According to Sir Alex, that jacket is about all the white that CRon will be wearing this season.

First off, Ronaldo’s a no go due to his surgery (and, clearly, with an impending transfer from Portugal’s national team to Spain’s) so his position is open. Also, new boss Key Roach has no immediate attachments to “Scolari” guys due to the fact that he wasn’t ever in Scolari’s back office (Big Phil don’t swing that way). These two facts make for an interesting debut team selection as well as starting line up.

Assuming Charlie’s busy with other engagements for this match and you’ve earned your dream temp position as Portugal boss, who do you think will be his first official starting XI? Also feel free to offer any further thoughts on formation, bench, etc you wish to expound on.

The deal, worth around three million Euros (which is like sixty eight billion US dollars at this point), will see Queiroz at the helm for the 2010 World Cup as well as the 2012 Euro. Barring any massive failures, of course. At this point massive failures would be a group stage exit at either tournament. Qualifying should be viewed as a given right now, as our profile in the world has risen considerably in the past two decades. To not make either tournament would be a major setback and a catastrophe that no head of the Portuguese Football Federation could possibly see through and justify keeping him on.

I’m not enamored with the move, but this is kinda sorta like a “there’s no one else astronomically awesome out there right now” type of choice, so I’m okay with it. Hell, if he wins silverware then I’ll shave the guy’s fucking back and spread Nutella all over him for all I care.

Crissy loves the guy and keeping your star happy is pretty important, so I’m sure that had some part to do with this. FPF president Gilberto Madail claims Queiroz was his first choice, so the spin coming out of the FPF is obviously an overwhelmingly positive one. It’s not as if they were chasing five or six guys who all chose to go elsewhere. They got a Chop with a positive youth coaching history and a murky senior team CV. Until the first tough friendly August 20th against the Faroe Islands in Aveiro, we won’t know much more of what to expect.

I’m well aware that you guys have come to expect consistently brilliant stuff from me. As a matter of fact, I happen to fart brilliance. However, it’s hard work trying to squeeze anything from the national team out during “off periods.” I’m following all the youth programs. I’m keeping a close eye on the managerial situation. I even followed Ronaldo into the men’s room the other day to try and get something to blog about.

Alas, I’ve presently got what Ronaldo went into the bathroom to take: shit (and yes, incidentally, his B.M. does smell like ice cream). With a shortage of WAGs to post (I think we’re saturated enough with Nereida Gallardo and Deco’s flavors of the month) I’m at a loss for content. I’m more or less posting this to make sure you guys don’t go too far and so you have something nice to look at for a bit. As soon as something material hits the waves, you can expect to hear about it here.

However, his stint at Real Madrid during 2003 & 04 with Zidane and Co. only yielded two Super Cups. He seems to be a great supporting cast member but the spotlight has either eluded him or shone so brightly that he’s yielded mediocre results. So, we stand to go from a World Cup winner to a Spanish Super Cup winner? Yikes.

Excited? Disappointed? Are we better off, worse off, or basically the same? Paper or plastic?

Defenders Pepe and Bosingwa (both pictured on the left of the wall) were named to the 2008 Euro Team of the Tournament. Congratulations to them and a super cynical “Big Fucking Whoop” from me, your fearless blogger. If you had asked me before the tournament what position I thought we’d be having top performers from, I highly doubt I would have said defenders.

Photo from The Sun UK. Photo credit is as plain as day in the bottom left hand corner of the pic.

While we don’t even have a boss yet to take us into the 2010 World Cup, I’m asking you all to do some minor team retouching and time traveling. I’m aware that new people will emerge and injuries will be a factor, however, consider this past 2008 Euro Selecção and the faux-hawk, mullet sporting boys we’re going to take to South Africa in two years. Now ask yourself, if you had to bet, who are three names you’re sure won’t be on the plane to the Land of Mandela and who are three you’re sure will be enjoying the peanuts and soft drinks? Cristiano doesn’t count here.

If I had to guess on three “sure bets” for both categories I’d say:

In: Pepe, João Moutinho, and Nani.

Out: Simão, Petit, and Ricardo.

Kiss Kiss, see you tomorrow.