National Team/Transfer News

ok…. so the dude retired…… perfect !!!!

Posted from  Russian Federation

Yep, a real shame for our defense.

We still don’t know the full story. Ricardo Carvalho has been a true gentleman in the past. But on the other hand he hasn’t said anything clear about this case yet. Why is it?

Posted from  Portugal

if what bento is saying is true, then i am with him… he said that ricardo intentionally escaped the camp cause he knew he’ll not start against cyprus…. IF THAT’S TRUE, then that’s low from ricardo….

still need to hear ricardo’s side of the story.

Posted from  Russian Federation

If thats a case, then I would think Ricardo is better than that, but lets be honest he should be starting with Pepe.

Okay so if what Bento said is true, then I’m very disappointed in Carvalho. That is absolutely no way to act just because you’re not starting. Of course I’m assuming what Bento says is true, but perhaps Bento was just trying to test out formations for defense for when Ricardo was going to retire? Who knows? That doesn’t mean he disrespected him (again, don’t know the full story). Now, if Bento told gave him no good reason why he wasn’t starting and gave him the impression that he was unliked or whatever, then MAYBE i can see his side.

I know Carvalho should be starting, but this is childish to just leave after one non-start.

Bento has revealed himself to be a lesser coach.

First : There is absolutely no reason to tinker with the central defenders. Carvalho starts for Real Madrid (one of the best teams in the world). He plays everyday with Pepe. They are rock solid together. His role in Defence is as important as Ronaldo’s role in offence. Why would he not start? It makes ZERO sense.

Second : If it was so important to tinker with the defence, do it in a friendly. Or at the very least do it after you have a lead against Cyprus. If Bento was hell bent on not starting Carvalho (for no logical reason) then he should have sat him down and gave him his reasons and assurances it was just an experiment. This is part of good man management. Do you think top managers treat their star players like shit?

Third : he has already closed the door on any return. foolish. He could have left the door open if Carvalho apologized to his team mates & federation, but now he has already squashed any chance of that.

The team has lost one of it’s most important players, and there is no good reason for it. I would say it’s true that Carvalho probably over reacted, but everyone has an ego, and star players have to be treated in certain ways (this is a fact of the modern game, to ignore it means a coach doesn’t grasp his role entirely). Bento’s reaction was worse and now the team is worse for it. Ad why? Because he wanted to fix something that wasn’t broke.

@ Rui, ok maybe no coach should tinker with the central defenders, but even if so happened. …. that doesn’t give ricardo any excuse why he did what he did…. he should remember that the NT is bigger than the coach and any minor arguments that might evolve with that coach.

all i’m saying is that ricardo should’ve acted more professionally. at least face the coach with the problem and not run away!! still think it’s low :/ it’s a shame cause ricardo is the best player we had in that position in years.

Posted from  Lebanon

@Rui

I disagree that Pepe and Carvalho need to start (unless we’re facing a difficult team e.g. Denmark) Because both Pepe and Carvalho need to learn how to work together with Alves in case of injury or suspension (let’s be honest here the latter is very likely to happen with Pepe).
Bento has, in the past, let Alves play 90 minutes changing Pepe with Carvalho (or vice versa) at half time. Furthermore considering FPF doesn’t have any friendlies planned having Alves + Pepe to be our starting CB against Cyprus is for me acceptable.

Having said that from this point on the situation gets fuzzy. Surely Bento explained this to him? If not than Bento is certainly a 2nd rate coach.
And if Carvalho is aware of this and still walked out than Bento’s reaction is understandable.

As for you third point, I agree. I really hope Bento and Carvalho will talk about this after every thing has cooled down. (I really hope Mourinho interferes and has nice talk with Carvalho)

Posted from  Netherlands

Se são todos portugueses, sei lá… porque não escrevem em PORTUGUÊS? Digo eu…

Because it’s an english-language blog, despite covering the Portugal national football team(s). If you go to the versions of other countries, they also talk in English. But you could talk in Portuguese sometimes.

Porque apesar de isto falar da(s) Selecção(ões) Nacional(is) Portuguesa(s), é um ramo de um blog inglês. Os outros países deste mesmo blog também falam principalmente em inglês. Mas podes falar em português às vezes.

Posted from  Portugal

quote from Abola :

“More importantly, the fact that, after training on Wednesday, Ricardo Carvalho had tried to talk and get some explanations and coach Paulo Bento was not available to talk to him or would not talk to him, to discuss this matter.”

he didn’t even have enough respect for Carvalho to discuss and explain his reasons.

If we take that as true, there’s some difference between “not wanting to talk” and “not being able to talk”. If RC stormed off because of the 1st reason, probably RC had tried to talk with him previously and failed (where he would be right), or he was just too impatient (here the blame would lie on him). If it was because of the 2nd reason, then he’s most likely right, as the coach should always talk to him.

But even so, why does this problem arose with only Ricardo Carvalho?

Posted from  Portugal

My mistake, I meant:

If we take that as true, there’s some difference between “not being able to talk” and “not wanting to talk”. If RC stormed off because of the 1st reason, probably RC had tried to talk with him previously and failed (where he would be right), or he was just too impatient (here the blame would lie on him). If it was because of the 2nd reason, then he’s most likely right, as the coach should always talk to him.

But even so, why does this problem arose with only Ricardo Carvalho?

Posted from  Portugal

Well the Portugal Luxembourg game has started, and still no preview.. Typical Paulo……

@Tiago

Paulo is doing this for free, if he doesn’t have the time to do a proper preview than so be it.
Perhaps you can write a preview next time (if Paulo wants it)? That sounds more like a worthwhile contribution to this blog than complaining.

First half comments:
- Typical we have trouble scoring (what else is new?) even with a man advantage.
- Pereira should have passed instead of shooting himself. In fact I truly wish our players had a better view for their fellow team mates.
- why did we get the penalty?

Posted from  Netherlands

I didn’t watch the play that led to the penalty, but I did get to see one replay. I think the ball was hit by a Cyprus’ player’s hand during a shot from Portugal, but I’m not entirely sure.

Posted from  Portugal

It was a handball in the box, that’s why the penalty was given.

Thanks guys, it was hard to tell with the stream (for me it didn’t really look like the ball hit the arm).

Posted from  Netherlands

I’ve read the referee called a non-existant offside for Cyprus in the 77th minute. And now it’s 3-0 for Portugal.

Posted from  Portugal

The team was very sloppy, frustrating to watch till the last 10 minutes or so but I can’t complain about the result.

The second and fourth goal was quite lovely.

@Ivan; yup. It should have been 1-1 really (what a different match that would have been)

Posted from  Netherlands

A good away win for Portugal today. Don’t know if you guys knew or not, but Norway was awarded a penalty in the 89th minute against Iceland and converted to join us at 13 points.

@Joao I don’t give a crap about you or your opinions. I would have gladly taken up this blog but Paulo decided to do so and I respect his decision. But he doesn’t post consistently to live events. He stated here look for a preview coming soon. The game has ended and no preview let alone review. And I’m not complaining, I’m just stating pure facts. The fact that hes doing this for free is irrelevant. I loved it when Miguel posted his posts were amazing and consistent, but Paulo isn’t delivering. I mean how hard is it to write a simple preview? I can do a decent one in 15 minutes. Is Paulo really that busy of a person? If so than he should just let someone else take over, because its embarrassing to post a comment about how great we played in a game on a post about Paulo Bento’s picks for the game. Now I will probably have to move on to some other blog to find my info, because I come here looking for Portugal 4-0 Cyprus review and I see Paulo Bento picks for Cyprus….

you are right Tiago!
I am not a Portuguese and don’t know your language and so many people like me visit this site for info. unfurtonatly it isn’t up to-date!
please someone take control of this site and post latest news and gossip from your NT.
THANKS!

According to A Bola, the reason Ricardo Carvalho left was because he felt it was unfair for him to being chosen over Pepe, since RC had trained more than his partner in Real Madrid.

Posted from  Portugal

Don’t appreciate the hostility Tiago, but I post as often as I can, and I must forgive you guys for not giving a preview when I said I would do so.. But I love writing for this blog and do my best each time, so if you don’t like it, there’s the door. I don’t quit as easy as Carvalho .