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Portugal National Football Team

Head coach: Luiz Felipe Scolari
Captain: Jorge Andrade
Top scorer: Pauleta
FIFA ranking: 6

The Portugal football team is the national football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). Portugal has qualified four times for the FIFA World Cup, but have neither won it nor any other major tournament. Their first World Cup appearance was in 1966, where the Portuguese reached their first semi final. In that year they lost only to the eventual world champions England. Portugal finished in third place and Eusébio was considered the best player of the tournament. The next two times Portugal qualified for the World Cup were 1986 and 2002, with Portugal going out in the first round both times. In the 1986 tournament, players went on strike over prize-money and refused to train between their first and the second games.

In 2003, the Portuguese Football Federation decided to hire Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian who had led the Brazil national football team to win the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Scolari led Portugal to the final of Euro 2004 (The European Championships), where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi final in 2006, where they lost to France. The Portuguese were unable to equal Eusebio's 1966 third place finish as they lost to hosts Germany 3-1 on July 8 in Stuttgart, finishing in fourth place in the 2006 World Cup.

2006 FIFA World Cup

The Portuguese squad, known as the Brazilians of Europe for the magical football they produce, qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany under the leadership of manager Luis Felipe Scolari and came in first place in Group D with victories over Angola (1-0, goal from Pauleta), Iran (2-0, goals from Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Mexico (2-1, goals from Maniche and Simão). Only Mexico's Francisco Fonseca was able to score against Portugal.

Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the Round of 16 on June 25 in Nuremberg in one of the ugliest games in World Cup history. The only goal came courtesy of a Maniche strike in an acrimonious match marked by 16 yellow cards, with 4 players being sent off for a second bookable offense.

On Saturday, July 1 at Gelsenkirchen in the quarter-finals Portugal drew withEngland but won penalty kicks (3-1) to reach their first World Cup semi-final since the days of Eusébio, 40 years earlier.

Portugal were defeated 1-0 by France in the semi-finals on Wednesday, July 5 at Munich. Two players had been forced to sit out due to accumulated bookings from the round of 16 and quarterfinals. It did not help that the team faced a hostile crowd of English and French fans; as Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of unsportsmanlike behavior. As in the semi-finals of Euro 2000, Portugal was again narrowly defeated by France, with the decisive goal being a penalty scored by Zinedine Zidane after Thierry Henry was awarded a penalty from a foul committed by Ricardo Carvalho. Portugal felt that they themselves should have been awarded a penalty after Cristiano Ronaldo went down in the box. However, a penalty was not awarded by the referee, and was itself a disputed incident where Ronaldo was fortunate not to get booked for diving.

For third place, they faced Germany in the third place match on July 8 in Stuttgart. In this match, like the previous two in which Portugal had a couple of players suspended, the Selecção had lost Miguel to an injury suffered in the semi-final and Ricardo Carvalho to suspension, for accumulated yellow cards against Holland and France. Goalkeeper Ricardo had only conceded one goal in regular play so far (scored by Mexico's Francisco Fonseca, which would later curiously move to Portugal's own SL Benfica). Surprisingly, Figo did not start the match despite having captained the squad in the rest of the tournament. Not unlike the Lusitanians, three of Germany's starters, including captain Michael Ballack, would not be available due to injury. The first half was scoreless but Portugal had several good chances from Pauleta and Deco, forcing Oliver Kahn to make several saves. In the second half, Portugal was thoroughly routed 3-1 as Germany went up three goals to nil from Bastian Schweinsteiger's two goals and an own goal, also off his shot, by Portugal's Petit. Figo replaced Pauleta in the 77th minute, regaining his captaincy during the substitution. Although Germany scored another goal shortly after Figo's entrance, he set up Nuno Gomes's goal in the 88th minute to help Portugal claw back a marker, which was Portugal's second goal of the knockout round and the first since Maniche's against Holland.

Despite this defeat, the Portuguese public hailed their national team as heroes when they returned home. The team won the Most Entertaining Team award for their play during the 2006 World Cup. The award is always organized through public participation in a poll.

Portugal's "Golden Generation" retired after the 2006 World Cup. The departure of Luís Figo has left Portugal's squad with a new look in midfield that was once taken over by himself and the likes of Rui Costa and Sérgio Conceição. The squad attempting to qualify for Euro 2008 will produce a young generation of players from the U-21 squad. Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho, Nani and Manuel Fernandes, and most importantly, Cristiano Ronaldo are some of the names that could possibly bring future success to Portugal.

Portugal Team
No.	NAME	POS	Height	Weight	Age
-	Daniel Fernandes	G	6-5	207	23
1	Pereira Ricardo	G	6-1	176	31
12	Silva Quim	G	6-0	168	31
-	Marco Caneira	D	5-10	165	28
2	Paulo Ferreira	D	5-11	168	28
4	Jorge Andrade	D	6-0	163	29
5	Freitas Fernando Meira	D	6-3	187	29
13	Luis Miguel	D	5-10	172	27
30	Eduardo Bruno Alves	D	6-2	181	25
31	Jose Bosingwa	D	6-0	165	24
-	Miguel Hugo Viana	M	5-11	161	24
-	Jose Raul Meireles	M	5-10	143	24
8	Armando Petit	M	6-1	176	30
19	Tiago	M	6-0	165	26
20	Anderson Deco	M	5-9	161	29
27	Ricardo Quaresma	M	5-8	148	23
28	Felipe Joao Moutinho	M	5-7	135	20
32	Luis Nani	M	5-9	146	20
33	Sergio Duda	M	5-9	172	26
23	Helder Postiga	S	5-11	165	24
26	Miguel Hugo Almeida	S	6-3	190	23
36	Henrique Joao Tomas	S	6-2	176	32

Group A
	GP	W	D	L	GS	GA	GD	P
Poland	9	6	1	2	15	7	8	19
Serbia	7	4	2	1	10	4	6	14
Portugal	7	4	2	1	15	5	10	14
Finland	8	4	2	2	9	5	4	14
Belgium	8	2	1	5	5	10	-5	7
Armenia	7	2	1	4	3	7	-4	7
Kazakhstan	8	1	3	4	5	11	-6	6
Azerbaijan	8	1	2	5	4	17	-13	5