Sorry but great players, and RC and Figo are not great, are measured by what they won. Maradona in '86 and Peter Scheimel in '92 won a WC and the EC practically all by themselves. Right now CR is like Giggs a great club player but unable to deliver at the international level.
[/quote] Of all those players you mentioned...only one is a great player by your standards and thats Maradona. Maradona is the only player you listed that led an average team to a WC win. The other players were all on star studded teams and they did not single handedly lead their team to victory.
I think mereles should play instead of maniche, just because meireles is playing the best football of his career this season. although yes maniche often comes up big when we need him.. so forca maniche would love to see him play well today and score a goal. Almeida................ well let me just say I support all players when they play on the field for the Portugal NT so I hope he also has a good game. as for Ronaldo................ well tbh this is the game where we may need something from him. honestly he was injured earlier and wasnt in good form thats why he didnt have a impressive couple of games. but Overall it is downright incorrect to label him a flop in the interntional level, he is only 23 years old and has played well in many games for the NT, scores some importanr goals and yes did in face play well in a few "big gameS" such as vs France in Semi finals of world cup (our best attacking player on the night) holland he tried to play through injury.. etc scores in euro cup semi final.. top scorer in euro cup qualifying and 2nd behind pauleta in wc 2006 qualifying (only short by a couple of goals) euro 08 we didnt win (he was injured and still was involved in almost all the goals) and now we suck in qualifers thats why everyone turning on ronaldo now but he been injured, this is his only dip in form in the NT in his career. yes he had a bad attitude at times and his antics can be pathetic but hes a top player and hopefully he does someting good out there today which I think he will.
My prediction: Portugal 12 Sweden 0 C.Ronaldo with a hatrick, Simao with a hatrick, Pepe with 2, Deco with 2, Duda with 2 Swedens defense falls apart, Portugal reinforces it's postion as a futebol superpower in the world.
Record.pt is rumouring that the starting xi has changed: Ronaldo-Danny-simao in the front and Pepe-meireles-tiago in midfield ********, dunno which one to believe.
That sounds about right. It's nice to dream isn't it? The "official" team is, according to Record is... (4-3-3) ----------Eduardo----------- Bosingwa-Carvalho-Alves-Duda ----------Pepe-------------- -----Tiago-----Meireles Ronaldo-------------Simao ----------Danny--------- "Offcial" Team according Ojogo is... ----------Eduardo----------- Bosingwa-Carvalho-Alves-Duda ----------Pepe-------------- -----Deco------Maniche Ronaldo---------------Simao ----------Almeida------- Take your pick of which you want to believe...
Just an FYI, Sweden has announced its rather shocking starting lineup: ----------------------- Andreas Isaksson ------------------------ Mikael Nilsson - Olof Mellberg - Daniel Majstorovic - Adam Johansson ----------------------- Anders Svensson ------------------------- Rasmus Elm ------------ Kim Källström ------------- Samuel Holmén ------------ Johan Elmander ---- Henrik Larsson ------------------ This is a very surprising lineup - the bolded ones are the big shocks, young and inexperienced players.
Elmander and and Larsson with Kallstrom supporting is very dangerous! But with Carvalho, Pepe and Alves im sure we'll take care of the job defensively, but ST that worries me. Our wingers are world class, top of the line. Almeida doesnt cut it. Is the Liedson nationalizing going to go through or is that dead and gone?
Queiroz is a idiot. Bosingwa gets injured, and he puts in Rolando. What a freaking jerk, this man is horrible, and will cost us the qualifier. Meireles over Maniche, and Pepe as DM. Give me a fing break.
As always... Portugal is playing better but again as always can't score... weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee FINITO!
Portugal could get 100 corner kicks a game and not score... and other teams get 1 to 5... it's in. Everyone knows this.
This f'ing idiot doesn't want to win this game. Now he takes out Danny for Almeida. Why not take out a defender since Sweden isin't attacking?