Ronaldo key to Portugal's fate
Portugal, in its quest for one of the final European tickets to the World Cup in South Africa next June, will be without superstar Cristiano Ronaldo when it faces Bosnia-Herzegovina on Nov. 14 and 18. Probably. Maybe. Likely.
There's some irony in the matter. Ronaldo aggravated his ankle injury -- which might keep him out until the new year -- by returning too soon in an attempt to make sure Portugal would qualify. But he hobbled off after 27 minutes in Portugal's 3-0 win over Hungary on Oct. 10, meaning Ronaldo will miss the Bosnia match that will decide Portugal's precarious fate.
Or will he? Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz, who was the Real Madrid manager in another life, has never hesitated to field an incapacitated Ronaldo, despite the furious protestations of his everyday employer Real. Improbably, he intends to call Ronaldo up for the match, even though doctors have surmised that he has no business on the pitch for another three weeks at least. Some say he'll be out until January. Queiroz is quick to capitalize on Ronaldo's own eagerness. In his youthful folly, he insisted on playing against Hungary and says he welcomes the call-up. A report Tuesday said Ronaldo is officially out, but time will tell.
The latest club versus country scuffle might take the eternal battle to another level. Technically, a club can't refuse a player to play for his country on official FIFA-sanctioned international match dates. But what if a player is injured? And who determines what an injury is? Or how injured he is?
Real, in an attempt to protect its $132 million investment (in transfer fees alone), says it has told Portugal that Ronaldo is injured and unavailable. Portugal claims it got no such message. Just to be sure, Real said so again publicly Nov. 6. "A combination of doctors' orders and common sense mean that Cristiano won't be travelling to Portugal," Real Madrid director Jorge Valdano said to reporters. But Portugal maintains it will conduct its own tests and diagnose him independently. "We have to wait and look at it from day to day," Ronaldo told reporters. "But it's going in the right direction."
"It's impossible for Cristiano to play for Portugal," said Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini -- who has had plenty of trouble holding on to his job and doesn't need more Ronaldo-less time -- to Sport. "It's been some time since he trained and he still has pains. Cristiano is emotionally troubled. He's been injured for a while and he had hoped to play this week, but the doctors said no."
"From now until Sunday a lot of things can transpire," Queiroz told Correio da Manha, holding out hope.
Portugal winging it
As soccer savant Johan Cruyff is wont to say: Every disadvantage has its advantage. Portugal might be without Ronaldo, but this creates an opportunity for experimentation. While this isn't an opportune time to start twiddling with the lineup, the situation will force Portugal to dip into a previously untapped resource: its wingers.
It's the only area in which Portugal is deep -- in fact, it is remarkably well equipped to absorb Ronaldo's loss, with perhaps the finest stock of wingers in the world right now. Manchester United's Nani and Atletico Madrid's Simao Sabrosa seem likely to take up the spots, with Inter's Ricardo Quaresma, if he is called up, offering a nice alternative and a chance to play himself into the Portugal picture. The upside? If Portugal conceives effective wing-play without Ronaldo, it could dispatch him as a free-role attacker at the World Cup -- if the team gets there -- allowing him to assume the role in which he flourished at Man U.
Ciro's second miracle
Miroslav Blazevic, "Ciro" to his pals, is a little nuts. That's OK, though; most geniuses are. And a soccer genius Blazevic certainly is -- a card-carrying one. Having rebuilt a shambolic Bosnian program, he is now worshipped in his native land. When he took over almost a year and a half ago, 19 members of the squad refused to play in protest of Meho Kodro's firing. Nobody was showing up for games -- allegedly to show their discontent -- and the federation was being accused of fraud.
The 74-year-old Blazevic, who looks sprightly at times and overwhelmed at others, has done all this before. In 1998 he led an unappreciated Croatia team to third place at the World Cup, losing to eventual champions France in the semifinal while eliminating Germany 3-0 in the quarterfinals. Then, too, he gave a country reeling politically something to cheer about, as he will if Bosnia-Herzegovina qualifies for its first-ever World Cup. By reminding his Croatians of the hardship their countrymen had suffered, he summoned within them an extraordinary desire to succeed. Today, he has the Bosnian Muslim fans chanting the names of the Bosnian Serb players, and vice versa.
Granted, the pressures he faces today are nothing compared to those inflicted upon him by the late Franjo Tudjman, the Croatian president during the 1998 World Cup. Tudjman was a despot and has been suspected of committing war crimes, ethnic cleansing among them. The morning of the Germany game, he called Blazevic and simply said "Ciro, you must win," according to an interview Blazevic gave to the Guardian. Fearing for his life, Blazevic gave a rousing speech, discarding his carefully crafted game plan, about what a win would mean to Croatia.
Both of these squads have come very far. Bosnia emerged as the runner-up in a very difficult group that included European champions Spain, which beat every single one of its group-mates (twice!), the scrappy Turks and a talented young Belgium side.
Portugal overcame a horrendous opening round to the campaign that saw it a good way off the lead. It answered with a torrid run in the return round, winning four of its last five games to creep into second place. Someone will fall short.
Bosnia returns fire
Blazevic has both instigated and benefited from the emergence of a frighteningly able crop of young attackers. Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko has been on AC Milan's wish list for some time, and with good reason. Dzeko represents a new breed of attacker, as comfortable playing as a target man as he is as an open-field dribbler diving into whatever space he can find out wide and often combining the two, drawing several defenders. In an efficient collaboration with his playmaker, Zvjezdan Misimovic, who fulfills the same role for Bosnia, the 23-year-old Dzeko led Wolfsburg to the German title last year, scoring 26 goals.
The pair -- one of whom, Dzeko, is a Bosnian Muslim and the other a Bosnian Serb -- complement each other well. Dzeko is the mobile and agile front end and Misimovic the technically able, if less movable, brains of the combo. Once chided by a Yugoslavian under-21 coach for being "fat, slow and arrogant," Misimovic has the last laugh as he mght one day be the world's best striker -- who grew up as his country was shredded by war -- with inch-perfect passes.
Hoffenheim's striker Vedad Ibisevic and midfielder Sejad Salihovic provide a nice complement to the attacking tandem, with Olympique Lyon's mega-prospect Miralem Pjanic waiting in and playing on the wings.
Bosnia, which is nicknamed both the Lilies and the Dragons, has a defense that is somewhat suspect, especially in dealing with quick wingers such as Portugal's, making it all the more necessary for its smorgasbord of attackers to make as many opponents concentrate on defending as possible.
Conversely, Portugal's defenders are, save for Pepe, either aging or inexperienced. Their ability to stunt Bosnian attacks will be key. These games will be decided on Portugal's half of the field, implying that these games are Bosnia's to lose, with or without Ronaldo.
"Never in my 40-year-long career have I ever had a more important match. However, I am absolutely sure that the whole of Europe supports Bosnia-Herzegovina," master motivator Blazevic said to reporters, once again expertly maneuvering his side into the underdog role. "We are a small country, very poor. The country would be very proud to qualify." He later said: "Honestly, I think that even a minimal defeat would be a good result for us in Portugal. Everyone wants us to qualify, but not many people believe that that is possible."
"We are going to have to be well-prepared. Bosnia-Herzegovina have an extremely dangerous attack, and it will be very difficult for us to beat them," Queiroz told reporters.
Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer writer for ESPN.com.
