Operation Decisive Start

H-hour -11 and it’s time to evaluate Portugal’s chances in World Cup 2006. Tournaments are fickle things and we all know that anything can happen in such a short competition, but I believe that Portugal has all the right conditions to go far this time around.

So what does it take to win a World Cup anyway?

The challenge seems daunting. How can you take so many different personalities and make them into a team with so little time to prepare. It takes some clubs months to get their season fired up, but national teams are expected to do it in a few weeks time. In my opinion, the single most essential ingredient to a successful World Cup campaign is continuity – continuity of coaching staff as well as player base. Things have to gel real fast so it helps if players know each other well and have played together for several years.

If you’re lucky to have a great coach and great players then obviously the second most important thing is to have them all healthy and in top form. After a long club season that certainly isn’t easy. With the exception of J. Andrade’s injury, team Portugal has been very fortunate and is in better physical shape then it was just before Euro2004. (knock on wood, lets not jinx ourselves)

That brings us to our third most import ingredient, well actually they are two but you really can’t have one without the other- timing and intensity. The team must peak at the right time. If you peak to soon, you might not have enough for the second round. Conversely, if you save too much for the second round, you run the risk of going home early. Of course, this is primarily the coach’s responsibility and Scolari certainly has shown that he can manage the psychological aspects of the game.

Preparation is key and nothing is more indicative of a team’s fortunes then the way they handle their first game. The result of the first game is the fruit of all your hard work and losses can be psychologically fatal as World Cup 2002 proved. This Sunday, Portugal can put the world on notice that they are here for real and serious contenders by opening the competition with a decisive victory over Angola. So watch this game carefully. If Pauleta scores in the first half and Portugal wins a hard fought but convincing victory, then Portugal will do very well. If, however, they put in an uncertain performance with a draw or worse a loss and Pauleta fails to get his goal machine going, then we’ll be right back to that place we all hate so much – behind the proverbial eight ball and climbing up hill.

We all hope that this team has learned all the lessons it needed to learn, that Scolari has done his job well, and that the dream of a championship burns as brightly in our player’s hearts as it does in our own.

Força Portugal!