So since I'm always tired updating this blog I decided to do an update a little earlier. Today I meant to wake up to watch the 6am soccer game but like yesterday I just couldn't bring myself to stay awake (perhaps staying up past 1 am on both nights was a mistake) but if I could be so cool and stay awake during Fanime... (I'm being sarcastic, about the cool part. No one who goes to anime is capable of being cool. At the door they perform some sort of surgery...) For once I'm not tired at all (It's only 5 o'clock) and I was able to go running today with Paul.
Anyways, back to soccer. I've been watching most of the World Cup but will miss some this coming week due to work... ::sigh:: oh well.
So want to hear my comments about the game? Well, I think that Scolari knows what he's doing. I still am not terribly happy with his choice for Goalie with Ricardo. If I were in charge I would probably have started Quim because even though Ricardo when he is on is probably the best person you want in the goal, he is frequently streaky and inconsistent and in general is quite poor at coming out. Almost all of the goals scored against Portugal during the European Cup (including the only one during the final vs. Greece) were caused by Ricardo coming out poorly on corner kicks. Other than that I felt that his substitutions were all reasonable but I couldn't help but feel that after the first 15 minutes the team went flat. They lost their heart and it seemed that they were content on sitting on there 1-0 score. While that still translates to 3 points it can become a tie very easily especially with Ricardo at the goal. It was quite a nail biting last 30 minutes but a guess a W is a W no matter how you get it. I just worry about what happens when they face a better team. Luckily most of the really good teams in the cup this year play the kind of soccer that Portugal can exploit (a more open field with a technical back and forth). Where Portugal tends to lose is against teams that play 10 men in the box and just counterattack and very physical teams that disrupt their tactical play with borderline legal tackles and charges. For the former, the new ball is especially light and supposedly easy to score with which is a huge advantage against these kinds of teams and I see it as a great step forward away from some of the more boring styles of play (i.e. Greece) which while effective do not display anything other than an ability to crowd the box. [Warning: Upcoming Magic Reference] This is really similar to those decks in Magic whose sole purpose is just to disrupt everything you do and win with a combo. While effective these decks are not fun to watch or play against. However in magic there is so much strategy that goes into crafting such a deck that I don't mind it quite as much since it is so difficult to construct. It's just boring in practice. The defensive team in soccer invests nothing of the same strategy. [END Magic Reference] It seems that the refs have really been letting the players play for the last few games which has me a little worried because if Portugal plays a Sweden or a Germany they may just get manhandled out of the win.
I think that Portugal has an opportunity to do really well if they can just keep themselves focused and work as a team rather than a bunch of individuals. It just would have been awesome if this game had been during Portuguese day (yesterday). Oh well that's all for now.
PS. Thank you for all your support in showing me that people read this. I've been reading your guys' blogs also and I'm sorry that this isn't of the same quality as yours'.
