PORTUGAL have started Euro `96 as the team to watch, in, every sense, and now is not the time to take your eye off them, with their coach Antonio Oliveira confirming yesterday that they are not contemplating crawling into a shell after they played Denmark off the park yet only came away with a 1-1 draw in the first game.
"We have tried to play for a long time in a way that people who like football will not reject," said Oliveira yesterday. "We want to get on the pitch and play in a way that people will applaud and that is what we have done and will continue to do. This is the football everyone in Europe wants to watch." And that includes everyone at Euro `96 after a first round dominated, of necessity, by the fear of", closing more than the desire to win.
Amid the caution and the cautions, Portugal won many friends with a performance against Denmark that was crisp, adventurous and swift paced, suggesting that they share, more than just a language with Brazil, with Paolo Sousa setting the pace of the game, Rui Costa the focus of Portugal's passing, Figo pulling the opposition this way and that with tireless running and all of them urged forward from the sideline by attack obsessed Oliveira. His one fear is that Portugal lack a world class goal scorer.
Oliveira himself is an interesting character. There was widespread dismay in the Portuguese press when he was appointed. He had been a fantastic player a striker with 107 goals in 228 games in Portugal but a mediocre manager with a small Portuguese outfit Maritimo.
Despite that he got the job in 1994 after Portugal failed to qualify for the USA, and some pointed to his cosy relationship with the football federation the company he and his brother run, Olivedesportos, own the TV and commercial rights to the national team.
Since then, though, the papers have come to respect him. "We all had our doubts," said Joao Manha of the sports daily Record, circulation 170,000. "But little by little he has won everyone over. There is no doubt that he has a tremendous tactical brain and a great rapport with the players." And the players have a great rapport with each other, largely because many of them have been together now for 12 years, with 12 of this squad having come through from the world championship winning under 19 side.
