AfterMatch
I will talk about everything I feel needed that happened these two weeks: Liga ZON Sagres 2nd and 3rd fixtures, the UCL and EL draws, Benfica and its team and Carlos Queiroz.
The loss at Madeira against Nacional (1-2) was nothing but predictable, according to what I said before. The team is weakened with the worst transfer policy I ever seen from my club. We let two of our diamonds go for a value beyond what they are really worth and bought some players who are definitely good, but not so good as they were. So, we lost quality, perhaps too much for the title holders. Di Maria left and his replacement is Gaitan, a good player as well but with a very different style of football, and adapting a team's football to a single player style might seem easy but it is really hard. In the right wing, Ramires left us without a 100% right winger. I hope Salvio does well but it is a big risk to take when the transfer window is closing tomorrow and we must stick with this squad until January.
We had to win the game against V. Setubal. It would be our turning point, and if we didn't win, we could fall into the hole Sporting was last season. So, a victory was needed, and was what happened (3-0). This victory represented the return of the team and leaving of the 11 players. I saw a team playing, while in the previous games I saw 11 players. The moment of the match was definitely the return of Roberto, who turned hero from villain when he defended a penalty when the score was still in 1-0. With that he regained the trust of many supporters. For me, he was always the number 1 GK, and I trust him 200% for the goalie position.
Now,the UCL draw was decent for us, as it could've been a lot worse. Lyon is a pretty unpredictable team, as they vary their performances very often. We never know what to expect from them. However, I think we can beat them at home and maybe even away. Schalke is a very solid team, a very strong side with quality players in every position, but we can beat them home and hopefully at Gelsenkirchen. Hapoel Tel-Aviv for me is nothing but its keeper, Enyeama. We must beat them home and away but be very careful, as they can be dangerous when underestimated.
The portuguese football had a great fortnight, with Braga making it to the UCL group stages, and I just hope they keep it up and continue impressing the whole Europe. Porto continued playing its quality football which is probably on of the best in our country, and Sporting are winning again, putting last season's disaster away, which is good for our football.
Finally, the Queiroz issue. For me, it is clear that the only way out of this in which Portugal wins is the dismiss of the ex-Fergie right hand. It is obvious that he doesn't have conditions to continue, and it is even more obvious that he is *****. So, why are we making this whole novel? Why are we suing him for every little thing hoping that it leads to his leave? For God's sake, sack him and start working on the EURO 2012 qualifiers, the sooner the better.