2002 x 2006

hmmm… Im not sure about the Rui Jorge x Nuno Valente outcome, but everything else is cool. Especially the Baia x Ricardo.

Posted from  United Kingdom

I agree. I’m not a Ricardo fan either. I don’t feel the confidence one should feel for their goalie.

Besides that, I’m happy with the 2006 crop. I think Costinha deserves a chance to prove his fitness. If he’s not up to it, go with Petite.

Posted from  United States

Great breakdown. I hope to see Portugal do well. They have some wonderful players that deserve to shine on the big stage. Watching Figo mature and grow into his role as a senior player, he has earned my respect. And Ronaldo plays with the same joy as Ronaldinho.

Posted from  United States

Admittedly, I do not know very much about Beto, but Miguel makes so many blatant mistakes that maybe Beto may be better?

The Ricardo issue is right. Baia should be your #1. But now with Moretta putting in his papers to naturalize, shoud Scolari be considering some new blood in the net?.huh? huh?

I heard that Moretto is not a reliable goalie. He did great against Barcelona but he has done terrible in the past.

But Ricardo???? what’s his saving grace? Portugal vs. England @ EC2004. One game???? Did anyone see him play against Porto on Saturday? Awful, just awful..he was off his line most of the game.

WOW… Great job Luis P. Of course, this needs a comment…

You’ve only made a mistake, as S Conceicao was a winger and JV Pinto played midfield, as the “centre of the carroussel”. So the duel is actually between JV Pinto vs Maniche (full hearted attacking midfielder in the striker’s support vs defensive midfielder who pulls up and scores sometimes), and S Conceicao vs CRonaldo.

With all respect to V Baia, I prefer Ricardo. Baia is still, overall, better. But Baia fails just as much, ESPECIALLY when it’s critical. Before he went to Barcelona he was one of the best. After that, he was never the same again. So, I prefer Ricardo, because he’s not as bad as people say. He’s not as good as people would like.

By the way, Moretto appeared NOW. Benfica found him (I think in V Setubal or Maritimo – can’t remember) because they were in huge need for a goalie – their 2 goalies were injured and the third (which I think still played Man Utd) was too young still.

POR had also Moreira (Benfica’s #2 – very young and extremelly good) but he struggled with injuries the whole year. For his age, surelly one the best. Of course, probably nobody here knows him…

Nuno Valente is, for me, a 1000000 times better than Rui Jorge. R Jorge WAS a good left back. Long time ago, even before 2002, when he was already below average. N Valente is another dimension. Mind you, P Ferreira also does left back. He needs no introductions…

The same applies for Miguel. Miguel is, for me, one of the best right backs in the world. He’s extremelly fast and he’s strong: I saw him (”live”) in a friendly against HOL – 2003 – covering Overmaars – it was always like the 100 meters sprint: amazing to see both of them. We ALL saw him in EC 2004. Robben never got a chance against him. When in possession he goes al the way up, as his original position was striker or winger or something like that.

BETO wasn’t even a natural right back – he’s CD (was Sporting Lisbon’s CD, now playing I think in France). He went in 2002 as CD and because there was nobody else played as RB.

S Coceicao was, I believe, last year’s Belgium’s elected best player. He’s still a brilliant winger. POR beat GER 3-0 in EC 2000: HIS hat-trick. But he’s past and he’s also said to be a troublemaker… Of course, C Ronaldo is REALLY another galaxy…

This leaves us with Rui Costa and Deco… Honestly, as a portuguese, I cannot compare them. I’m sorry… Both some of the best #10 the world has seen. Different styles. Different mentalities. POR owes both of them already too much for me to pick one… I’d say BOTH! That is why Deco’s shirt was still #20 in the qualifiers, out of respect for RC – even if everybody knew he’d quit. I’d like to see if it’ll change for this WC.

Posted from  Netherlands

I agree w/ Pedro’s comments about Baia. While I’m not a huge fan of Ricardo, he doesn’t scare the living daylights out of me like Baia did when he was in the nets for Portugal. Sure, Baia would (and still does) make great saves, but how he handled the routine plays has always been frightening. I’m talking about the backpasses from defenders, as well as the outlet passes to defenders. What makes matters worse, is that he tended to make these huge mistakes at the biggest tournaments.

Posted from  Canada

Once again Luis, great post..
I agree with Pedro only I would add that JV Pinto shouldn’t even be on anyones list. Especially after his performance (or lack of) at WC2002.

The key differences to me between the 2 teams are defence and coaching. We are 1000 times better on those 2 areas for this WC. We still have question marks about goaltending and scoring goals, now as before.
Our midfield is strong now and was strong before (not that they showed much of it?).

Plus in the intangibles, we have more depth in our talent pool in almost every area, if not more experience. In a long tournament like the WC, being able to replace a tired or injured player can sometimes be the difference between winning or losing.

Posted from  Canada

Great posts guys. It’s so heart warming to see so many spending their brain power thinking about this stuff. Oh, and I do know who Moreira is.

Posted from  United States

[...] Comparing Portugal circa 2002 vs Portugal circa 2006 (Portugal Blog) [...]

Posted from  United States

Overall, I feel the BIG differences are not in the players or technical level. I mean in the last years, not necessarily since 2002. OK, I agree we have arguably a better defense – courtesy Scolari who managed to find decent Left and Right Backs – it’s 4 defenders and not 2, after all. Courtesy Andrade, Meira and Carvalho for their quality. And since a not so distant past, courtesy Pauleta because we actually didn’t even have a “real” striker. Of course, C Ronaldo – the force of nature – is not to be forgotten…

But I believe what really changed was experience at high level and psicological strength. As a team. This is also where Scolari is really a master.

After 89 and 91, the years that gave the world, and us, our so called Golden Generation, there weren’t so much portuguese players playing abroad. Domesticaly, the level was not that low: In 91 or 92 Sporting eliminated Real Madrid. Shortly before, Benfica went to the final of what is today the Champions League. In 87 (or 88, don’t remember) FC Porto won everything possible.

But the NT was still living from 1966’s past glory. OK they went in 86 (20 years later) but it was never on a winners perspective, or mentality. We had a much better goalie, though (Bento)… The “only” remarcable deed was to almost have eliminated France, in France and with Platini, in the semi’s of Euro 84.

However, after 89 and 91, the country emerged from this football sleepy mode, and everybody started to believe in a true NT again.

Until 1996, when we went to the EC, the struggle was to qualify. Either for EC’s or WC’s. Funny enough, it was Denmark who took it, against all odds, in 1992.

I must say it has been painfull to see the team consistently play good ball against stronger teams, loosing due to lack of scoring or innocent mistakes. Sometimes also performing mediocre – truth must be said.

Anyway, all these things are visible within all the teams… Anybody could say the same about a big one. The difference is that THEY win when it counts. They gather all their strength and do the job. Of course, anybody will (and did) say, that’s what separates a champion from the others… The ability to win. Not to be good.

What we needed was to get experience. To be there. To feel that extra pressure, only present at the final stages. To have our NT seen by the world. To fight one to one with the top guns. To have our players granted by the world public for what they were worth. This we must thank Figo, Rui Costa, Couto and also JV Pinto (sorry Ceaser – we all have our flaws, HE has a lot, but he gave us a too much to be left out of the “public thank you”).

The growing up went on until EC2000. We played very good. We showed (ourselves) we could get back form being 2-0 against a strong one (England) and win 3-2. We could beat a strong team 3-0 (Germany) without problems. We could play good in a quarter final (beat Turkey). We could play head-to-head with the world champions (France).

ABOVE ALL, PLAYING PRETTY Go on, run to get the tapes with those games. You’ll know what I mean.

2002 was a disastre. The team showed their (old and non professional) idiotic mentality against USA in the first match – it’s never easy, no matter who you play, to be 2-0 down after 20 mins or so. Played well against Poland and were not good enough against Korea. I could say unlucky but at this level, after a certain point you must call “it” underperforming and not bad luck.

EC2004 was what we all saw. We lost but we played like winners. We didn’t deserve less to be at the final than any other.

Let’s all hope 2006 follows the same trend. But it will be much more difficult.

To Ben: Baia DOES scare the living daylights out of me. Ricardo also, but not so much…

Posted from  Netherlands

Dear friends,

I am brazilian, and I like a lot the portuguese team. I have three questions to ask : do Fernando Meira has the capacity to replace Andrade with the same talent or do you think Portugal has to say by by to its chances to win the world cup because of the injury of Jorge Andrade ?
Do Portugal has the same chances to win with Petit as with Costinha ?
Do Nuno Valente will be back at time with his entire capacities ?

Nelson

Sorry Luis…

Posted from  Netherlands

Nelson, the answers are:
Yes
Yes
and Yes

Posted from  Canada

I can only speak for myself:

1) Andrade is arguably better than Meira but less mobile. Meira would score easierly in a corner kick situation. What we’ve seen from him makes me believe the defenders will play equally good, just with a slight diferent style.
2) Petit is no less of a player than Costinha. Costinha has more strategy in him. Petit is more “warrior” and better at free-kick scoring.
3) News say N Valente will be fully fit in time. We’ll see.

Posted from  Netherlands

Hey Pedro, that’s what I said. Only not in so many words.. haha

Posted from  Canada

I didn’t have your comment yet. Really. Like when I wrote the big one, I also didn’t have Luis’s comment.

Anyway, a blogspot is made of words, right…?

Posted from  Netherlands

I totally agree with both Pedro and Ceasar about Nelson’s questions.

Posted from  Brazil

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