The team played and busted their butts not only for their country but also for Ronaldo. How easy it would have been to throw in the towel when Ronaldo left the game. He was on the sidelines pumping them up and you could see him in the coaches box cheering his team on. You can hate him, say it was a fluke, had the easy bracket, or anything else you want. In the end, you can't take this away
Fair point. Argentina would have potentially won three major c/ships in a row if Higuain was a better finisher for Argentina. They just keep trotting him out there hoping that "today will be the day." Sounds a lot like a fellow named Charlie Brown and some pigskin shaped ball.
Can you even back into a tournament final? It's not like Portugal sat around and relied on another team losing in order to get by Croatia, Poland, Wales or France. One could argue that a better example of backing into success would be - let's see who I can think of here - the USMNT making the knockout stages in 2002 and 2014 in spite of handily losing its final group games thanks to South Korea scoring a late goal up a man or the confluence of Portugal/Germany missing numerous good chances to score thus keeping GD in the USMNT's favor. Honestly, I think the anti-Portugal sentiment I've perceived among fervent USMNT supporters is weird considering the success the team has had against Portugal. I don't have a problem with simple dislike, but when it's coupled with being oblivious it becomes annoying. I know it's easy to listen to the ESPN idiots and just go with whatever they say, but you'll come across better to those of us who pay attention if your analysis isn't based on lazy stereotypes and biases. For instance, many say Portugal played anti-football all tournament and was "lucky" to make it out of its group yet it outshot group opponents 69-17 (50-7 vs. Icland and Austria) while possessing the ball 60% of the time and drew all three matches thanks to a brutal cocktail of admittedly poor finishing, posts, bars, good goalkeeping, two long shots deflected in within a 10-minute span against Hungary, and even a Ronald0 PK miss after an Austrian defender tackled him. It's not as if UEFA decided after the group stage to allow four third-place teams into the final 16, so how is any of this either lucky or especially defensive? Portugal made very good and defensively sound changes for the Croatia match, playing a much more defensive game, which I guess was uncool with "neutral" fans (who somehow don't come across neutral at all), and stifled the Croatia attack that had many calling Croatia the best team after group play. I'm sorry, but when you're a savvy attacking/passing team with an excellent midfield who's a big favorite against a team with only 48 hours of rest, the onus is on you to not let your opponent do exactly what it sets out to do so that you can play the pretty, open game you and these so-called neutrals want you to play. Over the next two matches, Portugal kept the same setup and experienced similar defensive success outside of one fluky misplay by the otherwise excellent Cedric. However, ohmygodyou'renotgonnabelievethis, it actually created more dangerous attacks and shots against Poland as well as Wales. In one match Ronaldo didn't finish good chances and in the next he provided the match-altering opener. Portugal overcame a frighteningly early deficit to beat Poland thanks to an excellent goal from a wunderkind and a clinical shootout performance, and against Wales it likely should've tacked on another goal or two late as Wales persisted with not troubling the Portuguese defense. Keep in mind that Portugal won three straight knockout matches in which it was denied an iron-clad penalty. Yesterday Portugal lost the guy who all the lazy analysts insist is the only Portugal player worth a damn after eight minutes (he tried to play for nearly another 20 with no impact). It then persisted to not let France score much like in the Croatia match, though France came closer than Modric and co. When the match went to ET it was Portugal who had all the dangerous chances. How is that not championship football? Before I get off my soapbox I'd like to remind the big USMNT supporters who love to talk crap about Portugal and revel in that 2-2 draw a couple summers ago that this Portugal team is drastically different (so much quality depth and youth in spite of some injuries and numerous youngsters who will soon get a call up) than the shell of a squad from the 2014 WC. Bento picked a poor and unfit squad for that tournament (though he was slightly hamstrung by the fact that the current wealth of young Portuguese talent wasn't as prepared then). In addition to Ronaldo barely being fit to play and Nani being in poor form as he hit his competitive nadir, that team was rife with guys who quickly disappeared from the scene: Meireles, Veloso, Joao Pereira, Helder Postiga, etc. Also, Fabio Coentrao (who also was injured just before Euro 2016) hurt his knee against Germany while Pepe (AKA, the guy could've been Euro 2016 Player of the Tournament) missed out due to his red card. In the end, Portugal started only two guys yesterday who started against the USMNT in 2014 in a draw that somehow has some American fans convinced their team is on equal footing with Portugal: Ronaldo and Nani. Eight Portuguese who saw the field that day weren't even on the Euro 2016 roster (which would've been even deeper and more creative had Coentrao and their best No. 10 Bernardo Silva not missed this tournament through injury). Let all that sink in for a minute... Lastly, I'll leave this neat little advanced stat for those who've read this far, understand maths and still aren't convinced Portugal wasn't tremendously lucky, ugly, crappy, whatever, and it comes from the excellent writer Michael Caley and his final preview for The Washington Post: "Over the course of Euro 2016, Portugal, France and Germany were probably the three most impressive sides. None of the three had lost before France beat Germany, and during the tournament, they were the only three teams with an expected goals difference better than plus-five." If you don't like Portugal that's fine. If you think Portugal was lucky and not good you're wrong. Sorry to infiltrate your board. End of rant.
Wow, that's a big wall o' "honor defending." What was it again in this thread that got Portugal fans so uppity? Seems like quite a few teams/games were called out in this thread for being boring, ugly, lucky, etc. We need to mix things up and get angry Irishmen or something in here.
Well, for me its a combination of things over a number of years moreso than things specifically from this board this summer. Even champions need to rant, and the common narrative(s) surrounding this team, this tournament and the Portuguese NT in general doesn't fit reality in the eyes of someone who watches every match. I'd love to see Portugal play a friendly against the USMNT (preferably in the Bay Area , though it's unlikely considering there are even more Portuguese-Americans half as far away from Portugal on the east coast). It'd behoove both squads, I think.
Please stop using facts. Stick to stereotypes and narratives that are brought up on TV by British has beens that think it's their style or the highway. Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
Nearly 100% agreed. Although the debates about tactics, styles, etc. can be entertaining, all of this bashing teams for not playing "good football" is getting tiresome. (Don't forget CR7 himself was guilty of this as well after the Iceland game). You don't go deep into major tournaments simply because you were lucky, had a good draw of opposition, etc. Was this Portugal team heavily reliant on its ability to defend well? Absolutely. Does that mean its success was down to luck? Most certainly not. Portugal deserved this title. No matter what the pundits say, they can't change the name on the trophy. They are not my favorite champions ever, but hats off to them for getting the job done. And PS...they bested a very very good Croatia side in the second round, beat a Poland team in the quarterfinal that drew Germany, and a Welsh side that was flying after a convincing win over Belgium while France played Ireland, Iceland and then Germany in the knockout stages. Not a whole lot between those two paths to the final if you ask me. And forget about the group stage...it's almost meaningless and only serves to weed out the truly awful, a fact that surely was not lost on Fernando Santos and his men as they did all they needed to do, no more and no less, to advance to the business end of the tournament.
Kind of depressing stat. The last 4 major finals at World Cup, Copa America and Euro's all went to ET (2014, 2015, 2x 2016). Only 2 goals scored in 480 minutes.— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) July 12, 2016
A huge problem with the 24 to 16 format is that it encourages a conservative approach. Portugal came into this tournament saying they were ripe to win the thing. They certainly had the players to go all out and attack, attack, attack, but why on earth would they when coming in everyone figured 3 points would probably get you through. Tournaments are not set up to pick the best team, but the team that can figure out how to win the thing. Often, they're the same side, but not always. Portugal was a worthy winner. Man for man are they better than Germany or France? Probably not. But they do have a substantial amount of talent. And most national teams, and certainly everyone in this tournament, are flawed.
Hint: Don't arrive with "suck nuts, haters!!!!" if you're looking for intelligent responses to your points. At least the other guy was more coherent while still admitting he was interrupting a general neutral tournament tread with an obvious rant.
Turns into the Ugly Game when major hardware is on the line. I agree, though, it is kind of a bummer. At least the women's World Cup final was a pretty wild change of pace.
In general, I get bored when people complain about lack of goals in games. Soccer matches are stories; think of it like a play instead of a game. Sometimes it's action...sometimes tragedy, comedy or war...almost always dramatic. You should be disappointed when a match lacks drama, not goals. How can you not be impressed by the story of this final?
FWIW, I hate, hate, hated what Ronaldo did after the Iceland match. I thought making lame excuses was poor leadership and set a terrible example for the team. That said, maybe internally (with the Portugal team) it served its purpose and kept them believing. They certainly showed plenty of mental toughness from there on out. For as much as Ronaldo was far from 100% this summer and missed some glorious chances that surely delighted those who dislike him, he did all the things as a leader that even the anti-Ronaldo crowd can't help but begrudgingly admit were impressive as hell: pull Portugal back from the brink after two fluky Hungary goals, generally bust his ass all over the pitch as he tracked back to defend (including helping Quaresma steal the ball to create the Croatia goal), essentially force Moutinho to take a shootout spot, act as manic as those of us who can barely handle watching a shootout on TV, pep talks late in the France match to inspire his team, etc.
Eh, I'll watch a movie or read a book if I want drama. When I watch soccer I mostly just want to be entertained by the action, not get into the whole thing as a borderline religious experience. That said, this final was a pretty good one given that there were a number of great scoring chances before Portugal finally broke the ice. Portugal's keeper was awesome.
I actually didn't arrive like that. If you go back further you would see my posts and understand why I got a little heated because I wrote pretty much the same thing as portugamerifinn. Plus I apologized for it and admitted to being out of line.
I would say advancing with 3 points is more "backing in" than advancing with 4 points. As for backing into a final, the closest thing I can think of is Paraguay in Copa 2011 who got to the final with 5 straight draws. They lost the final to Uruguay 3-0. I wonder what would have been said about Paraguay had they won the tournament in a shootout. I think Portugal are legit champs and won fair and square. They were both lucky with an easy path and good enough when they need to be. I also acknowledge they were unlucky with some uncalled PKs they should have gotten in their favor. That said I have a lot more respect for Chile's victory than I do for Portugal. Chile had to go through Mexico, Colombia and Argentina and for the most part did it in style.
So you had some decent thoughts mixed in with some obvious baiting. And in return you got some responses that agreed with your points, as well as some people who rolled their eyes at your antics. An even exchange, I'd say.