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Albania 1 – 2 Portugal: Match review

June 6th, 2009 | By: Miguel | 31 Comments »

Yyyyyeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!

Portugal won. Another nerve racking performance. We’re still on track to South Africa. I’ll take it, thank you very much.

I don’t even know were to begin. These games leave me nerve wrecked. I let a good couple of hours pass. Listened to after-match comments. Let some positive vibes reanimate my nerve system.

Let me start off by saying Portugal did NOT deserve to win. But Albania completely deserved to lose. They simply didn’t want to play the game. I’m not even saying win it. “Play” the game. From the start it was all about wasting time and laying down on the grass clutching which ever body part was close at hand – normally the face. All with a referee that played completely into it. What a donk. In case of doubt he always decided against Portugal. If the Albanian goalie had twitched and turned on the grass holding his face when Bruno Alves sneaked the goal past him I’m sure the ref would have called a foul.

It was particularly sweet to see the second goal was mainly to blame on the goal-keeper who had been Mr.Timewaster all game long.

The best thing about this game was the result. Everything else was crap. Against any other half-decent team both goals by the selecção would not have gone in. Bosingwa’s cross was crap and only found its way to crap Hugo Almeida because the Albanian defense was crap at clearing that crap cross. So much crap. And the second goal only happened because, as stated earlier, the Albania goalie was… you guessed it… mega crap. Portugal was crap. Albania was mega crap. And I could very well end this post on that note.

Ok I won’t. I should. But I’ll put in an extra effort.

On a scale of 0 to 10:

Eduardo: 5 – Can’t be blamed for the first goal. Didn’t have any work otherwise. One shot defended and he didn’t look all that solid doing it.

Bosingwa: 6.5 – One of the better performers of the team. To bad he and Carvalho let themselves be overrun on the Albanian goal.

Carvalho: 6 – Teamed up with Bosingwa to be overrun by the Albanian for their first goal but otherwise solid.

Bruno Alves: 7 – He should have been the one covering Bogdani and not Duda when Albania scored but he sure made up for it!

Duda: 5.5 – The game just seems to step down a notch when the ball reaches him. Can he be blamed for Bogdani’s goal? He WAS covering him but with his height…

Pepe: 5.5 – He covered unfamiliar territory. Not very constructive. Casting error by Queiroz.

Meireles: 6 – Made the cross for the goal and nearly scored in the first half. Not much.

Deco: 5.5 – I hardly noticed him. Gave the ball away a couple of times on simple passes.

Boa Morte: 4 – Did he do ANYTHING right? Mega casting error by Queiroz.

Hugo Almeida: 5 – He scored an easy goal. Any utter-crap forward would have. Other then that… did he go and celebrate to the nearest pub immediately after the goal? Because he vanished from the pitch didn’t he?

Cristiano Ronaldo: 6.5 – He tried. One of the few players you could actually see trying. He made some runs. One of them he clearly got fouled inside the box. Two dangerous free-kicks. He had an Albanian pitbull chained to his leg most of the time.

Simão: 5 – Did he do one single cross? One? I should have taped the game to confirm.

Edinho: 5 – One header wide. That’s it. Yes. Really.

Nani: 5.5 – I actually remember him running down the pitch. Which is more then I can say for Simão. Thus the extra .5

Queiroz: 5 – Pepe, Boa Morte, Hugo Almeida, need I say more? This team has no spark.

And this is what our current situation looks like:

Denmark winning in Sweden wasn’t quite what I had in mind for that game. Now it seems more likely for us to qualify finishing second. We would have to finish in the top 8 best runners-up and do a play-off round.

Matches left to play:

The road is long and rocky. I hope Queiroz finds our spark and returns Portugal to “the Worlds most entertaining team” status as we were once considered (WC 2006 – fifa poll).

Tags: Albania, Portugal, Qualifier, World Cup 2010

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 31 comments.

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By Miguel | June 7th, 2009 at 6:34 am

@Patrick:
I wonder if you missed the first half of the game against Holland in the WC2006. Where one of the Dutch players managed to hack/gore one of our brightest players in the 7th minute sending him off injured. Where 3 Dutch players surrounded the ref trying to get Costinha his second yellow. Where they dove inside the penalty box. All in the first half. We scored in the first half and gave back what we got. It wasn’t a pretty sight by BOTH teams. Not proud. But NOT AT ALL started by our players.

@me:
“stupid”? Have some respect. I respect people who don’t offend on a whim and I respect teams that actually want to play the game and show us why we love the sport.

Posted from Portugal

By Pelasgus | June 7th, 2009 at 6:58 am

Albania deserved to lose ? Are you out of your mind boy ? What game did you see ? Portugal is not a top-world class team. It’s a team full of overrated players that have shown with Greece a couple of time what they can(can’t) do. And Albania on it’s turn have beaten Greece a couple of times.

I cannot stop laughing at the remark that Albanians were “wasting time”, coming from a Latino population where all your teams from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Brazil and all south america have mastered the art of wasting time when on top.

I hope Denmark and Sweden make it through.

I won’t even speak about your coach who made derogatory comments about Albania but the guys were very very very brave to not react to his derogatory comments.

By Sol | June 7th, 2009 at 7:50 am

Portugal has a good team and at least they’re not cowards (shelling up like Italy and France have done in the past, even against weaker opponents). So therefore, even as a Dutch fan , I respect them.

They did however use every dirty trick they could think of to survive the Holland – Portugal game in 2006 (since you were talking about that) and destroyed their own chances for further tournament progress in the process.

That game just wasn’t handled very well because the referee wouldn’t do anything about (or didn’t understand) the tricks being used by the Portuguese. This led to so much frustration on the Dutch side that the whole game went insane, which the Portuguese then quickly used to stall for some more time and blow the game up some more, and again, the referee did nothing. Everytime the referee wistled for something the Portuguese would storm up to him and just stall the game pretending to be angry about something, or hurt, or trying to pick fights with about everyone they could find on that field, including linesmen, only for the purpose of stalling for time. They dived, they fouled, they made faces, they WERE Italians. Disgusting to see, since I always liked the Portuguese and I can certainly understand the Dutch players’ reaction to the fact that the referee wouldn’t do anything about it.

In the process of all this so many Portuguese got yellows and reds (and it should have been at least twice as much) that they didn’t have much of a chance for the rest of the tournament.

And Ronaldo already didn’t feel very well before the game. So he got a bad knock early on, so did a lot of the Dutch players (I believe that knock he got was just after a foul on a Dutch player that the referee again didn’t whistle for or something like that). That’s no excuse to sink to Italian level.

You want to win the worldcup (or any cup)? Do it in style, like Argentina, Brazil or Spain.

Sure stalling for time will always be done, but right after 1-0 and the way Portugal did it, was waaaaayyyy over the top (again, all due to the fact that the referee didn’t act on it, if he had, the Portuguese would have HAD to stop, and start playing soccer again, which normally happens in these types of games). The Portuguese really just embarassed themselves by abusing such a poor referee.

But I think they’re a good team and I respect their attacking style. I wish them good luck, and I hope we meet again in this worldcup with a better referee.

Greetz from Holland!

Posted from Netherlands

By Albanian Fan | June 7th, 2009 at 8:30 am

@ Pelasgus: I really agree that the “Albania deserved to lose” part was very overrated.

That very awful match (for Portugal’s side) was product of their “show off” talk like “We are going to win easily” and stuff and also speaking very bad and not with respect for the home team Albania. Yes Portugal, no one denies, is a way too much better team than Albania, but Albania showed them that football is not played with mouths but with feet, and they really showed the competitive spirit in the game and they deserved way more. Portugal was just lucky, yes, just lucky to win.

Posted from Albania

By Sol | June 7th, 2009 at 8:48 am

Oh, and YES, the Portuguese DID start it. Not that it matters much anymore, but don’t blame that disaster on the Dutch or somehow say that BOTH teams were responsible. The Dutch players just reacted like normal human beings would to such a terrible referree (I hope they learned something from that game though, some of them were still to easily riled).

It was the Portuguese who loved that game spinning out of control cause everytime something very small happened they grabbed the opportunity to stall for some more time and start picking fights. There was hardly ANY play in the second half. I can’t believe some people actually are convinced that the Portuguese weren’t the instigators of it all. It was in THEIR favor. A lot of the Dutch players DID keep themselves under control, but some couldn’t, and that was mostly because they were angry that the referree didn’t do anything about all the dirty tricks and stalling (if your opponent makes a foul every 20 seconds followed by 2-5 minutes of making angry faces and shouting to prevent any type of play and the referree doesn’t do anything to stop that, how are you supposed to react to that?).

Posted from Netherlands

By Francisco | June 7th, 2009 at 10:59 am

Queiroz needs to go!!!!!!!!

i think he’s ruining what could be an amazing chance for Portugal, with our balance of talent, youth, experience and skill..i think we could be winning the World Cup even, with the right manager….just not Queiroz (PLEEEASE MAN UTD..take him back!!!)

By Francisco | June 7th, 2009 at 11:02 am

Queiroz needs to go!!!!!!!!

FORÇA PORTUGAL!!!!! e FORÇA SPORTING!!!!!!

By Erion | June 7th, 2009 at 11:32 am

@Miguel… You know what the fox did when she could not reach the grapes, she said they are sour anyway and walked away. That’s called crying sour grapes and that’s exactly what you are doing by saying that Albania played crap and the ref was crap etc….wah wah wah. You don’t want to give your opponent any credit because in your and your moran coaches head you were suppose to beat us by a lot. Your team wishes they could defend the way Albania does. We tied with you in Portugal with 10 men on the field, what happened there??? Either we are not as bad as you think or you completely suck. So which one is it???
You are also very lucky today that the ref that you thought was so bad didn’t give Albania the penalty, when Bogdani was tripped up right in the middle of your box.
By the way Pelasgus is absolutely right you guys invented the art of wasting time, so don’t complain when you get a little does of your own medicine.
@Seth You have to be kidding me calling Albanian’s a bunch of pansy players. Your boys were getting pushed around like a bunch or rag dolls. Don’t F with Albanians, I am sure you have learned that now. A bunch of pansy are men from your team that lay on the field and cry like babies after a loss.

Posted from United States

By Seth | June 7th, 2009 at 11:36 am

You have no idea how hard I rolled my eyes reading some of the comments from the Dutch fans. Here’s a tip: watch the highlights of the Holland-Portugal 2006 game again and then proceed to pull your heads out of your asses. Plz and thank you.

By beni | June 7th, 2009 at 11:44 am

where did u see the game in the radio?fool boy

Posted from United Kingdom

By beni | June 7th, 2009 at 11:46 am

the best ronaldo can do is diving

Posted from United Kingdom

By Sol | June 7th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

@Seth: maybe instead of watching just the highlights you should watch the ENTIRE game again, just like I did and get some good perspective (allthough I doubt it will matter in your case). How long have you been watching soccer again?

Either you’re such a loyal fan to Portugal that you refuse to see the truth or you just don’t understand soccer because you’ve only watched it for less than 10 years or so. About the point where Italian turtle style defense play totally took over as the dominating strategy and almost destroyed soccer in the worldcup 2006 (after Greece won the European Cup with the same cowardly style). I’m glad Spain and Holland broke that defensive strategy (Holland more than Spain, but Spain proved that offensive play CAN win you tournaments). Be glad, Portugal is also a risk-taking offensive team which is fun to watch. I don’t think they’ll repeat what they did against the Dutch in 2006.

I think this world cup is going to be so much more fun to watch then the last one, we might even see the Italians come out of their shell (seeing that they were punished for their defensive strategy in the european cup 2008 along with France, who caught on a little quicker by the way).

Posted from Netherlands

By Miguel | June 7th, 2009 at 1:43 pm

@Sol: In Oct-1990 I was leaving the “Stadio das Antas” in Porto where I had just witnessed a great injustice. Portugal had won Holland by a goal from Rui Águas. The best team on the pitch had lost. I wasn’t pleased. In 1988 I yelled my lungs out and shed tears of joy when Holland defeated the Soviet Union in the Euro finals. Johan Cruyff is in my book the player next to the definition of “World-Class Soccer”. I was gutted when Holland lost in the Euro 2000 semis to Italy. Why is it I have such strong feelings about “Het Orange Elftal”? I was playing soccer in 1980 at Sport Vereniging Zaanstad close to where I lived in Zaandam. I was born in Portugal but raised in the Netherlands, left when I was 15. Surprise! I’ve always thought “If Portugal can’t win it then please let it be Holland!” I’ve got on tape the Euro 2004 Semi-finals between both teams as well as the WC 2006 game (if you can call it a game). What a difference. It was the last thing I had wanted to see happen. When Boulahrouz savagely hacked down Ronaldo at the seventh minute and only got a yellow for it I knew the ref had lost the game. 5 Minutes before van Bommel had done the same and equally got Yellow for it. You won’t find any foul/cheat play by the Portuguese before that. ANY. Go and watch. This is a mute discussion between fans on both sides although I have a unique liking to both due to my past. I read the Dutch press slashing out at the Portuguese team and the Portuguese press slashing in the opposite direction. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth. Reading about it from a neutral perspective might help: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/jun/26/worldcup2006.match3

@Erion: The thing is this fox got the grapes, gobbled them all up and happily strolled away, so stop whining! I had said in the match preview post the Albanian team is a tough one that held us to a goalless draw with 10 men. I never said Portugal wasn’t anything but crap on both games! I’ll admit Bogdani might MIGHT have been tripped by Carvalho but you seem to forget Ronaldo being fould in your box! Clever.

Posted from Portugal

By Miguel | June 7th, 2009 at 1:57 pm

@Pelasgus: If Queiroz made any derogatory comments on the Albanian team BEFORE the match it was dumb and unjustified. It only served as fuel to light the Albanian fire. I actually heard him say after the match “won against a tough team with a solid midfield that played very well…”. But of course after a won match it is always easy to give out compliments when before you had emptied your venom. You beat Greece? Wow. Can you run that by every team that lost to them in the Euro 2004. They’d sure appreciate it.

Posted from Portugal

By Erion | June 7th, 2009 at 3:09 pm

@Miguel hahaha I am not whining. We didn’t have anything too lose in this game since we were out of it. But you guys did and almost blew it. And I am sorry but I did not read your match preview post. Also, yes we beat Greece in their first game after they won Euro 2004. Watch this to make a little happy today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omVQiHUQei8

Posted from United States

By Miguel | June 7th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

@Erion: I’ve just seen your Youtube video and took the opportunity to go through a lot more on your team. Now you tell me: Why? Why on God’s green earth didn’t your team play to honor all the fans that payed money to be at the stadium hoping to see what Albania has shown it is able to do? You are playing at home. Hundreds of supporters in the stands. You’ve got nothing to lose. Your opponent is under a lot of pressure to win and playing like crap for the last 4 games. Why? Why not try and give so many fans the same joy I saw in plenty of Youtube videos starting from yours? When you got the draw in Portugal last year I truly felt you earned it. Had I been writing this blog then, I would have congratulated you.

Posted from Portugal

By N/A | June 7th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

IMO looking at the game, albania deserved to win 100% referrer refuses a really clear penalty wtf i swear if that penalty wasn’t denied portugal could have said bye bye to world cup

There are some really good soccer pro players from Albania

Posted from United States

By Seth | June 8th, 2009 at 1:52 am

Sol, I know you’re trying to avoid from looking like a biased retarded asshole (eventhough you manage to do that in an infinite number of other ways) but that little flag under your post which says “Netherlands” automatically makes you lose credibility in anything you say. Now please, get out of the Portugal blog.

By Miguel | June 8th, 2009 at 6:18 am

Easy there Seth. Everyone is welcome to read and comment on the Portugal blog. Everyone should however keep in mind this is written by a Portuguese and as such tends to be biased. I’ll tolerate some swearing but if this gets totally out of hand I’m closing the comments on this one and delete what needs deleting.

Posted from Portugal

By Christian | June 8th, 2009 at 8:11 am

I have no problem with people from other countries/cultures/etc posting on the Portugal blog as long as they’re not coming to instigate and talk trash before a big match. I can’t say that Portugal supporters dont go and do the same prior to matches because I spend my time looking to see who posts where, but as for myself, I have no interest in going to the Albanian blog, Danish blog, Hungarain blog, whoever, and talking trash like some people have the tendency to do. What purpose does it sever other than being a troll? If you’re interested in having a civl discussion and/or looking to wish luck/congratulate, come on down. Otherwise, stick to your own country’s blog and stop wasting our time here.

Plain and simple, Portugal played like crap and Albania played even worse. Good luck to Albania in the rest of their WCQ matches.

Posted from United States

By boonz | June 8th, 2009 at 12:02 pm

holland did nothing but try to injure ronaldo from the first whistle. luckily for them they only receved 2 yellow cards.roben dove in the box.germany in the 2008 quarterfinals did nothing but dive lay around and push there way throuh to the semis.but portugal is to blame.in 2008uros did anybody see portugal floping around.just a few years a go they were known for attacking and attractive football but after beating england for the 4 straight time at a major championship the english have done everything to slander the portugues.nothing but rubbish.

By Toodles | June 8th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

Well, lemme start off by saying, well done Miguel on posting here, my man.

Hell, we share the same name, so you MUST be cool.

Now onto the game….

Moving on.

Queiroz needs to call up player who miht actually help out the team, I mean, I know Deco/Carvalho weren’t that good, but when was the last time either played for Chelsea?
Queiroz should have called up the following players.
Maniche (much like Deco he hasn’t been playing much, but he’d be much better than Pepe), Nuno Gomes(how can you NOT call him up), Helder Postiga (he may not have a tremendous goal-scoring record for club or country, but usually for the latter he usually comes in good >>see Portugal vs England.

Well done Bruno Alves, you are a hero. Enjoy it before everyone starts praising Ronaldo/Nani for being ball hoggers.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Miguel | June 8th, 2009 at 5:39 pm

@Toodles: Hehehe it seemed like a nice place to post so I thought I’d help stir up some emotions as writing about our national team easily seems to accomplish. Glad you liked it so far. I’ve got some outrages ideas in mind for those dull months of July and August.

I agree Maniche is a wonderful player but I have to side with Queiroz on this one. He has no club, doesn’t train, lacks the game rhythm and aggressivity that comes from eating the grass every weekend.

Nuno Gomes is/was IMO better then Edinho and Almeida combined but is completely out of form. Doesn’t play regularly for Benfica. His championship was the Euro 2000. Downhill ever since. I have a couple of Benfica mates that even agree with the “Nulo” Gomes label. Helder Postiga is marginally in better form then him, but since we lack a better option I’d prefer the guy over Edinho and Almeida.

Posted from Portugal

By Toodles | June 9th, 2009 at 11:45 am

Haha can’t wait for them ideas, brotherman.

No doubt Nuno’s best days are behind him, but he is a leader. & that’s something that’s missing from our team, I mean, I know you can’t exactly play for your country simply based on your leadership skills, but need a proper leader, a person who will lead the line.

Ronaldo is not that man.

and as far as Maniche goes, I’m with you on the whole not training thing…but I just hope Queiroz doesn’t snub him, like at Euro 2008 with Scolari, Atletico (TWICE), Benfica in 1999, Chelsea…there seems to be a theme there, so I’m sure you get my point.

Posted from United Kingdom

By msudzi | June 13th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

When you guys win a championship in anything besides hocky patinhas, I will listen to you guys. You think just because you have talent you can show up and win. You seen how in 2002 us ameicans blow u guys off the pitch in the first half. Of cousre the portugues and there excuses like its the goalkeppers fault, or the coaches fault, or my favorite a mafia paga to win. You do nothing but spread your stinky smell of cod fish everywhere u go, and by the way when is the last time you beat ITilia. Dont ever walk on the beach in Portugal you might split your feet upon on the ugly rocks on the beach.

Posted from United States

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