Euro 2012 Playoff: Portugal VS Bosnia

What about striker? We can't trust Postiga/Almeida to be consistent... that is why I encourage bento to take a chance on grooming Oliveira. He is our guy for 2012. And he'll turn 21.

Ronaldo, Nani, Moutinho, Martins, Veloso, Pereira, Patricio... what do they all have in COMMON?

And where are they now?

Tonel's been tearing it up.

I don't know what the deal was against Denmark, i guess Rolando just needs to get used to his partners or it was just a really bad day for him. In FC Porto he rarely makes bad decisions like that.

This year he hasn't been great for Porto, either. I guess he just has a slump in form, hopefully temporary.

Video for Portugal vs Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-2: Youtube auto replay. Good games for Portugal.

he has to if we have any hope next year. he's our best hope. since deco left, we haven't had a bonafide playmaker to attract the defense and open up the wings.

No kidding.

They develop talent and then they leave all pissed off for peanuts...Veloso, Martins, Moutinho.


Just to show you how stupid and how full of shi t Z is.

Z goes on about Veloso, a player who hasn't done shit all until he played a so-so team in Bosnia.

The same player who forced his way out of SPORTEM, essentially embarrassing the club publicly.

As for Bosingwa and Caravalho, even though I'm not a big Bento fan and don't see what he's done in the past that would warrant a national team post, I do think he's right. There's no way in hell both players should be welcome back. Caravalho bolted and Bosingwa faked an injury in order not to play.

What I'd like to see now though is Danny told the same thing. Danny opted out of playing both games with some bull sh it excuse. If Bento is going to be consistent, Danny needs to be also told that he is persona non grata.

Can we leave the club wars out of this?

I was not a huge fan of his but I have to admit that he had a great game. I think that part of that was the support that he had from Miguel Veloso.
As far as Ronaldo goes, I was truly impressed and proud of how he stepped up and lead this team. He looked like our captain. Well done Ronaldo. Im not as concerned as many with our defense. Yesterday we allowed two goals, PS and an offside goal. Not bad when you consider how offensive our team was yesterday. What concerns me more is our lack of depth on our back four should anyone get injured.

Do you know who can this guy be? Is it Quaresma? Anyway, a bit of nice skill from yesterday.
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Yeah, that's got to be Quaresma. I seem to see a Mohawk in between pixels 5 and 6. Also, he came in shortly after. For pure street skillz, he's your man. Once you put him on a pitch though, skillz is mostly what he offers, often to the detriment of simple, team soccer.

I can't see the video but if that's someone warming up controlling and juggling Veloso's overhit longball then that's Quaresma, crazy skill but doesn't know what to do with it lol

A few notes.

Our superstars stepped up. Goals 1 and 2 by Ronnie and Nani were magnificent. Those were 35+ yard bombs. There is no greater calming effect on a team than to see your stars step up and deliver.

The 3 biggest questions marks for me going in were: Joao Pereira, Veloso and Postiga. All 3 played very well. JP did not make a false move all game and Veloso was unexpectedly, even remarkably dominant as a DM. Wish somebody would count the number of takeaways he got (including in the lead-up to the crucial 3rd goal). The triangle Moutinho, Veloso, Meireles + Pepe as stopper was imperious. The only 2-3 threats Bosnia managed to mount came from the wings. I also very much like (always have actually) Veloso's left-foot deliveries from dead-balls (1st game corners excluded). That FK alone will pay dividends going forward as keepers will have to guess between Ronaldo's piledrivers and Veloso's curlers from the right side of the field. A great asset.
Postiga was clinical in his finishes and did well to dribble by 2 players and earn a PK in the 1st half (terrible diving call by ref). He also held up the ball well. I know he's undersized and he's far from WC quality but I love seeing him put goals away with such confidence. Kudos to the guy. All the same, I wouldn't mind seeing Nelson Oliveira starting to apprentice in friendlies and such. He has far more potential than either Postiga or Almeida have ever shown (that U-20 finals game against Brasil he was jaw-droopingly good) .

Coentrao had a bear of a game for ~60 min. Beaten a couple of times, out of position another couple, then the stupid hand-ball and the giveaway that led to the 2nd goal. That being said, he didn't cower after that. The last 1/2 hour he played very well and started goals #4 and beautiful cross for #6.

Overall, I also liked the team's response after the gut-shots of the two PK decisions at the end of the half. Under CQ and Scolari we would have played 45 min of panicky, bunker defense. Under PB, there is never a sense of panic, the players kept their cool, and continued to press high and tight, leading to a huge number of steals in midfield (see goals 3 and 4) and a comfortable victory.

One concern going forward is our problems handing crosses in the box in the last 3-4 games. We have looked vulnerable every time a team has bombed the ball into the area. This is a bit puzzling as Alves is a giant and generally good in the air. But there seems to be a lot of misassignments and confusion on dead ball deliveries and crosses. Hated seeing Coentrao covering Dzeko over and over again on crosses yesterday. 2 causes are probably the absence of Carvalho (positional general) and the small stature of our MF and FBs (and if Postiga, rather than Almeida is on the field). No easy solution for either problem but hopefully something that Bento can work on over the coming year.

In the meantime, let's enjoy the big victory and start making careful vacation plans for next summer... ;-)

Can't believe Portugal actually ended up in the play-offs after watching the game yesterday :?

Why? Quick answer: Carlos Queiroz.


But don't worry my friend, we will see you here in Brazil in 2014 together with Portugal.

I really believe you will top your qualifying group.

We the Portuguese enjoy doing certain things the hard way. Gives us a greater sense of accomplishment.

Brilliant post, repped.

As soon as I knew Veloso was going to take that freekick, I told my family three times or more that he had 75% of scoring. He's a beast from that side.

If it wasn't for the bad ref we would be calm for the whole match. Nevertheless, dipluso is right, our defensive line seems to screw up for some reason. Kudos for Pepe though, he was a giant on both legs.

Re-watching the game, I'm concerned with Alves. He wasn't that great. And does bento go with Eduardo/Patricio for the WC prep games?

Belated congrats on making it to Poland/Ukraine! The EURO 2012 without a big football nation like Portugal - simply unimaginable!

Let's hope for the following exciting group now. )

Spain
Germany
Portugal
France.