Massive Attack Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Men's World Cup Team Tuesday, January 04, 2005 Canada To Play Portugal on March 26 Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Soccer Association today announced it has reached an agreement with the Portuguese Football Federation for its men’s national team to play Portugal in an international friendly on March 26, 2005. The game will be played in Barcelos, which is located 45 minutes Northeast of Porto. “Obviously this is a tremendous opportunity for us and I am delighted to have this game,” said Canadian head coach Frank Yallop. “Portugal reached the European Championship Final and are not only one of the top teams in Europe but also the World. It will be a great experience for some of our young players.” The two countries have faced each other once before and that was on January 26, 1995 in a 1-1 draw at the SkyDome Cup. Following the friendly, the Portuguese will play Slovakia in a World Cup Qualifier on March 30. Yallop will hold a four-day training camp in the Algarve from March 20-24 prior to the game. http://canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=2000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Beaver Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack Men's World Cup Team Tuesday, January 04, 2005 Canada To Play Portugal on March 26 Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Soccer Association today announced it has reached an agreement with the Portuguese Football Federation for its men’s national team to play Portugal in an international friendly on March 26, 2005. The game will be played in Barcelos, which is located 45 minutes Northeast of Porto. “Obviously this is a tremendous opportunity for us and I am delighted to have this game,” said Canadian head coach Frank Yallop. “Portugal reached the European Championship Final and are not only one of the top teams in Europe but also the World. It will be a great experience for some of our young players.” The two countries have faced each other once before and that was on January 26, 1995 in a 1-1 draw at the SkyDome Cup. Following the friendly, the Portuguese will play Slovakia in a World Cup Qualifier on March 30. Yallop will hold a four-day training camp in the Algarve from March 20-24 prior to the game. http://canadasoccer.com/eng/media/viewArtical.asp?Press_ID=2000 Told myself I wasn't going to post here too much, but couldn't avoid this one: This is great news! Good work on whoever put this match together. Prediction: USA 0 -- Portugal 5 (Damn, the US isn't even playing this match and they're still gonna lose big time.[8D]) It's cold but clear in Vancouver. Let's leave work early and play some soccer, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 12,500 seat stadium, refurbished this year, home to Gil Vicente club presently 13th in their top league. Probably chosen beause of large number of Canadians from the Northern hills of Portugal (second only to the Azores Islands as a source of Portuguese-Canadians), even if a long way from the Algarve (extreme south) training grounds. I am sure there was some internal Portuguese politics involving spreading their MNT matches around as well. In the small but football-mad district of Braga, home to two of the Euro 2004 venues (Braga and Guimares). Can be rainy and cool in March, unlike semi-tropical Algarve which will have guaranteed hot and sunny weather. Too bad they have to pack up and move there so quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 I must say, I'm impressed by the effort that the CSA is putting into developing our MNT properly. Of course, they could have done this a year ago, and we'd probably be gearing up for the Hex right now, but hindsight is 20/20 (even for something as obvious as this). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhat Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Hmm, great match to have. Although seemingly remote, what are the chances of Aguiar playing? It'll be good to patch things up ... (edited for spelling) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gian-Luca Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 This is one which we should reasonably expect Sportsnet to be able to televise (unless there is suprisingly no Portugese feed for the match), as there will be significant interest in Canada for this match - much of which won't be pro-Canadian interest, but this time we should be able to use this non-pro Canadian interest to our advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadiankick97 Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 Definately GL. It will really be bad if they don't televise it. As far as I'm concerned this game is an obligation to televise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Polish_LYNX_Fan Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 of course they will or if they wont they will listen to the demands of the portugues and crumble under pressure but if we were to demand something pshhh ahh sorry boyz we got AHL hockey that day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattbin Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 This is great news. I've been on here only infrequently, lately, but this is the kind of thing that gets me excited about the team again. Good work CSA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcaout Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Polish_LYNX_Fan of course they will or if they wont they will listen to the demands of the portugues and crumble under pressure but if we were to demand something pshhh ahh sorry boyz we got AHL hockey that day. I totally agree, and I think that sportsnet will show the game, probablly more for Portugues-Canadians then for Canadian-Canadians. It is very annoying how Canadians from "soccer mad countries" get the awe and respect of true supporters and the rest of us are, at times, laughed at because we do the silliest thing; support Canadian soccer. But, even with the very portugues tinge this friendly will have here in Canada, it should be a good test to our players, and maybe a way to show people that we can play a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BearcatSA Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Gian-Luca This is one which we should reasonably expect Sportsnet to be able to televise (unless there is suprisingly no Portugese feed for the match), as there will be significant interest in Canada for this match - much of which won't be pro-Canadian interest, but this time we should be able to use this non-pro Canadian interest to our advantage. My sources at Sportsnet say that they have scheduled the "World Series of Bass Fishing" that day, followed by "Golf Tips by Unemployed NHL Stars" and then the "U.S. National Spelling Bee", so we're out of luck.[}] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beachesl Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 It may be televised, but maybe not by Sportsnet, who only have the monopoly for Canada national team matches that take place in Canada. Given the opposition, it may be that either TLN (if there is not a conflict with the Italy friendly at home to Russia on the same date) or a pay-per-view concern (such as Setanta, who seem to thrive in the Portuguese market) may have it. Incidentally, I have emailed the Northern Ireland BBC service about whether BBC will cover the February match (and thus available for purchase of the feed here in Canada). I'll post if I hear anything back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Necksfootball Posted January 4, 2005 Share Posted January 4, 2005 CANADA 0 PORTUGAL 6 GUYS ARE TERRIBLE IM PRETTY SURE THE LAST TIME THE USA PLAYED PORTUGAL WE BEAT THEM 3-2 YES WE GOT LUCKY ON A GOAL BUT SO DID THEY. U GUYS ARE THE WORST SOCCER COUNTRY IS PORTUGAL PLAYIN WITH THEIE U21S BECAUSE THEY STILL WOULD WIN. THAT IS A SHAME U GUYS SHOULD PLAY SOMEBODY LIKE ICELAND OR NORWAY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bettermirror Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 haha, you don't rate Iceland or Norway!? Norway is a consistent world cup attendee, and Iceland have produced Chelsea standout Gudjonnson (sp?). OR, **** off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 quote:Originally posted by redhat Hmm, great match to have. Although seemingly remote, what are the chances of Aguiar playing? It'll be good to patch things up ... This will be just a few minutes from where Fernando lives, I think it is in Maia. He plays nearby in Penafiel. Would be a shame if Frank was still not up to giving him a call or if Fernando turned him down. Just read that before the last Penafiel match at Benfica it came out that Benfica still owed Aguiar the 20,000 Euro bonus for winning the Portugal Cup. Remember he came on 2nd half and played a role in their coming back to win it. Most comments at Portugal sites think it is quite shameful he has not been paid this relatively small sum by the Benfica president Vieira. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Necksfootball CANADA 0 PORTUGAL 6 GUYS ARE TERRIBLE IM PRETTY SURE THE LAST TIME THE USA PLAYED PORTUGAL WE BEAT THEM 3-2 YES WE GOT LUCKY ON A GOAL BUT SO DID THEY. U GUYS ARE THE WORST SOCCER COUNTRY IS PORTUGAL PLAYIN WITH THEIE U21S BECAUSE THEY STILL WOULD WIN. THAT IS A SHAME U GUYS SHOULD PLAY SOMEBODY LIKE ICELAND OR NORWAY First off, before you dare come on here and insult my country, learn how to speak english properly. Second, I would be happy if we played somebody like Iceland or Norway, that would be great just like a game is against Northern Ireland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SABuffalo786 Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 How did the USA get involved in this? And stop being a douche, Necks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 quote:Originally posted by SABuffalo786 How did the USA get involved in this? It's a board in-joke. A certain poster from Alberta that shall remain nameless boldly predicted before the US-Portugal match at WC '02 that Portugal would win by a score of 5-0. Of course, when the outcome of that match ended up being very different, the rest of the board gave him a lot of stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 I was in Germany at the time and some of my Portuguese friends who I must say as much as I liked them as friends were extremely arrogant soccer fans predicted the same soccer scoreline. My protestations that the US was stronger than they were giving them credit for were put down as ignorance from someone else who knew as much about soccer as an American. Since we all know what happened maybe we need to entice a few Portugal fans to post similar predictions here for this game. Or should we trust ourselves entirely to the Beaver's negative prediction techinique? (Didn't help us in WCQ though, Beav are your powers diminishing, say it isn't so, we all need at least one thing to still believe in!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savagebeast Posted January 5, 2005 Share Posted January 5, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Necksfootball CANADA 0 PORTUGAL 6 GUYS ARE TERRIBLE IM PRETTY SURE THE LAST TIME THE USA PLAYED PORTUGAL WE BEAT THEM 3-2 YES WE GOT LUCKY ON A GOAL BUT SO DID THEY. U GUYS ARE THE WORST SOCCER COUNTRY IS PORTUGAL PLAYIN WITH THEIE U21S BECAUSE THEY STILL WOULD WIN. THAT IS A SHAME U GUYS SHOULD PLAY SOMEBODY LIKE ICELAND OR NORWAY Or maybe we could play another backward soccer country like the United States.[)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kurosawa1555362267 Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 Great news!!! Finally it looks like we are gonna see the CSA seriously trying to make the MNT better!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Kurosawa Great news!!! Finally it looks like we are gonna see the CSA seriously trying to make the MNT better!!! A little premature I think. You could not say that nothing happened in the way of good friendlies in the years leading up to 2004. We did play against some very reputable adversaries such as Germany, Czech Rep, Ireland, Switzerland, Wales, Scotland, and Estonia to name a few. You could argue this point in so far as the months leading up to the first game versus Guatemala. Let not forget that WCQ is four years away. Ouch!! Still, it will be good to see the MNT play again and any friendly is better than no friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Free kick A little premature I think. You could not say that nothing happened in the way of good friendlies in the years leading up to 2004. We did play against some very reputable adversaries such as Germany, Czech Rep, Ireland, Switzerland, Wales, Scotland, and Estonia to name a few. You could argue this point in so far as the months leading up to the first game versus Guatemala. Let not forget that WCQ is four years away. Ouch!! Still, it will be good to see the MNT play again and any friendly is better than no friendly. I agree. I think it's natural that people get excited about playing a top team, but at this point in time, in terms of helping us four years from now, playing Portugal is no more significant than playing Northern Ireland. What really matters is that we play, whoever our opponents may be. It's a good start to see us play on the first two international dates of 2005, but I need to see us do the same for most of the remaining international dates of this year and the next three years before I can feel that any significant progress has been made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massimo Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 quote:Originally posted by DJT It's a good start to see us play on the first two international dates of 2005, but I need to see us do the same for most of the remaining international dates of this year and the next three years before I can feel that any significant progress has been made. Agreed if Canada would use up every international dates for friendlies, camps, etc. That would show us they are serious. But it is a start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoyleG Posted January 6, 2005 Share Posted January 6, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Rudi It's a board in-joke. A certain poster from Alberta that shall remain nameless boldly predicted before the US-Portugal match at WC '02 that Portugal would win by a score of 5-0. Of course, when the outcome of that match ended up being very different, the rest of the board gave him a lot of stick. Your the only one giving the stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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