Drogba’s despair could pep Portugal in group of death

PORT ELIZABETH - Ever since the announcement of the World Cup schedule, football fans have been relishing the match between the Ivory Coast and Portugal for its showdown between two of the world’s greatest footballers, Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier

Drogba.

But even with a shoulder injury threatening to rule out the iconic African striker from Tuesday’s clash in Port Elizabeth, the match has plenty to offer.

With Brazil and the mysterious North Korea side competing for advancement from Group G, the game leaves little room for error. And even if Drogba fails to pass a late fitness test, the pristine turf of the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium will still be graced by some of the world’s top football talent.

Apart from Real Madrid’s Ronaldo, 25, Portugal boasts stars like Chelsea’s defender Ricardo Carvalho and midfielder Deco, Sporting Lisbon’s mercurial centre forward Liedson and Werder Bremen’s Hugo Almeida. However the star-studded line-up failed to gel in qualifying, where Portugal needed a play-off against Bosnia-Herzegovinia to make it to the finals.

That is not phasing the team’s talisman Ronaldo, who is suffering a 16-month goal drought for Portugal. “The goals will come. They’ll come naturally,” Ronaldo said. “It’s like a great player once told me, goals are like ketchup. You keep on forcing it, then it comes all at once.”

The supremely confident player says Portugal can beat Ivory Coast, and anyone else who comes their way. “We are not scared of anyone. We will play to win,” he said.

That could be a tall order against Les Elephants, even if Drogba fails to make the line-up. The African boasts some of the world’s strongest players and has the advantage of playing on its home continent. Quality runs through the side, with players like Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue in defence, Didier Zokora and Yaya Toure in midfield and Kader Keita, Salomon Kalou and Seydou Doumbia in attack.

Experienced coach Sven Goran Eriksson has moulded these players into a team capable of challenging for the title, Kolo Toure insists.

“He has put an added emphasis on playing as a team and not just as a collection of individuals,” Toure said. “He has managed to change the mindset of the team and of each player. We’ve always had good players, but have never been able to properly work together as an

effective unit, defending and attacking as one. That’s what we’ve been working on, and we hope that it’ll bear fruit, starting with our first match versus Portugal.”

The team also is more experienced than they were in Germany 2006, when they bowed out in the first round. “This time around, it’s different. Our ambitions are greater,” Toure said. “We’re all more focused on the same goal. And playing on our home continent gives us even more desire to surpass ourselves.”