The elimination of the national team from the 2022 World Cup left António Simões desolate, as Portugal has not yet surpassed the third place of Magriços, the team of which he was part, in 1966. 78-year-old footballer, who shone alongside Eusébio and who played in Qatar was to watch the game against South Korea at the invitation of FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who wanted to meet him because his father talked a lot about him. “It was an honor,” he says proudly.
António Simões sees the elimination against Morocco as a collective issue, but he cannot escape the controversial issues surrounding the corner kick team. First of all, Cristiano Ronaldo, around whom there were controversies, who in the first days of the internship began the interview that eventually led to the divorce from Manchester United. “It didn’t help,” he assumes, adding that “there were small details that distracted the group’s attention.” And in this sense, he believes that “the idea that came over was that the structure of the Portuguese Football Federation did not do everything” to avoid the problems that arose, so “everything around Cristiano ended up distracting the team”. And in this sense, he left a message: “There are things that should not happen again. It is important that those who go to the national team solve their problems first.”
Ronaldo does not accept the end
Looking at Cristiano Ronaldo’s behavior, Simões notes that “he has lost his emotional balance more than once”, but believes that the captain’s way of reacting is currently causing him other kinds of sensations: “It seems that he is tortured because he finished his career Pelé and Eusébio also ended, there is no drama in that, it seems that he does not understand that reality and the truth is that playing until the age of 37 at this level is already very good. Age takes speed away from us, suddenness and explosion and I remember it well. Cristiano needs to realize how useful he can be from now on.”
António Simões warns that CR7’s recent behavior could turn against him and recommends “doing something not to generate disgust” and therefore advises him to “hold on to the success of a unique career and the good it has to offer has”.
The most complicated problem to be solved during the national team’s stay in Qatar was Ronaldo’s outburst when he was substituted in the match against South Korea. Simões finds this kind of behavior “weird”, which makes him feel that the team captain “only listens to himself” and recalls that “at the World Cup in South Africa, in 2010, Cristiano had that line -” ask Carlos [Queiroz]” after elimination – which was already a sign of this kind of behavior”.
And in this sense he admits that “it is not easy for a selector to deal with such a situation”. And while he said he doesn’t think there was a fight between Fernando Santos and Ronaldo, the former Portugal international believes “the coach’s authority has been called into question”, now it’s up to “those above [Fernando Gomes, presidente da FPF] analyze what happened and take a stand”.
That is, in practice, António Simões defends a conversation between Fernando Gomes and the two protagonists of that episode “to resolve the things that were not clarified”, something that he says should have happened at the time. “They ran away from that problem. The World Cup is over, but the problem is still there,” he says, admitting that this is the only way there is room for coach and player together in the national team. “Everything will be solved if there is a will on all sides,” he said.
Santos by little margin
António Simões admits that he will be able to dispel doubts about the future of Fernando Santos in the coming days, after the conversation that the coach will have with the president of the FPF who, in his opinion, “both will see what is best for Portuguese football “.
However, according to the former international, “Fernando Santos no longer has the same margin in the eyes of the public, although he may have that margin with the president and the players, who have never demonstrated against his continuity”. Simões continues: “There is some saturation. The coach often comes forward as the culprit and they accuse him of being conservative and not taking risks. He will not get rid of that stigma.”
However, according to Simões, the responsibility for the elimination of the 2022 World Cup at the feet of Morocco is “collective”. “The blame is usually on the coach, but the players don’t play? They play in great teams and have to deal with a lot of pressure all the time… they don’t know during the game that if you can’t reach the goal through the middle, you have to can you try it with the wings?” he asks.
“Fear Contagion”
Simões evokes the words of Arsène Wenger, former Arsenal coach, to convey what he thinks: “He’s saying something I agree with: when a team is unable to have breadth for the players who are on the playing lines, it’s very difficult to create chances on goal. And that’s what happened with Portugal. They couldn’t play on the outside and soon it was realized that we weren’t going to score.”
The former footballer even reveals that after Morocco’s goal, he felt “the team became impotent and the passes started to go wrong”. “There was then a fear contagion effect that made the team look worse than it is, when it was expected to be the opposite. That is, there was a quality contagion, taking into account the talent that all the players have,” he explained and admitted that “there were players who didn’t play well”, but he is incredulous at the way the team from the corners started a match they had to win to get into the semi-finals: “You didn’t notice that passivity at the start of the game.”
Simões complained that “even the goalkeeper, who played very well, made a mistake”, which was unusual and that the Moroccan goal dictated. “It wasn’t our day,” he concluded.
Source: DN
