Portugal

Denmark 1 – 1 Portugal: Is there still hope?

What a game.

Dominated both games against the Danes. The difference in quality between both teams just can’t be measured by the number of points both have in the group standings. But nothing’s gone change the fact we lost 5 points against them.

In this game the lack of a killer-instinct-striker just isn’t enough to explain the loss of 2 points. We created HUGE chances. Chances 99% of the times, at this level, any player on the pitch would have made the ball find the back of the net. But invariably the ball ended up in Andersen’s hands through a weak shot or over the bar.

In the first half we dominated the midfield with Pepe, Tiago, Meireles and Deco all showing great pace supplying Ronaldo and Simão with some mean through-balls. In fact the best one was actually crossed in by Duda to Simão in the 23rd minute. Simão had the golden opportunity but… squandered it with a weak shot easily defended by Andersen. Simão was at that time already showing some lack of pace and had me thinking “He’s a winger acting as striker! FFS if you’re going to have the left & right backs doing all the crosses get Liedson in there next to CR!”. But… he agonizingly stayed on until the 71st minute, doing… the same squandering. In fact he had another such opportunity 3 minutes after the Danes scored on a pass by Meireles and with the goal wide open he… shot over the bar.

Three notes on the first goal of Denmark:
1) Bendtner shoved Duda out of his way to gain position
2) With Pepe, Alves and Carvalho in there WHY THE FUCK was Duda covering Bendtner!
3) What a great goal! Beautiful ball handling and a killer shot! THAT is the difference between both teams: Portugal needs to dominate and have 20 shots on goal to score one while Denmark scores at their third shot (first 2 weren’t even on goal).

The second half didn’t start well. With Liedson on for Tiago (instead of Pepe or Simão) we struggled the first 10 minutes to regain control of the midfield. Luckily Morten Olsen took out Jorgensen at the 61st minute and Denmark completely disappeared from the game at that point (also at this point we completely lacked the need for Pepe) but… we continued to squander opportunities. At the 63rd minute when Liedson and Ronaldo tried to score with the ball inches from the goal-line I was nearly pulling out my hair!

At the 71st minute Queiroz finally catches on to the fundamental mistake that cost us the game: he takes out Simão and brings on a boy that truly acts as a winger and has a COMPLETELY different attitude and pace to go with: NANI! Pressure builds and I could feel we were close to scoring.

It took another 10 minutes (counting from Simão’s substitution) for Queiroz to realize Pepe was a fifth wheel on the pitch and on comes Nuno Gomes. This should have happened shortly after Olsen took out Jorgensen but I suppose Queiroz was to absorbed calculating our odds of making it to South Africa.

And then we scored! Just like Deco did when he first played for Portugal (1-0 against Brazil) Liedson showed us why he got called up. But then we squandered some more: COME’ON Liedson I’ve seen you bag tons of goals from an opportunity like the one you created just before the curtain fell!! But he pulled a Simão and the ball got defended, once again, by Andersen, man-of-the-match if you ask me.

Eduardo ? – Didn’t have anything to do. Nothing he could have done to prevent Bendtner’s goal.
Bosingwa 7 – He acted more as a winger then a right back
Duda 6 – Same as Bosingwa, but I wonder if he could have done something more to prevent the goal
Carvalho, Alves 5 – Which one of you should have been on Bendtner’s case? Come’on! Fess up!
Pepe 6 – Secure defending but not to bright going forward
Deco 7 – Great passing, pace and skill.
Meireles 7 – Dido, a bit less on the skill part.
Tiago 6.5 – Didn’t create any opportunities for the strikers and always seemed to prefer distributing as quick as he could to Deco or Meireles (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
Simão 5 – Crap. Not a single cross. Not one! Got two golden opportunities and did what I would have done. But my skills are IT related and not playing professional soccer at the highest possible level FFS!
Ronaldo 6 – I’ve read on many occasions he is/was the world’s best soccer player and suffers from the Ryan Giggs syndrome: doesn’t shine at the World or Euro Cups because he’s surrounded by poor quality players. When has he ever, EVER, been the best player on the pitch for Portugal?! I mean he is a FANTASTIC player, but… there is always a but… GET ON THE FUCKING WING FFS!!! MAKE ONE GOAL ASSIST! ONE!!!!!! But no. He wants all the credit and tries to do it all himself. Of course the role Queiroz gave him also doesn’t favor what IMHO he does best: “goal assisting”. Could have worked at the 12th minute when his shot went against Andersen’s feet. That was it.
Liedson 7 – Scored the goal and created another clear opportunity to finish it off. His movements inside the box have made him noticeable in Portugal and he didn’t forget to include them in this game.
Nani 6 – Did more for us in 20 minutes then Simão in 71. At least he knows his skills are best used assisting others to score while not being a complete dick when it comes to scoring himself (as shown at ManUtd).
Nuno Gomes ? – 15 min isn’t enough to evaluate his performance. He headed one into Andersen’s hands. Could have done a bit better on that occasion.

I’m not blaming the ref but that c%&t didn’t see 2 handballs. A clear one from a cross by Ronaldo and one I’m pretty sure of on a shot from Liedson but the Danish coverage of the game naturally did it’s best to cover it up not showing any replays. This is the third game with clear uncalled penalties. WTF?! Also the yellow on Kjaer for the tackle on Ronaldo (60min) was an obvious red. He didn’t make the slightest movement to try and hit the ball and just hacked Ronaldo down from behind.

Group Standing:
Denmark – 17
Hungary – 13
Sweden – 12
Portugal – 10
Albania – 6
Malta – 1

Games left:
Malta – Sweden (Sept. 9)
Albania – Denmark (Sept. 9)
Hungary – Portugal (Sept. 9)
Denmark – Sweden (Oct. 10)
Portugal - Hungary (Oct. 10)
Denmark – Hungary (Oct. 14)
Sweden – Albania (Oct. 14)
Portugal - Malta (Oct. 14)

It doesn’t look good for us. The top 8 runner-ups in each group go to play-offs. So we are running for second place against Sweden. Hungary must/will succumb to us in the next 2 games. We have 9 goals scored and 5 suffered. 4 goals difference. Sweden has 8 goals scored and 3 suffered. 5 goals difference. The key game is Denmark-Sweden. If Sweden wins we are out. If they tie… we need to score enough goals in the next 3 games to get ahead. So typical. We always bring out the calculator in the last games to see if there still is a snowball’s chance in hell to qualify!

Interesting enough when we qualified for Mexico 1986 we did it winning the last game against Germany in Stuttgart. The Germans hadn’t lost at home for 36 years and after a stunning goal by Carlos Manuel we got our passports to Mexico leaving in third place… Sweden. Miracles do happen.