I was trying to come up with a 23 man team of Portuguese players under 25 years of age and I was pleasantly surpirsed at the amount of quality choices out there. Here was my final cut: GK: Ricardo (Boavista) Moreira (Benfica) Quim (Sp. Braga) Defense: Meira (Stuttgart) Caneira (Bordeaux) R.Rocha (Benfica) Andrade (La Corunha) P. Ferreira (FCP) J. Ribeiro (???) Frechaut (Boavista) Midfield: H. Viana (Newcastle) Simao (Benfica) Tiago (Benfica) Boa-Morte (Fulham) Marco Ferreira (FCP) Ednilson (Benfica) Nuno Assis (???) Ricardo Sousa (???) Bosingwa (Boavista) Forwards: H. Postiga (FCP) Neca (Belenenses) R. Quaresma (Sporting) Makakula (Nantes) Look how many good young players did not make my final cut: Hugo Leal (PSG) Ronaldo Cristiano (Sporting) R. Carvalho (FCP) Tonel (Academica) Ricardo Costa (FCP) Rui Baiao (???) Cesar Peixoto (FCP) Candido Costa (FCP) Pepa (???) Pedro Mendes (???) Miguel (Benfica) Luis Filipe (Sporting) Carlos Martins (Sporting) Paulo Costa (FCP) Sergio Leite (???) Anything anyone would do different? It is also tough to come up with a starting lineup. I would probably go with a 3-5-2 that looked like this: Ricardo Meira - Andrade - Caneira M. Ferreira - Tiago - Viana - Ednilson - Simao Postiga - Neca/Boa-Morte
There is certainly a wealth of young players out there for Portugal. Another forward to look out for is Felipe Oliveira, who is right on the cusp of breaking in with the first team at Chelsea FC. See attached description: http://www.chelseafc.co.uk/Player.asp?id=11624 Based solely on playing the players in their natural positions and assuming a 4-4-2, my lineup would be: Ricardo/Quim Paulo Ferreira - Meira - Andrade - Ribeiro Tiago Quaresma - Simao Viana Ronaldo - Postiga
Has Felipe Oliveira gotten any first team action with Chelsea? I've heard of him but really don't know much about his potential. I like your lineup if I was going with a 4-4-2, except for maybe Ronaldo and Quaresma who have tremendous promise but I'm not sure if I would start him today over Neca, Marco Ferreira or even Boa -Morte (although I'm not exactly sure of his age). This is coming from a Sporting fan.