WC2010 Play-off: Portugal face Bosnia Herzegovina

@Sandro
We have 3 of the best center-backs in the world of soccer: Carvalho, Pepe and Alves. This means I’m very confident they will keep Dzeko’s damage to a minimum. Yes I think he will score. I hope so. Why? To make the game(s) more interesting and fun to watch and ultimately to value Portugal’s win.

I’m sick and tired of all the crap that has been said (and will probably continue being said) about Ronaldo.
He’s arrogant. He’s a diver. He’s a cheat. He’s a playboy. He’s a fag. And your he “is a shame to the name of Football”. HE didn’t inflate the football transfer market FFS!!! Real Madrid did! Manchester of course accepted the truck load of money! THEY should be thankful to Ronaldo for giving them an incredible amount of money + 2 Premiere League Titles + 1 Champions League Title + Truck loads of income on merchandise sold with his name attached.
ManUtd didn’t MAKE him. When they bought him from Sporting you think he came cheap? From match 1 at Old Trafford he won the hearts of every fan in the stands. Don’t kid yourself. He was born for the game with all the bells and whistles built in. He matured at ManUtd but would have at many other clubs.
ALL coaches that have worked with him so far are unanimous when it comes to praising his professionalism. He’s the first one to arrive for practice and the last to leave. Has done so ever since he came to Lisbon at the age of 13 to train at Sporting. This type of mentality wasn’t “MADE” by anyone but himself. IF he would have turned down Real Madrid’s offer (and do remember there were 3 beneficiaries to the deal – so how the fuck do you put the shame solely on CR is beyond me), then finally there would indeed be a proper adjective to sum him up: STUPID. But he didn’t turn it down did he?

Posted from  Portugal

Well said Miguel! I feel the same way. But anyway, back on topic. Ronaldo will apparently play in the play offs says Carlos. We’ll see I guess but either way, I feel Bosnia’s defence can’t handle Portugal’s passing game. Portugal will just need to be careful they don’t get hit on the counter.

OK, Miguel we have some of the best centre backs. But our full backs are almost wingers, so this this means we defend with 3 guys, the 2 CB’s plus the trinco – loved to see Pedro Mendes BTW, what the hell was Queiroz doin not calling him. Against a team like Bosnia, dunno…

On the other hand, Bosnia will give a lot of room which is usually all we need. Our weakest spot is always low efficiency and low impact power. But playing with the ball on the ground, very little teams can match us. And this is how BOS play.

And let’s not forget that the away match won’t be nothing like a walk in the park… It’s gonna be hell to play Bosnia IN Bosnia. Plus, the pitch will probably be terrible and with snow, which will make both teams life bad but they’ll still be home. So, even if we win 1-0 in Lisbon, it might not mean anything. Against Spain they lost 5-2, but they were loosing 5-0. Which means they had the will to come back and score 2 more.

I think if PT keeps their cool, probably with new 442 diamond (one less striker or winger but more men in midfield, more full back play down the wings and more impact power up front), we should be able to take them.

All this, of course, if the proverbial coolness and team spirit are present… PT has more experienced players than BOS, when the nerves get jumpy. But never underestimate their coach – it was CRO’s coach in 96 when we beat them in Euro-96, but it was also the same coach that took CRO to the semis in 98, when we didn’t even qualify.

Bout CR, I’m happy he won’t play. The Selecção has played better without him. Plus he needs a bit of bench to get his ass cooled down and he shouldn’t be captain. About his critics, fuck’em. Their just jealous, cos he IS a force of nature. He just needs to feel the hand of a boss and Queiroz is a softy.

Posted from  Netherlands

@Pedro
Our full backs are almost wingers because Queiroz had our wingers play out of position. But that has changed since the arrival of Liedson. Before you would have a hard time finding any crosses from Simao or CR into the box. In fact you would easily find them inside expecting crosses from the full backs. I know Simão’s last goal is an example that it can work but Queiroz had taken out Liedson at the time and as old habits are hard to fight Simão (and CR when on) feel there’s a void to be filled and move into the striker position. Even when Edinho or Almeida are playing they feel the void. Everybody does. Also consider we’ve played teams that allow the full-backs to move up their flank freely. Wont happen with Bosnia. They will press harder forcing them to play more defensively and also force our true wingers (Simão and Ronaldo) to actually act as wingers to fill the space left open. This will work highly in our favor as it gets Ronaldo (who will be fit by then and play the game) on the flank doing what he does best. He’s a feared player by any defense so having him play wide might also attract the Bosnian defense to his flank opening up breaches for Liedson to exploit in the middle. Liedson is a monster at this. If there’s a gap somewhere he is sure to wreak havoc through it.

Posted from  Portugal

But I DO think it’s good to have full backs that go up the flank. I also think it’s stupid to play CR as #9 like Queiroz tried a couple of times.

I also think it’s good to have him as a wide striker. I also think the 442 diamond is the best with Liedson and CR up front. Full backs come up the flank, or at least one (Bosingwa) and you still have 3 mids to fill the middle of the park and/or to make use of the spaces made the guys in the front + a trinco, etc…

BTW our full backs are almost wingers because they were originally wingers. Bosingwa was winger (Miguel too) that learned how to defend with FCP and Duda is still a mid.

I still think CR should get a taste of the bench, because the team shouldn’t play for him. He should play for the team. Everytime Nani replaced him, the team yielded much more.

He shouldn’t be captain, because being the best in the world – which he his – doesn’t make you a good leader. Everybody can see him and Simão quarreling all the time. He’s an excellent player but he’s not a leader. The fact we don’t have an excellent leader anymore, like Figo, makes things complicated t manage. Carvalho doesn’t want to be a leader, deco isn’t a leader, Nuno Gomes is a sissy, that leaves Simão. Good or bad, he’s more of a leader than CR. If CR’s ego can’t manage it, or Simão’s, than the team has a problem. Simão’s older and a better leader. Period. If CR doesn;t like it, he should go and warm up the bench, The Selecção isn’t Man Utd or Real, where everybody has to play for his lordship.

Then you get situations in which the public is unfair to him, because he does try but everybody gets the feeling he’s trying to do it all by himself. Look at Figo. We saw he was the best because he made the team play, not because he played instead of the team. And he didn’t whinne about everytime he lost the ball.

Would you go in a ship with him as a captain? As a Pilot sure, anytime. No other has that technique, to go around the waves. But not as a Captain.

Liedson is a show in himself…

Força PT!

Posted from  Netherlands

Pedro, I agree with the comments about Ronaldo not being captain and all, but Nuno Golos being a ’sissy’…c’mon. Is it because he’s got long hair? Or is this based on the fact that doesnt play often for his club? Because that is not his fault. I thought Nuno was a good captain during the 2008 European Championships.

I believe that S.Sabrosa should wear the armband. I hear rumours in the news and newspapers (the ones I can get my hands on here in England), that Simao did NOT look happy when scoring his first goal against Hungary because he fault that his teammate (Ronaldo) should’ve passed the ball instead of shooting. Now, I’m not trying to futher on there rumours, but could it be that Simao doesn’t like the way Ronaldo plays and the fact that he is captain?

Posted from  United Kingdom

OK, Nuno Gomes is not really a sissy. But he is sissier than others… C’mon, just look at him. Do you get the feeling he inspires authority with serenity, while knowing what he’s doing…? Got nothing against men with long hair. Which he is also too sissy to use, cos that’s not really long is it…?

I don’t know if that’s what Simão felt. It’s what I felt. There’s no way CR would score, but to make the goalie work for it was arguably a good strategy. It worked, so it was good. Still, if I was in Simão’s shoes, I’d have obviously preferred the ball would’ve been handed with a back pass, which would’ve arguably been a far better strategy and it’s also what wingers do.

Anyway, I think there’s some ego issues there, but it’s just speculation.

Don’t forget that although CR seems the more spoiled character, Simão is really not an easy guy… I saw him for Benfica in the stadium and he can really wear down an adevrsary mentally.

For me, it’s the armband for Simão, the big stick for Queiroz (if he wouldnt be affraid of using it) and the ball for CR.

Posted from  Netherlands

Bosnia and Herzegovina has other talent besides Dzeko Ibisevic and Misimovic. There is a couple of other players which are also very good. For instance, no one mentions Miralem Pjanic who plays for Lyon and and is a key midfielder there and is only like 19 and many of the top European teams want him to.. There is also Salihovic who is a good Midfielder and quite skillfull. Then in defense they have Rahimic who plays for CSKA Moscow and Spahic who plays for Montpellier. So as you can see there is more to the side then just Dzeko Ibisevic and Misimovic. I have mention a number of others but there is also a number of other key players.

Posted from  Australia

I don’t think they’re not mentioned out of disrespect, Alen. It’s just that we don’t know them so well. But we will. You’ll make sure of that…

Posted from  Netherlands

Taken from the UEFA site:
“The Bosnian international phoned Juninho Pernambucano for permission to wear his No8 shirt when the Brazilian left Lyon last summer. Juninho gave his blessing and Pjanić has not looked back since, thriving in the playmaker role. His brilliance at set-pieces alone makes him a worthy successor, and the free-kick he scored against Debreceni VSC, his third UEFA Champions League goal this season, paid more than a passing resemblance to one the maestro himself might have struck.”
Also read: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=893321.html

Posted from  Portugal

Miguel I appreciate that your comments aren’t all biased towards your home country, that’s a true football fan because in my heart I would nothing more than to see BiH adavance, yet I know what kind of threat the Selecao poses and usually the great teams always turn it up when they need to the most. Not to feed anyone a sob story but in between 1992-1995 there were entities around us that would have loved to see Bosnia disappear off the face of this earth but we’re here still and proud of our nation and hopefully we will be at South Africa next summer. If not, then it won’t be because we’re not worthy but because we faced a better, more experience opponent so we will have to see come the 14th and 18th of November.

Good luck to both teams!

Posted from  United States

I think there is some animosity between Ronaldo and Simao over the captain arm band. I remember when Simao scored and looked unhappy, he looked at Ronaldo like “there you go, see what happens as a team?” I think we are going to see Portugal turn on their best form from here forward, I really do.

Posted from  Canada

Mendes maybe out.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/spl/2009/10/22/fitness-blow-for-rangers-as-pedro-mendes-ruled-out-for-two-months-86908-21764696/

Posted from  United States

Hey lets be realistic. portugal does have a better team but one thing is for sure hahahaha bosnians dont CRY. I bet that Ronaldo cries at least couple of times per game. )) go bosnia make us proud!!!

So much quality in our side. I would really keep it simple: 4-3-2-1. Bosingwa, Pepe/Alves, Carvalho, Ferreira // Deco, Moutinho, Veloso (defending) // Ronaldo, Simao/Nani // Liedson/Gomes.

Posted from  United Kingdom

I think bosnia will suprise us all if they win,cuz just because we don’t know the team that well it doesn’t mean they aren’t à great team..Portugal may be seen as one of THE worlds best teams,let’s be honest that isn’t reason enough to say they’ll win because I think at this point bosnia has a real good and strong team I really respect portugal and all but I don’t think they are better then Bosnia..I wish them luck !btw I must agree with alan about the cry part hahaha

Posted from  Netherlands

I am bosnian and I support my country.
I think we already make a big succes and we don’t have nothing to lose, we can just get…
Maybe that is our weapon against great Portugal, becouse they will play with a huge presure.
If we win (Bosnia) that will be fantastic, if we lose, NM…

Posted from  United Kingdom

I just hope that bosnia wins, and in the wc ex yug states have multiple candidates. Back then, you say YUGOSLAVIA, everybody had respect, now hopefully we can have Bosnia, beside Serbia at the World cup. I miss Croatia, then it would have been fun!

Posted from  Canada

Serbia will win on World Cup next year…. .I.

I hope Eagle, I hope, any of the slavic nations I hope!

Posted from  Canada

Bosnia can play against Portugal and any other at the world.
So we in Bosnia hope that will be god game and win for us ofcourse.

Posted from  Bosnia And Herzegovina

We all have to sit down and watch the first game and second and then put some comments this is just waste of time for us GO Bosnia

i think that bosnia is going to win because that roalno is not playing and nean to ithink dezko is going to score one and isbevic bosnia is going to win 2.0 it is going to be a good game

Posted from  United States

mirsada kaze ronaldo ima da ga pusi blazevicu na poluvremenu

ok Sandro! Man-u made ronaldo its a slight chance u dont watch soccer
because its a fact the reason he is paid millions because the kid is naturally gifted hands down.All im saying folks when he is 100% healthy
he will be untouched in South Africa….Forca Portugal

Posted from  United States