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| Friday, 06 November 2009 23:45 |
Portugal and Real Madrid at loggerheads over Cristiano RonaldoClub say winger is unfit; Queiroz to select him regardless  One week before Portugal’s World Cup play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovina the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo continues to be the main talking point ahead of the decisive matches. Real Madrid insist the planet’s most expensive footballer is unfit to play, but Carlos Queiroz is not convinced and says he will select Ronaldo in his squad to be announced over the weekend. “I’m going to select Cristiano Ronaldo and I expect him to be able to help us, even if just for a few minutes,” Queiroz told Portuguese television channel TVI tonight. “Will he miss the first leg and play the second? It’s still too early to say,” added the Portugal coach.
Just a few hours earlier Real Madrid head coach Manuel Pellegrini had categorically stated that Ronaldo would not be available for the play-off matches against Bosnia.
Doctors’ orders“Cristiano is worried because he was expecting to play this week and the doctors told him it wasn’t possible. His evolution is being monitored by the doctors and I hope he can come back as soon as possible,” said Pellegrini.
The Chilean then tellingly added “I understand that Portugal need him, but the player and his country know that he cannot play. If that wasn’t the case we would have already played him. I feel sorry for him and for Portugal.” It is not the first time the ‘club versus country’ row has surfaced concerning Ronaldo. The FIFA World Player of the Year missed a friendly match against Liechtenstein in August, not even joining the squad due to an alleged bout of flu. Suspicions were raised in Portugal that he had been instructed by his club to say he was ill in order for him to miss the trip and concentrate on his adaptation to his new Madrid surroundings.
Aggravated injurySubsequently, in Portugal’s penultimate match in their World Cup qualifying campaign, many were surprised to see Ronaldo in the starting line-up despite picking up an ankle injury days earlier for Real Madrid in a Champions League clash against Marseille. Ronaldo set up the opening goal in a 3-0 win over Hungary before aggravating the injury that has kept him out of action since.
With Portugal likely to do everything in their power to put Ronaldo on the pitch at some point against Bosnia, with Ronaldo himself having stated he is desperate for Portugal to qualify for the tournament in South Africa next summer, and with Real Madrid furiously attempting to make sure the player only takes to the pitch when back to full fitness, it is difficult to envisage this particular tug of war ending pacifically.
by Tom Kundert |
You make some excellent choices for Mgr..
Sir Alex is a great fit but lets be honest he is dying at Man U.
Hiddink is on some huge Abromavich money to coach Russia and I don't see him departing soon, although the one knock on him is he doesn't stay anywhere too long and finish the job. He just elevates their play, then departs.
I am a big fan of Hiddink's work but we need a long-term solution here.. I agree also very highly with your theory of east -west- north -south management etc.. you can't have two of the same type coach & team or else there are holes in the team formation.
Portugal's team strengths are individual flare, great dribbling, short passing, passion, drive, and a team that can rotate on the fly to unsettle teams.
What we lack is a goalie that can handle any cross which results in some easy goals, players that drop back with as much passion as they attack with, a striker that can play the prefered Nat team system alone, good service to a striker or two,
early balls forward to throw off the normal attack flow and take advantage of the speed up front, defensive set play mastery, and an over-all defensive team formation that would emphasize quick skilled counter-attacks that would showcase the individual talents and keep teams honest.
As for Mourinho he is a different style a more defensive coach and tactical that is definitely what is needed for Portugal, so I tend to think he would be a great match and the arrogance is a cloak to soak up pressure off of stars who get rattled under pressure. Also there would be no question he would be the boss, not the players.. that can't be said with other managers including Queiroz who tells CR to play as a striker and he continues on wing.
The games get closer.
on the england turnaround from the awful exit 2yrs back - i think england and portugal are very similar in terms of the problems they experience and both queiroz and mclaren are set in a similar mould. I think in the long run it and using the england situ at this present time as a precedent, prehaps portugal not qualifying would be the best thing that could happen to the pnt as they would have to face up to and sort out their issues instead of putting their heads in the sand to an extent which certain members still are now. I don't think queiroz is the right coach for the pnt and portugal could do worse then take some lessons from england and hire a coach that would shake thinks up a bit and introduce a new way of thinking. capello works so well as he thinks in an opposite way to the english and introduces new ideas and the best teams in club & country seem to be the ones who have southern & northern european or eastern and western european influences or just a variety of sensibilities in general. That's why i don't think that mourinho would be the answer right now as the players in the pnt still tend to be too arrogant even now and mourinho would just add too that problem imo. I think someone in the mould of saf or guus hiddunk could shake things up in a positive way for portugal but what do the rest of you think?
I would also like to thank the Bosnian gentlemen that came in and shared his feelings. I wish them the best of luck and look forward to the games, may the best team win. I definitely don't under-rate Bosnia and their offence I always saw Bosnia as the dark horse.
Edfica I agree that playing a defender in the Defensive Mid role is a great move one that Scolari started. I don't believe since Costinha we actually have a DM that actually plays defense. Guys like Tiago, Petit, Veloso, Merieles do everything but play defense. This in the past has led to gapping holes and with no goaltender that takes crosses well you need the aerial support to shut down the big teams. I think a CB is perfect for this role.
As for it was the players fault for the early results, you can't blame the players for the manager bringing in offensive players to slap Denmark in the face with only 10 mins to play that led to the fire that resulted in 3 quick goals. What we needed was defence, not offence at that point. The coach sending in offence tells the team to attack instead of control and kill the game.
Also Real's cheating ways could've been handled by saying we would like our doctors to review his progress, which they are entitled to do.
What he said was that even though injured if he could get him in for a few minutes that he would. There is a world of difference between the two statements.
Great teams are made in times of difficulty and especially when the best players are missing, because others step in and fill the gaps amazingly.
Most good managers would talk about how they have some other great players and this is their time to showcase their skills. In this case Queiroz basically said all of you are crap and I have no confidence in you or any other of the young players coming through.
As for CR morale boosting or words in Nani's ear, he still can be wearing his shiny 2 piece Georgio Armani suit and do the same without risking career ending or hampering injuries.
Also even if he is running in secret recovering from this injury it is not game conditions with real game injury scenarios. Most injured athletes build up the strength in their injured area before returning. This is not earth shattering news. Some guys with broken legs will cycle to retain muscle and endurance. It is high impact motions and exertions that are usually curtailed. So I am not all full of the conspiracy theories.
Fact is a doctor whether Real's or Portugal's will clear him to train and to play at some point. In the Hungary game it was clear that the Portuguese Management and Doctor's made a mistake.
I still think without CR we would've beat Hungary, and could probably beat Bosnia too.
As the last poster with a familiar name stated we should let the medical professionals handle it and leave the conspiracy theories out of it.
If the Portuguese Doctor clears CR and he gets injured again quickly then FIFA should deny the doc work in the future for the nat team.
BTW I am not a Real fan at all, I support other teams. I just don't feel desperate people should risk ruining a players career for the sake of their own ineptitude.
I would love for Portugal to go to the WC, but it won't be the end of the world. On the contrary it could be a very positive thing, considering Queiroz will be fired and the FPF will be forced to hire a real manager, like England did with Fabio Capello. So we can actually have a chance to win a trophy instead of waste this Gen's talent. All of which is still in their early twenties.
Sometimes you have to look past the short term goals to achieve the biggest ones.
Forca Portugal
What we must do is focus on the upcoming game and put to rest all this debate about Ronaldo. Doctors know the extent of his injuries and we should let the medical professions handle that.
Forca Portugal!!!
According to the spanish press today portugal have every right to feel mad at real madrid and think that rm have been withholding info from them. Apparently ronaldo's got another scan & medical on monday & it turns out there are 2 versions of what the specialist in holland said - what they've put on their website and this.
Ronaldo was told that he could start stepping up the training such as running & to keep an eye out for new swelling & pain at all times. If in 2 weeks he still wasn't able to train normally he'd need to go & see the specialist again and they'd go from there. Madrid knew Ronaldo wouldn't be able to play in the Atletico match so they concluded to use the next fortnight as a opportunity to slowly build him back up again ready to play for them against Barcelona or prehaps early. If ronaldo passes that scan/medical on monday then he'd be back to almost full training from then on.
i'm sorry but say all you want about queiroz but remember that he worked for real madrid in the past so he knows what they are like 1st hand and (if true) than madrid are the liars & the guilty party in all this & even though no one thinks that ronaldo himself deserves to be re-injured it would serve rm right if it was to happen (i know that sounds mean and unnecessary but madrid need to be taught a lesson about sharing and telling the truth in order to gain some respect from the rest of the footballing world). if ronaldo is able to train then as i said before he can train at portugal and let the staff their say if he's fit - make's no difference where he trains. but if recent stories are true it shouldn't be rm who want to sue the pnt as marca are reporting but portugal have every right to complain to fifa about rm deceiving the pnt and withholding valuable information.
what do the rest of think - who's most guilty in all this?
We Bosnians would like him play in both games, but if your coach and Real Madrid want to risk his even worse injury (snow and sleepery terrain in Bosnia) let it be. Terrain in Zenica is very dangerous and hard in winter time and it's snowing already.
As for your defense, watch out! These boys who leads in German Bundes league can score anyone! All Bosnian team is very young and if we pass Portugal, watch out and mark my words, semi final is minimum.
Only Brazil,Spain and Germany will beat the hell out of us. No one else. I truly respect Portuguese national team, among all others.But these boys are hunger for victories and show off. This is their chance to prove something and bring Bosnian people at least some satisfaction and happiness after all those years of war and suffering. United as one ,three nation, three religion one fanatic team. Together we can.
Let the best win.
1) Ronaldo has obviously become a very important player for real madrid in the short space of time and it's clear that when they have faced a team in this cr injury period that is half way decent & is playing with some conviction real madrid have struggled somewhat to get a result (recent opposition like atletico and getafe played terribly against madrid - if they had played half way decent then those teams might have got something from those games) so it's in madrid's best interest for him to get back as quickly as possible for them and if it was up to madrid ronaldo would never play for portugal again (the only plus side of ronaldo playing for portugal at rm point of view is that in the wc finals rm are expecting to make a £1 million profit off the back of ronaldo's appearance)
2) In theory portugal look practically already in the world cup, but the reality is that portugal aren't there yet and even though bosnia on paper should be easy beating, under estimation of them could work to bosnia's advantage and potentially one slip up from portugal could lose their place in the world cup. if that was to happen than i'd imagine that portugal would experience something something similar to england's euro qualifiers 08 exit - basically all the team being turned into villains by their nation and the coach getting shotted and booted, which if you look at it this way querioz needs to win these games to save his job & if portugal get themselves in the position in the last 20min of the 2nd match on the 18th where they are losing than an introduction of a player of ronaldo's standard may prove vital!
3) The innocent in all this to an extent is ronaldo himself. Whilst he was still at utd, i think the people at utd knew that country would always trump club and though they would grumble about it at times they knew and respected that ronaldo would do everything he could to help his country even if it had consequences at a later point for utd (for example in the euro's 08 he played injured & on painkillers and needed surgery which was a worse injury than this current one right now but know one mentioned that he was injured at the time & i don't think that anyone at utd criticized ronaldo or portugal for playing him injuryed and i know some of you may say the euro finals are more important than these qualifiers but as the results of these qualifiers determine whether portugal will even be at the world cup making these matches as important as or even more so than the euro matches) now ronaldo has moved to madrid, rm have more of an attitude of 'we are the sole owners of you, you are now our product and we'll do with you what you want' (which considering that rm paid £80m for him that have a point to an extent) and don't seem to be as open with portugal as utd were. Also a lot of the madrid and portugal fans are both starting to ask the question of ronaldo 'who's you're no 1 priority? club or country' which unlike utd vs portugal is less clearcut and i don't even think ronaldo himself could give an answer!
basically where we are at is that on the 5th it was confirmed from the scans in madrid and the specialist in holland that the injury hadn't improved and ronaldo would carry on treatment until the 19th of nov when he would go back to the specialist and if all went well than he would train with the rm team for 2wks give or take a few days before playing another game - real madrids exact words on the situ being 'Arthritis-bone edema of the right ankle. Medical treatment and physiotherapy. No physical activity allowed'. Now if madrid was/is following their own advise than all portugal could do is request ronaldo to go to portugal and bring the notes & scan results from the doctors/specialists, look over them so portugal feel in the loop over the whole thing and then send him back to madrid to continue treatment, which would of been fair on both parties.
However over the last day several media sources in both spain and portugal (incl a journalist who apparently a close friend of ronaldo's) have been reporting that Ronaldo did some running exercises in secret (which seems like rm are asking for trouble as running is know to make bone edema worse if not fully healed as rm witnessed first hand when ronaldo played against Hungary & wasn't knocked in any way but just the running made his ankle worse( which if true makes madrid very big hypocrites and give portugal the right imo to call up ronaldo, and continue these exercises in portugal and if fit enough & if portugal are in the position of not qualifying then bring him on (say all you want about queiroz but i think he cares more about ronaldo than he dislikes madrid and i think he has the common sense not to bring on ronaldo if portugal are winning as there is no sense in that for any of the parties)
Bottom line is that if thing continue like this between rm and portugal nt and they both continue on treating ronaldo like a toy than you wouldn't even need a wizard doing voodoo on him as he will get re-injuryed. But the best thing that could happen for everyone is that portugal qualify without needing ronaldo at any point to do so. The worst things that can happen is that either portugal get themselves in a situ where thay need ronaldo's help and he gets re-injuried, which if that happened there are some rm fans already saying on forums that if that was to happen they never want him to play for their club again. however say that portugal don't qualify and they are stopped from playing ronaldo and then rm play ronaldo for their next full match (the weekend of the 21st/22nd nov i believe) than i can imagine there being a big ronaldo backlash from portugal. Chances are ronaldo's probably going to be the main loser whatever happens
sorry for the length of the post
We don't need CR to beat Bosnia...if we do, we're not going anywhere in the cup anyway. Either way, he needs to get healthy for his own long-term interests as well as that of the Selecao.
He has taken over the job after the most successful period in our history. reaching one final and two semis in the last 4 major tournaments.
At the start result weren't good enough but i feel that is more of the players fault than Queiroz. Everytime his lineup's has be good enough 2 gain a victory.
Tacticly he has induced good things into the national team. I like pepe holding it gives us a solid base and allows our full backs 2 run free, leavin us a back 3 when we dont have possession. Duda although not v.good is an improvement on p.feriera. however his use of merias is v. questionable at least. In an ideal world id see Paulo Sousa there he is doing immense at swansea, 10 matches unbeaten and 2nd best defense in league behind newcastle. anyways he is defo one 4 the future.
In regards 2 Ronaldo - Querioz has to 100% call him up, real madrid r notorious 4 this type of behavior. the portuguese national team doctors will have a look at him and if he is fit enough to play somepart as querioz said maybe coming on in 2nd leg then he will play. i see no positives in not calling him up. even if he sits on the bench both games he will be part of the squad and its good for morale.
i agree calls 4 quaresma is simply ridiculous
now to quaresma..He actualy used to be my fave player of time. i even trained and learned how to do the trivela in his way. but he is the most selfish player i have ever seen. he doesnt care. he did amazing in porto because no offence, our league a couple years back was a joke. were finally starting to get things back on track. we should start calling up the young talent and start playing them for the future. joao moutinho is possibly one of the best CAM i have ever seen. captain at sporting and soo young, he is deffinitly better then that piece of shit deco that our dumbass coach decides to put on.. Coentrao, Djalo, they are players who are comming up and in form amazing. i would also love to see makakula make the team, he is destroying the turkish league right now and thank god hugo is back.
I dont kno guys. i HOPE we make it and i pray as much as all of you do, the wc wouldnt be the same without portugal but unless the portuguese federation makes some changes. i guesse were gonna have to watch from the sidelines
good luck portugal
Are You Floratino Perez's Secretary ?
LOL
Your report Filled with some negative shits.
Good job CQ on calling their bluff. Country comes before club. That is the way it should always be.
Forca!!!!!
The calls for CR to be selected are ridiculous...
"to put fear into Bosnia?"
In most sports they never mention an injury because they know the other team will target it. So how fearful will Bosnia be knowing that CR with an ankle gingerly put together couldn't be permanently destroyed in a matter of minutes. Woo so scary.
Some of you would rather CR be ruined for life at a chance to go to Africa. He is still very young and could see more WC's. Yee of so little team faith.
In this situation I am with the club. Reports from desperate "tabloids" showing what looks like hidden camera work are laughable. Actions speak louder than words, if he was not injured it would've been in their best interests to play him in the Champions League where the results mean millions of dollars. Would they cut off their own nose for Portugal not to qualify and hope that CR plays the rest of the year. Real laughable stuff, I meant the pun.
Also the cries for Quaresma are funny, he is the most selfish puppet that Portugal has ever manufactured. He has never brought anything to this team, and he kicks more balls into the stands than any other winger. Just cause he can dribble all alone does not make him a good player.. this is a team game and is why the individual play of Portugal has led to consistent defeat against teams that play a sound team game. Time to for the Doc to step in and issue the smelling salts the patient is clearly out cold.
Which brings us to the main point of focus.
For those gentlemen like Edfica who voted for Queiroz as best Portuguese Manager in the poll. I mean no personal insult to you as you are entitled to your own opinion but clearly you have been drinking too much Portuguese Tampered Koolaid.
It is exact moments like this that Queiroz (there is an i in there) demonstrates his poor management skills.
Nervousness, desperation, lack of trust, no faith in one of Europe's best teams is what makes him the worst manager ever. He is a great number two behind a strong manager or a Junior Boss for U21's, and would make a fine Portugal Girl's Team Manager.
Xenophobia is what got him hired and is his only source of praise. Anyone that takes a look at his track record can see how bad of a manager he really is. This is his 3rd tour of duty with the Senoir squad (I only thought it was two until further review, the ineptitude and prejudice of the FPF/PFA really is embarassing).
He failed first time after his success in U-21's with the Nat squad in 91 to 93, then failed to quailfy them with the Golden Gen for the WC in 98, and now with some of the best players in Europe in a very winnable group for most experts (I personally think it was tougher than it looked), he will probably fail again.
Wikipedia for some reason doesn't mention the 98 stuff when they got beat out by Switzerland, and my favs Italy (cough, cough, choke, choke, stab me in the eye with the Leaning Tower of Pissheads).
He has a barely over 50% record with the national team including two Gens that are near the top of the world bar a great keeper and a striker or two.
Even though I didn't like Scolari (flare coach for a flare team), he got some of the more important things right. Like faith, trust, lack of desperation, and had a winning spirit albeit could have used some tactical training and some setplay/defensive understanding.
Go look at the stats there is no basis for Queiroz being a good manager and these results of late some of which benefited a great deal from luck have come from the players who are some of the most talented at their spots in the world.. albeit the two problem areas.
With this his latest outburst that will diminish the team, I wish I was drinking the tainted koolaid too, but I forsee a loss which is his proven track record at the highest levels.
If a record/cd is scratched and skips you take it off as it will drive you crazy, in the case the the FPF they play it over and over again expecting different results.
So I wish all the players the best, CR to be sitting on the sidelines in a suit morale boosting, and some other Portuguese stars such as Coentrao getting a spot on the bench, and a chance to put in some important minutes in some very tight games.
If this was old England or France they would've been off with his head already.
As for the FPF and their wish for a Portuguese speaking Mgr so they have his ear, if I was running the Federation it would be the exact opposite. If the coach was blind and his guide dog understood instructions in Portuguese I would shoot the dog to make sure he never would be led down the previous centuries worth of federation micro-management (writers note: no actual animals were hurt in this denegration of the federation).
There is only one Portuguese manager with an ego big enough to coach this team.. and his name is Mourinho.. all the other Portuguese Mgr candidates should have Final Destination type accidents.. to prevent any further attrocities for our National Team (kidding/half serious).
Because these two words have the same ab. in Chinese..
Yes, this club is a circus, a joke
Joa Baptiste
U are spot about the thing.It wiil be a moral booster if Ranaldo with his teem mates even thoug he is not 100% fit.
the past 4-5 qualifiers have been played under immense pressure and queroz has done the business - good performance away 2 demark in particular - we on balance of play should have had 3 points, but showed great character 2 equalise late.
Real madrid r lying about ronaldo ojogo has pictures of him secretly training behind closed doors - he needs 2 weeks of complete rest my arse.
p.s.Queroz is the man - back him or p*ss off
Even a fully fit Ronaldo has disappointed for the seleccao so I can't see a limited role or even his presence helping.
Quieroz is giving the impression that 1 man is more important than the team and this won't help the confidence of the rest of the squad.
What is an injured Ronaldo going to do?
Call up Quaresma it's time, GIVE HIM A SHOT he hasn't disapointed this team yet!
Forca Portugal
Vamos nos classificar para a COPA DO MUNDIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!