On Monday, the women’s team was received by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa at Palácio de Belém before traveling on to New Zealand, where they will compete in the Women’s World Cup. The President of the Republic wanted to be associated with Portugal’s debut and gave them state honors for three reasons. Firstly, because he was unable to attend the last preparatory game – Friday, in Bessa, against Ukraine – because of last week’s fainting that led him to cancel some appointments on the presidential agenda. Marcelo regretted losing a “show of the ball” and not contributing to the attendance record for a game for the team from the corners (20,123 spectators) and, according to him, the most important thing was not even the victory (2-0, with goals from Jéssica Silva), only to see them “fight every move and every move like it was the last of their lives”. And it is this way of life that he considers “fundamental” to transpose in the final stage.
The second reason had a historical basis, with the PR recalling that the men’s team played its first official game in 1921, in Madrid, losing on its debut against Spain (2-1). In addition, it took 45 years to reach a World Cup, in 1966. The women’s team only entered Portuguese football history in 1981, 60 years after the men’s team debuted, when a group of just 16 players went to France to win Portugal. represent. and played a draw (1-1) and now, 42 years later, managed to be present for the first time in a final phase of a World Cup. And aside from the 10 years when there wasn’t even a women’s roster (between 1983 and 1993), “women took 32 years to do what men did in 45 years,” according to the president’s records.
The third and no less important reason has to do with the basic choice. When the federated players are around 210,000, the federated players are around 15,000, a base of choice that makes it “much harder” to get an elite team: “This is to show how hard it was for women to fend for themselves football. But it wasn’t just in football, it was in everything. Women’s journey was faster. In the last decade, the recruitment base of women in Portuguese football has quadrupled. It is much easier to get a recruit a men’s team to go to international tournaments than a women’s team. It’s important to do these calculations to get a sense of the history you’ve made.”
For the president of the republic, the most important thing is “not to resist the impossible, it is to do the impossible”, in the most difficult group of all, according to the assessment of the head of state: “You have the champion [EUA] and number two [Países Baixos]. It seems on purpose, but I’m glad it is. It would be bad if they went there to see what they got. Your mind is to do the impossible. And the impossible is possible. We have already done it and even in football, in different circumstances. You already have. You are the best of the best. I would even say: the best of the best and the best of the best.”
The captains Dolores Silva, Ana Borges and…. offered a shirt, a signed ball and a scarf on behalf of the team and finally sang the The Portuguese in the Palace and capture the moment in the traditional selfie or marcelfie.
The president of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) opened the ceremony by recalling that the national team was present after attending the World Cup, “one of the greatest achievements of Portuguese football”. For Fernando Gomes, July 10 will now be a doubly important date. If seven years ago the men’s team won Euro 2016, today the women’s team is leaving for the first World Cup in history.
The league starts on the 20th and Portugal’s first game is against the Netherlands on the 23rd. Inserted in group E, the Portuguese team will also face Vietnam (27th) and the United States of America (August 1). Coach Francisco Neto promised “a lot of ambition and a lot of faith” and emphasized the “courage and daring” of the athletes. “The success of this generation of players, which honors past generations” and which proves that “in Portuguese women’s football, the impossible is over”. The national coach hopes to “return to the Palace of Belém in August… and the later the better”. Because that would be a sign that the team would get through the group stage, something no one dares to set as a goal as they compete against the champion (USA) and the vice-world champion (Netherlands).
The ninth edition, and the first expanded to 32 teams, will take place between July 20 and August 20 in Australia and New Zealand, which will include the four world champions, as well as eight newcomers (Haiti, Morocco, Panama, Philippines, Portugal , Ireland, Vietnam and Zambia).
Source: DN
