2014 World Cup Qualifying [R]

I know we do well in tournaments but we are starting to take this whole qualifying thing for granted. We know we play like crap and still feel some entitlement to qualify. Luck will run out sooner or later.

 

Qualifying or not, supporting and actually getting excited about A Selecção would be more natural if things were done properly in the FPF. As far as I'm concerned.

 

Agreed and that's my fear too

 

Neto to replace Pepe against Russia? Jeez we're thin at CB.

 

Why not Nunes ?

 

As it stands right now portugal if team that is currently second in their group were to catch up to the 7 games which portugal has played and take maximum points(highly unlikely) and the points against the bottom placed team taken away this would be the situation.

Croatia 10
Bulgaria 7
Austria 8
Hungary8
Albania 7
Portugal 8
Greece 10
Montenegro 8
France 10

Bulgaria fall out due to inferior goal difference.

Top seeds
Portugal, France, Croatia, Greece

Montenegro, Albania, Austria, Hungary

If we can't beat those four sides we shouldn't be in brazil.

However this will all change because there are so many tight groups with heaps of quality. My fear is a side like Croatia or England could miss out due to the unbalanced nature of the groups. Group E and G are a joke how two groups like that come together makes no sense. Europe is so difficult to qualify from groups like that make it even tougher.

 

Portugal once again proves to be clutch when the cards are against them. I don't think Russia will slip up that bad to let go of first place, but Portugal should be easily in the playoff against a much inferior opponent.

 

Albania has the oppertunity to finish second in their group. I have my fingers crossed for your team.



Hope to see you in Brazil

 

Personally, I can't say I have seen too much of Neto, have you???

Pepe, on the other hand, I've been watching and he's been falling off. Personally, I was never a huge fan of his, even from his Porto days because he lacks any real discipline. He's like Ricardo Carvalho without any of the controlled tackling. We'll miss him, but in the long run keeping him on the team would bring more headaches than solutions.

 

Because it's extremely hard to bring a player that's towards the last third of their career into the national team where there has already been established leaders for a long time. He's a good player but you don't want to imbalance the longevity of the current squad. Nunes has a lot of experience, and while that can prove crucial sometimes, it's better to focus on the team-unit as a whole. Neto still has something to prove, Nunes would be playing with his only chance.

 

He sure showed a lot that game, however once pepe is back in form I am sure he will be back in the starting XI

 

You're right, and I gotta say Neto impressed me in this last game.

 

Lahm? Ramos? Chiellini? Alba? I think you're putting him on a really high pedestal this way. Yes, Pepe had a good tournament in 2012. What does this have to do with 2013 or 2014?

 

LOL pepe was amazing at euro and some of those players u mention aren't cb bud
Cb is a completely different position

But yet again I've known your a joke for a while
With zero football knowledge .

 

Pepe was a monster in defense for Portugal during the Euro, that can't be denied. That was quite possibly the best football I have ever seen him play.

 

I'd agree, i think people are forgetting what happened at the Euros, we lost to Spain in a semi final shoot out and were the only team to really take it to Spain. If we had a bit more quality on the bench to call upon we may have won it in normal time

 

No kidding heck even if postiga played instead of almeida things could have been different
(Almeida messed up every attack and postiga is a good Pen kicker )

But Avs prolly only caught glimpses of euro matches during breaks between board meetings at whatever fortune 100 company he is CEO

 

Eder can't back from injury quick enough, Almeida surprises me every time he plays and not in a good way.

 

I was talking about defenders not CB in specific.

Ja sabes ha tanto tempo, mas ainda assim nao podes resistir de servir-nos todos com 'uma das tuas.' Obrigado meninho pelo entretenimento, mas espero que algum dia cresces para seres homem em vez de um puro miudo chatissimo.

 

I was speaking exclusively in regards to defenders, not specific position. Also, Ramos was in the centre for Spain, of the ones I had listed only Lahm and Alba were played out-wide, but everyone knows Lahm can play in the centre just as well as he can out on the flank. And I would personally have taken even Daniel Agger into our team before Pepe. He had a good tournament, I am not denying that (thick skin maybe prevents people from actually reading what I say in its entirety but what do I expect when you still have life-devoted trolls around here?), but there needs to be a lot more than EURO 2012 performance that goes into deciding whether someone makes the grade for 2014, and I hope Paulo Bento is more aware of that then the typical forum-goer here. (What's next? Eusebio up front? He was EXCELLENT in 1966!"

Pepe had a few good games, yes, but that's not enough to merit entrance for World Cup 2014, which is what the debate is, not whether there are better CBs in the world (which there are). You would think after JVP's behavior in World Cup 2002, you wouldn't need to argue as to why temperamental characters might not be our best assets, but it runs deeper than this. He's a clumsy, temperamental Ricardo Carvalho, why do we really want a player like that? His best attribute, his aggression, is also his worst. He played his part in the tournaments we called him for, but we should not be dependent on him for any spot on the team, nevermind if it's in CB or DMC like he has played before.

 

I was hoping you would be gone already.

What's wrong, unemployment line too long?