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Wednesday, 16 May 2012 21:03 |
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Great podcast as usual. In particular I thought the criticism of Portuguese teams who continually blame the referees for bad results was spot on. Of course fans will always have their conspiracy theories won't they? "How could 'my' team possibly lose, unless the refs threw the game?" Of course I say this now, but if Portugal lose, you better believe I'll be blaming the refs, the pitch, the cameramen, and maybe even those guys with the laser pointers in the stands, ha. ;)
I definitely think a semi-final berth is a possibility for the Seleccao. It's really tough to imagine Germany ending up in anything other than first place in Group B, but stranger things have happened. Plus, as a few people have pointed out, it's not just going to be stressful for Portugal. Germany, Holland, and the Danes will be sweatin' it out just as bad as we will be. I wouldn't want to be the Dutch defense while Ronaldo and Nani are bearing down on goal. Germany's defense is really not fantastic either (allowed 3 goals to Ukraine in a recent friendly), but some of them certainly have the benefit of playing together at Bayern Munich (Boateng, Lahm, Badstuber, etc...) Denmark looked good in qualifying before WC 2010 and collapsed in the tournament, not making it out of a manageable group. Let's face it too, we don't play all that great until it's really time to win, then we get our act together and go totally rad til the job is done. That's why our qualifying campaigns are so nerve-wracking. We don't fold though and I don't we will this time either. We'll come to play and everybody else better be ready. By the way I just saw an ESPN article completely discounting Portugal's chances of doing anything at the tournament. Typical Americans....
I think Lima had a really great season for Braga and really would like to say he was the best. It is so enjoyable to watch a team like Braga succeed. Forca Braga.
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