Portugal 4 – 0 Malta : tearing a bus apart

October 14th, 2009 | by: Miguel | Comments(19)

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.