is always key 2 great things. we just gota b focused on each game first things first angola n then iran then mexico..etc…n then maybe a france v portugal final….go on portugal!!!

Posted from  United States

So is Nuno Valente a starter in the defensive line then?

Posted from  Sweden

The reason it’s the same squad all over again is do to mr Scolari lazyness and lack of imagination.
Mr Scoalri is a fine example of the new coach elite coming from Brazil, the days of the beautifull game are long gone, I still remember the awful brazilian team of 94 and horrid football that brazil played in 2002. What made me fall in love with football was the brazilian squad of 82. Tele santana was unfortunately an exception. In the end eficiency and the boring scolari-like footbal will kill the game . It’s impossible to cheerish memories of the germanic football of the 80’s and 90’s , greece fro 2004 or Mourinho’s chelsea. But that’s the way of the future.

Posted from  Portugal

Jorge, agree the generical trend nowadays is so.

As for Scolari’s lack of imagination, you should remember that the ones’s who have done the same, over and over and over, were exactly the ones before. Scolari invested in a much more versatile tactics (before you never saw any tactical change at all) and has brought new ideas and knowledge, form a diferent perspective. I believe there’s always something to be learned with ones that are better or that have reached what we haven’t. He also invested much in building what usually winners have and losers don’t: A TEAM! A GROUP!

You never saw any “Paula” incident with Scolari, did you…?

All this might not work, of course. But he’s done much more than all the others put together. And naturally, this is just my opinion.

Posted from  Netherlands

i agree pedro p, get behind scolari and the lads, ok previous winners mght not hav been exciting but at the end of the day they were winners!! wud u rather b exciting and a losr or not tht exciting but a winner i know which one id choose!!…

Posted from  United States

I love the Scolari critics. They would rather look pretty and lose. I for one am glad to see that mentality fade into history. Força Scolari! Make them eat their words. Força Portugal!

Posted from  United States

I’m going to try to stay away from the Scolari thing. Let’s win something then we can talk about how we prefer “o jogo bonito”, but yes…long term tactics over skills does not bode well for the game, but I could write a novel on that one, and this is a blog after all ;P

I just want to chime in on Nuno Valente. I’d much rather see Fereira on the left, even if he has no left foot. Valente is slow…he is a defensive liability and has not even been playing in England. I watched him several times at Everton and he has some nice crossing skills but too many times, he just plain got burned or did a poor job of marking on set pieces. We don’t really need him to go fwd, if miguel is on right so please, Felipao….start Fereira!

Re: Figo..isn’t he the captain? since when don’t you start your captain? The only thing I would say to Figo is go out and don’t save anything for the last 20 mins. He shouldn’t be pacing himself. He is much more useful to us going full out for 70 mins and then being subbed for Simao, then holding back so he can play the whole game. I’d also like to see Tiago start as well as he looked quite good at Lyon (I saw them play quite often) and Maniche is out of form.

Forca Portugal!

Posted from  United States