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Team of This Saturday Tuesday: The Kids Can Wait

June 3rd, 2008 | By: Greg | 7 Comments »

I usually use this spot for the “Team of Tomorrow Tuesday” piece to highlight potential future stars of the Selecção. However, like the title says, the kids can wait. It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty and focus all attention on the here and now.

With the team he put on the field to start the match this past Saturday, Big Daddy Phil gave us some definitive insight into how he’s planning on approaching the tournament from the outset. To remind you, here’s how he started:

Cristiano Ronaldo – Nuno Gomes – Simão
Deco – João Moutinho – Petit
Paulo Ferreira – Ricardo Carvalho – Pepe – Bosingwa
Ricardo

Based on how they performed, this is also probably the team that we can expect Scolari to walk out on Saturday against Turkey. He has hard-headed loyalty to Nuno Gomes and Petit, so I think they get a longer leash than most.

Miguel Veloso was handed quite the chance against Georgia and managed to completely justify Scolari’s choice of Petit and João Moutinho as starters in the midfield. While I’m not high on Petit, I’m more disappointed in how awful Veloso played and think he bumped himself down on the midfield pecking order a bit.

If (when) Nuno Gomes proves ineffective after the first two group games, I think Scolari will be forced to give Hugo Almeida a genuine run out. Like I said yesterday, Almeida is most effective when given an extended period of time to get into the rhythm of the game rather than come on as an impact sub.

In all, Big Phil certainly has a great deal of options. The bench is deep and the skill sets are varied enough that he should hypothetically be able to change the course of the match if it isn’t going in his favor. If the team lack life or creativity, Quaresma and Raul Meireles are certainly options. To add some speed into the equation, Nani and Hélder Postiga are probably his best bets. For size and strength up front, 1.91 meter-tall Hugo Almeida is the obvious choice. On defense, Miguel is always good for fresh legs on either side of the center back battery while Fernando Meira can come on replacing either a midfielder to add further defensive reinforcements or as an alternative for Pepe.

I know it was only one match, but Bruno Alves and Miguel Veloso looked so out of sorts that I think it seriously dented their chances of seeing substantial playing time in the coming weeks. I was extremely high on Veloso and even suggested leaving Petit out of the team based on the Sporting trinco’s performance this year. However, what transpired on the pitch this past Saturday showed why I blog about the team and Big Phil bosses it.

Philly seems married to Ricardo and while Quim is no doubt the more in form keeper, I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to see anyone other than Ree-car-dough between the pipes this summer. This Saturday you can almost definitely expect to see the same Starting XI take the field in Geneva as we saw in Viseu. If shit starts to hit the fan though, I hope Scolari will be flexible enough to make the necessary changes and right the ship. Tournaments are definitive sprints, not marathons.

Tags: Euro 2008, Team of Tomorrow

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Comments

By LusoCanuck | June 3rd, 2008 at 10:17 am

Thats a nice cock

Posted from United States

By skeeter | June 3rd, 2008 at 10:23 am

i personally would like to see gomes given 45mins to prove himself then let almeida in…. he at least has size and strength. ESPECIALLY against the likes of Czech and 6′”7″ Jan Koller. Werder Bremen is a decent team and i have seen some decent play from the young almeida.

Posted from Canada

By Pedro | June 4th, 2008 at 11:24 am

I don´t share so much the fear regarding Gomes and Veloso. Velosos´s handicap is simply lack of experience. You can see a player do very well domestically, but in major tournements it shows. This is also why I believe Scolari insists so much in Gomes. It´s his third euro and went to two world cups. Other than that, I also feel the spot should be Almeida´s and I also believe it will be soon enough. The turks know (and fear) N Gomes very well (he scored against them last time) and TUR´s coach has also coached Gomes back in the Fiorentina days and is his admirer. At least, it´s what they say…

But I agree Velosos played below my expectations. Which we can compensate by saying that the second half showed more individualism and less of a team cos they all wanted to show they deserve a place in the starting 11. Specially Quaresma.

Today Scolari made the “usual practice”, puting the “starting 11″ against “The Others”. The first in the classic 4-3-3, the others in 4-4-2. “The Others2 won 3-2. Big news is, we saw Quim in the starters team. Maybe this means something… Ricardo is largelly regarded as a BAD back in PT by most. Except in penalties… Fact is that with the NT he´s usually far better than at club level. However, the way things are going, I wouldn´t be surprised his time has come. Quim made a great save against Georgia, his time is also due and he deserves it.

I just hope we can beat Turkey, cos facing the czechs having to beat them PLUS Beat SWI at home, isn´t gonna be easy. SWI don´t usually score much (neither do we) but have a solid defense – terrible for us…

Posted from Netherlands

By Ceasar | June 4th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Pedro your scaring me. Teams with good defenses are not good news for us. So we had better get while the gettings good and beat Turkey a team that is not known for there defensive skill. Because the other 2 in our group have very solid backs and the Chech’s have a very good keeper. So we need to treat the first game as a must win.
I think we can and will do it. They just like to make me sweat and have a nervous breakdown on the way there!

Posted from Canada

By Jude D'Souza | June 5th, 2008 at 5:32 am

looking for the portuguese football army in bahrain…..

Posted from Bahrain

By Veiga | June 5th, 2008 at 8:21 am

Pedro, i disagree with regards to the Swiss…
they don’t have a good defence, they just play defensively. I live in England and watch Phillipe Senderos, their main man in defence, and he is truly the worst defender I have ever seen play for a big european team, it’s embarassing for Arsenal to be honest. and unless muller comes back, Djorou will play alongside him, and he too, play’s here, and is almost as bad. They will have two banks of 4 to get through, but simao, ronaldo, quaresma will have no trouble tying their defence up (in fact, Nani had a barnstorming match against Arsenal in the Cup here, where Senderos could simply not cope)…have faith people