Ronaldo voted EPL player of the month

R Carvalho has an ankle injury and will probably miss the clash… I’m SO sorry for the Chelsea fans. *lol*
Well, however, Mourinho talks a lot of – sorry – rubbish, and I can’t understand why a Portuguese always has to talk about any gods who are in bad temper…

http://pfutebol.com/news/December%202006/Mourinho%20looking%20forward%20to%20Manchester%20United%20chase.htm

Posted from  Austria

Some nice Figo photos from the match Inter-Messina (2-0):

http://www.inter.it/aas/news/reader?N=25025&L=en&IDINI=25037

Posted from  Austria

Yeah, It’s time for Simao to leave Benfica. His talents are being wasted there. And Scolari will have to bow in to public pressure soon…Quaresma has been voted Portugals top player for, I think, five months in a row now.

The problem is, he’s a Gipsy. They have a different attitude towards life than most. Very self-centered and selfish. It’s all about them. Oh well, he has comitted to staying at Porto for now so let’s see if he settles in to a great role in Portuguese football rather than just a telented hothead.

Posted from  Canada

Simao is not for sell now, according to the Benfica managers… but it will be very good for him if ManU catch him.

R Quaresma has committed to different things at different times, and I don’t know wether to trust his words just like Figo’s or not.
At the moment, he is in very good form, of course, but this can change very quickly, as we have seen at so many Portuguese examples. Let’s hope the best for him – unless you are a big SCP fan, of course.

Posted from  Austria

I´m a big Sporting fan and I wish Quaresma all the best – after all, only the SCP fans can call him “traitor” , to him, to Figo, to C Ronaldo, to Simão, and all those who left, etc – and, no matter how much “food for press” Mourinho gushes out of his mouth, the truth is he is/was the breath of fressh air in coaching, his quality is hardly to be questioned and, although outspoken, at least he is a guy who speaks his mind and doesn´t seem to loose much time with what others say…

About Simão, at this stage, it would be very good for Liverpool, or especially Valencia, to have him. I don´t believe Man Utd will go for him and I also don´t believe he will leave SL Benfica!

Going back to the link Luis posted here (f365), just read another article in “Champions” – not the online version, sorry I can´t leave the link – about english football. It kinda follows a self-analysis, on the issue of direct football, high-tempo, the tricks of english football, “is it really good when we don´t play possession, just play direct and run for 90 mins?, call attack just having one guy kick the ball up fron, no matter who gets it, and what happens when we (ENG) DO play against a team that does play possession… Well, we might only see the ball again when we collect it at the back of the net.”

Here are the final votes for the Fifa World Player of the year:
http://www.fifa.com/documents/fifa/events/FWPG06_results_by_player_men.xls
Ronaldo finshed 10th, Deco 15th and Figo 16th. I think that is pretty awesome for football in Portugal! Only Italy has as many players in the top 16! Congrats boys!

Posted from  Canada

Thanks, Daria! It was indeed an achievement.

And some news as well…

Portugal to play Brazil, in England, on FEB 7th – Scolari finds this friendly imperative, as POR will have to play Servia and Belgium 1 month later.

http://www.record.pt/noticia.asp?id=729788&idCanal=488

Scolari also opens the door to Quaresma, as he was called for a Selecção social event (visitng an old people care-centre as a Christmas event). He says “we want Quaresma with us, just as influencial as he is with FC Porto, so we called him here to integrate with us more and more, and also so that people can get to know him, not just as a brilliant dribbler, but also his human side”.

http://www.record.pt/noticia.asp?id=730193&idCanal=488

It´s undeniable the form at which this guys is playing. Well, not just him, also FC Porto… It´s surelly a mouth watering event, the next FC Porto vs Chelsea… Mourinho vs ex-Mourinho, and so…

On a personal note, we only really have one #10… And that´s Deco. Now, Sim~~ao has been playing kinda behind the strikers, with benfica, with some wide trips on the wing (Benfica has smoothly changed from a classic 4-3-3 to a 4-2-2 diamond). So, there might just be enough room to welcome Quaresma, shifting Simão a bit behind, or even Moutinho, who can play anywhere in midfield but who´s natural place is #10. I see a universe of chances… Anyway, back to Earth,

Scolari also comments C Ronaldo´s statement that he wants to be the best in the world, one day… “I have no doubts he will be, one day, but there´s a long long road ahead and he knows it and will keep on working hard for it. Little by little he´ll get there”

On a smaller note, Manuel Fernandes NOT to Portsmouth after all (I think maybe Benfica shot their foot asking them 13 million for him, when he´s been recuvering from an injury most of the time and after all the injuries they had, and especially Rui Costa´s, Benfica´s medical dpt doesn´t look so good anymore)… In short, the kid had been recuvering, for the past 2 years (?) from a “pubalgia” – sorry, don´t know the english word, but it´s that footballer´s disease – so, he wanted out SLB. The deal was for him to finish recuvering at Portsmouth with a possible tranfers and a 3 match trial, since Redknapp was a big fan, BUT, if he´d be on the starting 11 for 3 times, Portsmouth would have to buy it. There´s still some missing links on this story, but well…

http://www.record.pt/noticia.asp?id=730149&idCanal=11

http://www.publico.clix.pt/shownews.asp?id=1280066

Remember PEPE…? The central defender that was ponderinh whether or not getting the portuguese citizenship…? And met with Scolari? OK, the guy just scored twice and one assist, last time FC Porto played, which was the thrashing of Paços de Ferreira (a team that caused SCP some grieve) 4-0…

http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?div_id=1497&id=752908

And, like I´ve been saying, H Postiga is finally (after some years) getting back into playing the way (=scoring) that made us all dream of future glories, also some years ago… Fortunatelly H Postiga is still young…

Yes, but they say that for years… but Postiga is trying hard and not everybody’s got to be as talented as CR.

I watched that game against Paços de Ferreira when Pepe scored, but it was a really lucky day for him and I don’t think he will be the big deal for Portugal anyway. Well, he won’t cause any damage, hopefully.

About the FIFA awards, I don’t like Figo being only 25th, but all in all, it could be worse – at least Cannavaro’s, Drogba’s and Pirlo’s top position is – among others – clearly warrantable.

Posted from  Austria

Figo was actually 16th if you count down, the numbers beside the names do not represent their placing (beside Cannavaro it says 10).

Posted from  Canada

About Pepe, that´s not even the main reason… We already have 3 central defenders of the first water and many excellent candidates for nr 4… But it´s always nice to see it…

One thing that kinda slipped everybody´s eyes, but I find a smashing evidence of the obvious… I explain… In July, one certain mr Podolski received the best young player of the WC award. Chosen by a very “homy” FIFA technical commitee. Everybody knew who deserved the prize AND who actually got most of the votes as well. In December, C Ronaldo gets to be nr 10 in the best player of the world voting. I looked, I looked, and I FOUND… Podolski had zero votes…

Justice is served. Better late than never!

http://www.ojogo.pt/22-303/artigo599840.htm

http://www.ojogo.pt/22-303/artigo599822.htm

http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=753670&div_id=1194

http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?id=753734&div_id=1504

Manuel José´s Al Ahly went 3rd, in the Club World Cup, following Barcelona and Internacional de Porto Alegre, who won.

http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/noticia.php?div_id=1504&id=752802

@Carlos: no intention of stealing any type of merit to Cannavaro – actually I kinda enjoyed it went to a defender – truth is he´d never get it if Italy hadn´t been champ…

Posted it yesterday, but it didn´t show, Scolari has been “preping” Quaresma for future show ups and has stated “we want the same Quaresma of FC Porto´s”… And, there´s no question, this man is playing like the devil this year…

And Portugal to play a friendly with Brazil, in England, Februari 7th…

http://www.record.pt/noticia.asp?id=729788&idCanal=488

Ooo portugal in England! How do I get tickets to see that?

Posted from  United Kingdom

No clue…

@ Pedro: I sometimes don’t wanna think about how unfair the whole thing is… but Cannavaro has actually tried very hard and he did win the WC, didn’t he? Italy wouldn’t managed it without him.

That’s really more than annoying, I didn’t know that “Poldi” got ZERO votes. It’s understandable because there was nothing very special about him except him being a striker and scoring sometimes, as a result. But it’s incredible how Klose, Schweinsteiger and Frings brought this weak and unexperienced team to an important clash with PORTUGAL…

Posted from  Austria

Ronaldo’s rippen’ form continues.

CNNSi

ESPNSoccernet

Eurosport

Posted from  United States

Edwin van der Sar raving about Ronaldo’s qualities. Yes, that’s a Dutch player raving about Ronaldo.

Sporting Life

Posted from  United States

Ronaldo is the best player in the world

Posted from  Netherlands