In all honesty, the reason Portugal doesnt perform according to expectations is because there is simply no team chemistry whatsoever. How many good players did we have in the past 10-20 years, with 0 profit for the national team, and by profit I mean silverware?
We've lots of titles from the youth teams, but most of those young players never make it to a top team, whether portuguese or foreign, let alone reach the national team.
Year after year we (portuguese) watch our most promissing players disappearing because our clubs prefer to sign foreigners, never giving a chance to youth prospects.
The one time we were ever close to winning a tournament was in 2004, at home, where we lost twice to Greece. Most of the success in 2004-2006 was because our midfield was from FC Porto, they had routines of playing together for years.
In recent years this doesn't happen, we have good players but the playing style never looks fluid regardless of how many pratice games we play and how much money we spend on it (which is ridiculous, by the way).
Every time I watch a game, it feels as it's their first time playing together...
I've always liked the Portuguese national team believe me, the way they play they're stylish indeed it feels like you're watching Spain, their game play is very similar, but the Portuguese players are not aggressive enough to go to a final and win the title that's the issue, maybe only CR7 who gives 100% for Portugal, but the rest they don't give a damn, take Nani for example he's quite a talented player I liked him so much when he was at MU however, he is so much individual he take a lot of time to give a pass to his teammates and that my friend is a team killer, the Portuguese national team nowadays has 0 spirit, I never would imagine they'd lose to England even in a friendly match although the Portuguese are known they are technicians they dribble well and they handle better in the field than the English whom they play only physical game and contacts, and of course for me losing that 2004 final at home against Greece is such a waste although the Greeks didn't do that much, but their will of winning the title made them stronger than the Portuguese physically and mentally.
Topic: 2016 EURO FRANCE J-3 | WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS? (Read 946 times)