Here is mine focused obviously on Portugal games. Qualified in Group A- Brazil and Croatia Group B- Spain and Netherlands Group C- Colombia and Greece Group D- Italy and Uruguay Group E- France and Switzerland Group F- Argentina and Nigeria Group G- Germany and Portugal Group H- Belgium and Russia Portugal first round games: Germany 1-1 Portugal Portugal plays a fantastic game, Ronaldo opens the score on a long range shot. But the Germans shows their strength and equalize on the end of the game through a header from Klose who equals Ronaldo Fenômeno as all time WC top scorer. Portugal 2-0 USA USA does to Portugal what Portugal did to them in 2002, after beating Ghana they reach overconfident, and Ronaldo scores the first one in a counter attack followed by a header from Bruno Alves in 20'. After that Portugal concentrates in not losing anyone due the heat of Manaus. Germany eliminates Ghana with a 4-1 score. Portugal 1-0 Ghana On a tough physical match with the Ghanaians where a draw would be enough for Portugal, Portugal managed to score at the second time through Helder Postiga. The Germans beat USA by 2-0 we qualify in second position. Round of 16. Brazil 3-0 Netherlands - Brazil steamroller the Dutch with a suburb presentation of Neymar in a revenge for 2010. Colombia 1-3 Uruguay - Suarez and Cavani dictates the victory in the return of Falcao for Colombian games. Falcao still manages to equalize the game. Preparing the one week news and retrospective of the Maracanazo, who will now be played in Fortaleza. Spain 1-0 Croatia - Tough game as was in Euro 2012. Spain managed to win in one of their tiki taka known plays, Xavi passes to Iniesta, to Diego Costa who scores at the 89'. Italy 0-0 Greece - The first surprise of the World Cup, the feisty Greeks manages to play as lion and lock themselves against Italy, the games goes to the pk, where Italy crumbles once again. Santos reaches the quarter-finals, Greece is in a total party for days, as they know Spain will beat them. France 3-2 Nigeria - In a total open minded attacked game, France lead by Pogba, Ribéry and Benzema manages to beat the Nigerians and reach quarter-finals causing Brazilian to ask if they will crumble to France again. Germany 1-0 Russia - Capello's fantastic defensive system manages to shut down the utter fantastic German attack, but Götze manages to score the winning goal on extra-time. Argentina 3-1 Switzerland - As Brazil, Messi and Agüero steamrolls through Switzerland, but a later goal from a defensive blunder shows how week defensively the Argentine can be. Belgium 0-2 Portugal - Portugal reaches as a underdog against the fantastic first round of the Belgiums, but the lack of experience and nervous of the Belgian players is evident. Ronaldo scores the first in a pk, and the second on a free kick managing to score his 4th in 4 games. Quarter-Finals Brazil 2-1 Uruguay - The press is loaded with Maracanazo stories with a probably "Castelazo". In a tough game, Brazil overcome Uruguay in extra time, expurging all of their ghosts, until there. France 2-2 Germany - Ribéry shows why he is so underrated and managed to by himself equals the game against Germany. Who fails once more, now on something that they never failed, the pk. The ghosts of Maracanazo are gone, but the ghosts of Zidane in 1998 and 2006 reappears to the Brazilian. Spain 0-0 Greece. Once again Santos surprise the world, and Greece become the Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, Korea and Sweden of other World Cups, reaching the semi-final after defeating Spain on pk, who could not find their way with tiki-taka in the superb Greek defense. Argentina 0-1 Portugal. Messi x Ronaldo. A fantastic game despite the result, which is fulfilled with Ronaldo 5th goal in 5 games in a fantastic assistance by Moutinho. Semi-Finals Brazil 2-0 France - Brazil avenges and expurges another ghosts in another suberb display of Neymar, who now disputes with Ronaldo both the top scorer and best player of the tournament. Portugal 1-0 Greece - A Weird semi final of a World Cup, some will say that the previous game of Brazil would be the actual final. Portugal now has to overcome their ghosts. Greece intends to counter-attack or go to another penalty shoot-out. But a second half goal from Hugo Almeida after a corner kick, curiously in the same goal that Charisteas scored in 2004 sends Portugal to the final. 3rd-4th France 0-2 Greece - France put their reserves and without any will are defeated by the happy Greeks, who reaches their best result ever and dance towards the country, which becomes a full party for days in Athens. Final Brazil - Portugal - History about the conquer of Portugal, the discovery of Brazil rises in the week before the game. Everyone praises what a perfect final for a World Cup in Brazil (even if the preferred to be Brazil and Argentina). Neymar scores the first one. Portugal will fail again? Quaresma which entered in the quarter-finals after Nani injuries redeem himself and score two goals, the equalizer in a pass from Ronaldo. The other one after everyone curses him for an improbable trivela, which somehow managed to finds the net. Portugal does a Maracanaço. The second one. Felipão loses again in a home final. Quaresma redeems himself in a holywood typical story. While Ronaldo wins the best player award and Neymar the top scorer of tournament and silver ball. Messi become the bronze ball with fabulous displays in first round. A statue of Quaresma is asked to put in the centre of Lisbon, but declined after the Cigano begins again in the next season to fade until the retires himself as hero. Brazil 1-2 Portugal. Ronaldo, now a World Champion will lead some fantastic core of youngsters, Carlos Mané, Bebé, William, Marcos Lopes, Tiago Ilori, Cédric, Nelson Oliveira, with the help of Moutinho to try the second cup in Russia in 4 years. Hope you liked! And who knows, dreams and miracles can happen.
I don't know what's more improbable Portugal in the finals or Greece in the Semi's. It's amazing how much credit they are still given despite being the biggest fluke in all of sports, more so then Denmark. They have done nothing in any tournament since 2004 and have been gifted easy groups for every tourney. I've done too much dreaming in the past, so I am not going to post any hypotheticals. One thing is for sure if Brazil go to the final they will win the final. Just hope they get out of the group hopefully play as well as they did at Euro 2012 and see how far they can get.
Friendly in May Portugal 6-0 Greece Ronaldo scores a hat trick and sets up three goals, dominating shitty Greece and showing a preview of yet another Greek epic fail about to happen at the WC. WC Portugal 1-0 Germany + United Nations a cagey affair in the first half, until second half. William grows in confidence and starts owning the midfield. half way through the second half a terrific through pass from Joao Moutinho finds cristiano ronaldo who toe pokes the ball calmly into the bottom right corner. 1-0. Portugal 2-0 USA a Professional Performance to dispatch the USA. the American media makes a big hoopla over their win in 2002, but are left licking their wounds. 2 CR7 goals are scored, as CR7 loves american media attention so does not fail to disapoint . final game Portugal 2-1 Ghana some reserves are played, but Portugal eek out a win and top the group. goals scored by Ricardo Quaresma and William Carvalho, with a overpowering header from a corner. Oitavos Brazil 3-2 Netherlands another Brazil-Oranje classic. in extra time Neymar dives on the floor, gets a dutch defender sent off. Brazil scores PK and wins. although many point at the scummy nature of the loss, it is swept under the rug because it is Brazil afterall. Spain 2-0 Mexico Mexico manages to get out the group. on the field the Mexican players try really hard to overcome their masters. Spain dominates the game, scores the first. then Mexican players have visions of the 1500's and men on white horses, and fall apart mentally. Koke comes on and scores a nice goal. Spain wins 2-0, but the second half collapse it could have been 5-0. Spain show mercy and do not run up the score. Mexicans like the rest of latin americans now root for Spain after being ousted. Colombia 1-2 Uruguay (Referee: Pedro Proenca from Portugal) in a free flowing open game, the game is level 1-1 in the 81st minute. Substitute Fredy Montero comes on, scores a goal and celebrates wildly. Portuguese referee's call it offside, but it clearly was not. Luis Suarez scores the winner in the 88th minute. 2-1 for the Uru's. Italy 1-0 Cote D'Ivoire in a ho-hum game, Italy does what it need to do and gets the 3 points. To be fair, they were never in danger in losing this game. Professional performance. France 2-0 Nigeria Nigeria super eagles play some great football, hit the post twice. but France shows their experience. Karim Benzema and Frank Ribery hit the back of the net. France begins to believe this could be a special team. Argentina 3-1 Ecuador South American teams continue to impress. Lionel Messi scores two goals with his left foot inside the six yard box after running diagnoly and doing a give and go like he always does. But, Marcos Rojo scores a beast mode header off a corner. After the game, Marcos Rojo is praised by the world press. Rojo says he owes everything to Sporting CP and that they made him a better player and that next season he will be ready for the champions league. Portugal 4-0 S. Korea in Revenge for WC 2002, Portugal gets revenge on South Korea. Helder Postiga scores the first early in the game. the pace slows down for a bit, Portugal begin to dominate possession largely thanks to the play of William. his dominance allows moutinho to flourish. in the second half, Cristiano Ronaldo hits a hat trick. first goal , a header is scored after Quaresma bamboozle's the left back, and does a rabona cross. Ronaldo jumps in the air and puts the ball into the net with his head. 2 minutes later, a moutinho through pass finds Ronaldo, who runs through two Korean defenders and finishes with his left foot. 5 minutes later, Ronaldo from 35 yards out in space lets fly a longe range shot into the net. Hat Trick. Belgium 1-4 Germany Although the english press loves them , Belgium fails miserably against Germany. No one in Belgium cares though, they just turn the flags on their walls around and turn it into a German Flag. the Germany bandwagon grows. Quarter Finals Brazil 3-1 Uruguay Uruguay trolls and says they will do another maracazo. the first half is tight, and suarez opens the scoring. Uruguay plays very tough as usual against Brazil and Brazil struggles. Neymar dives, a uruguayan players gets sent off. half time. 2nd half, 60th minute, a uruguayan defender receives his second booking for apparently saying something offensive to the referee. noone sees it clearly, but he is sent off. Uruguay are down to 9 men. Brazil naturally overpower 9 men uruguay. Neymar scores. Fred Scores. Neymar scores again in the 87th minute to wrap up the game. Neymar takes off his shirt and dances, showing off his malnourished body that only a filipino pop star would be proud of. the ref does not card though. Uruguayan press calls this game the "robbery of the century". noone else seems to care though, FIFA sweeps it under the rug. Portugal 2-1 France A.E.T. Portugal comes up against France, a team it has suffered against in past tournaments. France plays a great game, but a solid and calculating Portugal hold strong. Karim Benzema scores midway through the second half, after turning on the edge of the box and rifling a powerful low shot past Rui Patricio. 85th minute, the French fans begin signing their national anthem as things appear France has the victory locked up. however Ronaldo is fouled outside the area. Ronaldo rifles in a free kick off the crossbar that instantly becomes a candidate for goal of the tournament. Ronaldo celebrates wildly. the goal deflates the French, and Ronaldo hits the post agonizingly in the 92nd minute. The game ends, and extra time beckons. in the 115h minute, Portugal is struggling to break down the French who appear to be on the defensive and playing for penalties. however, a terrific passing move between Ronaldo, Postiga, William, and Moutinho leads to a pass finding Coentrao bombing down the left flank and into the box who drives a powerful low shot across the face of goal. the keeper touches it but it falls into the path of Quaresma who punts the ball into the open goal. QUARESMA!!! who would have thought. he is finally matured and has had a solid tournament. however the goal was a team goal and Portugal is proving to be a resilient unit. Portugal finally get a huge win over the French. Argentina 3-2 Germany A.E.T. in a epic game, Argentina defeat Germany. Aguero opens the scoring, only for the Germans to come up 2-1 with a goal from Sweinsteggar and a goal from Goetze. HT 2-1 Germany. Second half, 77th minute. German defense struggles to deal with a high ball, and in an attempt to clear end up passing the ball to Messi. Messi, unopposed scores a easy goal to level it. Ray Hudson is commentating, and calls it the greatest goal in the world cup and how Messi is the greatest of all time. in truth it was a terrible goal but commentators around the world (except Portuguese ones) say otherwise. Extra time Beckons. in the 106th minute, Messi ghosts past three German players and then cooly chips Manuel Neurer to Give Argentina the victory. Now that is a goal! Argentina reach the WC semi finals for the first time since 1990! South American teams continue to impress! Spain 1-0 Italy In a hotly contested encounter, Spain once again defeats Italy. Iniesta scores after Spain passes the ball around Italy's defense and Iniesta apply's the finishing touch. Italy in the second half begings to show tiredness. Balotelli is sent off in the 65th minute after a fight with Ramos after a challenge, who himself gets a yellow card. Diego Costa , with only Buffon to beat hits the post in the 78th minute. the rest of the game is played out without much action, as Spain largely holds the ball and winds the clock down. The referee got it right, but conspiracy theories make the rounds in Italy. Spain has once again made it far in a tournament! Could they repeat their WC win in South Africa? Semi Finals Portugal 1-0 Brazil A.E.T. In the 7th minute, Neymar dives. Pepe given a Red Card. Penalty for Brazil. AND PATRICIO SAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the Brazilian crowed is disapointed, but optimism is high. afterall Portugal will play the entire game down to 10 men. Paulo Bento instructs william to play more defensive and occupy Pepe's spot. Brazil dominate the first half, but fail to make any clear cut goal chance. 2nd half. Bento subs on Luis Neto, and takes out Quaresma. Brazil dominates the game. Neymar is slightly touched when he gets a breakaway in the box by Luis Neto. a yellow card is given, and another penalty. it is the 77th minute. PATRICIO SAVES AGAIN!!!! Brazil cant believe it, but the heroics of Patricio give Portugal hope. the game ends 0-0, and extra time beckons. As the game wore on Ronaldo began to impose himself with the limited possession he had. in the 82nd minute, a long range ronaldo shot narrowly flew over the crossbar. the Brazilian crowd jeer's heavily whenever ronaldo gets the ball. A section of the Brazil fans are even believed to strangley be chanting "Messi" - such is the hate Cr7 Receives in Brazil. EXTRA TIME Portugal , with 10 men are extremely tired but Brazil is demoralized. suddenly, a quick counter attack by Portugal free's ronaldo, who charges in on goal. Julio Cesar fouls Ronaldo. a stone cold Clear penalty. the referee reluctantly points the the spot, as jeers ring around the stadium. Ronaldo steps up to the spot. Brazilian fans jeer and call him derogatory names. Referee blows his whistle. Ronaldo steps up and rifles the ball confidently into the top corner. Is this really happening? Portugal wins and amazing scenes erupt. the stadium is eerily quiet, as brazil fans mourn. on tv cameras all that can be heard is the jubilation of Portugal players and staff. Scolari hugs Ronaldo at the end and wishes him luck for the final, but the rest of Brazil will not be cheering on Portugal. the world press label's Portugal's victory as a disgusting example of anti-football. although strangely it was not the case if one watched the game with open eyes. Argentina 1-0 Spain Spain dominates the game but struggles to score. Navas his the post. Diego Costa misses a sitter. in the 2nd half, Iniesta and Xavi combine for a 1-2, Xavi then does an amazing backwards pass that finds a darting Lionel Messi, who picks up the ball 1 on 1 with Pique. Pique is burnt for speed , and Messi finishes with his left foot. 1-0 ARGENTINA!! MESSI...assist by Xavi!!!!!!!! game ends. Spain is happy Argentina won, and all the barca players celebrate with messi and wish them luck and that they defeat Portugal in the final. WC 2014 Final Portugal - Argentina in a nightmare scenario for Brazilians, Portugal and Argentina face off in the WC final in Brazil. needless to say, Brazilians are hoping Argentina wins and Messi wins, such is their hate for Cristiano Ronaldo. Pepe is absent for the game due to his previous red card. Paulo Bento gives William special instruction to shut down Messi. throughout the first half, William dominates and Messi is subdued to insignificance. English commentators are amazed and reference is made to "yet another amazing player developed by the Sporting Lisbon academy" 57th minute, off a corner a loose ball finds William who volley's it into the net through a maze of defenders. GOALLL! PORTUGAL OPENS THE SCORE!!!! WILLIAM!!!! Shortly after, Meireles does some god awful pass and Messi latches on to it. William tries to foul him, but the little flea breaks free and sends a low shot past Patricio. 1-1. and the stadium erupts ARGENTINA!!! ARGENTINA!!! BUT.... Ronaldo picks up the ball in midfield, runs past 2 argentina defenders, passes to postiga who sends the ball back. Ronaldo rifles in a powerful right footed shot that hits the back of the net 2-1!!!!!!! the game ends PORTUGAL WORLD CUP CHAMPION Ronaldo lifts the world cup in a quiet Maracana. the english commentator utters "The most despicable moment in World Cup History"
^ I LOL'd hard at Mexicans having visions of the 1500's of men on white horses. I'm practically crying I'm laughing so hard.
Hahahah Genious! But even with the hate for Portugal, here in Brazil the fan hate for Argentina is 1000x higher. A final among them, and you will see 99% of support for Portugal for sure, at least for the fans not from the media.
I thought the Brazilians would give Portugal good support? I didn't realize Brazil hated Portugal. I thought the exact opposite….Portugal certainly doesn't hate Brazil.
I don't hate Brazil but I don't hold them in any higher regard then any other nation. And I certainly don't want them to win another World Cup. I'd rather any other team save for Netherlands, Italy, Spain, France and right now Argentina.
Actually Portugal causes mixed feelings here. Portuguese families (which account for the majority of Brazilians) and Ronaldo fans (which are a lot, believe me) support Portugal. Messi fans and other Brazilians hate Portugal. We don't have here the kind of like the supporters of England or the Dutch which everyone supports occasionally, neither love or neither hate. Of course Brazil is the main team, but in 2006, after they got eliminated, Portugal was the preferred team for the Brazilians. I think this might happen again if Brazil fails too soon. They do love Messi better than Ronaldo, but Argentina is like Brazilian worst enemy ever. For example, i believe Brazil would like to have a second Maracanazo against Uruguay than have the first Maracanazo for Argentina.
Group A - Brazil and Mexico Group B - Netherlands and Chile Group C - Colombia and Ivory Coast Group D - Uruguay and England Group E - Switzerland and Honduras Group F - Argentina and Bosnia Group G - USA and Portugal Group F - Belgium and Russia Round of 16 winners Brazil Colombia Switzerland USA Chile Uruguay Argentina Portugal Elite 8 winners Brazil USA Uruguay Portugal (Messi and ronaldo score 5 goals each. Reuben Amorim scores the 11th goal of the match, and eventual game winner) USA x Portugal final. It goes down to PKs. Tied after 10 rounds.... Then my alarm clock woke me up. Shit.
Man, that would be the most beautiful moment in my life. If this happen i will take the most fantastic hang out of my life. I already booked vacancies from work for the World Cup, as I will be in two matches. And put Monday 14th, also as vacancies. Who knows, maybe by this time i will be drunk as shit with Portugal first cup ever. I Hope.
If Portugal or USA wins I will be uncontrollably happy. But I be satisfied with anyone but Brasil. (Rather not Italy, France or Spain too)
I agree but I don't think Pique - Ramos center pairing is good enough to get out of their group anyway. I'd just hate to see The likes of neymar and Marcelo crowned champions considering how they play the game
Well obviously yes, but the memory of staying awake all night in 2002 in anticipation of our first match against minnows USA only to see them lose still stings. On top of that, the US bum in the Group Play thread pisses me off
Lol, minnows, USA. Is Mexico a minnow? South Korea? Cote d'Ivorie? I'm assuming it's just Europe and Brazila an Argentina that are "giants" in your eyes
And what's the comparison? Please enlighten me. Because compared to Germany, Italy, Spain and France Portugal is a minnow