Canada v. Portugal on March 26,2005

[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/vi...?Press_ID=2000

[The Beaver]

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/vi...?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?

[beachesl]

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.

[Rudi]

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).

[redhat]

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)

[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.

[canadiankick97]

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.

[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.

[mattbin]

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.

[mcaout]

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.