Playing Nigeria Bosnia Iran Switzerland and (likely ) Netherlands Than even we would have a great chance of making the World Cup final (as long we we are healthy unlike this wc ) But of curse, FIFA always changes the rankings the month before the World Cup draw to make sure portugal is not seeded for the World Cup , than after the draw we go back to top 5 in rankings for the next four years until the month before the next World Cup draw
The Portugal team that showed up to the Euro 2 years ago would have cruised to the final in this tournament.
Van Gaal is amazing, subbing in that keeper for the PKs, as well as his decisive huntelaar sub against mexico. not to mention how he switches tactics depending on opponents and the team responds well.. now that Neymar and Di Maria have been injured, and Thiago Silva is suspended for the semi... i think there is a big chance of a Germany x Netherlands all-euro final in Maracana. Di Maria's loss for Argentina is huge, he opens up defences with his dribbling and takes pressure off of Messi.
He also asked united to keep Nani. He apparently loves wingers and believes he can make Nani relevant again. Fingers crossed.
I said it a million times, the number one problem with Nani is confidence. If Nani has a coach that believe in him, he will shine.
You mean the same players, because the team is totally different. His point referred to the organization and fitness of the players from that team, and I partially agree with him. I think we would have gotten out of the group without too much trouble, and we would have beaten Belgium. Though, beating Argentina is another story.
In 2012 not a single injury until Postiga hurt himself in the qf. Add 2 years to a already older team, combined with a Coentrao injury in the first 30 minutes of the first game, with the added heat to an older team, throw in the Managers fear of change, and you get failure. Oh yah, I forgot to also mention the team captain is a narcissistic child, who was hurt, so we were only left with his horrible personality and not the skill.
Older and hurt is one thing when they are older and hurt and don't bother prepping in Brazil or FLA or anywhere humid for Brazil and worry more about how many tickets they can sell for their "practice sessions" (read: autograph and photo op sessions) that's another story. These guys full knew they were goin to Brazil for a vacation. Not 1 of them apologized for that joke because they were all in on it.
Portugal always seems to go for a vacation whenever the WC is not in Europe, they like going to exotic destinations, conjuring up our colonial past and calling themselves conquistadores and all that crap It was just one big show-off fest As soon as I saw that stupid team selfie, with Meireles I knew we were in for a rough ride. provided we have a good team in 2018 and qualify, I think we play properly. There are no Portuguese in Russia and no history of Portuguese colonization for them to get all show-off and feel entitled about. In retrospect its probably a good thing Portugal did not qualify for USA 94 or France 98. bet they would have scheduled open training sessions in front of Portuguese immigrants and show-off etc and embarassed us with more group stage exits.
Euro 2016 is going to be a disaster if we have games(or are based) in Bordeaux or Paris. Talk about a big ego trip with all of the emigrants there.
yeah I can picture it, Ronaldo is in town Ronaldo is in town come get your ticket to the Ronaldo training session. oh yeah there are 22 other guys there but dont worry about them. Meireles is 35 but hey he has a cool beard. FPF love their marketing. Gonna be amazing isnt it. Call me when Ronaldo retires from the NT, or other players step up, are allowed to share the lime light, and we stop with this one-man team BS philosophy.
If there's any chance in hell that CR7 heard the complaints about his attitude and shit leadership qualities, I wouldn't put it beyond him to turn it around. He was even more of an individual before and he learned to tone it down. Who knows, maybe hell become one of the team again.
Everyone keeps criticizing CR7….The entire team's attitude stunk. None of them had any confidence or passion. Not even Bruno Alves.
Confidence and passion is one thing. Throwing your arms up in disgust at your teammates when you receive a pass too short or too long isn't acceptable for a team captain
He isn't captain at Madrid. The whole point is that a captain shouldn't do that. I'm no sure why you're arguing with me. I believe there's hope for him still.
Everybody keeps throwing Ronaldo under the bus. I agree to a certain extent - the guy's attitude stunk during and in between Games 1 and 2. He knew how much was wrong with the team and simply didn't hide it very well. But he did change by Game 3. He is human after all. As far as Z's thesis that he gave it all to Real Madrid - yes, he tried hard, but he also stopped playing 90 minute games about 2 months ago and sat out a bunch of key La Liga games. He was never going to miss the CL finals - you can't blame him for taking part in that. Otherwise, he tried to be responsible and slowed down a lot towards the end of the Spanish campaing - hell, Real completely blew a chance to grab La Liga title during his absence. The bottom line is simple: many top players arrive at the World Cup in bad physical conditions b/c of the abuse of the Sept - May calendar of playing in 3 top competitions. As an NT coach there's nothing you can do about that except try to form a balanced group of NT players with a balance between youth and experience at as many positions as possible - i.e. depth. this is the recipe for success for Germany, Brasil, Holland, France and to a lesser extent Argentina. Teams like Spain and Portugal erred with too much experience (i.e. age) and paid the price. Other teams, such as Belgium, arrived with too much youth (nothing they could do about that) and will be a top 4 finish candidates for at least the next 2 tournaments. Let's think about this: Germany and France lost their top players before the WC (Ribery and Reus) and had the depth to cover over that (to an extent - how France missed Ribery in the quarters...). Let's see how Brasil and Argentina react to losing Neymar and di Maria - there's just about enough depth to cover that but it'll be tricky... OTOH, we were doomed as soon as Coentrao got injured. Boom - not just impossible to make a deep run but it ended any chances of making it out of group stage (i.e. the USA game was all about exploiting that gaping hole at LB). We are basically as one man pony at every position (and sometimes less than that at some positions). We simply do not have the depth at this point in time to be a top contender. The 2012 we got extremely lucky not to pick up injuries/cards in the 1st few games and the lack of depth was not exposed until Postiga got hurt. But unless our talent pool matures/expands we are in a hell of a depressing position for the next 2 tournaments and esp. as CR drops off in production...
@dipluso I understand where you're coming from. What I don't like is that he tried to push himself, only to be taken out after 8 minutes or during warmups because he didn't want to lose the golden shoe to Suarez. This is AFTER Madrid had basically no chance to win la Liga. He wasn't thinking about getting better for the World Cup or even the CL championship. It was about personal glory. Which is fine. He can do what he wants. Selfishly speaking, I'd rather him had pulled a messi and walked around for months waiting for the World Cup. It's annoying that he doesn't celebrate when he's teammates score, it's almost like he's wondering why people are happy because he didn't score. But when he scores, he calls everyone over to him. That's his prerogative. Whatever.
I think if someone asked, give me only one reason Portugal failed the group stage? For me it is clearly the loss of Coentrão.
Yeah, fair enough on both points. Don't disagree. But, unfortunately, we can't have the superstar that's been the heart and soul of the best 10-year period of the NT without the selfish, competitive pr8ck who ALWAYS wants to the be the best.
I respectfully disagree. The Dempsey goal was a direct result of not having a decent LB, and it was obvious the USMT and Ghana had it planned to attack the left, more so the U.S. Not to mention Coentrao is about 20% of the attack. Pepe loss was also huge, but if I had to focus on 1 thing other than Bentos player selection, it has to be that.