On Raul... after Spain gets knocked out of Euro 2004 by losing to POrtugal

It seems funny starting a thread criticising a player who has been one of my favourites for almost 10 years. But I can't help feeling one of both Real Madrid's and Spain's biggest problems of late has been the refusal to bench Raul. I know that he is talismanic, he symbolises both teams, and has achieved more at age 27 than most players will at 34. But we cannot deny that he has been off form for over 6 months now, and the king has lost his midas touch. I find it absurd that despite his obvious lack of form, he plays 90 minutes of almost every game, that leaave alone being benched at the start, he is rarely benched even during games. I hope that his performance at the Euros is a wake-up call to the Madrid fans who kept blaming Ronaldo for Raul's failures, and for keeping Moro out of the squad. It's clear that Ronaldo was why the team made it to Europe (with Casillas) and if anyone should make way for Moro, it's raul.
Similarly, Spain would have been better off with Valeron behind Moro or Torres (or both).
But no, because Quireoz did not have the balls and Saez did not have the balls, and all that we can do is weep.
Sometimes, it feels like we are so blinded by the past, that we don't see the present. Our "captain" is a player, a human... not some divine diety who cannot be touched.
All I can hope for is that Camacho realises this next year.

Eats, Shoots and Scores
Ronaldo 3-Argentina 0
2nd June, 2004

Ronaldo is the man, no one even comes close. I hope this convinces Camacho to stop letting Figo take Real Madrid's penalties.

Good, solid game on the whole. Argentina may have had more possession and shots, but I always felt Brazil was in control, except in the 80-90 minute phase.

The only low point was the aerial marking, especially by Roque Junior. I actually expected to see Edmilson at the back and Edu starting, but I guess I should have known that CAP would go with Roque even though the guy is a joke really. Hopefully he will be gone once Luisao and Lucio are back.

Edmilson had a monster game, to me he was Brazil's 2nd best player on the night, and I'm sure if he had not done such a spectacular vacuum cleaning job, the match would have been a lot closer.

Good games also for Cafu, Kaka, Ze Roberto. I was never keen on Ze Roberto being selected to the NT, but he proves me wrong every match. Good work rate, some good touches. Juninho did not do as much as I had hoped creatively, but showed good discipline.

Luis Fabiano started well, then disappointed for about 40 minutes before springing back to life. A decent match but I'm not certain whether he will play against Chile or whether we will see Ronaldo-Kaka-Alex.

Not that I'm complaining but what was Biesla thinking starting without Aimar, without a single truly creative player? And I also feel that saviola is now definitely a better player than Crespo.

Classic moment: Sorin runs with the ball and has no one near him, but after realising that he's Argentinian and that he's supposed to dive every 10 metres suddenly falls down with no one near him.