Portugal’s double duty trio

May 23rd, 2007 | by: Luis |

Nani After World Cup 2006 we were promised closer coordination between the senior squad and the under-21 team. This round, Scolari and Couceiro plan to share the services of Hugo Almeida, Nani and J. Moutinho. All three are critical to the Under-21 squad, but increasingly, they are becoming regular actors on Scolari’s stage.

Of the three, Nani is the more likely to get a start. Both Ronaldo and Simão will sit out this round. With Deco returning, I just can’t see Moutinho in the starting 11, but he is likely to come in as a substitute. If Scolari sticks to tradition, he will most likely start H. Postiga in the box and look to Almeida as a possible second half solution.

J. Moutinho No matter how you dice Scolari’s potential starting 11, you come to the conclusion that this talented trio will likely perform double duty. With their young legs and tremendous talent, they may make the difference against Belgium and will certainly lead the way for the under-21 squad as they attempt to capture their first European championship.

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By Daria | June 9th, 2007 at 11:49 pm

Here is an article on Portugal’s U21’s from the Guardian. It is nice to see the youngster’s talent being recognized outside Portugal.

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2099551,00.html

Posted from Canada

By BILLY | June 10th, 2007 at 11:53 am

I’m really looking forward to Nani and Ronaldo playing together on the wings at manchester united. They are both Portuguese so that should encourage Nani to play well.

http://www.topfootballers.co.uk/

Posted from United Kingdom

By Jose | June 11th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

I am back my friends. I am scared we do not have teh talen to qualify for euro.

Posted from Canada

By Jose | June 11th, 2007 at 9:07 pm

Luis, are you in love with c ron?

Posted from Canada

By Daria | June 11th, 2007 at 11:48 pm

Lots of news!! Figo staying at Inter for another year (then maybe off to the MLS), Tiago possibly moving to Juve or Milan. Our U21’s drawing with Belgium and then their bus crashing (thank goodness everyone is okay!!).

The domestic seasons may be over or almost over but thank goodness there is still lots of football to keep us all busy!

Posted from Canada

By Pedro P | June 12th, 2007 at 3:52 am

Ceasar & OGT (and everybody else), here’s something on the U20 and the World Cup, to be held in Canada (in PT)!

http://www.fpf.pt/portal/page/portal/PORTAL_FUTEBOL/SELECCOES/NOTICIA?notid=3373751

As a portuguese semi-emigrant, with former emigrants in the bloodline, I must admit I believe most of the portuguese living in PT might not be aware of the massive support of their emigrants, spread in the 4 corners of the globe…

This was clear in the match against Belgium, IN BELGIUM! Some people went from PT to BLG – I know it seems nothing much, for one living in the Americas, where all the distances are huge…

Going back, specially those emigrants on the other side of the Atlantic – PTguese are “professional emigrants”, and you’ll always find somebody with a “Silva” or “Fernandes” or “Coelho”, “Pires”, etc, family name, somewhere in this world…

For this, a Big Thank You. The PT Football Dark Ages are apparently more and more in the past and the talent we’ve, somehow always had, has been slowly properly chanelled and is now developing in a productive way. With or without tittles! I admit although we’ve always had young talent, we are currently going throught a particularly rich moment.

May the former PT Discoverers moto be our moto again:

“Navegar e Preciso,
Viver nao e Preciso…”

FORCA PT!!!

Since 1143 and 4-ever!!! Imortal Soul!

ps – for the musical fans, check out brazillian legend Caetano Veloso and his (old-1968) song “Os Argonautas” (oldie but goodie and a beautifull poem from a brazillian and world legend paying his tribute to this eternal Atlantic Bond, we PTguese should all be proud of)

http://www.studioamerica.com.br/500/caetano.htm

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | June 12th, 2007 at 4:42 am

Here’s something (PT) on our young left-back promise (as we now this is our eternal Achiles heel), who seems to be impressing, in spite of his age… Antunes, from Pacos de Ferreira.

http://www.ojogo.pt/23-111/artigo638467.asp

Posted from Netherlands

By Ceasar | June 12th, 2007 at 8:32 am

Thanks Pedro, good article. It made me work hard on my Portuguese reading skills. haha

We’ve got a good group for the U20 WC here in Canada and should qualify from the group stage. After that, like all tournaments, it’s fate and a little luck hopefully.

On the U 2008 front, I was looking at our NT schedule and basically the month of Sept. will decide if we advance or not. We play both Poland and Serbia at home. The results there will be the decider. The advantage of course is that it’s home games. So far it looks good for us. But like I said, by the end of Sept we should know…..

By the way Pedro, those were very good words on Portuguese emigrants… Thanks

Posted from Canada

By Luis | June 12th, 2007 at 10:35 am

Jose or should I say CR19 – How’s it going buddy? NL v PT in the U21 finals tomorrow. Hope you enjoy.

Ceasar – Poland and Serbia at home are key. The win in Belgium helped to balance out the the loss in Poland. Otherwise, we’re right in line with Scolari’s plan for qualification. Draw away and win at home.

PT v NL match on ESPN Deportes if you’re lucky enough to have it. 2:30PM Eastern.

Posted from United States

By Luis | June 12th, 2007 at 2:06 pm

Here’s one not about Ronaldo. Antunes is getting headlines.

Link

Posted from United States

By Pedro P | June 13th, 2007 at 3:56 am

Some news (PT) – Luis takes care of the ENG links, while I take care of the news from PT… Sorry if I can’t translate all of it…

Carlos Martins, one of Sporting’s #10, as suspected, will leave Sporting and is off to Rec Huelva (Spain): http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=820362&div_id=1457

This means Sporting lost Tello (left back and left midfielder); Nani (left/right winger – mainly a wide attaking mid); Custodio (holding mid and captain #1); Carlos Martins (attaking mid), and I even think I’m forgetting more… It was already a small squad (22 or 23), let’s hope the 25 million made with Nani’s selling to Man Utd will help rebalance the squad. No matter how much you profit from, and invest in, the youth players, you can’t make a winning team (specially considering european competitions, where SCP has never been strong) just with them…

They won the cup, the finished 1 point from victors FCP (with a rather different type of budget) and were this year the lest beaten defense in the league. For the poorest team from the big 3 (Benfica, Sporting and Porto), struggling with huge debts and a team mainly from the youth/formation dept, I’d say “WELL DONE, SPORTING”.

Sporting feeds most of the U20: http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=819866&div_id=1194

Brazillian born Pepe reafirms his desire to play for PT, while the process carries on: http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=819388&div_id=1194

Scolari says “I love Brazil but I feel very good in Portugal”: http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=819379&div_id=1194

After the 4th place achieved by PT in Toulon (after, yet again, a 1-0 defeat against France – coach – in the semis), Carlos Dinis says it was overall quite positive and hat the hard-core of the team can be the one for the U20 World Cup, in Canada: http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=819368&div_id=1194

Back to Toulon, France’s star player, Kevin Gameiro from Strasbourg, has portuguese blood running in his veins… http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=819364&div_id=1194

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | June 13th, 2007 at 4:47 am

On tonight’s match, the U21 group stage vs The netherlands, dutch player Hedwiges Maduro (another PT surname…) says: “It’ll ber a very hard match”. http://www.ojogo.pt/23-112/artigo638547.asp

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | June 13th, 2007 at 10:24 am

Although PT moved 1 up, Macau went down 5 places and is getting dangerously close to both Timor Loro Sae and S Tome e Principe… http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=158&page=4

Angola moved up TWO spots; Guine Bissau went ONE up; Cabo Verde went up ELEVEN spots and Mocambique went up NINETEEN spots http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=0&rank=158&page=2.

Brasil doesn’t need publicity but they’re now THIRD overall, which is NOT gonna make people happy there…

Anyway, FIFA’s rankings are always a good reason to talk, when there’s nothing else to say…

Posted from Netherlands

By Luis | June 13th, 2007 at 7:22 pm

Well, two matches and two very mediocre performances. Fatigue? Perhaps, four of our guys did double duty for the seniors, but they just seemed to lack creativity. For long stretches they seemed unfocused and totally incapable of stringing together good passes. The wing play was horrible. Nani gave no indication that he is worth 25 million. Hugo Almeida and Moutinho did their best but not nearly enough. Paulo Ribeiro made some terrible decisions. That penalty could have been avoided!

Where is the offense? Whenever we get a break there’s nobody in the box. Crosses are terrible. All of them over or under shot. Everyone is playing for the big individual shot but nobody is looking up to find a team mate.

They dominated possession in the second half, but still couldn’t finish much. The final score could have been 3 or 4 – 1.

0 – 0 and 2 – 1, not very impressive and Couceiro is going to take the heat. Some of the no calls from the ref were terrible – one defender actually held onto J. Moutinho’s arm with two hands, but nothing. In the end, it comes down to the coach. He put his team in a terrible situation. It all comes down to the math now.

By Pedro P | June 14th, 2007 at 5:24 am

Holland and Belgium to play for the draw, says da Costa, in their final match:
http://www.ojogo.pt/23-113/artigo639022.asp

PT deserved to loose yesterday, evethough we had a clear penalty stolen plus some very arguable ref decisions.

In the UEFA site, M Fernades says he doesn’t understand what happened in both matches… Well… It’s easy… 1) Get a real coach rather than a frustrated Mourinho clone; 2)Start playing football, rather than watching it, from the inside of the pitch… Only Moutinho, da Costa and Pereira tried. Just like against BLG, all the passing lines were blocked, pressure was imediate from the opposition, no midfield leader – Moutinho had to play for them all, the ball never got to the ones that build, everything happening in slow motion, no compensation functioned properly when posession was lost, a big joke…

Great goal from M Veloso, excelent match for Drenthe – wonderfull player.

May it be a lesson! Gefeliciteerd, Nederland!

Posted from Netherlands

By Ceasar | June 14th, 2007 at 8:15 am

Pedro P, Luis I agree with both of you. We seemed to have total control till we hit the 18 yard. Then we came up with zero creativity! Very very frustrating as a fan to see this. When will they learn, or have a coach who teaches them that all the pretty play in the world mean nothing if you don’t score. Bottom line.
Pedro, Drenthe looked very good indeed. Amazing pace. I wonder how soon before Hollands senior squad brings him up?
Well that’s it for my rant. And like Luis said its up to numbers again if we are to get out.

Posted from Canada

By Pedro P | June 14th, 2007 at 10:40 am

What really hurts, far more than that defeat (PT’s U21 never really went anywhere along the years) is the fact those kids ARE REALLY very good. Yet yesterday they all looked like a bunch of drunken beatles…

Merit must be given to the dutch team, who deserved it fair and square and really showed us how to do it. This time not exagerating and not using all the foul play from June 2006 Nurnberg… I guess they learned their lesson, I really hope we learned ours.

It reminded me of the PT days before Scolari… That’s what scares me…

Posted from Netherlands

By Ceasar | June 14th, 2007 at 11:45 am

Don’t say that Pedro. I was thinking the same and hoping I was totally wrong. But yes it looked like pre-scolari era PT.

Like you, I also think that is a very talented group of players who may not get the chance to actually show the world just how good they actually are.
3 of them have already played up at the senior level (I think)and I think at least 5 more will eventually make it, and maybe soon…

Posted from Canada

By Ceasar | June 14th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

Here’s an article I found on Nani..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/main.jhtml?xml=/sport/2007/06/14/sfnnan14.xml

Posted from Canada

By Luis | June 14th, 2007 at 2:12 pm

Guys – exactly! That’s what I mean when I say that in the end it’s about Couceiro. The weak link in PT football at the moment is manager talent. Managers of Scolari and Mourinho’s caliber don’t let stuff like this happen. The draw with Belgium wasn’t the end of the world, but the performance told us much more. They didn’t have offensive cohesion and once that became apparent, they looked to the bench for leadership. Obviously, non was available.

It killed me to watch those matches. And it makes me fear Scolari’s departure even more. I almost hope Mourinho has a tough year at Chelsea next season, so he will consider taking over for Scolari. Don’t hold your breath on that one though.

Posted from United States

By Ceasar | June 14th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

Okay, so are all of our coaches useless and incapable of standing up to egotistic players and an overbearing football association?? Or are we only going to be successful with foreign coaches…
Right now we are very very rich on football talent. Probably more so than at any other time in our history. We are strong in veterans, young talent, youth comming up etc. We just don’t have talent but depth also. By rights we should be a footballing powerhouse for years and years to come. But if we waste it all on coaches who don’t know how to get us over the edge and learn what it takes to translate that into wins. Then history will look back at this time and say what a terrible waste..
I think the english team is struggling thru some similar things st the moment. Lots of talent but stuck with coaches who haven’t a clue how to put it together…
Why is it that the Italians, and to a certain extent the Germans, seem to produce a abundance of talented quality coaches who know how to win??

I hope we are wrong, but like Luis I am terrified of what will become of us when Scolari leaves.

Posted from Canada

By Pedro P | June 15th, 2007 at 3:08 am

Join in the debate…

http://netherlands.worldcupblog.org/1/football-cultures-politics-wars-colonisation-and-awesome-football-players.html

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | June 15th, 2007 at 9:22 am

Actually, Luis, come up with something, otherwhise all the readers will be drained by the dutch blog…

Posted from Netherlands

By Luis | June 15th, 2007 at 12:24 pm

My time is so limited right now Pedro, but I’ll try to do something this weekend. I’m working on developing a dedicated blog so I have to sacrifice some time on this one for the greater good. My goal is to have the new blog up and running for the next round of Euro qualifiers and the start of the new league season. I will be looking for blog writers for occasional articles, editorials etc. so pass the word to anyone you think might be interested.

Check out http://www.tugasblog.com late in August. I hope to make it available by Aug. 22.

Posted from United States

By Pedro P | June 16th, 2007 at 5:42 pm

http://www.fpf.pt/portal/page/portal/PORTAL_FUTEBOL/SELECCOES/NOTICIA?notid=3399646

Luis, tell me more about that blog, dude…

Posted from Netherlands

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