ricardomac Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Though the kid's tall, he's not the type of big, strong striker that sits in the box. He's good technically and mobile. More like Postiga. He's not a Wayne Rooney, But he's not exactly like Mario Gomez. I don't even know how to put him. From what I see him doing, he can be the scorer but he also can be the forward that plays the ball. But it is still early to say what kind of an attacker he is I believe. He is good and has great potencial, but he lacks maturity and, most of all, football time that he didn't get in the league. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 Though the kid's tall, he's not the type of big, strong striker that sits in the box. He's good technically and mobile. More like Postiga. He's not a Wayne Rooney, But he's not exactly like Mario Gomez. I don't even know how to put him. From what I see him doing, he can be the scorer but he also can be the forward that plays the ball. But it is still early to say what kind of an attacker he is I believe. He is good and has great potencial, but he lacks maturity and, most of all, football time that he didn't get in the league. Is he more of a Peter Crouch type striker then? Because technically Crouch is really good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I always forget about Crouch. Yeah, kind of he's style of striker. http://youtu.be/ey6AQGLoJik Here's a video of the boy. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingjericho Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I wouldn't say he's a Crouch type. More of a Benzema type, who roams a lot around the box and can also score his share of goals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I wouldn't say he's a Crouch type. More of a Benzema type, who roams a lot around the box and can also score his share of goals. Agreed. I really think he can play every role as a striker, so I find it hard to put him in only one. Let's see how he develops. Hope e just doesn't develop into another Mantorras.lol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andre_costa Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I'd like to see Ronaldo play uptop where he is better placed to finish. Will be interesting though to see what Bento goes for in the semis up front. Ronaldo is best on the left showing up in center to score. With Hugo Almeida we finally had a striker that kept the other team DCs occupied so it allowed Ronaldo all that space to run it to for the goal. This obviously requires that Meireles or Moutinho are more worried about his side when defending. Nelson Oliveira is still too green and nervous to be a starter. He has made some good moves already where he holds the ball and then gives to an incoming midfielder to shoot(Varela's chance against Germany). Hopefully he'll have more playing time next year either at Benfica or even somewhere else, because we are in desperate need for someone good up top. Agreed on Moutinho being our best. Saying that Ronaldo has been the best because he's scoring is idiotic. For him to score, the ball needs to get there and Moutinho has been running all over the pitch, either defending or attacking, closing down opponents, providing chances and getting into space. We are clearly running on his spirit together with Coentrão, Nani, Pepe and obviously Ronaldo. If only the rest were up to their quality. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyrefuze Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 Saying that Ronaldo has been the best because he's scoring is idiotic. I am amazed to see the number of critics on this forum. There is definitely more to Ronaldo then scoring goals and he has shown this again and again. Even then there is nothing "idiotic" (mind your words) in praising someone for scoring the goals. More so when he scores the sole goal(s) of the game. If you look at stats for Czech vs. Portugal again: How many attempts Portugal had on the goal? (Team-20/Ronaldo-10) How many ended up on target? (Team-5/Ronaldo-3) nonetheless he created chances for Almeida and Nani. One thing can be guaranteed: When Ronaldo takes the field, no one will take their eyes off him, whether they are urging him to succeed or clamoring for his failure. If he rattles off a piece of sporting poetry or falls flat on his face, Ronaldo has the sporting world on the edge of its seat. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I believe that our country lives by the old saying: "A galinha da vizinha é sempre melhor do que a minha." (The neighbour's chicken is better than mine). We're never happy with what we've got. Personally, I'm not a fan of Ronaldo. Mostly because, for years now, I'm a Barcelona fan. With so many portuguese players in Real Madrid maybe I was supposed to change oppinion, but I haven't. So, though I admire Coentrão (he played for my Benfica a long time, and we kind of miss him), Mourinho (obviously), and Ronaldo, my team is Barcelona. They are deadly rivals. But he is our scorer. Our best technician. The MAN. He's our "go to" option. And what's the problem? Messi is the same thing for Argentina. Though Portugal plays as a team (and a really good one), Ronaldo is the guy to have the ball in the final third of the field. He opens space, he gets through balls and he scores goals. We can not ask for more. Is he the best portuguese player? He is. And it is not only for scoring. The guy is getting better from match to match, and thank him for that. If someone understands why people keep criticising Ronaldo, explain it to me 'cause I don't understand. And this comes from a guy that has ALWAYS been gainst Ronaldo (except at Utd, because Man Utd is my team in England (yeah, I support one at almost every country in the world)) since he only played for my rivals. He played for Sporting CP and now Real Madrid. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coentrao Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 There's definitely a case for Pepe or Moutinho to be considered the best player from Portugal so far though it's natural that Ronaldo is always going to be on the spotlight since he is a global superstar. And that doesn't take anything from Ronaldo, Moutinho always has been a tidy midfielder and the move to Porto seems to improved him even more, Pepe has always been a top centerback if you forget how dirty he can be sometimes though he hasn't done anything of the sort on this tournament so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 All of them are great players and, obviously, deserve a prize, but Ronaldo adds goals to his game (at least lately he has added goals). So I can understand why he is considered "game player". But I agree that at least Moutinho, deserves a prize. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyrefuze Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 its a nice tactical battle up next, a 4-3-3 against a 4-3-3 with no strikers. what do guys think, who has the edge? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerebro Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Without doubt, the most dangerous of the Spanish national team ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I don't think Spain will start strikerless. I think Torres will start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerebro Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 here is no question the value of the Spanish team, but if not for the referee, probably had not even past the group stage. A clear penalty in favor of Croatia. This is a concrete fact and not any conspiracy theory. They are the best, but if by chance they are not, no problem ... "The most dangerous of Spain? Platini" http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_QjXx3Gc7xco/TCqz8oDt2aI/AAAAAAAAICM/YxFSPr7uZd4/s1600/1.jpg Senes Erzik is marketing director of UNICEF ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
noikeee Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Please stop embarrassing us. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyrefuze Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 The Euro 2012 tournament has matured and we have reached the most exciting stage - the semifinals. While the grand finale is usually a cagey and careful affair, semifinals have a reputation for being explosive and action-packed. And what better than a Iberian Rivalry. Spain are overwhelming favorites going into this game. The reigning European and World Cup champions are undefeated in their last 18 competitive games. They are looking to reach their third consecutive major tournament final - something only Germany has been able to do. But even then this Spanish side have failed to impress the media and shown some weaknesses. To borrow a phrase from Zonal Marking, “false domination is a risky game”, and Portugal certainly have the weapons to expose its flaws. Putting the plan into action, however, is an entirely different ball game. Also people are already raising concerns over Spanish fatigue and an additional two day rest for Portuguese to work as an advantage. TEAM NEWS Portugal: Helder Postiga has been ruled out for the Portuguese with a thigh injury which should open the door for Besiktas striker Hugo Almeida to lead the line. Almeida’s inclusion should be the only change made by Paulo Bento though. Spain: With no fresh injury or suspension concerns Vicente Del Bosque must decide whether to stick with the strikerless side that beat France, or turn to the likes of Fernando Torres and Barcelona’s Pedro in order to freshen things up. Formations & Tactics Spain will have four at the back and at least five and possibly six in midfield. If they use an outright striker, Fernando Torres will be the man, but Cesc Febregas as the front attacking midfielder might be the better bet. Projected Spain lineup: Casillas, Jordi Alba, Pique, Sergio Ramos, Arbeloa, Alonso, Busquets, Iniesta, Xavi, Silva, Fabregas. Portugal will keep going with its 4-3-3, hoping to get the ball wide on the wings as soon as they establish possession and quickly into Spain’s territory. No changes expected for Portugal outside of the injured Postiga. They'll look to push the ball quickly to the wings and hope to strike on the counter-attack. Projected Portugal lineup: Rui Patricio, Joao Pereira, Alves, Pepe, Coentrao, Meireles, Veloso, Moutinho, Nani, Almeida, Ronaldo Portugal's Approach There are three incredibly important roles in Portugal's formation—fullback, anchor midfield and Cristiano Ronaldo. Fabio Coentrao and Joao Pereira are two flying fullbacks, allowed to maraud up and down the line and help Portugal's controlling 4-3-3 formation function. Ronaldo's role has changed throughout this tournament, ranging from unused left winger to the one person in this team able to break down a defence. Lastly, Miguel Veloso is key. Consistency must be found for him, as he is required to fulfil two incredibly important duties. He provides short, sharp passes out of defence to initiate attacks as a matter of course. He may be asked to provide longer, direct ones to Almeida or Ronaldo to skip between the lines and create quick counterattacks. Spain's Approach Spain's footballing philosophy is clear to see right now, as they continue to assert themselves as a slightly toned-down version of Barcelona. Such is the attempt to mimic La Blaugrana, we've seen Cesc Fabregas employed as a false-nine striker in two games out of four so far. It's fair to say he's no Lionel Messi in that position and lacks the threat of making genuine incisive runs and trickery to go past opposition defenders. The other option is Fernando Torres. With Torres, Spain will have an out-and-out striker and will be shaped as 4-2-3-1. Despite offering a dramatic, positive change to Fabregas against Italy, he still can't find the back of the net against good opposition in this tournament. Which option will he go for? No one can predict. The rest of the team is a settled constant. Jordi Alba has impressed, so much so he was the subject of a failed double right-back experiment by Laurent Blanc. In addition, the midfield three of Xavi, Sergio Busquets and Xabi Alonso remain unbeatable in the passing game. PREDICTION: I'd love to see Spain get dethroned from their favorites tag. Portugal will score first, Spain will then go on attack and can concede one more on counter attack. Against a possession dominant Spain Portugal will struggle to keep the lead, but they will prevail, 2-1. Otherwise the match will end 1-1 and Portugal will win on penalties. (wait they have Iker Casillas.) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Tonight I shall be a Portugal fan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fyrefuze Posted June 27, 2012 Author Share Posted June 27, 2012 Tonight I shall be a Portugal fan welcome to the right company dude. wait.. I hope you are not bringing in any jinx? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I've supported Portugal in every game they've played so far Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 welcome to the right company dude. wait.. I hope you are not bringing in any jinx? First things first. Sorry to spoile it for you fyrefuze, but Cleon is not a dude. Secondly, Portugal have a lot fo support tonight. Ucranian, polish and English, all are by our side. Will that give us the win? I don't know, but I surely believe we're going to win. obviously it won't end 4-0 like the lst time we met, but 1-0 is totally enough. It is going to be an interesting match. Two teams trying to play short passes. Spain defenitly trying to keep the ball and Portugal trying to open spaces for Ronaldo and Nani to run into. Only thing, as stated before, somewhere in this discussion, is that Portugal can not play on the counter. We will be killed if we wait for them to attack. But all out attack is not good either. I know Portugal is going to win, but we're facing the champions and our player need to stay focused and play their best football. Maybe a really high pressure without getting stuck in, leaving no space is a good strategy. Let's see how it goes. It's taking to long to reach the 19:45 time target. I can't wait that long. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coentrao Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Don't know what to expect for tonight, from what i've seen from the portuguese media they are all very confident maybe because the team overachieved since the initial expectations were really low and they played a great game against the Czech Republic(despite being a weak opponent) and the Spanish don't seem as impressive as they were on previous tournaments, confidence is really high. It feels like it's going to be a Real Madrid vs Barcelona where Portugal is going to play on the counter to serve Cristiano while Spain will hold the ball for most of the game.. i still think that Spain will win since they have so much quality but on this season we've already seen a few upsets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerebro Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Portugal had two faces with positive and negative things in both. In the first game against Germany was perfect in defensive transition in the first half and second half of his only mistake led to the goal of defeat. In that first meeting lacked ideas, vertical and Christian shyness there. To Denmark was a willing and able at last, winning in a match which was superior to rival and this time, had a clear reflection on the scoreboard. Then came two more games complete and that I generated illusion. Czech Republic to the Netherlands and Portugal saw a game with a pattern of ideas and also released a version of Christian in movimentos toward the middle. This caused it to be decisive. We continue with the defensive but missed good indication something is missing in Portugal when it dominates and is superior by far, the scoring is not able to finalize. Paulo Bento's role is very important in this selection, although many of us would change parts or verily the tactical scheme. The truth is that the super-protective Paulo Bento makes his players that conveys confidence and strength, creates union. For many years Portugal is less than a competition with a climate of tranquility (that word very Bento) within the group. That may be key Bento and must commend you for it. Portugal can not think of the backlash. Portugal has to think of removing the ball to Spain. Do not discuss possession, but attempting to remove the high pressure ball that I have mentioned before and we did in the friendly. The lines should be dispersed but together, so the freedom to Moutinho and pressure from above will be key. We also have to think that we should not simply cancel, because having the ball must be seized back from Alba for example. Portugal has to press, ring, remove the ball and then prove their identity and attack with their weapons. Be waiting to do harm to the counter and allow long possessions to Spain, can be fatal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerebro Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 sorry double Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Negredo to start, they obviously want a physical presence in the box. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 First sheet I saw had Fábregas starting. Don't know which is best, with or without the striker. Fábregas would put a lot of work on Veloso, but Negredo is a menace in the box. They are definitely going to put pressure on our players. Well from the last three matches between the two teams, we won two. Today, I really believe victory is ours, let's hope for those boys to do their job. Força Portugal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I would love Portugal to win, but I can't see past Spain, and I mean that to win the whole tournament. But yeah Força Portugal Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cleon Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 Moutinho brilliant yet again so far. I really do hope Portugal win, Spain are bland and boring. How people can enjoy watching a passing game inside their own half and always passing backwards and call that entertaining football is beyond belief imo. Portugal look dangerous when going forward and breaking fast on the counter. Spain just resort to fouling. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I am fed up with this Spanish long ball game, ffs learn some technique. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jascko Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 I really do hope Portugal win, Spain are bland and boring. How people can enjoy watching a passing game inside their own half and always passing backwards and call that entertaining football is beyond belief imo. Well, that is not all true. Spain do like playing more direct and into the space, Xabi Alonso does it every time the opportunity is there to play long or direct. The problem is that almost every single team that plays against Spain plays defensive and on counter - which means they play low def line with many players behind the ball. In this case Spain cant do anything else then playing short probing game trying to brake down the opposition. Today against Portugal - who actually was trying to press Spain higher on the pitch - Spain did played more direct passing into the space. The biggest problem today is they thought Portugal would play like everybody else - low pressure - so they choose wrong man as a striker. If they have choose Torres, the game would probably be totally different. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricardomac Posted June 28, 2012 Share Posted June 28, 2012 so they choose wrong gay as a striker I love this sentence.lol Portugal deserved the win yesterday. Another unlucky day for Ronaldo and friends. It's not usual to see Spain playing long balls and missing so many passes. Portugal, through the first 90 minutes, nullified Spain. They did nothing of notice. But, as in the past matches, the last minutes were dominated by Spain, which I understand. It is hard to stay motivated when you miss so many chances, and when you try so much and nothing happens. It was an ungrateful loss. We could already see Alves was going to miss. He didn't look confident. There was something wrong there. But hey, Portugal played really well in the last for matches. We reached the semis when we weren't even expected to and, to me, alongside Germany, we played the best football in the tournament. Credit to Paulo Bento. Now, let's hope Germany beats the hell out of Italy tonight and of Spain next Sunday. I'm tired of the boring tiki-taka football. And I believe that, right now, we all are. Oh, and I agree with Cleon, Moutinho was, once again, brilliant. I missed a penalty and it was really unfair to a player that gave so much to the game and the team. Awesome player. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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