THE FIRST PORTUGUESE WORD that every guidebook presents to the traveller is
saudade. So, naturally, with a neurotic and vainglorious aversion to cliché, I resolved to avoid it (like the plague, in fact). My
Rough Guide defines it as “a slightly resigned, nostalgic air, and a feeling that the past will always overshadow the possibilities of the future”. Interesting, no doubt, but you don’t want to be rash with a thing like that. And so the European Championship began with a great welter of
saudade. If ever a football team looked resigned, it was the Portugal team that lost — no, the
mot juste is
surrendered — to Greece in the opening fixture.
Proceedings began with an opening ceremony that featured a ship, to remind us of the great explorers; as if to emphasise that the last time Portugal played at the high table of nations, it was half a millennium ago. A leading sporting championship is supposed to be a massive national relaunch, a rebranding, a rekindling: Sydney 2000, Japan and South Korea 2002. Portugal saw it as a chance to reaffirm their resignation to the irrefragable forces of history.
It is a tough job, being host nation in a big international tournament. It all began well enough, so far as I was concerned. I got all the usual host-city stuff (construction work, gridlock, optimism, smiles). I was tentatively entranced and resolved to like the place and the people, and to shout discreetly for the home side. Home sides traditionally do well. That is one of the best reasons for beggaring yourself in order to host a crazy thing such as a leading international sports event. You are almost guaranteed a good run in the tournament, with consequent benefits in national morale, international kudos and political gratification for the people in charge.
Damn it, it always works. In recent World Cups we have had stupendous displays from South Korea and Japan, France (winners), the United States and Italy. The past three European Championships gave Holland, England and Sweden semi-finals places. It’s not a straightforward business — you don’t get to play proper matches for two years — but the omens are good. There are pressures all right, but history demonstrates that these are pressures that tend to inspire. But Portugal did not see it quite that way.
Greece will have all the home-nation pressure at the Olympic Games in frighteningly few weeks and, like just about all Olympic nations, they are likely to thrive on it. But they certainly queered things for the home nation at Euro 2004. They weren’t even bringing gifts. They certainly received one, though. They scored an altogether unlikely goal with just seven minutes gone, even as the Portuguese were sizing them up and wondering how many goals they were going to win by.
Georgios Karagounis struck a ball from a little more than 20 yards and did so more in hope than expectation. He certainly looked wonderfully startled when it went in, though not as startled as the Portuguese.
There was no great power in it. It bounced twice. It was like a defensive push that somehow goes for four. And like a batsman beaten by the slower one, Ricardo, the Portugal goalkeeper, was beaten by the lack of pace. It wasn’t a grown-up goal. It looked like one of those goals you see in Scottish league highlights.
That set up one of those classic footballing scenarios, when the favourites come surging forward and the underdogs put 11 men behind the ball, abandon all pride and work on the tactic of desperation: tackle, take no risks and, when it doubt, put the ball in row omega. Greece did it pretty well, but from the instant the goal was scored, Portugal lost all faith in a benign providence. Sadness and resignation overwhelmed them. They played as if struggle was laudable, but defeat inevitable.
Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Portugal coach, who led Brazil to the World Cup in 2002, made some big substitutions at half-time, one of which involved the introduction of Cristiano Ronaldo, the world stepover champion. It was a move that paid off at once, at least for Greece. Pressing forward, Portugal found themselves utterly exposed and Ronaldo found himself as the last man to quell a counter-attack. His tackle on Giourkas Seitaridis was gloriously mistimed and was an uncontrovertible penalty. Angelos Basinas was bold enough to lift the ball and his spot kick was unstoppable.
It left us with 40 minutes or so of running about. Ronaldo put cross after cross into the box in an insane desire to make amends, but no one bothered to get on to the end of them. Luis Figo tried everything and found it insufficient; Deco had one of the few chances that fell inside the penalty area and blazed over. It never looked like anything other than a Greece victory. Right at the end, Portugal pulled one back, Ronaldo heading in Figo’s corner with a neat flick. The rest was all Greeks dancing about and singing. They had come with low expectations as Portugal had come with high. Mean old game, but then that’s why we’re here.
Portugal now have to seek some kind of salvation from matches with Russia and Spain. They were whistled off the pitch with a shrill and sibilant derision. This resigned acceptance that nothing can ever quite equal the glories of the past has a beauty and truth about it that really ought to find a place in the rest of Europe’s former colonial powers. But it’s not the mood a sports psychologist seeks to create in a football team at the start of a leading championship.
Portugal (4-2-3-1): Ricardo (Sporting Lisbon) 5 — Paulo Ferreira (FC Porto) 5, F Couto (Lazio) 4, Jorge Andrade (Deportivo La Coruña) 3, Rui Jorge (Sporting Lisbon) 3 — Costinha (FC Porto) 5 (sub: Nuno Gomes, Benfica, 66min 6), Maniche (FC Porto) 7 — L Figo (Real Madrid) 6, Rui Costa (AC Milan) 6 (sub: Deco, FC Porto, 46 6), S Simão (Benfica) 4 (sub: C Ronaldo, Manchester United, 46 8) — Pauleta (Paris Saint-Germain) 4. Substitutes not used: Quim (SC Braga), Moreira (Benfica), Miguel (Benfica), Beto (Sporting Lisbon), Nuno Valente (FC Porto), Ricardo Carvalho (FC Porto), Petit (Benfica), Tiago (Benfica), H Postiga (Tottenham Hotspur). Booked: Costinha, Pauleta
Greece (4-4-2): A Nikopolidis (Panathinaikos) 6 — G Seitaridis (Panathinaikos) 7, T Dellas (AS Roma) 7, M Kapsis (AEK Athens) 6, P Fyssas (Benfica) 4 — S Giannakopoulos (Bolton Wanderers) 4 (sub: T Nikolaidis, Atlético Madrid, 68 5), T Zagorakis (AEK Athens) 6, A Basinas (Panathinaikos) 4, G Karagounis (Inter Milan) 5 (sub: K Katsouranis, AEK Athens, 46 5) — Z Vryzas (Fiorentina) 5, A Charisteas (Werder Bremen) 6 (sub: V Lakis, AEK Athens, 74). Substitutes not used: K Chalkias (Panathinaikos), T Katergiannakis (Olympiakos), G Goumas (Panathinaikos), N Dabizas (Leicester City), S Venetidis (Olympiakos), P Kafes (Olympiakos), V Tsiartas (AEK Athens), G Georgiadis (Olympiakos), D Papadopoulos (Panathinaikos). Booked: Karagounis, Seitaridis
Referee: P Collina (Italy) 6. Attendance: 48,761
