Eduardo da Silva has finally returned to action after being sidelined for the last 10 months due to a dislocated ankle and fractured left leg. He played the entire first half for the Arsenal Reserve squad in a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth’s reserve team.
Reports from the match were optimistic. He ran well, had nice touches on the ball and ultimately never favored his left leg. The only glitch was a tight hamstring he developed in the first half which forced Dudu to be subbed at halftime.
Eduardo had a nice left-footed strike which just missed grazing the post after a nice save by the Pompey keeper. He looked good ladies and gentlemen. If all goes to plan, we should see him back in a Premiership game in two weeks time.
As one Arsenal suporter put it: “Eduardo’s back, it was free to get in, we won and the atmosphere was better than the Emirates. What more could a Gooner want?”
Well i guess really it depends when we are talking about. During Euro 2008 qualifying and in the Austria and Germany games Olic played well. During Euro 2008 qualifying Petric played really well. However its when they got paired together and without Eduardo that they have both struggled. I think that mainly had something to do with their playing styles. I think Petric was tired at the back end of last season. He stopped scoring for Dortmund and he stopped scoring for Croatia. He also couldn’t keep up with Olic’s pace. Recently i think his fitness has improved and they’ve been working at playing together. Jol didn’t trust them either at the start. They used Olic-Gurerro-Petric or Gurerro-Olic or Gurerro-Petric. Both of them are much better playing off a main striker, but their fitness and form is so good at the moment they don’t need Gurerro. Petric is keeping up with Olic and is managing to find him which is another problem with Olic as he never stays in one place for anything length of time, but Petric is fitter now and a lot closer to him. The problem with international football is that you don’t get time to work on partnerships. Its like 90 minutes then its over. I don’t think Petric and Olic are poor players though. They will tail off at some point though in the latter part of the season, so we could do with improving competition in our squad. My main criticism of Bilic since the Euro is that he’s not done anything much to add competition or experiment. He just stole Ladic’s striker Kalinic who is not ready to challenge Olic, Petric or Eduardo yet and Klasnic keeps his place without scoring at club level. He is also still playing Kovac’s far beyond their prime. We should have found the answer to Niko Kovac by now as he’s 38. Robert Kovac’s red card against England for example was more about his decline at Dortmund and his lack of pace these days. He’s suddenly becoming more robust than he used to be and players are getting in behind him. The guy can’t keep up no more. Bilic needs to get active. Hopefully all these in form guys like Rukavina, Bilic, Cale will start getting looked at soon and we’ll see less of Vejic, Drpic and Klasnic. I like Klasnic, but he has to do more to be in the squad.
If only Petric and Olic can play half as well for Croatia as they have been for Hamburg. They're not just tearing up the BundesLiga but Uefa Cup play as well. On Wednesday, Hamburg pummeled Aston Villa 3-1 as Petric scored 1 and Olic had a double for the German side.
Here's an interview with Eduardo after the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbkmnTiALqs&feature=channel_page
Denis,
Maybe it was just a rumor. I do frequent the xtratime football croatia forum and i think that is where i heard about this supposed mini tournament hosted by portugal for february. i guess a rumor was all it was. sorry to get your hopes up lol.
Yeah, it’s difficult not to be too excited about Eduardo’s return, though I agree it must be tempered. What seems most interesting about the Petric/Olic situation is not how well either is doing so much as how well they are doing together. They are getting a lot of experience playing alongside one another, and doing it well. I know they have disappointed for the national squad at times in the past, but their recent play does warrant marching them out there in the next upcoming friendlies to see if they can keep it up outside of club play.
I’ll agree. Gently does it in Eduardo’s case. Its good though that he got the confidence to play like that in just his first match. He looked pretty lively.
Anyway has anyone seen Petric recently, that guys back to his best. I’ll let him off for playing poor in the last few months as he’s been playing too much football with Dortmund last season and was bound to tire. However this is much better from him. Maybe we should give Petric and Olic another go until Dudu comes back and give Martin Jol a big hug for allowing these two to work at improving playing alongside each other week in week out. They both look a lot better.
Let’s not get our hopes up on Eduardo. I just wish him best of luck and hopefully he will return with a bang. We need to “grow some patience.”
An away friendly at Romania on February 11th is confirmed by FIFA.
Ivica,
Whats up with this mini tournament in Portugal? Please do tell.
Our next game is Feb 11th in Romania for a friendly
without a doubt Joze. When is our next NT friendly? I heard we were invited to some mini tournament hosted by portugal in february…
boy is it nice to see Eduardo back!
i dont want to speak too soon but i think he’ll be back in the national team in no time..