What did everyone think of the performances by the players/coach during the Euros? GK: Patricio=7.5/10- Fantastic reflexes and shot stopping, almost got his hand to Bendtners second goal, and looked good in net. My only issue with him is that at times he starts to come out to gather a cross, but then hesistates and runs back....but that security should come with more age/experience Eduardo/Beto= did not play DF: Pepe= 9/10- BEAST. Probably the best centreback of the tournament besides Hummels, and he made superb interceptions and clearences from in tight. His speed/athletism was on display, just hope in 2 years when he's 31 at the world cup he can still perform the same way. Bruno Alves= 8/10- Strong in the air, aggressive marking, good understanding with Pepenbeauer with solid positioning...but his lack of foot speed and inaccurate long range passing caused some moments of concern. Overall he was very steady and offers the steel and set piece ability Portugal often lacked against strong teams. Rolando= 6/10- Didn't play much, coming on in defensive cameo's to hold a lead against the Dutch/Czechs. He did ok, but his poor positioning and lack of foot speed caused van persie to bear in on goal late on and he always seems to act in desperation, not maintaining a cool head, when clearing the ball. Joao Periera= 7/10- Far better than originally expected. While he was beat a few times defensively against the likes of Robben/Jordi Alba/Pilar/Iniesta..he battled hard and wasn't the open highway everyone feared he would be. He possesses a good engine and links up well in attack, the assist to Ronaldo against Holland being sublime. He's still a weakness with in swinging aerial crosses from the opposite flank though. Fabio Coentrao= 8/10- I want to give him a higher mark, but he lost some of his fabled 1 v 1 ability, and doesnt beat a man as much anymore when bombing down the wing. Besides that however, he was exceptional defensively for the most part, contributed to the attack being one of the few outlets in transition and offered up an assist and adding depth to our attack. Just wish he could rediscover that ability to just dribble by a player to create space/mismatches in attack as often as he did when he was at Benfica Miguel Lopes/R Costa didnt play MF: Miguel Veloso= 7/10- What a shocking performance, coming into this tournament riding the bench for a Genoa squad that barely escaped relegation, having various defensive holes in his game, he was a worry. However, he covered a lot of space and grew into the role game by game, leading to a strong performance against Holland where he positioned himself well in the dutch passing lanes intercepting a lot of plays, and growing more comfortable in transporting the ball up the field. Raul Meireles=6.5/10- I thought he was quite average, he left his shooting boots at home and misplaced numerous passes. He worked hard but for a team that lacks a playmaker he needed to provide more going forward. Against Spain it must be said though that he was a pitbull, and heavily contributed to the disruption of their passing game and didn't let them walk into our half until he ran out of gas. Joao Moutinho=8/10- Exceptional against the Czechs, but most notably against Spain. Not only for linking play and driving forward, but his defensive workrate and capability to recover the ball was oustanding....he proved he has a place in the Portuguese midfield going forward until a better box to box ala maniche comes along. He struggled against the germans and danes, but grew into the tournament throughout the dutch match. Custodio=6.5/10- Nothing flashy, worked hard and closed down well in all his cameos. not the most talented of players, but one whose brain, positoning, and decision making makes him a decent defensive minded option off the bench. Viana/Miceal didn't play FWDS: C.Ronaldo=8/10- Overall he had a very strong tournament, 3 goals, 4 posts, created some chances his teammates missed. But he shanked that great chance against Spain in the 90th minute...which would have been the icing on the cake to cap off a great 90 minutes where Portugal did what they had to do...the team needed that goal as they were about to start running on fumes. I also dislike how the forward always has to cover his wing defensively because Ronaldo is a bity lazy..what other superstar is accommodated like that? Nani=7.5/10- He had a couple of assists, but he lacked an explosive performance where he terrorized the opposition throughout the game(like vs spain in that 4-0 friendly where he was stunning). He was steady, created decently, defended well, but lacked a goal he was capable of delivering and today againsty Spain when he needed a big performance he was a bit "apagado". I think that injury he got the last minute against Turkey was hindering him from reaching full flight. Varela=7/10- Considering how he was utalized, he did his job as an impact substitute wonderfully against Germany/Denmark, and scored a HUGE goal that turned the Euro for the squad. Couldn't ask for much when he came on against Spain with 7 minutes left and a completely gassed squad. Postiga= 6.5/10- The best of the worst, he has a brain, has a decent touch, moves well to create space for the wingers, defends well from the front, and scored a goal. Could have used him tonight as Ronaldo would have had more space to operate and he's always good for a confident cheeky penalty. Hugo Almeida= 5/10-An oxcart, a third centreback, his lack of mobility really hindered ronaldo/nani today, and while he holds the ball ok at times he spurned the few chances he had, blew his shots high and wide, and had the ball at the top of the 18, with nani running free on his left, but elected to blast over with his coveted left foot. Nelson Oliveira= 5/10- The kid. Well that perfectly underlines his tournament. The skill, mobility, and speed are evident when he plays, but he just utterly lacks experience and proper decision making to utalize them at this level so far..pretty much a non factor against Holland and Spain. Ricardo Quaresma= didnt play Paulo Bento- Have to give him some leeway here, he took a disjointed and fractured squad to the Euros after qualification hopes seemed to be receding into the distance. Navigated one of the strongest groups in the history of futebol, and give a historical Spanish team it's toughest test with lets be honest, a pretty average Portugal squad in terms of talent compared to the previous 12 years. Most players will be back for a run to qualify for Brazil 2014..heres hoping manuel fernandes comes good because a talented midfielder off the bench was desperately needed, custodio was the only option today, and it pretty much destroyed any portuguese forward momentum..an injection of control, speed, and quality was needed, but not available. Maybe some of the good players from u21/u19 can step up and reinforce the team. Ronaldo will be 29, I'm worried his already diminished natural dribbling ability 1 v 1 will deteriorate further leading to that age..it's going to be his last chance.
Pretty accurate, I guess.Fabio Coentrao was the player of the tourney for me, The kid is everything a player should be. High work ethic, passionate and willing to sacrifice. He was a beast. Someone else will take his place. His selfishness at times is disgusting but I am sure we'll have another good winger in the midst. It is time to call up Vierinha over Quaresma. He is much better and has proven that he can play. And don't forget about the little midget, Agra. The kid is a fireball.
Area 51: I think your ratings and observations are right on target. I would rate Veloso one higher (8/10). What a huge, huge surprise. Our worst player before the tourney turned stellar performance after performance against the midfields of Germany, Spain and Netherlands. He was never out of place defensively, likely had the most steals and made a ton of good short range passes. In minute 89 of game against Spain he runs upfield on the counter, chests down Nani's excellent but tricky pass and feeds Meireles in one smooth motion (with his right foot, no less). That was great quality and clutch play from Nani and Veloso at a crucial point in the game. In counterpoint, we have Meireles - who had a great defensive workrate but his final product was often frustrating. Aside from Quarterfinals his passing was always a bit off and never more evident than in the same exact play where he shanked the pass BEHIND Ronaldo (the ball was so poorly hit it was spinning away from Ronaldo). A better delivery there and this post-mortem wouldn't be happening... Man of the tournament for me? Paulo Bento. Easily. How he turned this fragile, collection of individual players from 2010 into a cohesive team is a testament to his tactical/strategic skills. Portugal's unheralded midfielders managed to go toe-to-toe against the likes of Spain, Germany and Netherlands and must have held the ball for 10-15 minutes against the Czechs without giving it up. His masterpiece was certainly the defensive scheme against Spain yesterday. I said beforehand that there was no way we could press high for 90 minutes against Spain. Wrong. We did. I've never seen Spain's midfield so unsure of itself. I've never seen them hoof "speculative" long balls to a hopeful target up front or straight out of play. Did anyone notice some of the tactical moves we were using? We would alternate sending out one midfielder to press really hard on ball carrier while all short passing routes were plugged up and the entire backline was moved up high to cover balls over the top? The only passes they had were lower percentage long crossfield passes or a slow work-around the back line and most of the time they tried to hit the wingers, JP and Coentrao would step in front of them. Did you even notice David Silva was playing?! Spain was clearly surprised by this scheme. Almost every team they've played for the last 4-5 years have bunkered against them but I can count in one hand the number of times they actually managed to bring the ball up cleanly against our area during the first 90 minutes. The biggest disappointment of the game was seeing Almeida miss the target with 3 medium difficultly shots from his favorite left side. The perfect opportunity for his great cannon left foot to live up to its early promise and all wasted. You wonder if Postiga had been in the same position if he'd have missed 3 times... The other disappointment was the lack of impact of our super subs Nelo and Varela. But given how thin our bench was, it was simply a miracle we even made it to the semifinals to begin with and Nelo and Varela had certainly done their part in previous games. All in all, gutted for how close we were to dethrone the #1 team in the World but proud of how hard the team played. In contrast to the cowardly way Queiroz made us play in WC2010 (what an embarrassment that was), this team played with balls and brains. This was a team unlike any other previous NT. Less individual technical skill but much better team play and strategic/tactical discipline. One tiny improvement here or there and we are ready to challenge for a major title (priority #1 is a better than average striker). A deeper bench the 2nd priority. The other 2 major concerns - keeper and DM - passed with flying colors in this tournament. Kudos to the whole team for making his proud. Let them enjoy their well deserved vacation (and hope that Ronaldo stops thinking about that missed chance in minute 89).
Yeah, but look at how many minutes they got. In ET, it was obvious Portugal wanted to play for PK's. Nelo came in 10 minutes before regulation. Varela came in in ET. Hardly time to make an impact. I don't understand why Bento did not play Varela as a central striker. He is more useful than the big lug. Speed is of such importance upfront.
As I was looking through the post-tournament content on the Guardian's (UK newspaper) Euro 2012 website, I noticed that a number of Portuguese were on their writers' Teams of the Tournament (no small feat considering they. The following Portuguese were listed on at least one all-tournament team (13 different writers had their team listed), with only Patricio failing to make multiple teams (number of teams made in parentheses): Rui Patricio (1) Joao Pereira (3) Pepe (4) Ronaldo (10) Coentrao (2) Moutinho (2) Also, the UEFA Technical Team's All-Euro 2012 Team listed Pepe, Coentrao and Ronaldo on a full 23-man squad. They put 10 Spanish on the team and only two players whose team didn't reach the semis (Gerrard and Ibrahimovic), so obviously they weren't trying to balance the team out based on nationality. Not quite sure how Gerrard was better than Moutinho, though. In the end, without getting into specifics regarding strengths and weaknesses shown by each player, the individual performances by the Portuguese are a great sign for the future. As long as everyone is healthy, the players who received the most positive reviews should all be around for 2014, if not 2016 and further into the future. Pepe should have at least two tournaments left, Pereira could continue past 2014 if he is in form, Ronaldo past 2016. Nani, Moutinho, Coentrao, Patricio and Veloso are all of an age that could have them representing Portugal to 2018 and beyond. Whether you love all of these guys or not, they are a very solid core which could win a triphy at some point. If a striker can be found (please, for the love of all that is good, call up Vaz Te and let him prove his worth or lack thereof) and a more influential attacking mid added to the lineup, then 2014 and 2016 prove very interesting!