Austria & Switzerland Apparently Not In Portugal’s 2008 Summer Vacation Plans
By: Greg | August 22nd, 2007
FIFA released the most recent worldwide rankings today and Portugal found themselves two spots lower in tenth place. I saw this list this morning thinking “Oh, man, after we give Armenia a good whoopin’, they’ll regret dropping us.” Cut ahead a few hours and it’s 1-1 at the final whistle. We drew with Armenia 1-1? Embarrassing.
Armenia were already ahead after just 12 minutes on a header by Arzumanyan off a free kick. It was directed well from about 15 yards out, but was surrendered mostly due to poor marking. They truly missed the aerial presence of Carvalho in the back four today. Ronaldo brought Portugal level on 37 minutes with a tidy little close range strike. After this, Portugal began trying to hit everything BUT the net. Armenia tightened up at back and crowded the midfield for a large part of the second half, a strategy that proved to work effectively. Simão and Postiga were nothing short of useless up front and Quaresma should probably be starting at this point. Hopefully proper convoked ones can heal up and come off of suspension to provide some semblance of continuity in this team. Otherwise, and I may be crying wolf a bit early here, I don’t see them even qualifying for this tournament.
For so many years, Portugal has gone with the whole concept of the “Little Country That Could” where a “Just happy to be here” attitude pervaded the minds and hearts of many Portuguese supporters. While a small amount of this underdog mentality still remains, we are NO LONGER the underdogs. Especially not against Armenia. We have produced so many excellent players and have a World Cup-winning manager, yet still manage to underachieve. Maybe expectations have to be tempered. Maybe a squad with players worth tens of millions of Euros and with the Premier League Player of the Year SHOULD only expect to qualify and be happy with it. Maybe I’m underestimating the 81st ranked Armenians. They defeated top-o’-the-table Poland 1-0 and have played most of the “stronger” teams in the group rather close. I don’t care. The Portuguese should have been out for blood.
Watching this team reminds me of the English National Teams from recent years. Hell, they’ve canceled each other out now in both the 2004 Euro and the 2006 World Cup, so maybe there’s something to this. They’re both teams with excellent players who just don’t seem to have that killer instinct and ability to regularly gel on the pitch. On paper (where matches are NEVER played) both of these teams should seem to be in at least the top four or five in the world. In reality, which is the (often disputed and sometimes ridiculous) FIFA rankings, Portugal sits 10th and the Three Lions are 12th.
Are there any lineup or player tweaking ideas out there? Are we glad that Scolari will be out after this tournament? Can you believe it’s not butter? Someone needs to wake these guys up, or the nightmare of not qualifying may become reality.
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Alright…My 2 cents.
First, not a performance to be proud of. Second, it could’ve been worse. PT is certainly no longer an underdog, but conditions for this match were less the optimal:
1. the pitch was terrible and wasn’t in any condition to be used for an international match.
2. The officiating was terrible at times. When will FIFA stop assigning dutch refs to PT matches?
3. The back line was patched up and certainly not at it’s best.
4. How many botched passes in this match? Oh man, it was terrible. Some of the best players on the planet at their clubs and they’re giving away easy tap passes.
5. Scolari bears most of the responsibility. The players weren’t flowing at their best, but Scolari knew full well that the pitch would hinder our usual smooth 4 - 3 - 3 passing game. He refused to adjust his tactics and it showed. Portugal’s lines were always stretched, rendering Postiga and Gomes completely useless.
So that begs the question. Is Scolari so handicapped by convention that he fails the team in situations like these? And could anyone do any better?
Posted from
United States
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Oh, and remember. Brazil didn’t look very special in the run up to Korea/Japan. We all know how that ended.
Posted from
United States -
About Scolari, a note: despite I considered him the best tournument-manager in the world, he has always showed handicaps in the quals for those competitions: Brazil was close to having to play a playoff with Australia in 2001 and in this round he already lost 4 points (in Finland and today) just for the fun of it.
But what shocked me the most was the fact that Armenia could be a fair winner of this game. Just the lack of will showed by Ronaldo, Simao, Gomes and especially Deco (who is my favorite player in the whole wide world) is shocking and should make Scolari (or Big Phil, if you will) think about calling them for the double feature with Poland and Serbia. I’m thinking four names: Quaresma, Nani, Moutinho and Hugo Almeida.
Lucky us, Belguim won 3-2 at Brussels vs. Serbia. And that makes room for us to qualify if we won the double feature in 20 days.
Posted from
Portugal -
About Scolari, a note: despite I considered him the best tournument-manager in the world, he has always showed handicaps in the quals for those competitions: Brazil was close to having to play a playoff with Australia in 2001 and in this round he already lost 4 points (in Finland and today) just for the fun of it.
But what shocked me the most was the fact that Armenia could be a fair winner of this game. Just the lack of will showed by Ronaldo, Simao, Gomes and especially Deco (who is my favorite player in the whole wide world) is shocking and should make Scolari (or Big Phil, if you will) think about calling them for the double feature with Poland and Serbia. I’m thinking four names: Quaresma, Nani, Moutinho and Hugo Almeida.
Lucky us, Belguim won 3-2 at Brussels vs. Serbia. And that makes room for us to qualify if we won the double feature in 20 days.
Posted from
Portugal -
I think you might be overreacting. Four of their final six qualifying matches remaining are at home. If they win their next match at home against Poland, they’ll be a point behind them with a match in hand. Not to mention they also have a match in hand of second place Finland, who’ve also yet to visit Portugal.
Posted from
United States -
With respect……
Complaining about the pitch is irrelevant as both teams played on the same ground. Portugal looked uninspired. They went down early and eventually tied but they still had an entire half to put together something that would provide the winner. They failed!I see it this way, Armenia showed up to play and PT were prepared for a walk in the park and walk they did.
Posted from
United States -
Ive gotta agree with Beto, he said everything i wanted to say…..
Posted from
United States -
FIFA rankings aside, last World Cup confirmed Portugal as fourth best team in the world and I would expect them to be even stronger come Euro 2008.
Posted from
Germany -
The pitch wasn’t an excuse, but it was a factor. I agree with you completely Beto. But my point was that Portugal’s usual style of play was hampered to a greater extent. Armenia was at home and had plenty of time to prepare. Furthermore, their game is based on physicality, speed and the all mighty counter attack. The pitch is less of a factor. But you’re right. Who cares? These are all the advantages of a home team. The bottom line is we expect more out of squad with that kind of quality.
I’m not suggesting the pitch is to blame. On the contrary. I’m saying that they went in knowing it would be this kind of match and failed to adapt to the conditions. The squad showed little motivation or concentration, but the strategy Scolari deployed left very little room for adjustment. As great as Scolari is at motivating players, his rigid tactics often leave me wondering who might do better.
And Jim. I agree with your assessment too. There’s a lot of football to be played, but we have come to expect more of our team.
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United States -
Luis: Agreed, as loyal supporters we do expect a lot more from the team. I just wonder if the “team” expects the same of themselves. Based on today’s performance, I would say that they don’t. I also agree that the rigidity of Scolari’s game plan makes a dynamic response more difficult. Regardless, I believe that his plans are philosophically strong enough for victory and that in the end it’s up to the players to carry it out.
Posted from
United States -
Agreed!
Posted from
United States -
Ok Gregory, first question: I believe that Scolari should give the whole team one pasteis de nata each at the beginning of the game and promise one more for each of them after the game if they play well as a means of motivation…secondly, yes, I can’t wait for Mourinho to come in and start passing notes onto the field mid-game like a 12 year old school girl with a new milky pen….thirdly, I still can’t believe it’s not butter, but I believe that Smart Balance should head up the inquiry in this matter.
Posted from
United States -
Greg, sorry to go off-topic here, but what do you think about the chances of Benfica new boy Angel Di Maria getting some playing time this season?
Posted from
Australia -
Tweaking…
I think Quarasma should have started instead of Simao for 2 reasons.
#1. Q has already started his season and is in game shape and sharper, whereas Simao hasn’t even begun his regular season. That alone should have decide who starts.
#2. Simao comes off the bench better than Q. Q seems to need some time to get into the flow of a game. Simao has an amazing ability to come off the bench cold and play well very quickly.
And it’s only fair to Q to start him when he’s in the form he’s in. If you want the 2nd stringers to fight and excel then you have to give them the opportunity when they deserve it and this didn’t happen.
Hasn’t that been our problem in the past? Players getting spots based on reputations etc..Someone mentioned earlier if it isn’t time for Scolari to step down and I’m also starting to wonder if that isn’t the case. After too long players stop responding to a coach and I fear it’s starting to happen in the NT.
Scolari is a great coach, probably the best thing that has happened to our NT, but he does seem to have a stubborness to wanting certain players in regardless of their form at the time. Case in point Simao & Postiga who isn’t in top form but started?
Armenia is a good team regardless of what used to be, but if we want to consider ourselves wordclass and legitimate contenders for the Euro and WC then it’s the Armenia’s of the world that we have to beat. True a bad pitch hurts us more than it does a less skilled team but that just means we have to learn to adjust and be more flexible.
Once again a deadball situation was our undoing! We will never reach the ultimate summit if we don’t learn to deal with deadballs properly..
Well that’s my 2 cents worth. Any comments? Blast away.
Posted from
Canada -
Ceasar,your comments re Quaresma/Simao are spot on. I do think vs top notch opponents, form etc. being equal I still go with Simao as starter because he is defensively smarter/better.
As for the game, I believe Scolari is somewhat at fault for lack of pyschological motivation. The players were not sharp and playing at the top level. ie. passes were constantly short/weak (yes pitch to some extent but this continued throughout game, you adjust as a player).
What is more worrying is the attacking style/options. We have wingers, but where are the crosses? Where are the through ball attempts. Lately offence has consisted of free kicks, 1 on 1 supremacy and occasional long shots. The only work our striker gets is to force the keeper to play the ball. Sure the centre forward isn’t our strongest option but to exclude it totally from our attack makes defending Portugal too easy.
Big picture for qualification is alright, but with this offence it is a near certainty that we lose 1-0 at some point in the knockout phase anyway.
Despite Scolari’s weak points (rigidity in tactics and in players seleciton), I think the NT will be worse off when he goes, unless his successor is Mourinho or the like. A coach who can grab the bull by the horns and instill discipline, teammanship above all else, and not be pushed around by politics and players egos.
Posted from
Canada -
As for line-up tweaking. Maybe it’s cause and effect, I dunno. I mean, hypothetically what if our striker was say Henry or Eto or …. I’d bet they’d get more balls at them than Postiga/Nuno got yesterday. I don’t think we have much options here, Vaz Te is not getting enough playing time so he is not even on the horizon. All we can hope for is Nuno/Almeida to start knocking some in and gain the confidence of their team-mates and then build on that.
On a brighter note, 2010 is still a way off, other than striker the rest of the positions are all solid, there is still hope.
Posted from
Canada -
[...] Like I said after the Armenia debacle last week, PORTUGAL CAN NO LONGER ACT AS THOUGH WE ARE ALWAYS THE UNDERDOG. Even though it may be more the case on the club level, if these squads are to have even a snowball’s chance in hell, they have to play with a flair and swagger that will make these giants stand up and take notice. What is there left to lose? So I say to Nelson and to those in the same boat as my friend, be excited that the road to the finals will be tough. Be excited that the Portuguese sides have a chance to cause the world to stop looking at the league as second rate. Have pride in your team, no matter what the odds! If you stand up and scream for them during league matches, why cower into the corner when big, bad Manchester United or Liverpool come into your house? Get even louder. Talk shit. Do whatever it takes to give your club the energy that’s going to be necessary so we can look at the round of 16 and see all three Portuguese clubs still standing. The same goes for the UEFA Cup teams. It’s no mistake that Portugal are represented seven times over in these tournaments. This statistic is unprecedented. The next level awaits. Pound these teams! Until you play Chelsea, then you can go f’off :-D. [...]
Posted from
United States -
It’s a bit late already, specially with Poland and Servia so close. By here are my 2 cents about it all…
1) PT has a tradition of complicating qualification
2) Last time PT played in Armenia we also drew
3) Armenia was stronger physiycally and were far more motivated - honestly, they looked the better team
4) At this time in the season, nobody could expect them to be at top form
5) There is a chronicle lack in attack. Before, the 4-3-3 should meant wingers were also attacking players, usually just in crossing or 1-1 superiority (Figo, eg, never scored with his head and crossed and placed homself like, well, not even C Ronaldo still can). Today, they must be more of front-men, true predators specially considering nowadays it’s the full-backs the ones who come up and support on the flanks. Wingers are “our gold”, naturally we play with as many as possible and accept the inherent limitation - usually they do the hard and fail the easy “put the ball in the net”.
4) Our strikers are not only, well… quite average, they also play better with another striker. Considering we’re big on the wings, that’ll never happen. And even worse, we don’t even have more than them…
5) The midfield…: We have excelent box-box mids and very good holding mids. But playmakers… Currently there’s only Deco - eventhough Moutinho is very decent, he’s not the one to slice a defense line with a pass. No Deco, more weight on the wingers, more running on the midfield. Remember what happened against Poland; they ran more and knew what to do; they killed our midfield, rather than trying to kill our wingers (what we all expected), the ball never got to them and when it did Poland’s defense was aready organized and with 1 man more, so, they did to us what we +/- do to the others.
6) Considering the winger options, I remind you all of Duda - made a great season with sevilla, made a godd game when Scolari called him, and I imagine Scolari will think of him again. About Simao over Quaresma, regardless of form, Simao is always a guarantee of maturity. Quaresma needs the team more to hold it, so that he can shine his brilliance. Put Quaresma agaist 3 or 4, after 45 minutes his superior form went away…
7) Pitch comments, well… That’s life… If you want to be a champ you have to deal with it. Two teams play on the same pitch.
Bruno Alves might not have given the best solidity in defense. He also failed what could have been the wining goal for us.
9) Callendar: Scolari studied and helped shape the fixtures. If we look at it, we realize it’s far better to meet Poland at home and Servia now, after “the worse” has passed (playing them away), than playing Poland home in place of Armenia - esarly season. Our enemies must play eachother still, our tough bones to chew will be ALL AT HOME - PT has a good record, enough to scare them all…
10) Experience…: Poland did well in qualifying last summer, but when the moment of truth came, they failed. I expect a bit of this to happen when they play in Lisbon, this saturday. A lot of their diving and “kill-the-pace” fouls and “kick-the-leg-and-fall-cos-they-are-PT-so-they-take-the-blame” fouls will also be far less or won’t be given. We’ve seen it with others. Cos now they don’t play home.All in all, a bit more of will and pride and a good striker and nobody would have noticed…
FORCA PT
Posted from
Netherlands -
That, mon amie Pedro P, was a whole dollar. lol.
Posted from
United States -
Aside from your astute analysis Pedro, I just love the fact that when one tries to number things on this site that if you don’t put a ‘.’ between the 8 and the ), you get those fantastic shades and smiley, per
Posted from
United States -
So that’s how I did it…
Anyway, B Alves was kinda sleepy during the match as well…Posted from
Netherlands
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