How Portuguese burst England's Cup dream

Just hours after his heroic performance in the penalty shoot-out against England, Portugal's larger-than-life goalkeeper Ricardo was only too happy to reflect on the emotions of a tense encounter in Gelsenkirchen.

 

The Sporting Lisbon keeper, who spoke with FIFAworld.com saved three English spot-kicks, more than any other keeper in a FIFA World Cup™ penalty shoot-out, as Portugal booked their place in the last four of the competition.

It was a roller-coaster ride for Luiz Felipe Scolari's men, as they saw their efforts to win the game during the 120 minutes frustrated by defiant ten-man England.

 However, as Ricardo explained, once it went to penalties, there was only going to be one winner. From Luis Figo's faith in the goalkeeper's expertise, to Ricardo's confession that he could see in the English players' eyes that they were going to miss, an absorbing encounter ran the full gamut of emotions, right up until Cristiano Ronaldo slotted his spot-kick home to hand his team victory.

For his part, the Portugal keeper is delighted with his new record, which he puts down to hard work and, of course, a slice of luck. "You're always happy, but there's also the hard work that we do day in day out to make sure that whoever is going to take the penalties doesn't score. In the reports monitored on fifaworldcup.com by nigeriasports.com, the Portuguese goal tender reeled out:

"These last few days, I've been putting in a lot of work with Brassard (Portugal's goalkeeping coach) and that has also helped a lot. I'm very grateful to him for the fact that I saved those three penalties. It's not usually the case that a team can miss two penalties and still come out on top," he said, proudly.

Of course, this is not the first time that the Portugal No.1 has defied England in the quarter-final of a major tournament. At UEFA EURO 2004, he memorably tossed his gloves aside to save Darius Vassell's kick, sending his country through to a semi-final against the Netherlands. This time, however, he did not need any extra help.

"It didn't occur to me to take off my gloves, because I saved almost all of them," he said. "The last time it was instinctive, because I wasn't saving any, I had to do something and fortunately it went well. I could see in the eyes of the English players that they weren't ready to put their penalties away and it felt like the goal was shrinking."

Something else that caught the eye during the shoot-out was Ricardo's habit of turning his back when the Portuguese players stepped up to take their spot-kicks. Therein lies a tale.

 "I'm not going to call it superstition, but it was one of a few things that I also did during the EURO. I turned round to look at a Portuguese fan who was in the middle of a sea of red and white England shirts, desperate to lift his scarf up.
I just kept looking at him to see if he was laughing or crying, and that’s how I followed what was going on with the penalties," he explained.

Portugal captain Luis Figo also played a vital part in Ricardo’s success, as the goalkeeper explained.  "At that stage of things, I just have to think about my own game and try to read the eyes and the intentions of the penalty-takers to predict what they are going to do.

"I felt that I had a very good chance of saving (the penalties) but I wasn’t 100 per cent certain. Then Luis Figo told me that he wasn’t worried, because I always save two of the penalties. At the end I told him that two of the saves were for him, and one for me."

Portugal's next task is to beat semi-final opponents France, rivals they lost out to at the same stage of the 1984 and 2000 UEFA European Championships. Will it be third time lucky for the Portuguese?

 "What we have to do is score one more goal than France, because that way we will win. (Zinedine) Zidane is one of the world’s greatest players, and it’s a shame that he is on the verge of giving up top-level football, but he’s not the only one we have to worry about because any of the other French players could turn the game,” said Ricardo.

The semi-final draw has also given the Portuguese a major incentive, as the goalkeeper went on to explain. “France are a very powerful team, and out of the four countries still left in the tournament, they have all won the World Cup, except for Portugal. But records are there to be broken.”

So far, the Portuguese have been outstanding in defence, having conceded just one goal in five matches. France, however, will be a different proposition, and their talent-laden midfield and attack will pose a huge threat to the Iberians' miserly back-line.

The talented shot-stopper prefers not to dwell on individual battles, however. “It’s going to be a good game, not just between the French attack and the Portuguese defence, but all over the pitch.
 
"It’s a game against a great team and every player will be giving his all. At the end of the day, let’s hope to hear plenty of good things said about our squad, because that would mean that we’ve beaten France.” 

 Ricardo signed off with some sincere words of praise for Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari. Speculation has it that Felipão will take over from Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira after the competition, but the Portuguese players are in the dark. “We don’t know anything. What I do know is that they always want the best people, and he is one of the best.

"Right now, maybe he is the very best, because he is still world champion and he is the only coach who could retain his title. In Brazil anything that stops short of a Final, or a Trophy, tastes of defeat. I believe that our brothers in Brazil will now start supporting us, and will get behind Scolari,” he predicted.

And one final twist: Ricardo confirmed that he was in line to take Portugal’s sixth penalty against England, if needed, just as in that quarter-final in 2004. After last Saturday's nerve-shredding events, Portugal fans will hope that the new FIFA World Cup penalty king will not be needed to perform further heroics against the French.

Given his history, though, another round of spot-kicks should no fears for Portugal, if it comes to that in Munich, Wednesday July 5, 2006.

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