Portugal must gel as a team to improve on a string of third-place World Cup finishes, say fans in UAE

A group of Portugese expats get together every week to play football at the dome on Airport Road in Abu Dhabi. From left to right in back row: Ines Ribeiro, Joao Loureiro, Tiago Neves, Mario Coelho, Rodrigo Silva and Tiago Caldeira; left to right in front row: Victor Gomes, Alexandre Silva, Pedro Coelhoso, Filipe Ferreira, Luis Caetano, Rui Ferro. Lee Hoagland / The NationalShow less

ABU DHABI // They have arguably the biggest name in football on their team roster, but Portuguese fans say it will take a lot more than Cristiano Ronaldo to win the World Cup.

“We have Ronaldo, but Ronaldo, he can not play alone,” said Pedro Coelhoso, a 28-year-old Portuguese university professor living in Abu Dhabi. “Ronaldo in the national team is not Ronaldo in Real Madrid because the system is not the same.”

“They need to be a team, that’s the main thing,” said Tiago Caldeira, a 26-year-old Portuguese engineer living in the capital. “They still need to learn how to be a proper team, to play together, to help each other. That’s what I think they are still missing. For example, Spain is very good in being a team because they grew up together, they are used to playing together. Most of them, they play in the same teams, so it’s easier. Regarding to Portugal, every three or four players come from different teams. We are not a cohesive team as some of the other big ones. This is still one of the issues.”

Ranked third in the world by FIFA, the Seleção das Quinas – “Team of Shields” – have competed in five previous World Cups, but they have yet to win.

“The problem of Portuguese people is that we are always too hungry to win something, and then we end up not winning it,” said Mr Coelhoso. “So we have like a very nice history of going to the finals and losing them. We never won the European, we never won the World Cup. And the thing is, we stayed in third place in ‘66, we stayed third place in 2006, we lost the European Cup final in 2004, we stayed third in 2000. So, we have a lot of third places, but we never win.”

This time around, the team is in Group G – also known as the Group of Death – where they face the powerhouse, No. 2-ranked Germany, No. 14 USA and No. 38 Ghana.

“The problem is we are facing the champion of Africa, we are facing the United States that, it’s not amazing but normally they draw every time, and then we have Germany that, according to history, Portugal and Germany doesn’t work really good,” said Mr Coelhoso. “You never know what can happen, but it’s going to be a little bit more difficult for us to pass the group stage.”

The team’s first game is against Germany on Monday. Historically, the Navigators have not performed well against the Nationalmannschaft. Germany toppled Portugal in their last three major matches, at the European Championship Qualification in 2012, the UEFA Euro in 2008 ‎and at the World Cup in 2006.

“Our problem is, of course, Germany,” said Mr Coelhoso. “Our opening game.”

“They’re not amazing, they’re not amazing as players, but together they are very well organized,” Portuguese Joao Loureiro, 23, said of the German national team.

If Portugal doesn’t advance beyond the group stage, 29-year-old Portuguese Filipe Ferreira said most of his countrymen are happy to root for their former colony, Brazil.

"With Spain, there is a problem with nuestros hermanos (our brothers) because they're just next to us and we don't like to lose to them. England because they control all the European organizations, we don't like them. Germans, because of the financial crisis, we don't like them. So, it's very hard to choose another team to support," said Mr Ferreira. "I think there's more of a connection with Brazil."