PT – HL Probable starting 11

Micha,

Any idea what your record is against Portugal? For someone who has only beaten Portugal ONCE out of nine times, you sure do talk a lot of shiite! Probably trying to hide your insecurity and real lack of belief in your squad.
I’m glad you weren’t the type of dutch fan that I sat next to at the Euro. That being said, I think whoever scores first tomorrow will win the game, not a huge prediction but…

If Portugal can avoid mistakes on dead ball situations I think we will win the game. The last time we played Holland, Van der Sar saw more of the ball than any dutch field player (in the form of back passes). The recent friendly against Mexico was very much the same…I think if we can keep them bottled up we will be ok because other than Robben they have no one who is very dangerous one on one (V Persie is ok at best).

Probably not the best place to post this, but what do people think of playing Ronadlo as the striker or second forward in certain lineups? I’ve always thought he isn’t very suited to play wing, mainly because he wants to score and not cross (his crosses are awful much of the time).

Forca Portugal.
-Tony O

Posted from  United States

I think it’ll be an even contest and could go either way. There are a few corrections that should be made to the Dutch starting 11. van Bommel will likely be replaced by van der Vaart and Mathijsen will probably give way to Boulahrouz.

I hope the match lives up to the hype. Hup Holland!

Posted from  Canada

Nothing can stop us-

Forca Portugal!!!!!

Posted from  United States

Micha – you just don’t know how to make a comment without putting us down, do you? Why would we talk about Brazil? Just because we share a language, cultural similarities, and the love for ‘jogo bonito’?

You should drop the irony bit. You’re not very good at it!

Forca Portugal!

Posted from  United States

Hahahahaha… Great stuff!

You know, statistics are a strange thing. Oranje was runner up twice and semi-finalist once at a WC. How did you go in the last 20 years? We won an EC in ‘88 and ended in the semis twice (yeah yeah, we lost to you in 2004, we know we know)… Anyway, you can’t say we don’t amount to anything. Ok, statistiscs then… There is a bigger chance – statistically – of Oranje winning this time, than you guys beating us AGAIN! That’s how numbers work. If we’d play 10 times against each other say, in the next 10 weeks. The results would be fairly even. 3 wins for you, 3 wins for us and 4 draws, for instance. Your 9 wins vs 1 win for us is out of balance and will be corrected today. The whole element of Ronaldo is better than Persie etc etc is useless. Form of the day. Maybe a mistake by an official. Or a mistake by a player. End of story.

Oh, another thing: leave Mischa alone! We love his irony. Makes us laugh…

Posted from  Australia

Guys, I got to share this with you. About those stats and stuff. The 2 matches against Portugal for WC2002 were vital and we lost one – at home – and drew one – in Portugal.
This is the back story to those games.

Louis van Gaal was the team manager. Very succesful with Ajax, but very very stubborn and a big ego-tripper. Against Portugal at home, we missed a good left full back. Louis had 2 options, use a less experienced left footer or use right footed defender, like Michael Reiziger. Nobody understood why he did it, but he chose Reiziger to play left full back.
In the first half, a whistle sound is heard from the stands. One of our players (Seedorf?? I can’t remember) stops playing, thinking it was the ref. The whole Oranje defense stops. But not the shrewd Portuguese, they steal the ball, counter attack and 0-1. Later, Reiziger needs to clear the ball, he uses his weaker left and passes the ball right in the feet of a Portuguese attacker, 0-2.

Lost the match, not because the opponent was better, but because of lack of professionalism (the whistle incident) and Van Gaal’s howler (putting Reiziger on left).

Then the away match in Portugal. We needed to win that game to qualify. We lead 2-0 against Portugal in a great game (Kluivert and Hasselbaink). With 10 minutes to go, Louis van Gaal wants to erase the memory of his mistakes earlier in the year and decides to humiliate Portugal. He wants to crush them 4-0. So he takes of a defender and midfielder and brings two more attackers. The fool. Within 10 minutes, Portugal gains control and scores 2 goals. Endresult: 2-2, Portugal qualifies for the WC2002 and Holland needs to fight the Oirish on a terrible pitch… We lost.

I’d say, we didn’t lose those matches against Portugal. We lost them against ourselves and our megalomanic coach. Portugal couldn’t stop laughing about this soap opera until they were kicked out of the WC2002.

This will put those stats in perspective…

Posted from  Australia

Whine all you want dutchies, this will only be solved in one place: the pitch. I have high respect for the dutch’s team, but I feel the dutch haven’t the same respect for us, which is stupid given the stats covering the two teams. From all the teams Holland have played against Portugal, this one is by far the least strong, with many unexperienced youngsters, and Portugal’s team is almost at its best. Will that lack of experience affect Holland psychologically? We’ll see, Van Basten seems good at controlling the nerves of his players.

Nevertheless, Portugal counts with players to be respected, period. Deco is to me one of the best players of the world, and his trophies speak for him (I dare say that without Deco at his back, Ronaldinho is a common “artist” player), Figo is at top form and Ronaldo is the most intriguing doubt: either can be substituted for lack of playing or be the best player of the game. Maniche is that kind of player that stands out in these tournaments, Costinha is growing and Ricardo Carvalho is Staggering defence. Miguel as a third winger is malicious and a nightmare to adversaries, to say the least.

As the british say, wait and see

Posted from  Portugal

Hey portugal will be winner!
go go porrtugal ( at last portugal is from group d) this is a good reason to be your teams fan!
be happy babbyyyyy!!!!!!!

Posted from  Islamic Republic Of Iran

Was that Payam?

Posted from  United Kingdom

the odds from my bookies:
Holland to win by a goal margin.
Possible…?

Posted from  Malaysia

Jan. Good post, but you don’t really want me to list the all the games that Portugal blew in their past do you? I don’t think I could do it in the hour left until kickoff!

Seriously, games are often won on mistakes both on the pitch and off. I’ve always had great respect for Dutch football (probably my second favorite team in Europe). However I don’t notice the respect in reverse. We are both very small countries population wise and we both play attacking football so we should have respect for each others abilities. This arrogance (and out right stupidity) of Mica only make me respect the Dutch less. Luckily, I’ve met enough cool Dutch folks to realize that Mica is the exception and not the rule. Maybe I should recount a nice little story about me sitting in the Dutch section with Portugal jersey at the last Euro…

-Tony O

Posted from  United States

Micha – both teams can win today’s match, but your taunting is classless. Maybe it will be you looking for another blog later today.

Forca Portugal!

Posted from  United States

portugal line up show their power.
http://fifawc6002.blogspot.com

Posted from  Islamic Republic Of Iran

Hey i watched the game against holland yesturday and i have to saythey played a dirty game…portugal was still capable of beating holland with only 9 plays and an injuried that shows that portugal is an awesome team. It sucks that there had been so many suspensions in the game… forca portugal!!!!

Posted from  Canada