what will that so-called "golden" generation of portugese football be remembered for... 1. Getting farther in the Euro that any other port team 2. Blowing it in 2000, WC 2002 and Euro 2004? i say the latter.
A guy on Fox Sports World yesterday that half of the team that won the Youth Championship in 1989 were out of professional football by 1995, and that the Golden Generation was a myth that had died out long ago. Anyone want to weigh in? I say they probably underachieved to an extent. But by the same token, it is hard to consistently achieve high goals in today's football atmosphere and conditions. The competition is SO tough.
true, but if the portugese fans believed that this was their best crop of players since the days of Eusebio....Portugese soccer could be on the way down now that many players are retiring from the international scene
This is why I believe that Portugal will do nothing special in WC 2006 in Germany. Hopefully for Portugal, they have time to develop new players until the Euro 2008.
Nothing special?? Notwithstanding the first game, the only "golden generation" player on the pitch for Portugal was Figo (with some late game appearences by Costa and Couto). As well, I don't have the exact figues but I'd guess that the average age of Portugal's squad was about 26-27, which puts them in a good position to do some damage at WC2006. This was a good crop of players, consider the backline: strong performances from all plus the emergence of Carvalhao as one of the better centrebacks. Midfield: Maniche was one of the better mids in Euro, along with Ronaldo; Figo was at times brilliant but like Deco, couldn't do much against the stifling Greek defence. Costinha's place would have - in hindsight - been better occupied by Tiago, yet another player with tremendous potential. Forwards: Pauleta did not contribute and is perhaps done in the Selecao given his age; Gomes is a strong National team contributor and should have started v. Greece. Goal: Ricardo's season at Sporting did not earn him a spot, guess it was based on past performance. Benfica have a nice, young 'keeper by the name of Moreira that should shine at the Olympics. --- Yes, I am Portuguese (thus, biased to some) but I fail to see where Portugal lacks talent and importantly, depth. In fact, 9 of the starting Euro2004 players have yet to reach their primes, according to some. For WC2006, you will also see Quaresma and Postiga play key roles, especially with the transfer of the former to Porto where he can get some strong coaching attention and playing time. ALBU
Totally agree with the FSW guy. The "golden generation" was never anythign more than a media-generated catchphrase that got repeated ad nauseam and created unfairly high expectations. Portugal won two youth WCs in the late 80s/early 90s, and was all of a sudden expected to achieve the same level of success on the world stage. The unfair thing is that plenty of nations have youth level success, but in the absence of a neat catchphrase no one ever expects them to do the same on the senior level. Italy has won three of the last four UEFA U23 tournaments, but no one has tagged them with any expectations. Nigeria and Ghana have both won Youth WCs, but no one equates that with a standard that they're failures if they don't win the WC itself. In the past Euro, only 1 "golden generation" player started: Figo. And he was looking kind of over the hill. The rest of Portugal's starting XI consisted of younger players and ones in their prime. However they do in the future will depend on these young players, the "golden generation" ones are long since gone from the national scene. Finally, I'd dispute that the golden generation was a failure. At the WC level, sure, no real success there. But at the Euro level, Portugal won its group for three straight years, and advanced to the quarters, semis (losing to the eventual champs at the last moment of extra time), and finals. That's a better record than many teams can boast in the same tournaments. In fact, with the exception of France, has any team done as well over the last three Euros? True that Portugal hasn't won a major tournament, but I don't think that winning it all is the only benchmark of success.
cant argue with those points really, but considering the hype surrounding them in the media, and the fans whom have pushed their chips to the middle now 3 times and lost all three....a failure is what they are
well whoever said Portugal won't do well in 2006 is an idiot!! Becuase you are saying this blindly and do not know much about Portuguese football!! Portugal right now has some of the brightest talents in the world!! and most of them right now are reaching their 20's. Ronaldo, Quaresma, Postiga, Tiago and probably Hugo Almeida will probably all be at the WC2006!! I'm not saying we're gonna win it but we are going to make a lot of damage!! Then after with the same backline we had at Euro 2004 and Maniche and Costinha...we'll probably have a better team!! Then we have Bruno Gama, Veirinha, Manuel Fernandes and Ivanildo coming up!! get your facts straight and then you can attemp to post something intelligent!!
Before I start let me say Im Portuguese. While I agree The Golden Generation was somewhat of dissappointment, I believe we have a strong future. All of our Under 21 Teams ahve atleast finished strong in all those major tournaments. Secondly, with our dissappointment in the final, the only bright spot is that a flux a portuguese players will be playing in stronger leagues which will improve their play. Players such as Moreira,Tiago,Ronaldo, Simao, all are young and can only improve. I strongly believe that Portugal reaching the finals will give them the mind set they can win, and that is half the battle.
i'm also portuguese...anyway, for a country the size of indiana, i think portugal has done pretty good on the international soccer stage....watch out in 2006 and beyond, we've got a great batch of young players who should be close to their prime
r u stupid or something?? we have alot of the ebst yojngster sin the world\ bruno gama and fabio paim were voted 2 of the top 5 under 18 players in the world ronaldo, quaresma, viana(won fifa young player of the year 2 years back), postiga, tiago(just signed for chelsea) AMONG MANY OTHER GOOD PLAYERS check out the olmpyic thread and see who else we have i prmomise u the crop if players coming out now will be ebtter then the goldne generation
Who needs new players? Look at the ages of our players in 2006: (in bold regular players in the euro 2004 GK: Baía (36) + Ricardo (29?) + Moreira (23) RB: Paulo Ferreira (26) + Miguel (25/26) LB: Nuno valente (31) DF: Ricardo Carvalho (27) + Jorge Andrade (27) + Fernando Meira (26/27) + Ricardo Costa (23/24) Midfielders: Deco (28) + Maniche (28) + Costinha (31) + Ronaldo (21) + Simão (26) + Quaresma (22) + Tiago (24) Atackers: Nuno Gomes (29) + Postiga (22) + H.Almeida (22) + Pauleta (32) and surelly new players will rise and strenghten even more this main core. So only Figo from the starting line up wont play?
good choices!! i am also certain carlos martins or viana(ifhe regains his form that won him young uefa fifa playe trof the year) will be on that team..carlos martins will be the enxt biug name out of portugal
I think you don´t know what you´re talking about. This final was not achieved by the golden generation. Where were Vitor Baia, Joao Pinto and Paulo Sousa? Also Rui Costa and Couto were not the most important players in this competition. The last time we had the golden generation together was in the Euro 2000 and honestly I think Portugal will have a better generation of players this decade.
Yeah, I think Portugal will perform OK at the next world cup. What to think of Spain who have been winning almost all youth tournaments for the past decade and still haven't achieved anything on international level?