Portugal vs Spain

I have read portuguese fan comments on local electronic newspaper and i mus say i find them unfair.

Sure, Portugal did play lousy in the match against Spain. And yes, it was as bad as the first match against Ivory Coast.

Eduardo (goalkeeper) was great - thanks to him Portugal only lost 1-0
All other players were average/good in this game except for ...

Ronaldo -Not a very good game. Maybe he was not in the mood (when you get paid millions you can pretty much sh*t on a nation like Portugal and get away with it - maybe they will even praise you). Truth is that we can not speak that harsh also because he can not play if the ball doesn't get to him in good conditions. Or even maybe he did not want to offend Spanish people (after all it is the country he is living in ... and the country that pays him millions).

But Ronaldo or no Ronaldo, the team was not well. The players are good and they wanted to win ,so to me - and that is of course very personal - the problem was Carlos Queiroz.

Queiroz did not see that the team wasn't playing well and failed to make the necessary changes and adaptation in time. He failed to counter Spain's tactical scheme and he failed the players.

But we all knew he was not the man for the task - so blame the persons that hired him ...

In all this and despite all that was said i believe that Portugal's team should be cheered - not criticized. Portugal has a lot to be proud of : they scored the biggest result so far (7-0); they played good football (at least in 2 games); they showed no fear against a team like Brasil (in fact they showed that they have a team to win Brasil).

They went on to Round of 16, unlike France (the hand-ball champions that even refused to train - shame on you France for such a sad spectacle) and also Italy (that went home in last position).

We lost to Spain, so what ? My only sadness is that we did not play good football in this game but that is not a reason for "booing" Portugal.

Portugal did well !!! Portugal should stand proud even in defeat !!!
Cheers for Portugal and keep fighting for it with you head up

FEUFA's Cult

It is no surprise to any of my friends that i consider FUEFA the biggest responsible for the current soccer crisis. Their resistance to improvement/change/evolution is hindering what was once a nice show/sport.

There are 2 recent examples of this that you follow up in the Internet : the first is France - wouldn't it be better (and fairer) if France was not in the finals ?

They scored with the hand (yes, i know FUEFA is a big fan of hand-scoring goals and they support it, right Maradona ? Right Vata ?) and now France's team refuses to train ?!? Way to go France - you should not be there and even so you put on such a sad sad spectacle ?

The second is Italy vs New Zeland - take a look at FIFA's statistics. Final score was 1-1; 23 shots from Italy versus 3 from NZL; 15 Corner Kicks from ... who else ... Italy and an astounding 0 (zero) from NZL; In fact there were only 2 things that NZL was far superior to Italy : Fouls Commited (more than the double of Italy) and yellow cards (3 ... none for Italy).

Statistics by itself is not absolute - it should be analyzed with common sense - so we take a look at soccer stadiums today and observe the defensive methods used (repeated fouls and theater) allied to less and less people attending.

With these 2 facts we have no other choice but to say that FUEFA should do something (well, something different from validating hand-scored goals to favor the chairman's national team ...)

Thank You Meo

I have just received news that MEO is implementing a solution that allows the user to mute the annoying vuvuzela sound.

This is the second good news in the last half-hour : first was that South Africa lost 3-0 and now i can remove that annoying noise from my TV and maybe listen to soccer like all normal people do.

Oh, by the way :
Thank You FUEFA for making me despise South Africa and their annoying costumes.

World Cup Winner - Edit

Well, it seems Italy is sort of weak.

In this shameful "vuvuzela ruined" world cup the usual teams are favorite so far : Brazil, Germany, Argentina and probably Spain.

England is always a mistery (they played bad against USA but they are always a team to take into account) and hopefully FUEFA will not tip the scales (again) to favor France.

Let us hope they are still ashamed of the "hand-goal" and "head-butt player of the year". But you never now - FUEFA is a sort of dictator that does not feel shame.

The Worst World Cup ever - South Africa sucks

I just can't have fun watching a game due to those annoying "vuvuzelas" piece of shit. South Africans, if that is the way you treat your guests then ... f**k you and you idiotic instrument (or whatever that thing is).

Am i pissed off ? You bet !!! You just ruin something that happens every 4 years and should be a motive for joy.

The German Move

It's half-time in Germany x Australia and the score is 2-0. To be honest i was hoping for more "fight" from the australians - they just stand there and wait ...

Germany has a good team but we can only be sure when they face a better opponent (no offense for Australia). Two things are very interesting in Germany's style of play :

1. they make "speed passes" not only to the sides but also to the middle, which is very good;
2. they use an interesting move (not sure if on purpose) - when attacking the striker stays offside but a pass is made to the line where a player enters in speed (hence no offside for the striker) and afterwards this player centers and the "once offside but not any more" striker receives and shoots.

Really interesting as it gives advantage to the team whilst confusing the opponent's defense (that most of the time argues an offside).

Nice team from a country that was once great (nowadays products from Germany are only "engineered" there but sort of manufactured in "indo-china" assembly-line-countries). Let us just hope they don't disappoint me in soccer too.

2010 World Cup

So, who will win WC2010 ? In my opinion Italy ...

Of course i had to pick one of the favorites, we all now that in soccer the winner is always from the championship with more money. Take Champions League, how many times have you seen "Middle League FC" win ? Whether you want it or not soccer is biased, as in everything else ... the guy with the money wins.

Fuefa tries to praise the sport and fair play and all that bullshit they say when they are not awarding best player to the guy that just "headbutt" the opponent (by the way, that was a French player if you're wandering) or granting "safe passage" to a national team that scores with their hands (wow, imagine that ... France again).

Aside from Italy there is always one team that can win : France! ... for obvious reasons ...
But let us hope that Fuefa's lack of shame does not got so far as to let them win with a hand goal ... again ....

How about Portugal ?
This team is weak in my opinion - good players there but as a team ... errr ... not yet. They have improved a bit but still something is missing. Portugal's biggest flaw is it's lack of focus - they can loose a game in such a simple thing as a hand-throw ... overconfidence or they just don't care that much ? Hummm, i still feel it is lack of focus ...