Oh okay, so that's it then. I was wondering if he suffered a bad injury or something and never lived up to the potential.
Maybe others may have a detailed answer for you, but Bento used him in the last Euro and he never lived up. IIRC he even made some selfish plays
yeah it's kinda dumb really. i think they should let them play out 90 minutes or peno kicks at least. anything but flipping a coin anyway
Ya I remember the Euro but I chalked that up to him being twenty years old. Watching our woes with Almeida and Postiga reminded me we were supposed to have a world class forward by now in the form of Nelo.
Agree. Bento must stop the bullshit. This is do or die. Look at your roster, see which player didn't play and put them out there. I will play either Verininha or Amorim at left back. Put Neto in for Alves. Play Moutinho, Carvalho, and Rafa at midfield. Play Nani Varela and Ronaldo upfront. We need speed in the back. I notice in the friendly matches that Portugal looked slow in the back.
Why is Tiago not on this team. It's not like he's ancient. He's the same age as Meireles and a much better player.
I think in all honesty Germany will probably win maybe 1 0 or 2 1 so we need to score score and score some more. Maybe its time to go with 3 defenders ala Netherlands vs Spain. Go with pepe, JP, Neto Carvalho, moutinho, veleso, rafa in the mid and nani varela Ronaldo up front.
I'm late to the conversion of who to start, but I wouldn't start Veloso at LB. I think he's been atrocious this tournament. I'm confused because I thought he looked quicker than I had seen him in years in the preparation games. At LB he'd get burned. I'd risk Almeida out there and make sure he knows his job isn't to win the game, but to not ******** it up for everyone else. I'd go with: Eduardo JP-Neto-Pepe-AA William Moutinho-Rafa Vieirinha-CR7-Nani Let your most creative players (the 5 ahead of William) do what they do. Just let them play. William destroys things behind them, and Pepe takes someone's head off in the 91st minute once the game is lost. I think Ghana is going to come out balls to the wall, and I see Portugal putting a lazy performance together, tbh. I'm really afraid that Portugal is going to embarrass themselves; not because they play poorly, but because of their effort/attitude.
Embarrass themselves? They've already done that. This is a game where EFFORT matters. There is still hope and playing the kids wont hurt. Let's see where their at.
Agree. Missing Coentrao hurts. Imagine if Figuieras was selected, you could play him at RB with FC on the left if he were healthy. Dangerous duo. Neto is another solid D man but he gets no respect.
Ronaldo have no trouble calling out players. He as the captain must tell Bento what is needed to win.
The germany - usa game will play out like this: germany will score first and lead for most of the game 1-0, at which point the ref will award the u.s with a penalty. The question is whether it is likrly to be a legit call. This absolves both low and klinsmann of any collusion and puts it squarely on officiating.
You guys all worried about the US and Germany colluding…. Portugal needs to beat Ghana by 2 or 3 goals. You do realize the task at hand right? It won't be because of Klinsmann being German that Portugal is going back to the Algarve before July.
I did say after the Germany game that we would tie the USA and smash Ghana like 7-0 to go through I will stick by that lmao
I hope you are right my friend, this is soccer.. anything can happen, we have seen weirder things, and i will not give up hope no matter how much is stacked against our team.. it is not over untill it is over and the team has left Brazil.
I haven't seen anything weirder than a terrible team (Portugal in it's current state) beating a team that has an actual possibility of being successful in the World Cup.