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PT News Round-up

November 15th, 2006 | By: Luis | 8 Comments »

Ronaldo and Andrade We’re just hours from kickoff in today’s Euro 2008 qualification match against Kazakhstan and it seems appropriate to catch up on all the news.

Under 21: PT vs. Serbia
Portugal’s under 21 squad defeated Serbia 3 – 0 with two goals from Hugo Almeida, in the first 20 minutes of play, and a third from Ricardo Vaz Té, who replaced Almeida after half-time. Both strikers were in great form and managed to break the Serbian offside trap on several occasions. Nani and Manuel Fernandes also put in excellent performances. Of special note, was José Gonçalves, a lefty that I frankly didn’t even know about until this game. He is being groomed to possibly fill that annoying left back position we have so many problems with. Portuguese football has always had a shortage of natural lefties, but it seems Couceiro and Scolari are determined to solve that problem. The call up list for the under 21 squad included 5 lefties.

We’re now seeing a whole new level of coordination between Scolari and Couceiro. With Euro 2007 qualification guaranteed for the under 21 squad, both coaches are taking the opportunity to give some of our emerging talents exposure to the pace and pressure of seniors duty. One thing is certain, whatever challenges Portuguese football may face, a shortage of raw talent (pt) is not one of them and it seems that after the draw with Finland and the demoralizing loss to Poland, Scolari is looking to the future and new options.

Figo, the fan, speaks out
The national team is certainly in flux at the moment with new personalities taking center stage, but Figo insists there is no leadership crisis.

“Everyone has different personalities but all the players in the squad are natural leaders,” said Figo. “The most important thing is that everyone knows they are leaders and that they represent millions of Portuguese people. This is a squad with a great deal of quality and they are capable of achieving great things for Portugal.”

He also offered his support for Gilberto Madaíl to continue as president of the FPF.

Fergie and Scolari do the Ronaldo two-step
After Ronaldo took a nice dinger this past weekend against Blackburn Rovers. Sir Alex Ferguson and Big Phil did their usual two-step. Fergie argued that Ronaldo should sit out the match against Kazakhstan to preserve his fitness. Of course, Scolari did his usual “I’m the boss!” routine. Both Ronaldo and Deco missed a day of training and, as usual, Big Phil isn’t saying much about what his starting lineup might look like.

Madjer: King of the beach
Brazil won the FIFA Beach Football World Cup, again, but Portugal has the undisputed king of the beach for the second year in a row. This number 7 scored 21 goals and seems to know how to find the back of the net every time he touches the ball. After seeing a few of the highlights from the semi-final with Brazil, I’m wondering if we can’t slap some boots on this guy to solve our striker dilemma. If anyone can find youtube highlights of his goals, please share them with us.

Getting back on track
Following the tough away loss to Poland, Scolari and pupils need to get back on track. Failure to win all 3 points, this evening, would complicate the math for Euro 2008 qualification further and likely devastate the morale of the team and the nation. Portugal are certainly heavy favorites but anything short of a convincing win will generate more questions about where this team is headed. We know Scolari is a winner, but can he manage all this change effectively? Can he find new creative options and strategies to lead Portugal into the future? I, for one, will be glued to my TV set to see what new ideas Big Phil has for his list of new faces.

Tags: Figo, Portugal, Ronaldo, Scolari

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Comments

By Soze | November 15th, 2006 at 2:12 pm

To see the game on the net:

http://www.live-footy.org

By Pedro P | November 16th, 2006 at 5:08 am

Didn’t see the match and got this (see links) from the blog…

Still the 3rd goal is missing… I’ve been saying so often that our wingers need to score more, not just go all the way up the line and cross, and here comes Simao with a great goal, two overall, and CR (words for what…?).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TJftkjPzEg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm0AOQ3ETvE

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | November 16th, 2006 at 5:24 am

Just realized POR had 21 goal chances + 1 goal disallowed and these guys say it should have been (at least) some 6 goals…

http://www.eurosport.com/football/euro-2008-qualifying/2006-2007/sport_sto1009221.shtml

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | November 16th, 2006 at 5:29 am

This has got nothing to do with yesterday, but everything to do with Portugal…

Man, just take a look at the swerve the ball took and what a great goal…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuuVB2Ma6BI

Posted from Netherlands

By Pedro P | November 16th, 2006 at 5:35 am

Meanwhile, SL Benfica’s defender Luisao and FC Porto’s goalie Helton, shine in Brazil’s 2-1 victory over Switzerland (in portuguese)…

http://www.ojogo.pt/22-268/artigo592273.htm

Posted from Netherlands

By joe | November 16th, 2006 at 10:18 am

I watched the game yesterday, and though there were many bright spots, there was also one glaring hole, which has been discussed on this blog and that is the striker position. As Pedro mentioned Portugal had numerous chances including two breakaways by Gomes (which he screwed up both times). On one play he had so much space, he looked back at the ref to make sure he was on side and when he looked at the goal area, the goalie was almost on top of him and his angle for goal was lost. Gomes himself must have missed about 5 or 6 chances to score. These missed opportunities may not hur us against Kazakhstan but they will kill us against better opponents.
On the positive side, I thought Tonel played a very good game on defence, he was in proper position, never saw him beat, hopefully he is the answer to the defensive depth issues (when Andrade or Meira aren’t available).
Tiago played well, glad to see him have a full game, as he is one of the reasons Lyon continue to dominant in France. He continuously won back ball possesion and generally was in proper position. The team in general played well, Ronaldo terrorized, Quaresma played well when he came in. Though one occasion when he intercepted the ball from the goalie and had the goalie out of position. He went for goal instead of passing to Gomes who was wide open in front of goal. In fairness the ball was bouncing, but it looked like he had time to control it and pass, but overall he played well, very creative and a good substitute for Ronaldo, as they play similar. It will be interesting for the next game as Simao will miss it due to the number of yellow cards he has picked up. So does Scolari start Nani or Quaresma. Should be interesting.

Posted from United States

By Pedro P | November 17th, 2006 at 11:36 am

The thing is, Joe, both Quaresma and CR are pure wingers… Nani is more an attacking mid, who is very good, and consequently also goes up the line for the cross very well… But it’s two different styles…

Anyway, if Quaresma hadn’t have a “down period” with Barcelona, he would have had much more visibility with the NT. Before moving he was such a great promise, that all us Sporting fans were delighted to see a “new Figo”, in the making…

Now he’s FC Porto, the “fierce enemies”… But in the meantime, Sporting CP HAD their hero, their second Figo, with CR…

Going back to the point, when Quaresma is “au point”, there won’t be any winger-duo more threatening than CR and Ricardo Quaresma, “O Ciganito” (little gipsy) or “The Mustang”…

BUT, Nani is NOW (for me) globally a far better player than Quaresma and also because of his more midfielder type of positioning, play, style, etc, he can be an essential “bridge” for moments in which the team – and I am sure we will see them within the next 2 years – will play with one winger and 2 strikers.

I didn’t see the match, but I was told that the plan was to put Postiga in (dunno if Gomes was comming out), but then Tonel fell and had a cramp, or something like that, and was eventually replaced for Andrade, just to give him some minutes of “pitch”…

With Sporting CP, currently, you see a galaxy, not of galacticos , but of young starts in the making: Miguel Veloso – plays c defender but is proving to be an even better holding mid; J Moutinho – plays in ALL midfield positions and is the most regular player of the PORT league; Custodio – a super regular holding mid, arguably one the youngest team captains in the champs league; Tonel – well, you just saw him being called to the NT; Nani – covers all the attacking positions of midfield, from #10 to the sides where he is at his best; Yannick Djalo – very mobile striker, perfect as second striker and a rather decent #10; Carlos Martins – another good attacking midfielder, not so prone to going to the wings as Nani, but excellent to have just behind the strikers, next to Deco, etc…

Posted from Netherlands

By CR19 | November 23rd, 2006 at 2:26 pm

Pedro that was a horrible link!

Posted from Canada