The Germans were very effective at exploiting Portugal’s two weakest links: P. Ferreira (playing out of position) and our terrible defense against set pieces (especially, but not exclusively, Ricardo).

It was a close game and things could have very easily gone differently at several points, but, that’s football.

I would have liked to have seen Quaresma thrown in toward the end rather than Nani, because while I think Nani is good, he was just more of the same, and didn’t add anything different to the Portuguese attack. I think Quaresma could possibly have helped shake things up just a bit more and maybe Portugal could have picked up that third goal and forced the game into overtime. But who knows.

Portugal underachieved this time around, but as a whole Portugal is still punching above its weight in world football, and they will be contenders for the 2010 World Cup. I think Scolari gave the Portuguese national team something that they needed during this phase, but I think a new coach with some new tactical ideas will not be a bad thing for Portugal.