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Denmark 1 – 1 Portugal: Is there still hope?

September 5th, 2009 | By: Miguel | 39 Comments »

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.

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Comments

Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 39 comments.

Read the rest of the comments

By Miguel | September 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm

@Christian:
I fear you might loose the midfield with only Deco and Pepe. Portugal’s best chances yesterday were created with a well occupied midfield. Take out one but not two. At least not from the start.

Posted from Portugal

By msudzi | September 6th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

The midfield is horribe and there is no cure in sight. THank GOd South Africa wont smell that foul oder of cod fish invading there land.

Posted from United States

By Miguel | September 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

msudzi you urgently need to seek medical attention. For your own benefit I’m considering removing all your comments from the blog. To keep you from looking like a complete retard you see. But on the other hand you serve exemplary well as a poster for how amazingly stupid some comments can get when it comes to understanding anything about the game. Come to think of it you fit the role of clown perfectly so in the interest of a good laugh I’ll look forward to more mental diarrhea with your name attached.

Posted from Portugal

By Sol | September 6th, 2009 at 4:23 pm

Yes, still hope for you.

Damn!

Doesn’t even look that unlikely either, Portugal getting to the play-offs I mean.

The Sweden-Denmark game will be key, if Sweden wins, you’re screwed. But you have one huge advantage, by the time Denmark and Sweden meet, Denmark will still need their points, so they’ll still go for the win and won’t field a b-team (or things like that).

Other than that, it’s all in your own hands of course, all that’s needed is 2 wins against Hungary and one against Malta. Now that doesn’t look that hard if you look at it now does it? If you can’t manage that, than the WC is really no place for Portugal this time around.

You’ll probably do fine in the play-offs. Probably get some lucky draw against Ireland or Greece or something. Then again, you had a pretty tough draw in this group, so you deserve some luck in your favor again I guess.

Things would have been so much different if you lost this one.

Damn.

We’ll get you.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | September 6th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

By the way, you make second place, you automaticly qualify for the play-offs because the teams in our group can not get enough points to qualify for the play-offs (even if you add 6 points for the 2 games they played less, only 5 teams in that group).

That’s assuming Holland beats Scotland next wednesday and Portugal does its job and gets at least 16 points (2 wins, but you probably need that anyway if you want second place).

They probably count points per game anyway so that is even worse for Scotland and the other teams in our group.

Since 8 out of 9 of the second placed teams go through, all you have to do is get second place.

Posted from Netherlands

By Seth | September 6th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

Soooo…

If we don’t make it, who are we going to cheer for instead? Spain? Brazil?

I’ll be rooting for Spain because I personally dislike Brazil.

By Nico | September 7th, 2009 at 1:08 am

To be fair I think Andersen’s magnet hands deserve some recognition in this match, they seemed to suck every ball right to him. He, along with one of the best goals in the qualifier so far, saved the game for us through a volley of Portugese shots.

By João | September 7th, 2009 at 2:23 am

I must say Denmark’s goal was sublime (yes it was piss poor defending on Portugal’s part but that doesn’t lessen Bredtner’s great finish IMO) Still Portugal created so many chances and they kept missing the ******* target, honestly a four year old could have scored in some of the situations.
As for qualifying I don’t see it happening, we have only won two competitive matches in the last year (heck we couldn’t beat 10-man Albania AT HOME) so I seriously doubt we’ll be able to beat Hungary, let alone twice in a row.

@Sol; To determine who gets to play in the play offs they will remove the results (both goals and points) against the 6th placed team in Groups 1 to 8 to make the comparison fair for the 2nd placed team in Group 9 but this doesn’t really matter to Portugal (or any other group 1 team)

@Seth; I’ll definitely be rooting for Spain considering everyone in me mum’s family is Spanish so it’s a bit easier to me. :p

By logan | September 7th, 2009 at 3:02 am

I think Denmark will beat Sweden and guarentee 1st place.

By 9 champs leagues Milan target | September 7th, 2009 at 3:21 am

bad luck guys..Portugal dominated the game to the hilt, the only thing missing was the finish..iam Italian and my team is playing crappp football atthe moment, why we had to rely on an opposition defender to score us two goals..we are topping the group by a miracle without even having played a single good match..Portugalmaybe are a tad too unlucky, with that Bendtner goal just like those two goals in the first matchscored by Denmark against u guys…But your team has got all the strategy wrong, when there r players of the calibre of nani, why not start them from begining??You re missing out on a finisher of the calibre of Joao Pinto..Ronaldo is a big disappointment when it comes to big games..i cant see sweeden slipping now, what the hell, there is Hungary who can score on counter attacks….It is all gloom and doom for Portugal..

Posted from Spain

By Extraneus | September 7th, 2009 at 3:29 am

Any notion of a fixed match between Denmark and Sweden is, to be honest, ridiculous. Both countries rate among the very top when it comes to a lack of corruption, and certainly Morten Olsen is a man of true integrity – he would never even consider such an idea…! In any case, even if we bring back a win from Albania (of course we will!), Denmark will need at least 1 point in our match against Sweden on October 10th to be sure of our 1st place in the group, while Sweden will need every point available should Portugal get their act together in their last 3 matches.

Portugal have an impressive array of individual players, but are they a top team? The results of this round of qualification matches says no. The latin egocentric stereotype fits the Portuguese like a glove, and until they learn to play as a team rather than as 11 individuals, they’ll have a tough time living up to their potential…

As a football fan, I’d like to see a group-oriented Portuguese team (sans the diving!) make the WC; as a dane, I’d like to see Denmark and Sweden qualify for SA.

Posted from Denmark

By Sol | September 7th, 2009 at 8:52 am

@João: just found that out too, but how can you say it doesn’t matter, cause that puts you in some more trouble I think. Let’s see, you lose 3 points from your previous game against Malta, and any points gained against Malta will not count. That means if you win both games against Hungary you have 13 points for this play-off calculation.

That means Scotland can still tie with you on 13 points if they win against Holland. If you drop any points anywhere, a draw is enough for Scotland to at least tie with you.

Posted from Netherlands

By Sol | September 7th, 2009 at 8:54 am

You’ve got them beat on goaldifference though, so maybe not that much of a problem after all.

Posted from Netherlands

By João | September 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am

@Sol; ^^ Of course this will be a problem if Scotland beats Holland with at least a 4 goal difference but for some reason I’m not worried about that.

By Toodles | September 7th, 2009 at 11:02 am

It is as simple as this…

Taking these three wins for Portugal as our premise, the coveted second-place finish in Group One will be filled by either Portugal or Sweden, depending on the following scenarios:

- If Sweden win their three remaining matches (Malta and Denmark away, and Albania at home) they will guarantee second place and have a shot at joining Scandinavian neighbours Denmark at the World Cup.

- If Sweden drop more than two points (a defeat in Denmark for instance) then Portugal will claim second place.

- If Sweden draw in Copenhagen then it will come down to goal difference. Sweden currently have an advantage over Portugal of one goal (8-3 against 9-5) but perhaps crucially, Portugal’s last match is at home against Malta, the group whipping boys, where the Seleccao will be confident of racking up a big win if required. In the opening match of the campaign Portugal beat Malta 4-0 in Valletta.

It all points to the destinies of Portugal and Sweden being decided on 10 October in the Denmark-Sweden encounter.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Miguel | September 7th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

Just in:

Malta 0 – 3 Sweden
Albania 1 – 0 Denmark
Hungary 0 – 2 Portugal
Denmark 0 – 1 Sweden
Portugal 3 – 1 Hungary
Denmark 1 – 1 Hungary
Sweden 2 – 0 Albania
Portugal 4 – 0 Malta

Final group standing:
Sweden 21
Portugal 19
Denmark 18
Hungary 14

Who would have thought?!

You read it here first.

Posted from Portugal

By Toodles | September 7th, 2009 at 8:21 pm

Well, Miguel, my namesake brother. I hope you are absolutely spot on. Although we might have the likes of France in the play offs, I’d wager can beat them, simply because they aren’t exactly on a roll either.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Extraneus | September 8th, 2009 at 1:07 am

Toodles:

In your Denmark-Sweden draw scenario; does the goal score statistics against the group runner up (Malta) count, even though matches do not? If not, you will have to win by a fair margin against Hungary…

Miguel:

In your dreams!

Posted from Denmark

By LEED | September 9th, 2009 at 7:18 am

only one way out…let PELE speak!

By João | September 9th, 2009 at 11:40 am

So predictions for tonight?

I’m going for a draw either 0-0 or 1-1

By Toodles | September 9th, 2009 at 11:54 am

João, don’t be such a pessimist. Raise your hopes up, so Queiroz can crush them down, haha!

Seriously though.

Portugal 4 Hungary 1.

IF I’m wrong, so be it.

But it’s not to think positive.

Posted from United Kingdom

By Toodles | September 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am

I mean “its bad not to think positive” up there ^^^

Posted from United Kingdom

By Toodles | September 9th, 2009 at 3:42 pm

1-0.

Seconds remaining…

Posted from United Kingdom

By João | September 9th, 2009 at 3:49 pm

We’ve won they were absolutely lousy though I don’t think I spotted one good player. You know a part of me want Portugal in the WC and yet I want them to lose so that we can get rid of Quieroz.

Also thank you Albania.