You can't really blame anyone for parking the bus when Spain comes to town. It worked to great effect for Switzerland in their opening World Cup group game against the Spaniards, catching the European Champions cold on the break. So tonight in South Africa, Portugal followed suit with another ultra defensive set up, with coach Carlos Quieroz taking a leaf out of Swiss counterpart Ottmar Hitzfelds big book of defending.
For a long while it looked like working, Spain ran out of ideas and quickly got that 'feeling the weight of expectancy' look, while the Portuguese did look threatening on the break. But that was all Quieroz's team could offer, and by the time David Villa had latched onto Xavi's deft through ball to make it 1-0, there was no plan B, and so Portugal, like Italy, France and England, head home barely doing themselves justice.
Now IBWM likes it's Latin sides to play with flair, and when you have a player as explosive as Cristiano Ronaldo on your team, I'd like to think you'll utilise him properly. It's easy to remember Portugal cutting loose and knocking seven past the hapless and hopeless North Koreans, but bear in mind that those seven strikes apart, Portugal failed to register in any of their four other games at South Africa 2010.
Admittedly, steering a side through the so called 'group of death' along with Brazil was always going to require a plan, and knowing that you would likely be facing your next door neighbours who are much bigger and better than you would suggest that safety first should apply.....but did we always need quite so many players behind the ball, Carlos?
Bigger, better
Portugal have for many years lacked a target man, a striker that weighs in with lots of goals. Nuno Gomes and Helder Postiga have both enjoyed lengthy international careers despite being, well, shit basically. However Portugal could always be relied to make up for this with goals from the flanks and midfield. I accept that Nani got injured, which is a shame as he was in top form for Manchester United going into the tournament, but there were still options. Simao, Danny and Deco would have all at one time all started alongside Ronaldo, and now that prolific Sporting Lisbon striker Liedson has finally decided he is in fact Portuguese (ahem), rather than Brazilian, there were options. But no, Carlos had his plan.
Carlos Quieroz is a well respected coach that is only too happy to receive the plaudits in being described as the man behind the discovery of Portugal's golden generation of Figo, Costa and Couto, so why stifle his current charges so much?
Am I being too harsh here......or is this world cup turning out to be just a bit on the piss poor side? So many teams and players just haven't turned up at all.
What do you think?
0 comments:
Post a Comment