For those who cry about "The good old days" where we done nothing and blast the team during our best ever period some food for thought. All time according to FIFA records we are 207 - 107 - 148 (more or less it's a bitch to count) Of that in the last 18 years we are 101 - 51 - 30. So basically, all time half of our wins came after 1990 and 4/5ths of our losses came before it. Our record in the 90's which some people will insist we had our best team that made it to Euro '96 and qualified for Euro 2000 was 42-25-14...Basically A lot of friendlies, Qualifiers and 4 Tournament games (2-1-1). Since 2000 our record is 59-26-16 of that 21 Tournament games (12-2-6). So almost 1/3 of our losses came at a big stage and not during a friendly or Qualifier as opposed to every other decade where we qualified for a few, if any, Tournaments.
interesting numbers..,I think our time will come soon. Once we can consistently develop a winning attitude and a team first mentality we will win the big stage. the fruits of the clubs and FPF's hard work are slowly being seen with the young stars and coaching talents in the last 20 yrs
you have to remember before the 90's we didn't face as much crap teams as we do now (the liectensteins and estonia's etc)
When it comes to Estonia, Lichtenstein and Kazackhstan you are correct we never faced them prior to 93 and that is about 15 games to our credit. But many small nations we regularly kill like Luxemberg we faced them more times in the 60's and 80's then since 1990. But games go up every decade. The real gauge is against teams like Belgium who up until 2000 were a respectabble side. Prior to 1990 the had a 5-5-2 and since 1990 we are 2-1-0 OK well the games were recent but the fact remains they used to best us for the most part and now they are the lesser side. We were fairly even with Russia prior to 1990 and haven't lost to them since. We have an all time record of 5-12-15 vs Spain. Horrible. But look at it this way since 1960 it is 3-6-1 record for us 1-4-1 since 1990. That's called improvement. Oh and on the one and only time we ever faced Spain in a Tournament since 1990 we won. The only other Tourney game ended in a draw in '84. But let's take an opponent we have coming up. since 1989 we've faced Switzerland 4 times and have won all 4 games and all 4 games were WCQ games. Want to know our overall record vs the Swiss? 7-4-8...Yup a Losing Record, with us catching up only in the last 20 years, prior to '89 we were 3-4-8. Long story short never mind the wins vs weak teams our losses have gone down considerably across the board save for vs Italy and France. oh and btw since 1990 vs Brazil we are 2-1-0
I wouldn't say shameful. We are a small country that was under dictatorship for the majority of the 20th century. We are ambitious and outdone what we should have accomplished in our first WC although we did get screwed Royally in the semi final. But since then, that was the expectation and it's taken 40 years to live up to it.
damn French...they themselves have only become a soccer power thanks to them hosting the world cup... it's amazing what hosting a world cup can do for a country...it's no coincidence the big superpowers (France,Italy Germany) have hosted the World Cup more than once.
Agreed, too bad salazar couldnt have hosted a world cup in portugal and influence referee's such as other dicatators such as Mussolini (Italy 1934 ) and whats-his-face- (Argentina 1978). or even Franco's spain in 1964 won the euro title - and nothing since. in regards to the above comments by wtf_Scolari.. . it wasnt only the French who benefitted from hosting a WC. France before 1998 at least had a euro cup in the bag and 2 or 3 world cup semi final appearaces.. a similar but better position to what portugal is now despite being much smaller nation then france. Only two countries won their first world cup on foreign soil (Brazil 1958 in sweden, germany 1954 in switzerland). Argentina and Italy's first world cups are dubious and controverisal with dicators influencing refs and so forth, England and France and Uruguay also benefitted from being host. Its safe to say, the first world cup is the hardest to win and success seems to follow afterwards.
I only complain when I know we can do better, I never complained at the Euros or the WC. I was extremely dissapointed for the final against Greece, and really angry but I didn't complain. I was complaining all through this euro qualifiers because we were horrible, and I know we could do better. The fact that our record is getting better, is due to the fact is that we have a better group of players now, the 66 World Cup team might have been better, but I haven't watched much games of theirs to confirm, and it's very hard to compare football then to now the game has changed a lot. The team of the mid 80's from the games I saw looked a good team, Euro 84 and WC 86. The golden generation had 3 GREAT players (Sousa, Figo and Rui) and the one time they gelled and played well together was Euro 00 and to go out to France that way was harsh, but mentally I don't know if we we're there yet. Which I think showed after that semi final loss Scolari has helped the mental side of things but I still wonder if we are good enough to win a big tourney.
Yea, we're pretty much France's bitch; but we've had Holland and England in our pockets for quite some time.
Until we win any major hardware, we are just a team with high potential. Just like in the past going back to 1966. It looks like this post is defense of Scolari's regime, and but the win loss percentage hasn't changed much. Yeah were getting to semis, and finals, but lets look at the overall picture. we need to look at two important reasons. How is the rest of the competition? Who are we matched against? This dictates tournaments, and the outcome. Everyone that has been here long enough knows I've been a big supporter of Scolari. Damn, I have pictures with him to prove it. Scolari did great work for our nation, but over the last year and half, he has become stagnant in his job. Just like great people get stagnant in their daily work positions, so do coaches.
The reason I'm not getting all down before this tournament despite our seemingly dismal state is because I've seen many teams play crappy during qualification and win it all. If you were to ask me if France or Italy would make the WC final 3 years ago, I'd laugh away given how they were playing in qualification. Granted, they didn't play awful, but they didn't play well enough to give you the impression that either was gonna win it all. We all know qualification doesn't mean shit unless you can retain that form going into the tournament. We have been victims of this time and time again; we qualified well for the 2002 WC and had a shit form in the tournament and despite making it to the semis of the 2006 WC, I definitely think we were in better form during qualification. Now we weren't in too good of a form throughout qualification and we suffered various injuries, but we made it. Now it's up to our guys to get healthy and grab some cohesion before the tournament starts.
We barely qualified for the Euro. In a group that the 8th ranked team in the world SHOULD HAVE DOMINATED.
And you think that Scolari being 'stagnant' had a larger bearing on the qualification results than injuries to key squad members and defensive blunders, both of which Scolari had no control over? Come on. You'll be hard pressed to find any evidence that he has become stagnant. Your common sense assumptions are not valid.
Exactly Santos, any coach with a team like Portugal with injuries or not, in a group that we played in should never play for a draw. His tactics have become stagnant, and he brings nothing new to the team. You think by calling up Makukula is fresh, and new. Any idiot in the world would've called him up. Now calling up Nuno, and leaving Hugo Almeida off the list is just ridiculous.
One of the problem with Portugal and some of the National Team Players is the fact that they don't respect their opponents. When you don't respect your opponents...well you know what happens. Secondly, injuries particularly on the defensive end have killed our squad. Remember how many goals they gave up at the WC, not counting the consolation game? Up till the Semi finals they gave up a lone goal to Mexico. Then held The Netherlands and England to nil and finally only gave up a dubious penalty to France (Again) I have no doubts Portugal will do well at the EURO, but make no mistake their first game is not easy task against the very physical Turks who will do everything to get some of our "prima-donnas" off their game.
He only called up 18 players, he could've called all 3 or even 4. Honestly it was a slap in the face for Hugo, not to be called up, and then calling him up because the little bitch hurt her toe or something.
let's not get on the Maku and Almedia didn't prove anything either train cuz we gave that peice of shit nuno and postiga 4 years!! Starting them EVERY game so please lets give Maku more than 1 game.
you wanna know what stagnant is ? It's Scolari playing for all draws on the road thinking we are automatically gonna win all our home games.what a dumbass and if you agree with that you're just as dumb.
I am not a Nuno Gomes fan or defending him but have Mak or Almeida shown anything other than being big boys? Neither of them has held up the ball well neither of them has proved to be an amazing finisher. IF anything with Nuno he tries hard and he plays half decently with his back to the goal, which is important because that makes him an outlet.
have you watched the 1.5 games Maku played...amazing aeiral ability scored a header, creates his own chances, steals the ball off defenders. did more in 1.5 games then Nuno has done already.