Portugal 3 – 0 Hungary: Ratings

Man-of-the-Match:
Simão (8): And at the 9th game there was light. Beauty in motion. Pace and skill. The crowd stood up and cheered. Simão’s critics, myself included, were all screaming for Nani to take his place. He knew he had to shut everyone’s cake-holes. Apparently he had it in him to easily accomplish such task. And he did. First he scored then he created chances and then scored some more. And at the 81st minute left the pitch receiving a greatly deserved standing ovation. The hat is off. Sidenote: strange reaction after scoring our first goal. He seemed disappointed?!

Eduardo (6): One great save in the early stage of the game but then there was that crap exit to intercept a cross at the 46th minute. Made me sooooo uneasy. Still does. Didn’t have anything to do for the entire second half.

Bosingwa (6): Didn’t do his usual runs down the flank except maybe on two occasions. In one of them the ball went straight out. Solid enough in the back.

Duda (5): I would have given him a 4 if it wasn’t for the cross that led to the 3rd goal. His performance was just laden with irregularities. Bad defending resorting to fouls. Lousy crossing. Clearly our weakest link.

Carvalho (6): Discreet performance. Missed a clear chance at the 44th minute to finish off the game earlier.

Alves (7): Every time Hungary tried the direct approach volleying the ball over our midfield trying to find their strikers you would see Alves fly over them fencing off danger. Impressive. Also impressed with his calm when his volley-pass found Liedson for the second goal.

Mendes (8): The search is over. After Costinha left the team we kept testing solutions to fill the void. Pepe was good. Mendes is better. I can’t remember a bad pass. Carvalho’s discreet performance might well be because Mendes held them at a safe distance. He covered a lot of ground. Had Simão not scored that second goal and I would have Mendes top of the list.

Meireles (6): If you look at Meireles’s movements on the pitch you understand why Queiroz (and Jesualdo Ferreira at Porto) like him so much. After passing the ball he always moves into a receiving position. Frequently you will find him next to the striker and reading game headlines from past games it is very frequent you will find his name next to big chances. Unfortunately they are big MISSED chances. It happened this game as well. It wouldn’t surprise me if in most games he was the player that did more miles. He is one of the few players that takes the risk of trying to score from long range shots. Because so far he failed miserably at it the critics turn the volume up a notch. I confess I have mixed feelings about the lad. For comparison’s sake I would like to see Moutinho have a go.

Deco (6): Deco has an ON/OFF switch somewhere. I swear someone sometimes gives him a knock at a certain angle an the switch flips. When the switch is ON he’s a delight and Portugal plays better. When he gets that knock he disappears from the pitch for a while and our game suffers.
When Queiroz subbed Simão for Veloso I felt Deco had nothing more to give. He wasn’t running anymore. His pace was gone. His last effort was a shot at the 66th minute. Switch went OFF shortly after.

Liedson (7): He just doesn’t stop. No ball is lost to his intention of seeing it in the back of the net. With him on the pitch the team seems to really feel there is a deadly striker out there ready to give any ball sent his way the proper direction. In previous games you might find players taking shots themselves perhaps due to the lack of confidence in our striker. But now they seek out Liedson. Our second goal proves this theory. His presence on the pitch I’m sure has some psychological effect on his team mates. 3 Games (209min) 2 goals!

Ronaldo (6): Only 27m on the pitch but enough to leave his mark. His shot/cross allowed Simão to score the 1st goal. He was clearly hyped to play the game. His ankle wasn’t. Misses next game against Malta.

Nani (6): He wants to be Ronaldo so badly. Mind you the kid is full of good intentions. But he just sucks at being Ronaldo and needs to keep things simple. His eagerness to do just one more move has us all frustrated and desiring the real deal back, because that one extra move usually means the ball slips out of control and another opportunity is lost. I can only recall one great shot half way through the second half that got defended by the Hungarian goalkeeper. He has magnificent feet and pace to go with but urgently needs to tone down on the individualism.

Veloso, Nuno Gomes (-): Not enough time on the pitch to properly evaluate.

Carlos Queiroz (7): He took a risk when he placed Pedro Mendes in the starting eleven. His critics would have a field day if it went wrong. He also stuck with Simão Sabrosa. These two reasons alone would suffice for his rating but then there’s the overall team performance. I don’t mind a team that sometimes releases possession to the adversary giving them the illusion of being on top while keeping it very solid at the back only to turn up in critical times of the game. You can’t always dominate from beginning to end. If you do, you might end up thinking the game is won and then suddenly you find 2 more in the back of YOUR net (Portugal 2-3 Denmark), and all the while YOU were dominating and playing beautiful soccer but still have to explain the loss.
The team had 3 weak links: defensive midfield (what we like to call “trinco”), striker and left-back. Queiroz fixed 2 with Liedson and Mendes. If he could only find that LB…