Portugal vs. Espanha: Battle of Iberia - Round of 16 - 29/06/10

Vamos Ganhar da Espanha!!
EU ACREDITO!!
PORTUGAL CAMPEÃO MUNDIAL EM 2010.

 

Portuguese defense can absorb the middle and it's up to whoever plays on the wings to get the job done in style.


I would pick this lineup:

------------------------------Eduardo-------------------------------

Miguel----------R. Carvalho------------B. Alves-----------F. Coentrão

----------------------------Pepe------------------------------------

-------------------Tiago------------Meireles-------------------------

C. Ronaldo------------------Liedson----------------------------Simão

 

Lineup better be

Eduardo
Miguel
Coentrao
Alves
Carvalho
Pepe/Mendes (I'm good either/or)
Meireles
Tiago
Simao/Danny (good either/or)
Ronaldo
Almeida

 

Well, for some reason it came to mind Liedson's stubborness in disputing the ball and how that attitude came through against North Korea (e.g.: CR goal). I've never seen Almeida play in this defensive system. I'm not too sure if he's fast enough for the offensive transition and I fear that the likes of Xabi or Piqué will nulify his air ability.
So it comes down to Liedson and his agility...if goes wrong, then Almeida for the 2nd half.

 

CQ should pull out the USA v Spain game at the Confed Cup and the Switzerland v Spain game, and have the boys studying Spain's weaknesses

 

Five things have to be done for us to win convincingly:

- The RB must do the game of his life, no matter who plays. Queiroz might opt for Miguel (offensive) or R. Costa (defensive).

- P. Mendes or Pepe need to anchor the midfield due to the danger of through balls or long shots.

- Tiago or Deco need to pass the ball efficiently.

- Right timing between our forwards or mids upfront. Our offensive transition, if fast enough, will certainly cut spanish defense in half.

- Finnaly, to not bunker as much as we did versus Brazil.

 

I don't care how we do it...lets kill these arrogant mothereffers.

 

I didn't see the USA v Spain game but I did see the Swiss game.

Swiss did ubber bunker + counters. Not sure how relevant it is for us however. Part of the reason it worked was that only 2 of the Swiss were under 6 feet tall. They completely took away any and all high crosses. Nothing high from the wings or chips over the back of the D (Xavi) worked.

Also, our counter-attack has been terrible. In both the IC and Brasil games, we straight out lost the ball half the time we brought it out on counterattacks or Ronaldo tried some hero nonsense. Also, and at the risk of feeding the trolls, Pique has now played against CR several times and he's never seemed too bothered. On the other hand, CR is highly unpredictable - if the Spanish feel too confident about closing down Ronaldo, they may be in for a surprise or two. ROnaldo has played 5 horrible halves so far (and won 3 MOTD for that, ahahah!!) - he might have a good game in him still.

That being said, I fear the Brasil game was just a warm-up for what to expect against Spain... And I hate seeing Ronaldo as single striker. Let's hope I'm wrong and Queiroz has a surprise up his sleeve...

 

Hopefully Coentrao scores a goal. He is almost at the brink and deserves on. Spain haven't impressed me yet, Only Iniesta and Villa have shown potential. Torres is another Ronaldo clone, does it himself and doesn't care about being a team player.

 

the key in this match is Xavi and whoever is going to have the job of keeping him in their pocket.. I hope it's Pepe. Spain plays a very narrow formation relying heavily on killer through balls from Xavi. If you stop Xavi, you stop Spain.

I think this game will be quite a bit easier than the ones against IC and Brasil. One of our biggest disadvantages in those games was size and we still managed.

We also have a big advantage over Spain in that they lack a real hard man in midfield whereas ours is riddled with them. Spain misses Senna so much; Xabi Alonso is just not the same and he might not even play.

Personally, I think our RB is our only real problem. I haven't been too impressed with anyone we've tried over there. However, I think this is the one game where it might not matter too much. We should play Miguel since he is our most offensive RB.

Meireles is going to have to play a more defensive role in this one; basically we're gonna have to crowd the mid and force Spain to play wide. If spain has to resort to crosses into the box, I'm fairly comfortable with RC, BA, and Eduardo.

Stifle Spain in the middle, and break quickly on the flanks. If Deco is fit, I would definitely play him. This game is made for Deco, and that is where Spain is really going to miss Senna.

Ramos likes to get forward a lot, so I'm really licking my chops at a nice Coentrao-Ronaldo counter.

I think Spain will start with most of the possession. They will start getting frustrated at the lack of space. Suddenly we will have one or 2 counters that will scare the shit out of them forcing ramos to be more careful with his runs and making iniesta less effective. Xavi will be in pepe's back pocket. Pique will go off on a mad canter, lose it to Meireles who quickly passes it to deco, then liedson, back to Deco who makes a killer pass to the running Meireles who shoots... GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
After that.. 7-0

One last point on the RB..that's Villa's side, but as we've seen so far, he mostly likes to cut in and that's why I really think the key to this game is being aggressive in the middle; be it from Meireles, Pepe, Deco or one of the CBs. The full backs should be given license to get up cause that will also cause Villa and Iniesta to be more cautious.

 

I say Iniesta is the KEY. If we can neutralize him, it is our momentum. Villa is deadly when he penetrates.... someone needs to shut him down.

 

Portugal will cruise into the quarters.

FULL STEAM AHEAD!

 

You might think I'm nuts, but if we do defeat Spain the way we're hoping, then Paraguay will be a tougher opponent.

 

Carlos Queiroz: "O melhor de Portugal ainda esta para vir"

We'll see! He must see something in the team. Forca Portugal!

 

Del Bosque has already stopped Xavi, no need for you to worry about him. Right now all we are living off of is individual brilliance of players like Villa. If you control Villa, we'll never score. Del Bosque has broken this team by trying to play two different styles, and neither style is working.

With your defense I think you'll have a comfortable game and win 1-0 on a mistake by our defense.

 

Wow. A few weeks ago I would have asked if you wanted to trade coaches...but I'm sticking to CQ now.

Batalha! Aljubarrota!

 

Perhaps Del Bosque will see the light. We can never be too sure.

They will be tough no matter what gameplan they stick to.

 

Some of you guys crack me up. You gotta love your optimism. I wish I had it because I think this is going to be one hell of a long game for our boys. Luckily, I don't get the same jitters watching the national team like I used to back in 04 or 06. If I did, I'd end up with a stroke.

The problem with teams like Spain and Brazil is that they have true world class players. You might contain these guys for a tad, but one mistake will kill you. A mess of you think Torres is a joke. The guy isn't completely fit due to his surgery that kept him out of play for months. I hope he stays unfit. However, don't be shocked if he scores against us. Some of you guys probably haven't seen this guy play in the Barclays. When fit, he'll turn on a dime around the CBs and tuck the ball in the back of the net. So, if we focus on Villa or Xavi, there are other guys that can hurt us. Let's see what CQ comes up with and hopefully we can pull this off.