They have within a short amount of time now ruined our reputation. I know when I've heard some articles here that state "Portugal may have a hard time qualify due to their coach being suspended due to blocking anti-doping tests on his star athletes". Here in north american the topic of anti-doping is huge and it makes it seem like our players are on something. We all know this isn't the case, all of this is due to a witch hunt to try to get the coach fired for free. Overall just upsetting.

On the big 4 topic, that would be a great event for our Liga. People seem to forget that we almost had a big 4 with Boavista until they were caught with Porto rigging matches. We all know how Porto threw them under the bus and ensured that there was no big 4 for some time. I hope this time it turns out better.

Good line up I like the formation and enjoyed your breakdown of the squad

Nice podcast as always guys. As for Portugal, I don't know why the coaches keep on opting for the 4-1-2-3. Portugal does not have a reliable defensive midfielder (we used a centerback in that position- even though he wasn't bad but not a natural to the position- and Pedro Mendes- who is good but i dont think is Starting XI quality). We'd be better off using that position for more attacking. The 4-2-3-1 formation (i think) is well suited for this squad. The starting lineup in my eyes for these games should be:
........................Eduardo.....................
.Silvio.....R.Carvalho....Alves..Coentrao..
..............Moutinho.......Meireles.............
....Nani...............Danny........Quaresma...
.........................Almeida........................
Eduardo- Because he is Eduardo, what else could I say?
Silvio- This boy gets me excited whenever I see him play. I would like to see him gain some Nacional team experience and earn more quality so that we will have a reliable source at the right back in the future. Rightback was our weakness in SA so why not fix something that is broke (Miguel did not play well in this World Cup) Silvio is in excellent form as well. (did you guys see that goal against Maritimo)
Alves and Carvalho- both made a switch to big clubs and formed a rock at the back during the tournament in SA( they only let up 1 goal in the whole tournament).
Coentrao- I couldn't be more proud of my favorite player. Stellar performances in Benfica and an Unbelievable showing in the world cup.
Moutinho- I've been reading many comments on sites critising Queiroz's choice of not selecting Moutinho for SA but all of a sudden he is a starter in Qualifying. I ,on the other hand, agreed with this decision. Could anyone tell me Moutinho had a good enough season to be on the national team? Sporting did not have a good season for a reason and sportinguistas would get all mad if some of their players did not make the final cut. Obviously there was a problem with the players or they weren't having a good season. 3 players coming from a team that struggled in the season is enough for a national team. (HaHaHa I have a friend who is a sportinguista who got mad that Carlos Saleiro and Yannick did not make the cut).
Moutinho is spectacular form in Porto now and is deservive of the starting role (and no, I am not a portista)
Meireles- THis one is an ify call because he has not been on the pitch pratically the whole pre-season and season but this is the same for Veloso, Tiago and Fernandes. For me, I'd give the job to the most consistent man in the squad.
Nani- Simply because he is not injured and what he is doing at Manchester.
Danny- Many will criticize me but Danny, I feel, is an excellent player and should start. He is not a winger and I repeat, He is not a winger. At Zenit, he is unbelievable. He creates almost every opportunity the team gets. I read in an article that while playing that "everything that he touches turns to gold". He should play the creative Midfield '10" position especially with the disastrous of Deco. He will prove what he's worth after the disastrous world cup. He is not a winger.
Quaresma- Normally I would choose Ronaldo and Varela in front of Quaresma but even with the loss of these two injured players, I don't feel worried about our wing. He's been playing indescribably great at besiktas and becoming like the player he was at Porto.
Almeida- I much prefer Almeida over Liedson. He's the right man to be the lonely man upfront. Liedson plays well when paired with someone. Almeida also offers quality finishing which is needed in a croosing rich squad we have (i.e Nani, Quaresma, Coentrao)
These are my thoughts about the game in which i feel could win us some games. I am quite curious as to why Fernandes was called up. He's done nothing for Valencia i've heard and is becoming a has been.
P.S I found it quite hilarious how Tom stated we could win the world cup for wingers. Its so true. Let's make a list of the best wingers portugal has.
1 Ronaldo
2 Nani
3 Simao
4 Varela
5 Quaresma
6 Yannick
7 Vierinha (LOL he is touted as being the best player in the greek league and he doesn't play for the national team)
9 Salomao
10 Ukra
11 Sergio Conceicao
12 Bruno Gama
13 Helder Barbosa
Please tell me if i let some else thats good out because i know there are some.
Peace.

Ruben Micael is just an option and isnt "fielded" in my initial line up. In regards to yours, Danny has been terrible for Portugal in which ever position he plays. Micael should be there instead.

Nani is better right winger, Q7 on left. I agree, Silvio needs some experience but I'm hoping this stupidity of "testing out players during qualifying matches" is over with. Get a comfortable lead, sub him in around 75' simple as that.

wowww big 4

So, the FPF wants to part ways with CQ on the cheap, huh? You know, the more I think about it, the more I worry about this qualification campaign for Portugal. Let's see, we have major drama with our manager, no Ronaldo, no Simao, no Pepe, still no Bosingwa, no Varela, no Ruben Micael, and their replacements are either new to the squad or haven't played for the Seleccao in quite a while. To top it all off, many of our players aren't even match fit yet for various reasons. Easy opponents or not, these two matches are going to be challenging, and with all the CQ drama, the rest of the campaign may be fairly "exciting" as well.

I think jon's starting lineup is probably right. I don't see Quaresma starting yet. However, I don't see Fernandes playing for Tiago unless Tiago's injured. The rest of the squad looks good. The defense should still be fairly strong. I do like the back 4 and Eduardo and they will have to shine these next two games.

It sure is good to have Nani back. I just wish Ronaldo was on the other side of the field.

It'll be interesting to see how Quaresma performs. If he does well, it should go a long way in helping him make the squad for Euro 2012. I just wonder how much playing time he'll get. Right now I only see him coming on as a 60' sub or something like that. He'll only have limited time to prove himself and that might encourage him to make a lot of selfish mistakes. I hope not. I'd still like to see him running on the opposite side of the field as Ronaldo someday.

Moutinho is another player who really needs to assert himself. In my opinion, our midfield woes are more critical than our current problems with finding a decent striker (because we have such talented wingers to help score goals). We need him to become the next Deco badly.

I also wouldn't mind seeing Djalo get some playing time. No offense to Liedson, but I really think we need to start working him out of the squad. Is he really going to play for us at Euro 2012, when he's 34? I think we need to focus on replacing him now so we're not hurting later.

Lots to be proven and I foresee a lot of anxiety coming up for Portuguese fans.

Forca Sempre Portugal!

According to record.pt Prtugal's starting 11 will be

--------------Eduardo----------------
Miguel---Carvalho--Alves---Coentrao
---------------Fernandes----------------
--------Moutinho--Meireles----------
Nani------Almeida--------Danny

I think that this is a decent starting 11, but I would rather have Danny as the attacking midfielder over Moutinho and Quaresma as a winger. I also hope that they give Silvio some playing time as a sub.