Time for Excuses

I have to say I even thought of closing the blog after the last game of Portugal… but that wouldn’t be proper of me (see former post for reasons, points 2 and 5), or fare on you lot – I can’t leave you orphan of my wisdom and kind guiding hand… you read here, in awe and silence, all the important stuff you won’t find anywhere else.

So, we’ve passed the group stage and we’ll be playing Holland, next Sunday.
At this point, if we loose, it will be normal and won’t be heartbreaking.
Personally, I rather play against Argentina – if Portugal, crashed out after that game, it wouldn’t be a big deal; if we won, oh it would be sweet! And we’d most likely go all the way, driven by a victory against the best team in the competition, so far!

Against the Netherlands, we have a better shot, no doubt. We beat them in the semi-finals in Euro 2004, but they’re an improved side now.
It will depend on the way Portugal will play and the commitment they’ll show. However, after the way the national team has been playing, I fear we may have kicked the ball as far as we can…

On the other hand, if we pass, then we may have waiting in line England and then Spain - teams we beat in Euro 2004, as well - thus eager as heck to get one back at us… but the alternative would probably be Germany, Italy and Brazil… the road to the final is a thorny and long one, indeed!


So, we may begin practicing excuses as why Portugal, or other small countries, by that matter, will hardly win a big competition:

0-Stamina, variety and quantity of human resources (versus population number) are key factors in such a long competition.
0-Referees tend to favor the “big” ones.
0-History and Home factor are not negligible

Specifically Portuguese excuses:

0-We have a key player injured (which is true)
0-It was raining/cold/hot/snowing/windy
0-Grass was wet/short/tall/not there
0-Player was pushed by invisible hand

If I had to guess the teams that go all the way to the final, I’d say Germany (they been growing in confidence game after game, plus they have house factor) or Argentina, raking a lot of favoritism from start…

Only one question mark stands, as for the other team – Brazil; they may just make it to the final, with the usual luck and the right choices by the coach….
After all, it’s not by accident that the Brazilian say : “Deus é Brasileiro” - God is Brazilian”…
If that they comes, the way I expect, I'll see which team I'll "support"...