Portugal have always been a side associated with flair, but are not considered to have the steel required to win a major tournament. This is borne out by their fairly poor record in major tournaments over the years. Even their ‘golden generation’ which contained such world class talent as Luis Figo and Rui Costa, and had won two Under 20s World Cups in 1989 and 1991 were unable to succeed. Once again, they travel to South Africa as a respected team, but are expected to be out of the running when the honors are being handed out.
Their World Cup record makes pretty grim reading for a side perceived to have so much talent. They have only made it past the group stages on two occasions in their history. The first time was in 1966 when they made it all the way to the semi final before losing 2-1 to hosts and eventual winners England. In the previous match, Portugal had overcome a 3-0 deficit to North Korea with Eusebio scoring 4 times in a 5-3 win. He was to finish top scorer in the tournament with an impressive 9 goals. They also made the semi final in 2006 after dumping out both Holland and England on route. A disappointing performance led to a 1-0 defeat by France after Zinedine Zidane converted a penalty kick.
They had an almighty struggle just to qualify for the World Cup this time around. At one stage they were fourth in their qualifying group behind Denmark, Sweden and Hungary and looked set to miss out. They rallied however, winning back to back matches against Hungary while watching Sweden drop points. They eventually came second behind Denmark. A two legged playoff against Bosnia and Herzegovina was all that stood between them and South Africa and they won 2-0 on aggregate with a 1-0 win in each leg to secure their spot.
Portugal have a reputation of flattering to deceive with their star players often accused of not delivering on the big occasion. The likes of former World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, Simao and Joao Moutinho will have to shake off this tag if they are to have any hope of having a big tournament. Coach Carlos Queiroz is under constant pressure and has often been criticized for poor team selection and tactics, particularly after his disastrous stint as Real Madrid manager. Their qualification struggles have not helped his cause. He and his Portuguese team will be eager to prove their doubters wrong in South Africa.