Portuguese footballing history is full of bitter disapointment isn't it? Think about it. How many times did we thought we REALLY had it going? Nothing could stop us? Or that we deserved it more than the other bastards? How many? But in the end... a twist of luck, an unforseen turn of events, the ref... the freaking greeks! SOMETHING ALWAYS happens that just CRUSHES your dream! OUR dream! Oh we really came close a couple of times... ...only to fall into the deepest of footballing depressions... Other times we didn't really get close.... but WE WOULD!! If we had gotten there in the first place! Damn european qualification groups!! Why do we ALWAYS have to get stuck with Germany, Holland or Italy, while you-know-who has it easy against Trinidad & Tobago? WHY!? WHY!? ... So here's what I'm asking... I want you to enter that dark room in your football memories. I want to know what result reeeeeallllly left a mark in you? Led you to get drunk... Brake stuff... lose sleep... cry like a baby... all of the above... none of the above cos you repressed it, and it will only catch up with you in 10 years time, when you're talking to your therapist as part of a process to make you be more spontaneous and intouch with your emotions, and not such a tight ass control freak all the time... you know...? Anyway... I'm quite sure I forgot some results but it's no use whining like you people usually do... "Oh why isn't this on the poll, oh why isn't that on the poll"... you don't like it you do your own polls and see how easy it is. People always nagging you about what THEY feel is important. That's why there's the "Other" option you needy whimful baby!! Ok!... let's start sharing our pain. Let the healing begin! PS. Choose 3 results MAXIMUM!
well im only 15 so i cant realy say 66,but i can only come up with 2 that REALY REALY left a mark on me,these 2 got me realy mad ill start off with the Semis between Portugal vs France I was about 11 at the time watchign this game and i still remember it pretty well,o boy we should have won that match IMO.I was watching it with my brother and wow was it ever a badly reffed match.everything was going frances way bad calls left and right,to be honest we werent liked no one wanted us to win,because everyone feared us IMO because they know tthat we are good and dont want us to be liek the 66th team and dominate realy.we definatly shoudl have won that match they coudlnt stop us without the help from the refs.my brother was so mad after his match he never watched a football game since,i was just as mad as him. onto my next game greece the finals We were SOOOOO close we could taste the cup we couldnt have been more closer then we have ever been in this game plus it was at our home tuff which made it more heart crushing when charastieas scored that goal in around the 70th minute?and eventualy loosing in that game,crushed my heart last summer i cried so much after that game we just were so close i couldnt believe that we lost i hated hoosing but ya those were the 2 losses
To me... the defeat against the US takes the cake. Even more than the EURO final. It was like... 2 years waiting for the WC. Going through the qualification with ease and great style. Steam rolling the opposition. Best attack of all European qualification groups. Best deffense too. Figo owning left and right. Rui Costa center. Then the WC group draw looking as easy as you can get in a WC: USA... I was like "pppfffff.... 5-0. Easy". Then in the morning of the game I overslept... wake up, turn the TV on... and I swear I felt like going back to bed and waking up again! 2-0 it was! I get in the car to go meet with some friends and watch the game.... and BAM! 3-0! Let me tell you... such pain before breakfast...? It leaves a big scar. I think I'm alright now. But boy do I want to play them again in 2006! Greece of course was devastating too. The whole country in a state of euphoria. The antecipation. The feeling that it was right there in our home and there was no way we would let it slip through our fingers. Glory at last for players like Figo and Rui Costa. That one will stay forever too. My other choice was the game vs Liechtenstein. Just because they're amateurs who play football in part time, and yet managed (or we let them) to come back from a 2-0 deficit. Shameful result.
1). Euro 2004 2). Euro 2000 vs France... Abel Xavier 3). And I picked the 97 WCQ game vs Germany because I thought we were going in for sure when Pedro Barbosa scored. I dunno why but this one bothered me more than Pinto's red card vs Korea in 2002. 66 is before my time and I was too young to remember Euro 84. WC 86 was a joke. I can't believe our team actually went on strike and didn't practice.
Oh man we were screwed by the ref in that one! Germany simply HAD to be in the WC. It's not a WC without Germany and Brasil. So they red card Rui Costa as he was walking off the pitch to get subbed! 2nd yellow and RED! I can still remember Rui Costa crying in the sidelines in complete disbelief! And the look in Sergio Conceição's face! Yup. That hurt too.
I think it was simply a matter of not letting Germany out. And because we're tiny Portugal. It would never happen if it was the opposite situation.
Semi-Final against France It was the same penalty that the USA didn't get against Germany in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup; in that it wasn't a penalty, I'll always go to sleep knowing that it wasn't a penalty even if it did hit his hand in the area. Semi-Final against England Doesn't matter if you never lived it, because all you know is we missed out big. Final against Greece Not for anything, but Greece went out there with the intention of getting a tan and we still ********ed it up.
These are my most painful, therapy necessitating results, unless you were around in 66 it should be the same for most.
nobody talking about European Cup 84 Portugal reach the semi-finals, only to lose to France the host nation, when we were leading 2-1 with 5 minutes to go, against the Platini, Tigana, Rochetau generation but , again bad decisions by the referee and Portugal unable to clear the ball when they had position in the last 5 minutes of the game
...far more embarrassing than painful, but still a disgusting display. There were two things that made this game some what of an easier pill to swallow. 1. It wasn't the end of road, although at the time it was in fact the beginning of their demise, we all thought they would pull through 2. Portugal despite losing, made it interesting in the end and totally dominated the 2nd half...Ten more minutes and we win that game.
definitely the Greek final...the France semis in 2000 and the infamous Rui Costa red card as a soon to be substitute in Germany for a 1-1 draw when 3 pts would have taken us to France that year...easily Rui Costa's best year when he hit his prime in 98.
The one thing I'll never forget about this game was a quote from Cobi Jones. I don't remember exactly what he said but Jones remembers hearing one of the Portuguese media talking with an American media type and saying something like, "Oh this match for us Portuguese is like you in the basketball Dream Team against a poor country." Apparently that fired everyone up. The US was fired up. They had been there for a month before the World Cup started training. They had a lot to prove after finishing dead last in World Cup 98. Portugal overlooked the minnows (again). They had just come off finishing their leagues in Europe. Baia was picked to start in goal over an in form Ricardo. I remember rumblings and distraction in the media. That all spelled disaster and it happened.
November 93, Italy 1 - 0 Portugal. This one really hurt me. I remember it well, I took a day off of school in grade 5 to watch this one. The "goal" was pure BS. The Italian player was OFFSIDE by a mile. Oh well, what else is new. Also, Euro 96 with our pathetic display vs the C. Rep was pretty horrufying to forget. I'm still in mental rehad over WC 2002 and Euro 2004.
I must have passed that one by...I do remember that Italy 1-0 Portugal game...rainy day in Toronto...was in grade 5 too...if I can remember stuff like that on that day, I must have been pissed.
france at euro 200 and greece at euro 04 were the hardest to take....ill enjoy portugals world cup or euro victories much more because of these results.
French refereee mind you,if my memorie doesnt fail his name was Marc Vata or some ******** like that... I voted for Euro 2004 final vs Greece. Euro 1984 ,vs France. Portugal vs Usa just because of a patriotic point of view ,because the game was not decisve. And one that still bothers me as much as The Euro 2004 final was Psv vs Benfica ,CL final when Veloso missed the pk and we lost 6-5 on pks.....
Lol, i will never forget this son of a b*tch, we were playing wonderfull football against the Germans and winning, everything was meant to make us reach the WC 98, even with 38 years Silvino on the goalie(who made a good game) we were a force, but then 24 seconds to get out of the pitch by Rui Costa were enough to guarantee him the second yellow card... i knew we wouldn´hold up our advantage... The other terrible game was agaisnt France in Euro 2000, damn we were doing a great euro playing fantastic football, we even start scoring against the best team in the world at the time, but again our "fado" destroyed our dreams... My other choice was obviously the final against Greece, one nation waiting to celebrate, revenge was on the air and we still didn´t managed to win against them once again, what is more painfull is that i knew this would happen...
Therapy Damn Wookie! It was all your fault!! Just thought I'd help you all directing your anger. Go ahead. Tell him how you feel!