This is a fabulous week for football junkies.
Four matches on four nights.
Four great-looking quarter-finals !
Portugal v Germany tonight
Croatia v Turkey tomorrow.
Van Basten’s new Holland against Hiddink’s improving young Russia on Saturday.
Followed by Sunday night with the Latins in Vienna, Spain v Italy.
Spain have flair, Italy have mental strength. Both have great keepers, Casillas and Buffon.
To me it looks like four good teams, plus two with mental strength. Germany and Italy started badly but squeezed through by demonstrating collective mental strength.
Russia outclassed Sweden last night but that doesn’t make them as classy or resilient as the four good teams.
I love Big Phil Scolari and admire Portugal.
Big Phil says that the media circus over Ronaldo isn’t affecting the boy and he has no doubts about CR’s ability to focus on the job.
Ricardo Quaresma is a winger I first saw in an international youth tournament when he was 17. He scored an amazing goal and I thought, “Jesus, I must remember his name – I’ll be seeing him again in the future.” Many Portuguese teenagers show outstanding ability but do not build major careers.
Quaresma may now be poised to move up a level. Or he could stay in his comfort zone. It was funny to see him cross that ball after seven minutes against Switzerland.. He was on the left wing and crossed with his right foot. But not in the usual way. He shuffled towards the right back and then suddenly jabbed the ball behind his left ankle with his right foot. And the ball flew perfectly and quickly to the near post at an ideal height. Helder Postiga headed over. It was a bad miss but there was no pressure. Portugal had already won the group and their reserves lost to the Swiss by 2-0. Would Quaresma have done that after seven minutes of a quarterfinal? Would Big Phil yell at him for showboating ?
Myself, I don’t think its showboating. Only a very few footballers can do what Quaresma did. And that trick should be left to those few. There’s nothing wrong with doing what he did, if you can execute it as perfectly as he can. At the end of the day, it’s a cross into the goalmouth. How he kicked the ball is irrelevant. If Postiga heads it in, the score is 1-0.
I think Portugal will beat the Germans and I sincerely hope they do. But the Ronaldo-wants-Real Madrid story must be counter-productive. It doesn’t help his Manchester united team and it doesn’t help his Portugal team. And we hear amazing rumours around this story all the time, so it’s hard to figure out what’s going on, and what might happen.
Therefore I will only say this : If you work with talent, it often gets ruined. It gets spoiled. You create an ambience, an ethic, a place where the talented can be great, and they deliver, they fulfill their potential, and excite millions. Sir Alex has given Ronaldo a stage and a fine team that can play to his strengths and the kid has responded with an amazing 42 goals in all competitions, and he’s been able to do that because of Rio, Evra, Rooney Carrick and the rest, because the team has been willing to subordinate itself to him and his style of play.
If that success, that big double in May 2008, makes Cristiano Ronaldo so self-absorbed that he wants to ditch his team, ditch Sir Alex, ditch the fans and the whole EPL-Sky Sports hype-machine that has made him a super-rich global icon, then so be it. United should flog him and move on. Manchester United is a better club than Real Madrid, even if it never wins nine European Cups.
Also let me say this : If Cristiano was to stay and sulk, he would ruin the team, so United would have to sell him anyway.
Man United survived the loss of Law, Best, Robson, Cantona and Beckham, all of whom served the team for far longer than Ronaldo has. If United can survive a plane crash which killed most of their team, they can survive the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo for £70 million. If he goes, he goes. Let’s not get too emotional about it.
Yes, I think he would be an idiot to go now. But a lot of players are idiots. As me and Hughie Southon always say, “Don’t expect too much, they’re only footballers !”
Ronaldo’s tournament could end tonight, of course.
Portugal could lose to Germany on penalties. Big Phil’s team has obvious weaknesses. Keeper Ricardo has 75 caps but flaps at crosses. Striker Nuno Gomes is Fernando Torres without bottle. If Gomes plays people in to score, fine.
Portugal only need one goal to win this game. That goal will be a long time coming, I feel. Deco is not finished. This could be the tightest of the four games. It could be a night of hacking and fouling. It could be a Ballack free-kick followed by a Ronaldo free-kick followed by another Ballack free-kick.
In big tournaments we usually say that the Germans improve as the competition develops. And we can safely say that Portugal v Germany is a battle between a talented team and a method team.
So tonight the $64,000 question is : Can a team with flair overcome a team with mental strength?
In other words, if Germany win tonight, I will fancy Italy to beat Spain. If Portugal win, I will fancy Spain to beat Italy.