No, just no. ELO I can agree, but FIFA has confed multipliers which skew the results from various confeds.
LOL at bleacherreport and guardian showing their blatant eurocentrism. I mean under what justification are teams like Switzerland, Bosnia, Russia, Croatia ranked above Ghana. They never learn do they.
I can see any of those teams beating Ghana on a neutral site. That being said, Ghana can beat any of those teams too. It will be very interesting to see which teams show up in Brazil and which flop.
For a team, whose fans consider it to be among the 4 best contenders, it always had 2 other teams way below its own strength. If this happens, then Portugal had easy draws in all those tournaments. For anything, "group of death" is the one for whomever is the 3rd or 4th best ranked team of the group, in which case you may be a very good team and well ranked team, but despite this issue, you still got in your group, 2 other teams better ranked and more relatively stonger teams than yours. Groups of death don`t concern the top dogs.
First, very few Portugal fans rank the team as top 4. You are clearly wrong in that aspect. At best, 7th, but I would put it at 10th. The only time Portugal was in the top 5 was in 2006. And weren't Germany and Netherlands better than Portugal? They both reached the semi-finals of WC2010 and Netherlands lost to Spain in the final, eliminating Uruguay in the semis. And there was also Denmark, a team far from being easy. In fact, this group was regarded as one of the toughest of the history of Euros. And the Euro is not much easier than a WC.
Well ELO bases the points exchanged in each match the "probable" result according to its own criteria. One way or the other each ranking system uses its own interpretation of what to take in account, the moment it decides to rank teams. I also prefer ELO over FIFA, but none of them is perfect. Unfortunately FIFA don't care or use any ranking system except its own, so for any issue where FIFA decides to use rankings, 100 % certain that it will use the fvcked up ranking they created.
CNN is Portuguese? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0912/soccer.world.cup.groups.of.death/ Or is the BBC? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18463292 Either way, keep it up, it seems to work for us when we're hated.
When you guys had Germany and Netherlands you may have a point, but last WC (2010), you guys had CIV and NK, which by no way were even close to Portugal and Brazil, whom were 3rd and 1st in the rankings at the time of the WC. IF, it was a group of death, it was for CIV, not for Portugal.
yeah, the same tabloids that rated England as a top contender last WC (I don't hate anyone in particular)
You realize it was a very even game between Portugal and CIV, if anything CIV was slightly better, and without Drogba who was injured. So I don't know what u are talking about. Portugal were lucky 1) that Drogba was injured 2) they played an unmotivated Brazil who had already qualified for round 2.
I'm not arguing with you about that, but it is funny that you say IC was much worse than Portugal. I remember perfectly well that in this forum every person that was not a Portugal fan was ranking IC as better than Portugal. Just like some are now ranking Ghana higher than us. I really don't know this team, so I give them the benefit of doubt, just like I do towards Chile, Colombia, and Belgium. And I admit that IC was far from an easy challenge. However, it really tells how biased football fans can be, always letting their feelings get in the way of an objective analysis. This also applies to Portugal fans of course. Due to the recent result against Sweden, people became infatuated and are now polluting every topic. I am more realistic, since I know perfectly well the limitations of our NT.
Brazil won its place in the next round, when they beated CIV, for both it was their second game in the WC. before the game was played. In any case, So ?
Exactly, that is why I pointed out very specifically : "Portugal Fans". In any way, I never considered CIV below Portugal, not before, not after. My rep on your post, goes for this part, which is absolutely true. The odd side (not bad, which is another diferent thing) of all fans of any team, is that fans usually rate their team higher than the reality in which they really are. But for the issue, with very few exceptions (btw, on regards to my team, I'm not in this category), you guys belong to the same category shared by England, Mexico and Argentina fans, whom top everybody else in how they tend to over rate their NT.
I find many Portuguese fans overrate our team, and others tend to underrate our team. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle, that's why I personally put us at 8th.
Interestingly every group of death since 2002 when the tournament was expanded(GOD loses its meaning when a 3rd place team can qualify) has included an African side. In fact since 2002 the 2 toughest groups have always included African sides, and it's always one that makes it out and one that fails. Its also always Africa's 2 best teams that end up in GOD. 2002 1) Sweden 5 England 5 Argentina 4 Nigeria 1 2) Denmark 7 Senegal 5 Uruguay 2 France 1 2006 1) Argentina 7 Holland 7 Ivory coast 3 Serbia & M 0 2) Italy 7 Ghana 6 Czech 3 USA 1 2010 1) Brazil 7 Portugal 5 Ivory C 4 N. Korea 0 2) Germany 6 Ghana 4 Australia 4 Serbia 3
Oh stop, please, we could say Ivory Coast was lucky that Portugal was playing with negative tactics during that WC, which drove us all insane. We beat North Korea 7-0 and drew Brazil, IC beat North Korea 3-0 and lost to Brazil. The better team advanced, deal with it.
Here goes my ranking, by the way. Conembol 1. Brazil 2. Argentina 3. Uruguay 4. Colombia 5. Chile 6. Ecuador UEFA 1. Spain 2. Germany 3. Italy 4. Holland 5. France 6. England 7. Portugal 8. Belgium 9. Russia 10. Croatia 11. Greece 12. Switzerland 13. Bosnia & H CAF 1. Ghana 2. Nigeria 3. Ivory Coast 4. Cameroon 5. Algeria Concacaf 1. USA 2. Mexico 3. Honduras 4. Costa Rica AFC 1. Japan 2. South Korea 3. Australia 4. Iran
I don't think Portugal was anything special in 2010. In fact, as much as I hate to say this since he is our coach right now and has been doing much better recently with us, but it seems to me that Carlos Queiroz has a knack for making teams rather boring and uninspiring! To me, the 2010 Portugal team was just lackluster. The 7 goals it scored against North Korea notwithstanding. I wouldn't say they were better than Ivory Coast, regardless that they clearly earned more points and advanced to the knock out rounds ahead of them fair and square. I definitely liked Portugal more in Euro 2012. In that tournament, they showed some glimpses and occasionally played a style that was entertaining. I didn't watch them in their qualifiers, but enjoyed watching them against Sweden. Overall, I get the sense that this is a much better, or at least a much more entertaining, Portugal side than in 2010. I have rated them around #8 among the World Cup finalists but would have definitely rated them lower in 2010, regardless that their only loss in that tournament was to the eventual world champions. However, while probably even more entertaining than what I saw from them in 2006, Portugal definitely had a better team in 2006. I don't think anyone has disputed that but just to be clear: in 2006, besides Ronaldo, Portugal also boasted the likes of Figo and Deco as well. Portugal no longer has those kind of names on its squad, which is why some might look at Portugal these days and call it a "one trick pony". Even if that might be a bit unfair.
More than Figo, Portugal misses Deco, since it now lacks a good number 10, so important for our style of play. In the past, there was also Rui Costa, but now the only great midfielder is Moutinho, who is more like a transitional midfielder. Aside from that, the team lacks a good striker as usual and the defence has seen better days, in addition to the lack of depth in our bench. However, I think the wings are generally better.
As an enthusiast fan of one of the teams that will take part in the next WC, I got to admit that, whenever I see the rankings that other members post in here (which are valid, as they are their point of view), whenever I see my team below or very below, than where I had them in my own ranking, it feels as if someone decided to stir up everything inside my bowels ..........
I agree with everything you said, however I truly believe Moutinho has hit Decos level. Monaco paid a lot of money for him, but he doesn't get the exposure he would if he would have gone to the EPL or a larger La Liga team, but he seems to be responsible for about 50% of all the assist.
I agree, especially it was Deco who fired the shot that basically ended our World Cup, with Ronaldo simply converting a penalty later on. Figo, though, was kind of like El Cid. Even his dead body, or in his case his old body, still required teams to have someone stick to him to make sure he didn't cause them any problems.
Maybe Moutinho will get there, but he is still not there. For even a casual observer of the Portugal team, Deco stood out in ways that you couldn't miss. I can't say the same for Moutinho.
Agree, Deco was a true leader and playmaker for the teams (Porto, and Portugal) at his best ... Moutinho was neither one in eitehr casem .. or at least NOT YET there