Quote from: PawGo on Today at 08:17:52 AM

Quote from: arimamib on Today at 08:04:56 AM

Portugal had to fight hard to beat Ghana, the opening goal was born from the penalty spot which was executed perfectly by Ronaldo. Portugal managed to end the game with a 3-2 winning score. Anyone will admit that Ronaldo played well against Ghana. He played in high spirits even though he had just parted ways with Manchester United, if the referee didn't award a penalty to Portugal, Ronaldo couldn't score in this game.

Nothing lasts forever and I am against focusing on single persons, regardless of their fame. It was not an easy game for Portugal and we see that many teams plays much better against 'giants' than we may expect (Ghana, Japan or SA, or even Canada). Seeing Portugal like they played yesterday, I do not think there is a big future for them in this World Cup. And of course Ronaldo is a good player, but you cannot be blind, he is different than he was 10 or 20 years ago, on his first World Cups (at least he scored a penalty goal, not like Lewandowski).
Next game they play with Uruguay, 4 years ago, in Sochi, Portugal lost 2:1.

Portugal played well against Ghana, but we will see later when Portugal vs Uruguay. after all, Ghana is not an equal opponent and we can review it in the first half. Ghana really struggled to build attacks, they didn't even have a single chance to threaten in Portugal's defense area. on the other hand, Ghana's defense was really tight and disciplined, they were able to last up to 65 minutes in the second half. sadly, the Ghanaian defender made a mistake.

IMO, the strategy pattern applied by Fernando Santos is quite effective. unfortunately, he always made Ronaldo a Target Man. every attack Portugal has built, they are always looking for Ronaldo to convert opportunities into goals. Unfortunately, Ronaldo is not as sharp as he used to be. until the second round rolled on, in the end Santos changed his formation pattern and Portugal won the battle.

note : we can see that age comes to us all, Ronaldo really struggled to score goals. again, he was only able to score a goal from the penalty spot.