Defeat of Portugal resurrects “ghosts”. “For some reason they play some and not others”
Portugal’s defeat by South Korea awakens old “ghosts” and highlights why some players are in the starting line-up and others are not. It is the conclusion of the commentators of the Renaissance after the national team lost, by 2-1, to Paulo Bento’s team, in the last round of the group stage of the 2022 World Cup.
Jorge Silas recalls that important players were missing on the field – Fernando Santos rotated half a team, given that qualification for the round of 16 was already guaranteed – and that “there is a lack of dynamics” among the less used players.
“The players who joined, like the whole team, didn’t have a very high level. it was noticed that there were too many substitutions and for some reason they play some and don’t play others🇧🇷 Our second lines are good, but they are good for taking one and putting another or for taking one and putting two, not for taking six and putting six. The context also led to this, that we could lose and not be excluded. The players already thought that the game would end 1-1 and that we would pass anyway and everything was fine, and we ended up suffering”, he stresses.
The coach, who has played for Belenenses SAD, Sporting, Famalicão and AEL Limassol, in addition to having been a Portuguese international as a player, considers that the national team created danger “almost always” through Diogo Dalot. Incidentally, if there is a player who will have won a place for the next games, it is the Manchester United right-back, who pushed João Cancelo to the left against the South Koreans.
Silas warns, however, that if Dalot wins a place in the eleven, the sacrificed must be Raphael Guerreiro: “In my opinion, it would be Dalot with cancellation on the left. I don’t believe it is Dalot and Guerreiro. I believe that Dalot will be able to enter for the game he played, but it would always be Dalot and Cancelo🇧🇷
Vasco Seabra also believes that Dalot may have won the title, which “will add quality to the team”. The former coach of Marítimo, Paços de Ferreira or Boavista adds the names of Vitinha and António Silva to the list of players who should, from now on, have more minutes.
“They went back to a correspondent. Although we supported two goals the antonio [Silva] did very well, maintained serenity and a very high record of competence and efficiency🇧🇷 O Vitinha the more the game happens the more it is preponderant and I think that, with more people involved around him, more opportunities he may have to be able to add and make the ball reach the last third. Having João Félix, Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo and being able to have Vitinha closer to them, I think it will also raise the level of play”, he opines.
For Rui Miguel Tovar, “it would be a surprise for Dalot not to play” after the game with South Korea.
In an analysis of the “very tasteless” game of the Portuguese team, the commentator of the Gathering White Ball consider that “starting the game well and ending it this way is a bit like resurrecting the ghosts of Serbia“, when Portugal lost the opportunity to qualify directly for the World Cup (had to go to the “play-offs”).
“It was the same thing, a goal by Renato Sanches to open and then Serbia’s 2-1 at Luz, when the curtain fell. It’s the same thing here. And with Spain [na Liga das Nações], although it is different, because it was 0-0 and it was 0-1, so there was no comeback. It always hurts me to lose a game that starts to win”, he laments.
Silas points out that Portugal needs to improve in set pieces, although he considers that, with the entry of players like Rúben Dias and William Carvalho in the eleven, the problem will be more easily solved.
“I had already lived, before the goal [1-1 para a Coreia], a shot against us in a corner where we had difficulties. Against Uruguay there was also an occasion against us like that. Set pieces, especially defensive corners, are one of the areas where we need to improve“, I explain.
The game was decided by a goal on the counterattack after a corner in Portugal’s favour. Silas understands that there was a foul left to do, to block the counterattack taken care of by Heung-min Son. Even so, he says that, in a context in which the national team needed the result, “that foul would have been made, with absolute certainty”.
Commentators did not go home without analyzing the Cristiano Ronaldo’s attitude at the time of substitutionat 65 minutes.
The captain of the national team said, as can be seen from his lip movements, “you’re under a lot of pressure to get me out”, along with two expletives. Words that seemed directed at Fernando Santos, even though the coach later stated that it had been for a Korean. The forward subscribed to this understanding, explaining, in the wrong area, that it was a response to a South Korean player who had ordered him to leave the pitch more quickly.
“I think it was for Korean, he knew Paulo Bento was going to translate”, jokes Silas, for whom the responsibility is all on Cristiano Ronaldo’s side and Fernando Santos will not fail to count on him.
Vasco Seabra highlights that the Ronaldo’s behavior “could and should have been differenteven because we all know the connection that exists between the coach and the captain”. Such an attitude “is never healthy”, especially since the striker “represents an example for everyone”.
“It won’t be healthy, obviously, but he’s the captain and everyone understands he’s an important player for the group. I think it will be portrayed“, predict.
Rui Miguel Tovar admits that the “shocking” and “needless” behavioralso taking into account that the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo from the field, in a game in which little was decided, “is dosing for future games”.
Thus, in the commentator’s opinion, the behavior “just set fire” and the official justification “doesn’t matter, because you’ve already done it and doing it is what’s wrong”.
“That is what will cause confusion in the coming days, a confusion that seems to be non-existent. There will be a lot of talk about it until Tuesday, when it was unnecessary“, maintains.
Fernando Santos now has three days to iron out rough spots and make decisions about unexpected changes in the lineup for the knockout stage of the 2022 World Cup. Renaissance by Carlos Dias in Qatar and follow-up, to the minute, in rr.sapo.pt🇧🇷