Can Yannick and Manny Come Out and Play?

Portugal’s oft-maligned U21 squad is under relatively new guidance with boss Rui Caçador and are involved in qualifications for the 2009 U21 Euro Tournament. The qualification is so frigging convoluted and has more stages than the video game Gauntlet had. Put simply, there are ten groups of teams which all play each other home and away. After the ten group winners are determined, four runners up qualify as the best second place teams from the groups for a total of (yes, you guessed it!) fourteen teams. These fourteen teams are placed in a knock out playoff format with home and away legs. Teams that were in the same group previously can not face each other (ie Group A 1st place can’t face Group A 2nd place in the knockout stages). After these fourteen teams face off and seven winners are determined, those seven teams will travel to Sweden and face off in an eight team tournament. Sweden qualifies automatically as the eighth team since they have a lot of hot blonde women there.

Portugal are a part of Group 3. The current standings are as follows:

1. England — 7 pld — 19 pts
2. Portugal — 5 pld — 10 pts
3. Montenegro — 6 pld — 6 pts
4. Republic of Ireland — 5 pld — 3 pts
5. Bulgaria — 5 pld — 3 pld

Portugal still have home matches against Bulgaria (Tomorrow, 12:30 Eastern on RTPi, at Estadio Dom Afonso Henriques) and Republic of Ireland. Sandwiched in the middle of those two is an away match against group leaders England who they drew with 1-1 late last November. Portugal have previously lost at Bulgaria, 1-0 and will have to seriously capitalize on the last place opponent coming into their backyard in the second leg. Here’s who Rui Caçador will have to select from:

Keepers: Mário Felgueiras (Portimonense, Portuguese Liga Vitalis) and Ricardo Batista (Fulham, English Premier League)

Defenders: Manuel Da Costa (Fiorentina, Italian Serie A), Nuno André Coelho (Portimonense, Portuguese Liga Vitalis), Vasco Fernandes (Salamanca, Spanish Segunda Division), Vítor Vinha (Académica, Portuguese BWINLiga), and Antunes (AS Roma, Italian Serie A)

Guys who will, at some point in their lives, be called “The Next Figo or Ronaldo”: Pereirinha (Sporting, Portuguese BWINLiga), Manuel Fernandes (Everton, English Premier League), Stélvio Cruz (Inter Milan, Italian Serie A), Paulo Machado (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga), Celestino (E.d.Amadora, Portuguese BWINLiga), Pelé (Inter Milan, Italian Serie A) and Vieirinha (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga)

Forwards: Tózé (Zwolle, Dutch Eerste Divisie), Bruno Gama (V.Setúbal, Portuguese BWINLiga), Saleiro (Fátima, Portuguese Liga Vitalis), Hélder Barbosa (F.C. Porto, Portuguese BWINLiga), João Moreira (Leixões, Portuguese BWINLiga) and Yannick Djaló (Sporting, Portuguese BWINLiga)

I don’t even want to speculate on how this group is going to lineup, as the shock inclusion of Tózé (who has 19 goals at Dutch side Zwolle) throws a bit of a wrench in here as well as the fact that I’d play Bruno Gama the full 90 and then some just because I’m so high on his game. However, both will probably not even make the starting XI so speculation on those fronts is a fool’s errand at best. You can expect to see some facsimile of the following 4-3-3:

Yannick Djaló – João Moreira – Vieirinha
Paulo Machado – Pelé – Celestino
Antunes – Manuel da Costa – Nuno André Coelho – Vasco Fernandes
Ricardo Batista

Manager Rui Caçador has made Stélvio Cruz a late addition as Pelé has taken a knock and may not be able to line up in his typical holding role in the midfield. There isn’t much else to say here, as this match is, for all intents and purposes, a must win for the Portuguese. Hopefully the home comforts and better overall skill of Portugal will prevail here and they’ll come out on top to the tune of 2-0.