will they win, lose or tie.. I think portugals going to tie........there going to come out slow(AGAIN) and concede an early goal...but they come back and control the flow of the game and finish in a 2-2 tie..........
Portugal/England Is Portugal going to play any young players? If not, I think the current generation of English players will dominate Portugal. Euro 2000 was a fluke, get over it.
imo england will win by a goal or 2. england is a very talented team n for some years they will only get better with some age. portugal needs to start over
I agree I don't think Portugal at the moment will have the momentum in there favor I hate to say it the last two friendlies against England Portugal lost the two games 3-0. But Portugal did better in European Cup in 2000 a 3-2 win, also in the World Cup in 86 Portugal defeated England 1-0 and after the game the players went on strike, and they lost the next two games. I will say England 3-Portugal-1
Portugal needs to worry about not being embarassed in Euro 04, and not about meaningless friednlies two years before.
Portugal will not get embaressed in 04. First, I got a feeling the Federation will get a new president soon. Madail his not having the support of the government as of yesterday. Second the new president will pick a coach, that will have talent players all over the place. You can't pass the talent players like Xavier a started at the moment for Liverpool and bring a bunch of kids with no experience to play England on the road, that's asking for murder.
The federation and the coach are not Portugal's problems. If the United States can give them a game in the World Cup, you have alot more problems than you think.
If we had Quim in goal the story of the game with the USA with been different. Portugal youth system with players like Hugo Viana, Quaresma, Postiga, Tiago, Simao will do better then the pass crop. Don't worry about Portugal, I'm not, I just got back from Portugal last Wednesday and had the time of my life. Soccer, Soccer and more Soccer. Everynight were games been televise, we have three sport newspapers covering the teams, the country his not effected by the Portugal lost. For years teams like Sporting, Porto and Benfica, are ahead of the national team. Benfica didn't win anything in the last 8 years and still sellout its games.
Don't get mad at me. What was the other great Portuguese international tournament result since 1950? I love Eusebio as much as the next guy, but under 17 tournaments don't count for much.
That would be either 1966 or 2000. What were England's other great results? 1966 and 1996. I think England will win, but Portugal will be fine. The upcoming friendlies are important for the development of Viana, Quaresma, et al. They will do far from embarassing themselves in 2004.
By emparassment, I mean not progressing very far. Portugal plays a very attractive brand of football when the pressure isnt there. Thats my point more than anything. Can Portugal balance the experience of the previous generation and the deveoplement of the next one?
You don't think Portugal was in any pressure in Euro 00 when they beat England 3-2? What about Euro 84 when Portugal was beating France and Platini in the semi-finals 2-1 with 5 minutes to the end, and a bad call hurt the portuguese chances of reaching the final, not counting a 1-0 Portuguese win over England in WC 86, the only time England beats Portugal is when they have a friendly game.
I repeat again the only time England beat Portugal since 1950 its been in friendly games, because some stupid coach's like the interim coach that leaves out experience players like Xavier a starting player for Liverpool and Quim in two games for the portuguese saves two penalty shoots and for a lower club got two shootouts, so far. I just wish Benfica would signed Quim and they would definettely be the champion, with Moreira its a bunch of question marks.
Re: Portugal/England It wasn't a fluke? On what basis do you come to that conclusion. The only thing that was a fluke was Portugal's performance in Korea. Had Figo and Costa been 100% fit, Portugal would have been playing in the seminfinals, even with that sad excuse for a coach that they had.
1966 World Cup -- third place finish. Frankly, the result of the friendly does not matter at all. The only thing that matters is making sure that some of the talented young players -- Simao, Viana, Andrade, et. al. -- begin to get integrated again into the team. That is all that matters. And, Nawlins, I can assure you that Portugal will NOT be embarrassed at EURO 2004. The US win in June was a great win for America, and the product of a superior game plan from Arena and strong US execution in the first 30 minutes. If you watch the tape again, you will see that the US hung on for dear life at the end of the game. And, in football, these things happen. The favorites do not always win (see 2002 WC results for France, Argentina, Italy, et. al.).
Fluke my ass.........we kicked your guys asses.......... Big time..we were just to skillfull for you. We beat Germany 3-0 withe our B-team. and that was no fluke........ We should have beaten france but that game was already decided before the game started. After the first round the experts picked us to win the tournoment.......we would of except for the damn cheating lineman in the France game.
We playes ************ ************ AND MORE ************ against the USA.If our coach was actually smart we would have won.......
I'm waiting to hear what you'll be saying after we come out stronger in '06. In the coming years there'll be none of this nonsense that the USA giving someone a game is shameful for the other participant. The funny thing about WC '02 for the Portuguese was their press hanging on to the prayer that Figo and Rui Costa were 100% when it was so obvious to the rest of the world that they weren't. I wouldn't be surprised if Portugal wins this game with England, at least they won't be running around like chickens with their heads cut off like the English generally do.
I am not quite sure about that, Wanderer. If you had any clue about the caliber of player in the 17 - 24 age range that Portugal has, you may not be so quick to say that. It wasn't the press that was holding on as much as it was the stubborn head coach. I spent time in Portugal this summer, and everyone I spoke with admitted the fact that Figo was not near himself. Anyone who has seen either play on a regular basis knew that. As for the result, I would not at all be surprised if England won...maybe 2-1. Again, though, this is a friendly, and the only thing I would liek to see happen is no injuries and the young guys getting experience.
How can anyone predict a game which is likely to see both sides make in the region of half a dozen line-up changes at half time, field a number of players for experimental reasons (debuts, new positions, etc.), and for which at least half of each team (the more established players) won't really have much motivation to go over the top. It's a meaningless friendly, and about all you can predict is that the debutants or younger players will likely be the ones that stand out (for reasons either good or bad). I hate to say it (because he's not my favourite player by a long stretch) but the player most likely to influence this game (if he starts) is Lee Bowyer, who has a lot to prove and is really in the form of his life right now.