Portugal 0 – 0 Cape Verde : nothing to worry about

i think alot will depend on our first game against Ivory Coast ..if we can manage a win, then i think it has the potential to raise team spirit and cohesiveness.. ..its a must win

Posted from  Sweden

Torres being the glass striker will injure himself right from the start just like Wayne Ronney, but that don’t matter because team Orange led by Robben the diving king will be the champions of 2010!
It don’t matter if Ronaldo’s the top scorer, it will not change the outcome.
Team Orange all the way!!!!!!!

P.S. Torres is Hot!

Posted from  Canada

There seems to be some unnecessary bad blood going around when it comes to Portugal vs Holland. No need for that. Both countries are rich in their history and have had excellent players in their line-ups. Cruyff almost carried Holland to victory and so did Eusebio. When Rijkaard, Gullit and Van Basten got in sync they won the Euro 1988. Unfortunately we never had a manager able to perfectly sync the likes of Paulo Sousa, João Pinto, Rui Costa and Figo. They came close at the Euro 2000. The Euro 2004 showed the upcoming CR and a team built on Mourinho’s CL success. This World Cup might well show us a matured Dutch side if the qualifiers are anything to go by. The Dutch either had it really easy or made it really easy. This WC will show us exactly what they are made of, but lets not forget the extreme luck they had coming away from Scotland with a win when they didn’t even deserve a draw.

When I took up the task of managing this blog all comments were on how Portugal was going to utterly fail to qualify for the WC. So many trolls coming in here to gloat. Have they learned to shut the fuck up? Nope. Now they come in here telling us we won’t last past the first 3 matches. Up yours!

Portugal has conceeded 2 goals during the last 14 matches. None the last 7. Yeah we might have lacked something from the striker but we sure as hell know how to keep our net clear. I’m confident we will be victorious because our foundations are rock solid and with an offense fed by the likes of CR… be afraid… every team in Spain is…

Posted from  Portugal

Well said Miguel and kudos for great job in keeping this blog alive for our beloved Selecção das Quinas.

I agree with your assessment concerning Holland’s football heritage, their total football philosophy has produced some of the greatest football in the history of the sport. I’ll be honest; Holland was the team that I thought that would have clinched the Euro cup in 2008 with Marco Van Basten at the helm, not Spain the other Iberian underachievers at the time.

Unfortunately for Portugal in 2008, with Scolari’s focus on Chelsea and not on the job at hand and combined with his idiotic player selection, deep down inside I knew our Selecção was doomed from the get go just like how he flubbed the final in 2004 against Greece!.

Well as poetic justice goes, I guess the Chelsea honey moon sure didn’t last long. True he did great things for the Selecção at first, but in the end he turned our team into a three ring circus with his clown like antics during qualifying. He should have gotten the boot after attacking that Serbian player and embarrassing our Nation. To be honest, I cheered when he left for Chelsea after destabilizing our team in 2006.

Hell, He’ll soon be back at the helm in Brazil after Dunga crashes the sumba boy’s this summer with his anti Brazil style football. I can’t believe he’s building his team around that pin headed Robinho, and not selecting Pato. But by far the worst sin committed by Dunga is leaving out the living legend Ronaldinho… Dumb Ass!

Thanks for the entertainment Hal, I love reading your daily tidbits on this blog. I laughed so hard today at the office after reading your ramblings that I had tears in my eyes, thanks again!

Força Portugal

Posted from  Canada

It seems like Portugal took the exact opposite approach of Argentina, who came out dressed to impress and hammering Canada into the floor. I wonder about the effectiveness of telling your players not to perform in a match so close to the World Cup. I could understand not playing some of your starters, but to completely treat the game like a scrimmage? It seems a little odd. I feel like Argentina are going to be a lot more confident going into the Cup, and a lot of Protuguese players are coming out and saying that they feel the pressure Quieroz has placed on them. Ronaldo has been very open about it, which takes a lot for a man of his Narcissitic stature.

One more comment: Simao or Nani? I couldn’t decide, I love Simao’s pace but Nani has just got so much talent on the ball. What do you guys think?

@William
How about both? Simao and Nani on the wings with Ronaldo and Leidson in a 2 striker system.

Big question is who does Quieroz send home tomorrow? My money says he breaks Ze Castro’s heart. Me I’d send Duda home. Actually I wouldn’t have selected him in the first place…

@Ceasar
That’d be awesome. And I agree with Duda, he just isn’t good.

William,
I believe there are half truths with Quieroz statement after the Cape Verde fiasco. I do believe he was trying some tactics involving disciplined/controlling football and at the same time not pushing his players too much in risking injury, but not scoring a single goal is sure not part of anybody’s plan.

But I have a feeling that they might explode out of the gates taking everybody by surprise at the WC. Considering everybody’s not giving Portugal a snowballs chance in Hell of making out of there qualification group.

As for Argentina with Maradona at the helm and his coke induced team selection and tactics, they won’t win jack.
This burro left out both Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso, Inter Milan’s champion league winning back side along with two of the best league 1 players in both Lisandro López and Lucho González. Under a different manager, Argentina would be the team to beat considering how deep their talent pool is.

As for Nani and Simao, I say start Nani considering his explosive form and use Simao as a super sub. Maybe start Simao against North Korea to let Nani save himself for Brazil. I know Duda can be really frustrating but the kid has a lot of heart, but by all means start Fabio Coentrão over Duda. Fabio Coentrão can be the next Figo. Same goes for Miguel over Paulo Ferreira, Paulo is best left as a sub at best.

Força Portugal

Posted from  Canada

Thanks for the reply Alfonso.

My last question of the day (promise):

Who is considered the best goalkeeper on our team?? Would you consider him a strength for our team, or an average piece to the puzzle??

I’d lack to fill in for my lack of knowledge about our team BEFORE this epic event starts in two weeks! Man, it feels great to say that it will be here in two weeks!!

Justin

Posted from  United States

Did I read someone mentioning Greece totally deserved to win the Euro 2004?! If you like to watch soccer instead of counting sheep to get yourself to sleep.

Nani or Simão? Depends on what you need. If the game calls for intelligence, ball contention and accurate passing to feed a striker running into the box: Simão. If the game calls for crossing into the box hoping the strikers are there to finish: Nani. Nani is more explosive and has more potential. Might even be better one-on-one. But I think Simão is a bit more mature to read the game and know what is needed at any given moment. They could co-exist if you move CR into the box. My only grief is sometimes Simão seems completely uninterested in the game, doesn’t seem to eat the grass like Nani does.

As for who our best goalkeeper is… Eduardo. Closely followed by… Quim. But. I think Beto is the more promising one. Has the potential to be great. I’d like to see him succeed at club-level to take away any doubt – he did at Leixões and still managed to shine at Porto in time to get the call, but it is still uncertain if he will be first choice over Helton (who I totally dislike). As it stands we have a very good keeper. Very good is one notch down from great.

Posted from  Portugal

at least it’s not Ricardo anymore ..i love him to bits but every Set-Piece against us, was terrifying!! jumping with his eyes closed…

Eduardo is much better and i have total faith in him

FORCA!!!

Posted from  Sweden

Great pics to post here http://www.mixin.com/users/worldcup_portugal

Posted from  France

I keep my fingers crossed fro Tiago! hang on man and come back to support our team
http://www.frengly.com

Posted from  Luxembourg

I want a hard fought and well deserved victory against IC. Something to build on, not a mind blowing and/or stunning debut. Flying under the radar is good for PT to stay loose. Teams that peak too soon in the group stage rarely go all the way. Take for example NL in Euro 2008.

Posted from  United States

This article seems legitimate.

http://tinyurl.com/39r892u

Posted from  United States

Much better so far in first half of Cameroon game. They look like a team again.

Posted from  United States

I’m liking how so far we have been much better in this game. However, I fear for the second half. When we play well in the 1st half, we tend to get worse in the 2nd.

Shame about the second yellow for Eto’o, it’s not much of a test against 10-man. I’m not even sure why he got a second yellow to begin with. Also Duda’s acting was absolutely awful.

Not sure if I agree with you with the team part Luis, when Portugal scored (yes finally, we managed to score! and wow Mereiles can shoot on target!) C.Ronaldo was moping around instead of celebrating, that kid might be a good player but he can’t handle the pressure of being the captain it seems (and there’s nothing wrong with that).

Also at some point, right after the red card Simão went for own glory instead he should have let Liedson get the shot (he was in a much better position).

Still though Portugal are playing much better, hopefully they’ll be able to keep this up in the second half.

Who just went down for Portugal?

Posted from  United States

I will quit on this team if:

Simao continues to insist that he is the one that should shoot free kicks like in the previous Euro championship

CRonaldo doesn’t become better engaged within the overall offence (he should be behind liedson in a two striker system)

Miguel doesn’t get enough burn…Paulo Ferreira is not cutting it anymore

Posted from  United States

@Verdi
It’s looking like you were right. We are better this game. I’m hoping your right about the WC also.

Posted from  Canada

3-1 Mission acomplished!

I´m not sure if we played better now, or Cameroon played worse than Cabo Verde. Truth must be said, they played very closed but very good. Plus CMR were 1 man (only Eto´o) down…

The guy who went down is Pedro Mendes. We still don´t know how serious it is. If it´s serious it´s very bad news.

What in the hell was CQ thinkin´about, putting Danny for Liedson???

Posted from  Netherlands

3-1
definite improvement, anybody else is listening to “i gotta feeling” right now?
what i liked about this match today is that the experienced players were very good, deco and carvalho really impressed me.
i also saw that portugal can depend on many players, and not just ronaldo, we saw deco, nani, Fabio Coentrão, and of course raul meireles all deliver very good performances.
ronaldo played well, needs to be more in sync with the players, yet he showed that he his not arrogant and seeking to score himself, nice assist to a wonderful goal by nani.
FORCA PORTUGAL.

Ronaldo will be fine. He just needs to break his goal drought for the national team and all will be well. Even though he didn’t score, he still contributed. Give it time, it will come.

Posted from  United States

http://www.mixin.com/users/worldcup2010 ????

Posted from  France