I'm not meaning to say they can't be beat and I agree with your take in general though I think Portugal is a bit better than England (though this year's England roster may surprise by making it out of group if they're not afraid to mix in more younger players).

However, Portugal's glaring weaknesses are really only if you compare them to stacked rosters like Brazil or Germany, not ours. Most of their "weak" players would still win the starting spot on our squad or at least be battles with our best players:
Carvalho or Veloso / Jones
Pereira/Johnson
Postiga/Altidore
Vierinha, Nani, Silva / Zusi.

And those are their glaring weaknesses.

Also, if we had Rafa Silva, just to mention a name for example no one ever does, he'd be getting more hype than Green + Adu + Shea etc ever did.

All I'm saying is that if we finish ahead of them we deserve even more credit than finishing ahead of England last time around.

This post was edited on 5/29/14 at 7:11 pm

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Posted by S.E.C. Crazy

Alabama

Member since Feb 2013

7905 posts

Posted on 5/29/14 at 8:37 pm to wm72

Two draws with Israel and one draw with Northern Ireland say different imho.

Remember we won 13 in a row, we haven't looked as good since we qualified, but we haven't played with our Euro players and our MLS/ Mexican league players all together very much at all until Azerbaijan.

J.K. doesn't park the bus as far as I have seen, which allows other teams to take it easy and get more scoring chances.

We need to make their azzez work in that heat and go forward, screw the losing ways of bunkering and hoofing the ball out.

LETS HO KICK SOME AZZ.

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Posted by wm72

Brooklyn

Member since Mar 2010

9000 posts

Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:12 pm to S.E.C. Crazy

quote:
Two draws with Israel and one draw with Northern Ireland say different imho.

I hope you're right but knocking out Holland, a very good Czech Republic team and then taking Spain to PKs in the last Euros when it really mattered (after an even worse qualifying campaign) says a little bit as well.

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Posted by Vicks Kennel Club

29-24 #BlewDat

Member since Dec 2010

31210 posts

Posted on 5/29/14 at 9:13 pm to wm72

It seems like Portugal always plays to their opponent's level.

Well, except against North Korea.

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Posted by TOKEN

Member since Feb 2014

11990 posts

Posted on 5/30/14 at 3:42 am to Vicks Kennel Club

Portugal has always had chemistry problems for some reason? They have a ton of individual talent but we could slip past them in our second game, especially if they are coming off a loss. Everyone is assuming Germany beats Portugal but I could see a draw.

Germany 1 Portugal 1
USA 1 Ghana 0

USA 0 Portugal 0
Germany 3 Ghana 1

Germany 2 USA 0
Portugal 2 Ghana 1

We need to put some goals up. I'm really worried about a Germany/ Portugal draw. Everything comes down to the US beating Ghana and Portugal losing to Germany if we are going to advance. A draw with Ghana and we are doomed.

This post was edited on 5/30/14 at 3:44 am

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