Viva Portugal. Ricardo is out! This was the litmus test for Queiroz in my humble opinion. Had he even considered Ricardo as a second or third option, I would have been very disappointed. Gone also is Petit (thanks for the memories, or maybe he is injured?).
Queiroz called up for the first time Danny (Dinamo Moscow) e Eduardo (Sporting Braga). He also picked Antunes (Lecce, Italy), Carlos Martins (Benfica), Duda (Malaga, Spain), and Manuel Fernandes (Valencia, Spain).
The defense remains the same, except for Antunes, a left full back. Antunes is supposed to plug-in a big hole in Portugal’s team, which saw Ferreira, a right full-back struggle to keep up during the past world cup. To this day I don’t understand why Scolari stopped calling up Nuno Valente. Anyone out there who knows why? He seems to be doing a good job for Everton. At least he has more playing time than Paulo Ferreira does for Chelsea.
I must say it looks like Queiroz is doing the right thing. Getting some decent goal keeping, keeping the core team intact especially the defense, and injecting some new blood to foment competition and keep the starters on their toes.
The team will be without its best player, Ronaldo, due to injury. Big shoes to fill, but they should be able to fill them at least half way with Nany.
Here’s the team:
Goal keepers: Quim (Benfica), Eduardo (Braga), Daniel Fernandes (Bochum, Germany)
Defenders:
Bosingwa (Chelsea, UK), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea, UK), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea, UK), Bruno Alves (FC Porto), Fernando Meira (Galatasaray, Turkey), Pepe (Real Madrid, Spain) e Antunes (Lecce, Italy)
Midfielders:
Deco (Chelsea, UK), Raúl Meireles (FC Porto), Duda (Málaga, Spain), Carlos Martins (Benfica), João Moutinho (Sporting Lisbon) e Manuel Fernandes (Valencia, Spain).
Forwards:
Simão (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Danny (Dinamo Moscow, Russia), Nani (Manchester United, UK), Nuno Gomes (Benfica) e Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen, Germany)
The Portuguese National team will be playing a friendly on August 20 in Aveiro, Portugal against the mighty Faroe Islands.
