In their opening group game against Germany in Salvador, 10 man Portugal were humbled as the latter thrashed them 4-0 to snap up a huge victory.
The semi finalists of the last World Cup could not dream of a better way to start their quest in the biggest tournament in the world of football.
Paulo Bento’s team entered the competition with a lot of promise but demonstrated none of it against Jochim Loew’s men. As it was, the Seleccao’s lack of discipline brought them down again.
Portugal’s problem of maintaining composure during the game has often been their Achilles heel in the recent past. In the round of sixteen match against the Netherlands in the 2006 World Cup, the Seleccao lost Deco and Costinha for their next game against England after they were both sent off. The ‘Battle of Nuremberg’, as it became known, set the World Cup record of cautioning players involving sixteen yellow cards and four red cards.
Fast forward four years, and Ricardo Costa would be sent off in Portugal’s 1-0 loss to eventual winners Spain. In Euro 2012, Paulo Bento managed the Portuguese in his first international tournament. Portugal did impress in reaching the semi finals but also received twelve yellow cards on the way before being eliminated by Spain on penalties.
In the World Cup qualifying stages, only USA received more cards than Portugal, compared with Ghana and Germany in Group G. However, the Americans played sixteen games to Portugal’s twelve in receiving just four more bookings than the Seleccao, a team they defeated in the 2002 World Cup.
Portugal’s average of 1.75 bookings per game in the qualifying stages is the highest of all their opponents in Group G and they were unable to go even a single game without receiving a caution.
The Portuguese starting eleven against Germany shared forty cards between them at club level between them last season, with the defense alone contributing close to thirty cards. This is the highest among all the other teams in Group G and suggests the rashness of the individual Portuguese players, something Germany were was happy to exploit.
The ill-disciplined nature of the Portuguese team continued at this World Cup as well. Despite starting off the game against Germany well, it all started to go wrong for Portugal when Joao Pereira was given a yellow card for bringing Mario Goetze down in the penalty area, gifting the Germans a spot kick. After scoring the penalty for Germany, Thomas Mueller was in the spot light again as he was involved in a confrontation with Pepe that saw the latter sent off; his hot headed nature shining through as it has before for both club and country.
The Seleccao possess a lot of quality among their players and could yet progress into the knock out stages despite suffering such a heavy loss in the opening match. Once again they have to take a look at themselves and try to improve the temper of certain players.
Their lack of discipline during the game has heavily dented the progress of the Portuguese team in the recent past and already this campaign will see them miss Pepe as a result. With players leaving the field injured, hot-headedness and suspensions are problems Paulo Bento could well do without.
