I have never seen such a big clumsy oaf like Hugo Almeida. Time and time again he misses chance after chance. He has the awareness of a deer, decision making of an ameoba, and is as slow as a turtle. Everyone is hating on Miguel lopes and I saw many positives from him. He went forward pretty well and defended really well. He had an excellent 2nd half. Miguel veloso was shit...absolute shit. However, this was his first bad game in a while, and im hoping it stays that way. Nani and Ronaldo were amazing on the wings...Ronaldo despite the missed penalty had a very good game. His confidence in penalties is at an all-time low and you can see. Glad to hear Nani's injury is just a bruise. Bento took to long to act, he should have made his changes 20 minutes sooner, that really was an eye opener to me. I hope he doesn't continue this trend in the Euro. Patricio stays at GK, anyone who says otherwise is a clown. Portugal played well, the result was undeserved and it came down to mental mistakes which is something that isn't common. I hope to god we surprise the shit out of everybody because as of now the confidence of the fans is at an all-time low. I think thats the way the players like it...at least I hope so.
And let me say that I agree we looked pretty good in terms of ball movement and creating chances. We played a much better game today than we did vs. Macedonia. Ronaldo, Nani & Moutinho create a ton of opportunity. My biggest concern is Alves & Veloso. If something unexpected doesn't happen at CB & DM there, we can very well allow 4-5 goals vs. the Germans and Holland.
The first goal was Lopes fault for getting beat. He goes forward well, but so does JP and JP defends better. Veloso was bad vs. Macedonia & Poland as well. 3 bad games in a row.
I thought this was a good performance. Did we make blunders? Yes. But we showed a lot of fight from the get-go of the match. (which is something that is uncharacteristic of our teams) Nani, Ronaldo, Miguel Lopes, Pepe, Patricio all had very good games. As far as the Hugo Almeida hate going around, I don't think he was so terrible as people appear to believe. He should've scored the one-on-one in the first-half instead of passing left (I believe to Nani? or Moutinho?), but he is a massive presence in the box and he was getting hit by the crosses. Having said that, given the height of the players on Germany and Holland's team, I don't see another real alternative unless we give the reigns to Nelson Oliveira, and I'm not sure if he's ready for this. I would love him to prove me wrong though. Defensively... Jesus. We kept our own but the mistakes we made can simply not be happening, we can not have both our centrals so spread apart unless they are marking the opposing team's most forward-positioned players. Simple as that. But overall, despite the result, I do think this was a positive performance and we showed a lot of spirit, fight, ability and aggression. Here's to a good showing in Euro 12'.
While I do admit that Lopes was not at his best, I don't think this was a situation that called for a second man on when the Turkish player was at the end line. I think we would've been fine if Pepe had sticked to marking his god damn man instead of going ape shit for the ball.
Positives: - We had very good spells of pressure + attack. The lead up to the PK was quality. - We created a bazillion chances. - Turkey pressed high frequently and the back-line + midfield handled it well. This is good preparation for Germany game. Glaring exception being 2nd goal, but that had nothing to do with pressure; just horrible decision by Veloso and worse pass by Alves. - Miguel Lopes as backup RB might be ok. He showed flashes of good attacking intent. Didn't like the dive and he wasn't perfect defensively (see 1st goal) but he is not terrible. - Coentrao was moving well - up and down the field. Hope there is no lingering damage from the 1st half injury (he seemed much more quiet the 2nd half) Negatives: - Veloso was a nightmare. Worst player on the pitch. Again. For the 2nd game in a row he was coughing up balls right and left up to the opposing MF without any pressure. I counted 3 times in the 1st half alone. And, when not outright losses, he would pass into covered players and put them in harm's way. A DM with such poor short passing/decision making is a cancer on the team. See 2nd goal. Not to mention that he's not particularly strong defensively. Huge liability. Frankly, on these 2 last showings I would be agog to see him start against Germany. - Finishing. Between Almeida and Ronaldo... sigh. Ronaldo I worry less about. But Almeida? His confidence is below detection. How did he pass up that shot?! I liked his positioning and that he got all those chances. Note that neither Postiga nor Nelo had a sniff at goal. Almeida is doing -some- things right but he just doesn't have the air of a confident striker. Postiga and Ronaldo at least are so cocky that the misses affect them little. - Bruno Alves. My worst fears are confirmed. He looks rusty - riding the bench in Russia is showing. 1st goal I don't quite understand why he didn't cut off the ball. Rui and him need to work on that. Expect lots of those kinds of crosses from Germany... And he missed a wide open header on the other end... Rusty! - Quaresma... JHC. Trivela cross at the end of the game?! Miles behind goal of course. What the hell is wrong with him? When is he going to grow up?? Overall: Not the end of the world. At least the team showed signs of life and lots of attacking intent. The glaring problems were exactly where we knew them to be - DM and striker. Oh, and Rui Patricio did fine. The 1st goal I don't think he could get to the cross and he fully expected his CM to cut off the slow cross. He and Alves need to communicate better. Otherwise, he looked sure of himself on crosses and he looked fine. As far as Nani... what Bola is reporting is that "the doctor is optimistic it's not serious". http://www.abola.pt/nnh/ver.aspx?id=334546 . Let's hope he's right or it's all over.
I agree Lopes is fine as a backup. JP should start. Postiga played like 5 mins man, can't blame him for not sniffing goal. He should start over Almeida. Riding the bench in Russia has made Alves rusty indeed. You're right, the Germans will put in a ton of crosses like Turkey's 1st goal today. All 4 defenders looked bad on that goal! Mainly Lopes but I agree Pepe should have never gone over, Alves has to snuff that out and I think Coentrao even had a chance at it? Or Coentrao got beat by the goal scorer. Quaresma's trivela drove me insane as well..is there ever a moment he's not a cocky, selfish douche?
In all fairness, Nelson was invisible ... mind you it was again only 20 minutes. Would have liked to see him start this game. Bento knows what he has in Almeida and Postiga already, so it would have been good opportunity to see if he could count on Oliveira Bento knows what? That he has two strikers who underperform when it counts. I don't see how good they're gonna perform at the euros. Nelo is young, still learning the ropes, but he is the future... I see more upside with him.
This is why Veloso can NOT produce on the pitch. He's has other things on his mind: The positive results taken from this match: We Portuguese fans will have lots of time to enjoy our summer after Saturday afternoon The negatives: Don't EVEN know where to start.............. Negatives: - Veloso was a nightmare. Worst player on the pitch. Again. For the 2nd game in a row he was coughing up balls right and left up to the opposing MF without any pressure. I counted 3 times in the 1st half alone. And, when not outright losses, he would pass into covered players and put them in harm's way. A DM with such poor short passing/decision making is a cancer on the team. See 2nd goal. Not to mention that he's not particularly strong defensively. Huge liability. Frankly, on these 2 last showings I would be agog to see him start against Germany.
Quoting myself: I admire the positive feedback. I usually see things on a positive light, but their body language yesterday isn´t inspiring me any confidence.
After this game, my biggest concern is Ronaldo's confidence. I think missing these penalties is getting to him. Let's be honest here, nobody thinks we have a snowballs chance in hell of getting out of the group. Most people think Denmark is better than us and some people are saying we'll get 0 points from this group. That might happen, but until it does, the ball is round and I'm sure the players will want to murder Germany, Ass rape Denmark, and knock the dutchies around again I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but I believe that the number one reason why we lost yesterday was not because of Ronaldo's confidence, or Veloso's stupidity, or Alves being slow, or Lopez (who I thought had a fantastic game) making 1 mistake, or Nani getting hurt, or anything like that. I think we lost because we played a ridiculously high line. Bento wanted to murder Turkey and it didn't work out, hopefully they realise that. No big deal. If we keep that high line against Germany or Holland, then we deserve to go out. On the bright side, it can't get much worse. Some players made some bad mistakes, let's hope that it's out of their system now. Last point.. Custodio looked boss, he should definitely be the DM.
Most of you can call me crazy, and maybe for good reason, however I have a lot of confidence in this team for Euro. Reason being, I agree with thebaptist. It looked like Bento wanted to kill turkey and they played with no emphasis to defense. Don't get me wrong, I know we have issues in the back, mainly Alves, but I think sometimes teams need a swift kick in the head to sort out what needs fixing. I now believe this game could be what we needed to take Veloso out and put Custodio in. Bento will still go with Postiga over Nelo, but still an improvement over Almeida. Postiga is nowhere near great but he is capable of some brilliant goals, this season with Zaragoza he scored a couple of highlight real goals. I doubt Ronaldo, Nani, Moutinho or Meireles lost any confidence. I also think when the back makes mistakes it’s easier to correct then you’re forwards not being able to break down defenders. I think our biggest advantage will be the low expectations, Germany will be playing us as if they won before kickoff, Denmark beating us two qualifiers in a row will give them unwarranted confidence, but Netherlands will want to exact revenge so we might see another blood bath. Don't lose hope, just look through all the friendlies from top teams before major competitions and you will see a big list of strange scores.
Scariest for me was Bruno Alves' rustiness. He needs to get his game back because if he keeps playing like this then we have no chance.
I would love to see a history of our friendly results just before the tournaments in 04, 06 & 08. I remember the '10 friendlies.
costinha liked Custodio's play as well....says he might even deserve the spot against Germany. I doubt Bento would make such a radical change just before the tournament.
I have to be honest, Bruno Alves has been a life saver for Portugal in a handful of important matches, he's a passionate player, and highly athletic...but... THE MAN HAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE A LIABILITY. Even for Porto he was like that. Not a footballing bone in his body. However, that's all we have really because Rolando has been suspect this year. We have holes, but its up to Bento to have us play to our strengths...wingers...and not much else (Patricio isn't really to blame either). We have no true #10 either. We can spark a surprise, but its doubtful with Bruno Alves and Veloso running the show in the opening third of the pitch. Not sure if this post is getting through to anyone...just extremely frustrated with this squad because I had such high hopes for them after Bento seemed to turn things around and with that impressive 4-0 tonking of Spain. A gameball hasnt been kicked yet and I'm in the dumps already. Hoping this changes and I'm proven wrong.
i recall Coentrao was no guarantee to start at LB in the World Cup, and Quieroz made the right choice, despite Fabio's lack of experience with NT. Custodio might not be the answer/game changer, but i believe his attributes of size, steady decision making and ability in the air, are needed against opponent like Germany.
I actually didn't mind the new additions of Miguel Lopes and Custodio...they were hardly the reason that result favoured the Turks. Lopes even earned a penalty. I like it when young guys are given a chance...they'll run their asses off unlike those who are entitled or feel the need to be fancy...YOU'RE A BLOODY STRIKER! FINISH THE DAMN MOVE! don't give Coentrao the responsibility of finishing! (you'll all know who I'm referring to)
personally, i would like to see custodio start over veloso. Custodio ssems to be a true DM with more stopping power and grit than veloso. and with the team playing fast pace soccer is pure defensive ability will be needed as a stop gap. i dont see veloso getting his nose dirty
Exactly, seems like a lot of feel the same way and want to see Custodio over Veloso. That is a change I can see Bento making. Alves unfortunately, will not be changed. Not sure Rolando or Costa would do better anyways.