Somebody remind me - how did Portugal explain their loss in Korea

If I remember well Figo wasn´t at 100%, even at 70% because of an injure and, as the WC´s games was replayed last January, commentators were complaining how poor Figo was playing, and I saw him and think the same. And thinking in Rui Costa, I ask what happened to Portu.
The worst happened with France and Zidane, injuried also, and France with Titi Henry and Zidane did anything. People complained about how near was CL and European competitions with WC competitions (Juan Veron was affected too with this, they said)They said it was cruel to make players play a WC in such a way...
I think Figo and Zidane are shining more in Real Madrid, and did it in their past clubs than, lately, in National teams, but also say WC competitions are too short and players/teams has only 3 to win.
Do players spend more time with their clubs than with their N teams? Many of then seem to be better in clubs, maybe because they play more games.

 

I was at that game, and I will never forget the experience.

Besides the usual excuses (tired from Euro. season, Figo injury, key absences--Xavier, and of course being overconfident or whatever), some bigwhig politician commented in their papers that it was just a matter of time before they caught up--they were giving us hell, but just ran out of time.

Which was complete Bull scrotum. The Portuguese were NOT dangerous in the last 8 minutes or so. They were gassed.

Essentially, some of the reasons for the success.

1. US wasn't THAT much worse than Portugal (4 vs. 11, North American champs and confed 3rd place and a hatful of quality matches in the last 5 years vs. never won anything, anywhere, ever).

2. Sanneh marked the hell out of Figo.

3. Early goals have an interesting effect sometimes.

4. (my favorite)--portugal's outside backs sucked beyond belief. They stood around and watched people go around them. Take a look on Mcbride's header at how many people were standing around. I'm not sure what their defensive plan was against the US, but they were completely out of sync.

5. (my other favorite)--the US has played a hell of a lot of games in the last few years in unfamiliar conditions (russia, morocco, Korea, all over Latin America), especially against Latin-style teams. We were ready for the adversity. Yes, I know there are some unfriendly places to play in Euro qualifying, but frankly a lot of the teams didn't go to other continents to play very often.

6. (my most favorite)--Portugal ain't never won nothin, ever (at the senior level). Why the overconfidence? I remember talking to a Portuguese fan on a bus in Seoul the night before the game. The concept that his team could actually LOSE this game was completely beyond his grasp. Had he seen what the US had done over the last several years?

Excuses they can't go with:

Crowd--solidly behind portugal. they were actually quite quiet the first 30 minutes or so--judging from the Koreans around me, they were sitting in stunned silence, and, I am proud to say, a bit of awe at our effectiveness out there. But when Portugal started to gain a little steam, they became pretty intensely in favor of the portuguese, thinking they would be the natural team to advance, and knocking the US would be helpful to Korea's chances. This was essentially an away game for the US.

Luck--yes, we had a lucky Donovan goal, but the Agoos b.s. makes up for that

Ref bias--unlike Korea in the knockouts, no one suggested this was a factor to my knowledge.

Not up for the opponent--good grief, it's the World Cup! Stay home next time and let the folks in the soccer backwaters who really make this tournament a priority play next time.

Injuries--Mathis and Reyna were hurt. 2 of our 3 best field players weren't out there. Sorry folks, but we've got you at least matched here for excuses.

2006 should be interesting, when those whiny Euros (not just Portugal) won't have all these mealy mouthed excuses about the devastating effects of long domestic and UEFA seasons, lack of rest, not enough training time as a team, and playing in unfamiliar or uncomfortable climates or environments.

 

EXCUSES?? I would like to see how USA team would be if they had to play as the Europeans teams has to play, the way they have to play.

And now Portugal has the pride of winning Brazil.
Keep in your ****** dream world, think what you like

 

And wasn´t the Champions League´s schedule change after Korea-Japan?? Due to this fact of Figo, Zidane, Veron etc injuried? And the player´s tiredness complains?
Oh yeah, US player blocked so well Figo, something that Man Und players could´n do as they wanted to do, or was the experts telling lies about how hard it to block Figo (and Zidane)
So USA should be right now the teacher of football!!

 

That White Shark fella's got a bit of a short fuse.

Anyway, I think the above comment hits the nail on the head for me. I don't know what excuses Portugal used to explain the defeat. Well, that's not quite true. I recall their manager saying that the US had six months to prepare for the match.

Whatever. I don't much care what excuses Portugal came up with. For me, it just looked like Portugal hadn't even bothered to scout the US. They had no freaking idea what kind of team we were, who are key players were, what kind of system we played, etc. Their prep went something like this: Americans suck at football, therefore, we'll win easily. I also don't think they had any idea what to expect from S. Korea.

 

something about a nail and a head.

 

Did you see "Our Way"?

Before the match in the locker room, Arena said something like: "Remember what we've been working on. First tackle. First foul. First shot."

Portugal was totally unprepared to play a faster, fitter, more motivated side.

End of story.

 

I don't think anybody could teach you a thing.

So,,,,

Exactly how DID the US smoke Portugal?

 

they have a lot of famous attackers.... and a very, very bad defense. Except for Beto, they looked like a defense from the A-league.
Portugal fans call Couto "Fernando", McBride called him " my girlfriend".

 

God. Did you even watch the ManU-Real game yesterday? Figo had two good plays and then he sucked the rest of the match. He dove(se clavo) more than any other player on the pitch. I'll agree that it was atypical Figo, but he sucked yesterday.

Blah, blah, blah, Euro schedule cry baby excuses. Wait a second--- Brazil won the whole thing with the majority of their starting 11 playing in Europe.

Can you take anything more out of context? Where has anyone said that we are the 'teachers of football'? The point is that with all of their offensive skill, Portugal's defense was very, very OVERRATED. I think Bruce S put it best--Couto was McBride's personal bitch that day.

Portugal and Argentina showed up with the same attitude:'We were untouchable in qualifiers, we'll be untouchable in the Cup." That's why they play the tournament.

 

No to mention he runner ups, Germany.

The fates can be cruel.

 

Yes yes. Good question, I want to hear White Sharks answer to this...

 

Two things:
1) Thee World Cup was played earlier to avoid the rainy season in that region of the world. If it was played when its normally played, the fields would have been swamped.
2) I guess babelfish isn't working so well for you, try freetranslation.com

 

figo didn't do ************ against Man U... figo was useless. zidane ronaldo and raul were the ones that ruined Man U.

portugal choked and lost, portugal always chokes and loses. they have talent. but they get outplayed. its what they do. they do it against france, and italy, and korea, and add the u.s.a to that fine list too.

 

About couple weeks before the WC, i watched the show called western union football or something like that on the FSW, it was about Portugal team getting ready for WC and there were some interviews from players like Figo, Rui Costa, Nuno Gomez, Conceicao etc and basicaly they did not underestimate US and two other teams in the group but they showed respect instead i did not hear any arrogant word from their interviews (this is what makes me respect Portugal team )so, i think in my opinion their filure were probably 2 reasons : 1. Don't have any WC experience and 2. Tired from the league's season that year.

 

Going into the tournament, I thought the Portugal game was the game that we had the best shot at winning. Portugal, for all their talent, didn't have a single player that had played in a World Cup, yet their press and fans were swarming around them with questions as to whether or not they would win the whole thing. All of these pressures and distractions are going to effect a group of players that have never played in a World Cup the most in their first game, when we were playing them.

Yet another thing that seemed to be in our favor was the fact that Portugese fans thought that losing to the USA simply wasn't possible. This is when a team is ripest for an upset, ignoring or dismissing serious problems. This with Figo was coming off of a serious injury. Tony Sanneh did well against him, but Figo just did not (understandibly)play well.

On top of all of this, the USA had had a magnificent build up to the cup, only losing against every European team that they played, giving the European community the impression that we were not as good as we really were.

Personally, I thought that the Portugese players were pretty classy before after the loss. Figo, inspite of his injuries, offered no excuses. The team had some internal problems amongst themselves, but they never came out and publically tried to excuse the loss away.

 

I think it was their coach who underestimated us. From what I've gathered he is a bit thick.

 

Their goalkeeper sucked, too.

Funny, didn't he save a penaly against Lazio yesterday?

 

saving penalty is the matter of luck at least luck has something to do with it that is if a goalie guesses on the right direction so, a bad goalie might do it sometime.

 

Wouldn't you agree that there's a big difference between what a player says publicly and reality?

In those interviews, did any of those players offer any specifics on the players in their group? Did they even name any players. "We don't underestimate anybody...yada...yada...yada". Figo et al knew somewhere between jack and sh|t about the US team, and it came back to bite them in the ass.

 

maybe this explains things a little bit better, this just came out the other day:

Portugal 'Laziest Nation in Europe'

Portugal has achieved the dubious distinction of being rated the laziest nation in the European Union, with Britain ranking 10th out of the Union's 15 member states, a study by scientists at the University of Navarra in Spain revealed.

According to their research into who leads the most sedentary lifestyles, nearly 88 percent of Portuguese inhabitants get hardly any exercise and spend lots of time simply sitting around.

Belgium came in second as the place where 71 percent of people lead an unhealthy lifestyle. Spain, Germany, Greece, Italy and France followed in that order.

 

True
You will never hear something arrogant of them, players and people , Portuguesse or whatever never has the arrogance USA has. No country of the world has the US arrogance.
And Portuguesse are a very respecful people.
And is not just for publicity,you need to know learn about the respect I´m talking about.
Again, keep in your shitty dream-world a bash who ever you want, we are all used to the yanks way.

 

Well, I agree with you on that point.

 

US 3 Portugal 2 is not being arrogant.
US making it out of group play and into the quarters while Protugal goes home is not a dream world. It is REALITY.

And we're all waiting for an answer to this: