WCQ '14 Playoff: Portugal vs Sweden [R]

So for all of you who believe Mendes has a say in national team selections, William Carvalho has now signed with his agency leaving Zahavis agency.

 

aiiiighhhht so does anyone have a live stream for the draw tomorrow? I know fifa said the draw will be on their site tomorrow, not sure if they mean it'll be streamed though. Draw will be 9am to 9:15am eastern time dudes.

 

Absolutely agree. It has always been the coaching. Scolari, undoubtedly, has been our best coach but he screwed up in 2004. Portugal should have won. Dumb tactics.

Portugal is incredible in developing talent... But the politics of the game is Effin up our chances. Look at Canada MST, there is a reason why we suck; too many idiots running the program. And I really feel Canada has some good talent.

As I said before, Mourinho, when he coaches the NT, we'll finally win a title. Good coaching is hard to find tough.

 

Yup. The next generational talent is ready and loaded. Gotta stay positive. Look at Spain; they've sucked so many years only to produce in the last four tourneys -- wanna know why? Development & Generational talent.

Our TIME will COME! Be patient.

 

Games won:3
Games drawn:6
Games lost:6
15 games v Sweden, they with the better record against us we last lost to them in 1984

 

Good, they are up against a real team. That should motivate them to not take them lightly and play for real.

Portugal has a tendency to ''hold back'' when playing against low ranking teams.

Sweden being for real, now that is good to get Portugal competitive and serious.

 

This will be tough. I haven't watched Sweden recently but it looks like they are a stronger squad than last time we had to deal with them. They were in a far tougher group (Germany, Austria and Ireland) and they got almost as many points as us... Not to mention the wacky scorefest against Germany suggests they are more willing to slug it out (which might benefit us, frankly - we probably play better against a team like that rather than a park-the-bus routine).
We are favorites but I am expecting a very cagy set of matches, at least until the visiting team scores.
I don't like starting at home. I always feel that's a disadvantage as we'll play too conservatively in the hope not to concede and may end up with an unfavorable 1-1 draw or something like that and then be forced to open up play in the 2nd match.
All the same, this is far better than having to face France.

 

I think we hold the advantage over Sweden, but set pieces will be very scary.

I am thinking I should put my address here, if I don't post anything within 24 hours of the first game, that means I have had a heart attack and I am probably dead.

 

Ibracadabra has the potential on destroy our whole defense if we are sleeping. I expect Bruno Alves to be a bigger "caceteiro" than normal to contain him.

 

Both legs are obviously crucial, but if we don't leave with a win at home, i'll be seriously nervous for the second leg.

 

If you can win the home match and park the bus in Sweden you definitely have a chance to qualify.

Pepe and Alves' physical strength should be enough to avoid Zlatan from scoring goals, but you never know with him and both players need to be in good shape.

I'm rooting for you. Força Portugal!

 

Ibra and Toivenen are going to cause trouble..Bruno Alves is on the downswing of his career..no more dominating performances alongside Pepe in shutting down Dzeko like in 2009/2011.

Their defense is really weak though, and the midfield is organized and combative, but lacks that explosive creativity.

All depends on the form of our top players, if Ronaldo/Nani/Moutinho/Pepe/Coentrao/JP/Veloso are in good form we should be ok..if not we're going to struggle.

Playing away to Sweden in the middle of November is going to suck.

 

The fact that Greece has a better chance at making WC then us, just makes me shake my head. Sweden is no gimme, this team is good. Competition is what we needed but remember when the doubters had said we couldn't make it out of the GROUP IF DEATH but we did.

Ronaldo will have to be the leader once again. In CR I trust!

Grande Portugal!

 

I'd play Bruma-Ronaldo-Nani attack in the home match, as Ronaldo is the best Portuguese finisher at the moment.

 

Why? Match is played on friends arena (built 2012) with a closed roof and constant 20C in the air.

 

Portugal ......shit!. I knew it was gonna happen. In the past 2 draws I've been praying/hoping for Sweden to avoid Europes qualifying machines Germany or Holland in the EC/WC QF campaigns. Our two latest opponents from pot 1 have been Holland and Germany.

For the playoff I was hoping for Greece but rather than getting Greece, my main hope was any team that was not Portugal so its only natural Sweden will get the one team to avoid. Unfortunately for us, we are overall worse than the last time our 2 countries faced eachother. The last time around, Sweden had a very tough time with the goalscoring, a problem that doesn't exist any longer but the defense is the worst it's ever been since I started following the NT. Sweden changed BOTH it's central defenders 2/3 into the qualifying campaign. The replacements have been just as crap.

I'll keep my hopes up and Sweden has managed to slay the giants on numerous occasions but it does suck to go through a grueling qualifying campaign and then get "rewarded" with Portugal standing between you and a World Cup summer

 

If we keep it closed which i doubt we will when Portugal is visiting.

 

I will wait for both games to be done before checking the scoreline.