Portugal alcançou o 3º lugar no Mundial de Futebol de Praia que decorreu no Dubai, após ter vencido o Uruguai por 14-7. Parabéns aos jogadores, Seleccionador e staff.

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So Werder Bremen thrashed Freiburg 6-0 last night in the Bundesliga (See, they don't even need Diego aka Survivor Contestant No. 91255 these days). As for Hugo Almeida, we've not heard from him for a while so it was finally nice to see the Portuguese striker helping himself to a double.

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Thanks to winning both matches of the play-offs Portugal climbed up FIFA's ranking to a surprising 5th place. This might stir up talks on whether we should go into the 1st pot of the WC2010 draw next December. I don't think it will happen, but... A day before UEFA released their Click to continue reading...

Dear Carlos,

Many many many congratulations from Denmark with the qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2010. It was fantastic for you and your team and especially for the "World Cup". The FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa would not be the same without a world class team as Portugal.

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FC Porto's Taca de Portugal game has been postponed due to a poor pitch. Porto was set to take on Oliveirense at the Carlos Osorio Stadium but match official Bruno Paixao decided that the pitch was unsafe and could endanger the physical safety of the players. The stadium during heating turned into a mixture of mud and water and the players were buried at each step. Click to continue reading...

Portugal have moved up to #5 in the FIFA World Rankings released yesterday and with this ranking and previous point system, they should be one of the top seeds when the top seed rankings are released and draw completed next month in South Africa.The top countrys will go into pot one and more importantly not seeded together in the first round. Click to continue reading...

Portugal joga hoje com o Brasil, pelas 15.30 horas, as meias-finais do Mundial que decorre no Dubai. É uma final antecipada e é pena. Deveria ser jogo de final. Click to continue reading...

Quando saímos do aeroporto vindos da Bósnia, dentro do autocarro que nos transportaria ao hotel, encontrámos esta simpática mensagem vinda da Selecção Nacional Feminina, que nesse mesmo autocarro tinha sido transportada para o aeroporto momentos antes, de partida para a Eslovénia. Agradeço a mensagem, em nome da Selecção Nacional, desejando que hoje, em Nova Gorica, pelas 13. Click to continue reading...

Spain regain top slot in this month's Fifa world rankings. Brazil are second followed by the Netherlands, Italy and Portugal. England are in 9th place. Argentina are 8th.
France are in 7th after Thierry Henry handed them victory in their World Cup play off encounter with Ireland in Paris. Cameroon are the highest African team in 11th. Click to continue reading...

With 32 names in the bag (irrespective of how they got there) thoughts can now turn to the subject of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.
The first thing to be decided is which countries to seed. This is calculated just before the draw and is based on past performances in recent World Cups and the FIFA World Ranking. Click to continue reading...

Who can wait a month? I had to speculate the pots and make my own groups:

GROUP A -- South Africa, Greece, North Korea, Paraguay
GROUP B -- Brazil, Slovenia, Honduras, Nigeria
GROUP C -- Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay
GROUP D -- Spain, Slovakia, USA, Ghana
GROUP E -- Argentina, Netherlands, Mexico, Cameroon
GROUP F -- Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Chile
GROUP G -- France, Portugal, Australia, Algeria
GROUP H -- England, Switzerland, Japan, Ivory Coast

How about that Group E, eh? Click to continue reading...

World Cup Qualifying is completed is completed. I've updated the 2010 World Cup Eliminations Timeline, which tells you exactly which date each team was eliminated and in what order. That won't require another update until June.
But the real exciting news is that with all the qualifiers completed, we can now focus on the World Cup seeds and the draw. Click to continue reading...

FIFA has made official its National Team Ranking for December issuingtheir table today. As advanced earlier in the week, SPAIN regains theNº1 spot from Brazil.Here are the Top 10 places:1. Spain 1622 pts2. Brazil 15923. Holland 12794. Italy 12155. Portugal 11816. Germany 11707. France 11228. Argentina 10859. Click to continue reading...

My my, The Figos look absolutely perfeito in that photo snapped in Paris last week! In many ways, it's good that the Portuguese midfielder decided to retire from football completely... He could teach dear Guti below a thing or two about wearing proper pants.

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All 32 teams for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa are now known.
The complete line up is:
Europe
Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland
Africa
Algeria, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa (hosts)
Asia
Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea
South America
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay
North & Central America, Caribbean
Honduras, Mexico, USA
Oceania
New Zealand
Tags
World Cup South Africa Click to continue reading...

Portugal/Argentina - 1938
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Let's take a moment to reflect on the many different faces we've seen recently in World Cup qualifying action.

There's the good-old fashioned happy face, as seen (above), by Algerian keeper, Faouzi Chaouchi.

The "don't want you to see the tears" Face (Ukraine's Shevchenko)
The "I could give a shite if you see me cry, I'm a man and I have feelings" Face (Egypt's al-Hadary)
The "bish, I'll cut you" Face (Anyukov, Russia)
The "aggro-happy" Face (Pepe, Portugal)
The "my abs are overjoyed with emotion about this victory" Face (Perez, Uruguay)
And, our personal favourite, the "Who farted?

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Let's take a moment to reflect on the many different faces we've seen recently in World Cup qualifying action.

There's the good-old fashioned happy face, as seen (above), by Algerian keeper, Faouzi Chaouchi.

The "don't want you to see the tears" Face (Ukraine's Shevchenko)
The "I could give a shite if you see me cry, I'm a man and I have feelings" Face (Egypt's al-Hadary)
The "bish, I'll cut you" Face (Anyukov, Russia)
The "aggro-happy" Face (Pepe, Portugal)
The "my abs are overjoyed with emotion about this victory" Face (Perez, Uruguay)
And, our personal favourite, the "Who farted?

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The games didn't really have everything, did they? The results did some upsets, some heroics, a few of the expected teams going in but outside of the one game which forced a playoff (Egypt 2 Algeria 0), some of these games were completely zapped of the necessary drama.

(Not, of course, that one played in the Stade de France.

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Portugal belatedly secured their place at next summer's World Cup with an impressive performance in Zenica. After scraping a 1-0 win in Lisbon at the weekend with a laboured showing on home turf, Carlos Queiroz's side upped their game to close out the qualifying play-off and book a ticket to South Africa. Click to continue reading...

Image by Ricardo Machado design e ilustração via Flickr Portugal Carlos Queiroz was delighted to see his boys maintain the early second half goal where he addressed that his team plays well away than at home. Without the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo in their ranks it was always tense and a 50-50 chances in [. Click to continue reading...

La de anoche fue una jornada de repesca llena de titulares. Por ejemplo, Eslovenia impuso su intachable trayectoria como local para eliminar a Rusia, un equipo a priori superior en cuanto a jugadores y juego, pero que sucumbió ante el orden esloveno en su feudo. Grecia fiel al estilo que le hizo campeona de Europa en 2004, arañó y se defendió (0-1) en Kiev ante una Ucrania que no podrá dar un broche mundialista a una gran generación liderada por Shevchenko. Click to continue reading...

Portugal qualificou-se para o Mundial 2010 com um triunfo na Bósnia. Não fez mais que a sua obrigação e só custa ter que esperar pelo último jogo e ver a equipa a abusar do tão criticado "anti-jogo", a abusar de tempo perdido em lançamentos, pontapés de baliza e por aí fora... Espero que a campanha no Mundial seja bem melhor e que Cristiano Ronaldo finalmente se lembre de começar a jogar. Click to continue reading...

I already wrote once about soccer (football) stamps in past, but found again on same site more soccer stamps, and i am amazed, 5-6 stamps in huge format from French 1938 up to modern times and Italy and Portugal stamps. For example football stamp from France (1938) :
I am excited when see something like that because I am huge fan of soccer and of everything related to soccer, so maybe I start myself to collect only footbal stamps. Click to continue reading...

Foto: Francisco Paraíso
Foi num ambiente fora do comum que disputámos esta 2ª mão dos play-off. O que se passou junto do hotel antes do jogo não pode ser descrito. Este tipo de pressão é intolerável e deveria ser punido pela FIFA. Largas centenas de pessoas com ar ameaçador, com pedradas à mistura, a rodear o autocarro, é próprio do 3º mundo e não na Europa civilizada. Click to continue reading...

With Uruguay seeing off Costa Rica, the field for World Cup 2010 has been completed.Africa - Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South AfricaAsia - Australia, Japan, North Korea, South KoreaEurope - Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, SwitzerlandNorth America - Honduras, Mexico, United StatesOceania - New Click to continue reading...

España volvía a pisar el terreno de juego que le vio coronarse como Campeón de Europa, el Ernst Happel austriaco, dónde el 29 de junio de 2008, Casillas levantó la Eurocopa tras vencer en la final a Alemania con gol de Fernando Torres.
Ayer el rival no era Alemania, era Austria, un rival muy asequible. Click to continue reading...

We finally have all 32 countries who will be in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa!!!After the games played on November 18th, Portugal, Greece, Uruguay, France, Algeria, and Slovenia have qualified for the tournament. Here are the results:Bosnia 0 – 1 Portugal (agg. 0-2)Ukraine 0 – 1 Greece (agg. Click to continue reading...

Portugal have breathed new life into the Portuguese Nation as they have qualified for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The Portuguese who at one point sat in fourth place in their group before a recovery which has seen them win 5 games straight including todays 1-0 over Bosnia is through to the promise land. Click to continue reading...

No more. Done. Finito. Acabou. The fight for the 32 golden spots to play the most exciting football (and sports) tournament on the planet has ended. Some big ones almost did not manage. And some return after 24 years.

Today was the day for the last 6 squads to qualify. The brave (or lucky?

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Ireland aren't going! Neither is Gus Hiddink.
Could we bring him back....too late I guess!
Ronaldo should be there..if fit...but not the Ukraine's or Egyptians.
Still in the modern world if your country doesn't make it (Ireland) you can support the country you grew up in (England) the country you live in and love (Socceroos) or the countries you have visited, (NZ, USA, Germany, Japan, France, Greece, Italy etc etc,) or countries you'd like to see do well. Click to continue reading...

Raul Meireles second half strike sink Bosnia's hopes.

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Algeria, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia all won their playoffs and qualified for the World Cup today. Uruguay vs Costa Rica is happening as I type. But there's one story that will be dominating the World Cup playoff headlines, and I think you already know what it is: Thierry Henry's handball for France vs Ireland.

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Raul Meireles scored to give Portugal a win and earn them a spot at South Africa 2010.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

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The original headline for this piece was going to be '...And Then There Was One' as in there's only one place left in the finals: congratulations to Algeria, France, Greece, Portugal and Slovenia, all of whom have qualified before.

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