Portugal in friendly: Poor finishing in front of the goal

March 9, 2010

Goals by Hugo Almeida and Liedson gave Portugal a 2-0 win against China in a friendly on last Wednesday, though the World Cup finalists were dogged by a lack of cohesion and poor finishing.

A lack of goals dogged Portugal for much of their World Cup qualifying campaign and they only qualified for the finals in South Africa after a play-off victory over Bosnia.

The hosts dominated the first half, but were only able to produce the one goal, through Almeida following a counter attack before Liedson, who had replaced Cristiano Ronaldo at half-time, deflected in a Joao Moutinho shot deep into injury time.

Portugal coach Carlos Queiroz had chosen to play China as preparation for their World Cup match against North Korea on June 21, and the team welcomed the return of Ronaldo, who had missed the two-legged play-off victory with an ankle injury.

With playmaker Deco injured, Queiroz used Almeida up front with Simao Sabrosa sitting behind him and Nani and Ronaldo on the wings.

The four players tormented the Chinese defence throughout the first half though they also failed to convert several chances.

Queiroz made five changes at half-time, including replacing Ronaldo with Liedson, and with several of the replacements playing out of position his side failed to gel or maintain the tempo of the first half.

China, the East Asian champions, had two half chances in the final 10 minutes, which caused the home fans to voice their disapproval and Portugal’s second goal in injury time failed to appease the fans’ worries.

Similar to 02 and 06 World Cup, Portugal’s biggest problem is that they cannot score many goals. Even though they can push Ronaldo forward, Deco is getting elder and often injured, Raul Meireles and Tiago are both not creative midfields. These forces Ronaldo often comes back to get the ball and try to shoot in quite a long distance. This situation may be improved if Ronaldo forms a partnership with Liedson, or if Liedson acts as a centre forward, then Ronaldo and Simao act as a pair of wingers. The appearance of Liedson solves the problem in short term after Pauleta retired from the international football. This Brazilian born striker scored when they faced Denmark and Hungary in the World Cup qualifying campaign and led Portugal to South Africa. Even though Ronaldo acts as a striker, he likes to come back to the midfield and wing positions. This makes the team lacks a player who can threaten the opponents in the penalty area. When they have Liedson, the opponents have to man-mark him. As a result, Ronaldo should have more space to attack, and can use his speed and skills to try to score.

However, the biggest problem is that Liedson, who is 32, is not young anymore. Whether he can keep his level in the World Cup—such a high intensity competition, is not sure. Portugal are in Group G with Brazil, African heavyweights Ivory Coast and North Korea. Even though they should have the ability to beat North Korea, I don’t that they can do so when they face Brazil. Therefore, the Ivory Coast game is the most important. If Portugal cannot beat them, four points may not be enough for them to go to the knock-out stage. As a result, they will have to be much more clinical in front of goal than they were on last Wednesday if they are to avoid an early exit.

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