After several glorious days, weather-wise, last week, the omens were not good. It was a cloudy day here in Aveiro, with a light rain from time to time, and after the euphoria of the week everyone seemed a little jaded.
There was excitement about the match, of course, Portugal was through but Switzerland had failed to win a game, so it looked like a slam dunk (to mix sports metaphors). However, when the team came out there was a collective, 'huh?' What was Scolari up to, where was Ronaldo, or Simão, or any of his good players? OK, he's resting them, and besides it's only Switzerland.
Ninety minutes later, there was a stunned silence from the Portuguese fans, in fact after that ludicrous penalty we couldn't bear to watch any more. During the game, we were watching through our fingers, it was car-crash television, like watching Steve Carell at his most embarassing in The Office. At half-time, when the players came back onto the pitch, there was a shot of a clearly embarrassed Ronaldo waving to the crowd. Great, we thought, they're going to substitute their better players, but no.
With over 30 yellow cards, by the end of the game practically everyone had been carded apart from the goalies. The refereeing was appalling, each time a player fell, or dived, out came the yellow card. There were cards for dissent, cards for running in a funny way. The penalty was given for such a blatant dive, we wondered at first who was getting the card, and the Swiss players were congratulating each other on such a smart move. We were asking what on earth Scolari was up to. Even when Portugal was 1-0 down there was time to put in Ronaldo or Nuno Gomes, or any of his first team players. But no, he carried on playing a weak team, saving his better players for the quarter final match against the runners up of group B, whoever that is (probably Germany). It was like watching Switzerland play Beira Mar, or Sporting, the Portuguese team were so outclassed. The referee didn't help.
In the post-match press conference, Scolari apparently took on all of the responsibility himself. We were thinking that he was concentrating on all of the lolly he'd be making at Chelsea, but if I was Abramovich, I'd be wondering what the hell was going on.
Unlike the previous games, especially after the game with the Czech Republic, when the team guaranteed their place in the next round, there were no celebrations, no dancing in the streets or car horns blaring. There were just sullen people going home through the drizzling rain. Sad and alone.
Apparently that was not the only upset of the evening, as in a surprising twist Turkey beat the Czech Republic 3-2. So it looks like Turkey will be going through to the quarter finals instead of the Czechs. With a mistake from Cech costing them the game, it was not a good day for Chelsea.
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