Six Thousand Feet Means Six Thousand Feet
By: Greg | October 19th, 2007
How in the hell do people live in Colorado? I was in Colorado Springs this past week for a conference and experienced what sports teams who come into the place experience on a weekly basis. It is no joke. The resort I was staying at actually offered citrus or non-scented oxygen by the spa. Walking from my room to the conference center (essentially “around the block”) had me winded. Now mind you, I’m a non-smoker and 5′10″, 155 lbs, so I can’t fathom what some of the 500 lb smokers I saw were doing living in this area. Let’s just say I’m happy to be back in New Jersey since every trip west without In-N-Out Burger is essentially a waste of time anyways. On to the football…
Portuga Euro Two-Fer Yay! — What the hell was that? I was beginning to forget what winning in these qualifiers actually looks like. I’ll dispense with too much analysis and recap because I basically missed that boat by not being around. 2-0 at Azerbaijan and 2-1 at Kazakhstan aren’t exactly the most sparkling of results, but they’ll do. After seeing that England will likely not even qualify, I’m not going to complain about mediocre wins away against far inferior opponents. I’d rather just take the six points and shut my mouth. I’m glad they gave some well-deserved burn to Makukula in the Kazakhstan game which obviously paid dividends. After the scoring by Makukula and Hugo Almeida in the first contest, I can’t see why Scolari would waste time calling No-No Goals up any further for “service” to his country. The youth continue to impress and Miguel Veloso looks ready to be a regular in the midfield. He composed himself very well and did not play as if it were his first foray onto the international stage. Overall, we’re 2nd and can’t complain too much. We should grind out the last two qualifiers and all the hub-bub over not making the finals now seems like it is probably a thing of the past.
Carlsberg Cup Extravaganza Weekend! aka Porto’s Time Off to Rest Before Resuming Domination – Eight teams remain in the Carlsblah blah blah. Here are dee fixtures, with who I think will win each match in bold. The four winners will play in a round robin format which will lead to a final between two teams (how novel). The winner will then be decided by whichever team scores more goals (another novel concept).
October 20th, 2:00 PM EST — Sporting v. Fátima
October 20th, 4:00 PM EST — Benfica v. V.Setubal
October 21st, 11:00 AM EST — Penafiel v. U.d.Leiria
October 21st, 11:00 AM EST – Portimonense v. Beira-Mar
Enjoy the weekend, I’ll see you back on Monday and we’ll hit the ground running with a full week’s worth of Portuguese footballin’. I missed you all dearly. Keep it real. Kisses ALL AROUND!!
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Comments
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Your right, Miguel Veloso looked very very good and he doesn’t seem to get as many yellow card as Petit. Not to mention that he actually can play a little more offense I think.
So in the next game we’d better see Veloso, Almieda and Makukula in the line-up.
Still think Deco was very quite during that game though. I’ve been told that he’s playing to far forward for his style of play? Don’t know. Any ideas….Posted from
Canada
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Sup Greg welcome back. I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see the 2-0 and 2-1 wins. Not because Portugal won but because of how close it was. Whatever, nobody ever said it had to be pretty.
I didn’t catch any of the games because I was on a field trip (yes, I’m in college and we had a field trip…), but from what I’ve been reading this Makukula fellow sounds promising. Looks like we’ve gone about as far as we can go with Postiga, Nuno Gomes, etc. so I agree with you guys when you say we should give some of these other players a chance. Can’t wait to see what they can do.
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I was so stoked to see Veloso out there against Kazakhstan, taking free kicks like a long-tenured senior player and the stud he is. Prop to Big Phil for having the balls to bring in talented youngsters for games that matter. (Think he can give some lessons in that department to Roberto Donadoni?) And jesus, how big is Makukula? 6′9″?! That guy is a MONSTER, though I had no idea he’d be as old as he is — had he been on anyone’s radar, prior to his great start this season?
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United States -
SHIT
Deco’s out for 5 weeks
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Ceasar – Deco was a little inconsistent for me. Discussing his play now with him out till December is kind of a moot point. We’ll get to see how they adjust by default.
Andrew – Thanks for the welcoming back sentiments. I was surprised as you were. I expected a bit more out of these games. Maybe in the way of using one as a 5-0 “statement game.” This was not to be, however, and 6 pts is 6 pts. We should be OK without Deco for now, there’s plenty of coverage in the midfield.
Martha – Opposing coaches actually put a ladder up like in Hoosiers and measure Makukula to make sure he’s the same height no matter where he plays. I heard he outstretched Wonka’s taffy puller. But that’s probably just an urban legend.
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Actually, Maku is 193 cm, where Almeida is 192cm, both 6′3 frontmans. I doubt Portugal will play both at same time. Look for Almeida to start next game, unless he is out of form and Maku is in hot form. I hope Makukula does well, and he played really well while in, doing a variety of things really well (dribbling at the opposition, providing a strong target man upfront who can head it down nicely), but to keep perspective he has only played 20 minutes.
I’d like to see Veloso vs a strong team. I agree he is looking good, but again, he has to bring it vs. better players. I look forward to him being transferred, hopefully he goes to a top team, except Arsenal or ManU as they have settled on their top notch holder.
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