My friends, this is it. Portugal has officially bought a ticket to stay home and watch the world cup in the tube…unless they send Queiroz back to Man U.
This was one of the saddest display of coaching and lack of team spirit I have seen. This is a team of individuals who are back to the pre-Scolari era of a me, me, me mentality.
Albania played the second half with 10 men! Nuno Gomes stayed in the bench for 3/4 of the game while we watched Hugo Almeida again do absolutely nothing. Danny had more chances and was playing better than Ronaldo, and was substitued by Nani for no gain, what’s up with that? Ronaldo was out of position all game, and never showed up. You need to be a great coach to be able to fit a great player in an above average squad, and Queiroz can’t do it. He learned nothing by playing second fiddle to Sir Alex Ferguson. Quaresma should not be on this team as he epitomizes everything Portugal cannot have in its squad. Selfishness, arrogance, “I am team”.
The team was obviously lost tactically. You cannot say that it was unlucky, not against an Albania playing with 10 man for crying out loud. Portugal did not score because they never had an organized front line, no center forward, and no one who took charge of the midfield. The role of the coach, in addition to understand the tactical aspect of the game, is to motivate and instill leadership, to have a knack to bring in players when needed, to place the best 11 in the field despite pressure from the press and so called experts (Scolari was a master here) and to quickly adjust to the opponent coach’s savvy.
Queiroz has none of the above qualities and for the team to make it to the world cup he must be fired now! Let’s hope Gilberto Madail (president of the Portuguese football federation) can recognize his mistake and bring in a new coach. He has 5 months before the next game, March 28, 2009 against Sweden. This is the time to do it. Of course Gilberto himself should have resigned when Scolari left. He’s been there too long and the decision to hire Queiroz shows it.
