Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal: defensive organisation defeats attacking talent
The two 4-3-3s cancel each other out. The midfield positions were fluid, with the Portuguese midfielders taking it in turns to come deep and receive the ball
A hard-fought draw in a game that was a must-not-lose rather than a must-win for both sides. There was a disappointing lack of goalmouth action, but both defences were excellently organised.
The one minor surprise in the Portugal line-up was the welcome sight of Danny Alves in the first XI, although he was deployed in a wide role as Nani’s replacement, rather than the central position he favours. Fabio Coentrao was ahead of Duda at left-back, whilst Pedro Mendes was preferred to Pepe, still returning to full fitness after seven months out, in the centre of midfield.
The Ivory Coast were without Didier Drogba, so Gervinho took a central role with Aruna Dindane on the right. Sol Bamba was left out, and so Didier Zokora dropped into the centre of defence with Emmanuel Eboue taking his midfield position, and Guy Demel coming into the side at right-back.
Huge improvement under Eriksson
We must praise Sven-Goran Eriksson for the job he has done in such a short space of time with the Ivory Coast. He has a reputation for preferring a fairly conservative, rigid style of football, but this philosophy has unquestionably helped the Ivory Coast become more disciplined and well-organised in defence.
African sides can often be patronised in tactical terms, especially when a studious coach like Eriksson takes over, and it seems a cliche to say that he has given them more tactical awareness. But that is exactly what he has done, and anyone who saw their performance in the Africa Cup of Nations will understand the transformation they have undergone in a few short months.
At that tournament, they were dreadful. The forward three had no defensively responsibilities whatsoever, ambling back towards the halfway line when they lost possession, allowing the opposition full-backs forward and often leaving their midfield having to come too high up the pitch to win the ball. Yaya Toure was deployed in an attacking midfield role meaning the best defensive player was easily bypassed, whilst the centre-backs were drawn to the ball too easily and left large gaps in the defence.
Superb organisation
When not in possession, the Ivorian forwards (yellow) dropped back and joined the midfielders (blue) to create a six-man shield ahead of the defence
Today, none of that was in evidence, as the Ivorians played a solid, well-organised game that made it very difficult for Portugal’s flair players to get any time on the ball. In recent days we’ve seen a lot of interesting tactics when teams don’t have the ball, and Eriksson’s plan today was to play a high-ish defensive line, but a deep midfield and attack – keeping it extremely tight between the lines.
Every player looked to get behind the ball, but the Ivorians only put pressure on the player in possession within about 40 yards of their own goal. The defenders and Mendes were allowed time on the ball, but as soon as it was played towards one of the forward five players, they were immediately harassed by an orange shirt, forcing them to play the ball back to where it came from.
The wide players kept a small distance between them and the Portugal full-backs – so they were close enough to prevent them looking wide open for the pass, but also far enough away that a sudden burst from Coentrao or Ferreira would not take them into space immediately.
The use of Yaya Toure in his best position in the holding role also gave the Ivorians more steel. With Portugal playing two wide players who increasingly looked to come inside, Yaya Toure was able to deal with them without the need for Kolo Toure or Zokora to come out to confront the player receiving the ball, and they were able to focus on tracking Liedson’s movement – which is usually very good but against two centre-backs, even when one followed Liedson, the other was the free man and able to cover.
Lack of excitement from Portugal
The Ivory Coast maintained a highish defensive line, so there was rarely more than 20-25 yards between the defence and attack when not in possession
Liedson had a disappointing game but rarely got the chance to impress on the ball, nor any goalscoring opportunities to get a shot away. Danny also played on the periphery of the game – but then that’s where he was used, in an unfamiliar wide role. He did little, maybe partly because the challenge today was completely different from what he is used to. He picked up the ball and generally had seven or eight Ivory Coast players sitting deep between him and the goal – at Zenit St Petersburg, arguably the most counter-attacking side in Europe, he picks the ball up in advanced positions with seventy yards of space to exploit.
The real problem was Deco, a one-great player who increasingly looked unimaginative when he has the ball and lethargic when he doesn’t. Much like Claudio Marchisio yesterday (although the two were playing slightly different roles) he looked to play simple, sideways balls that slowed the play down and allowed the Ivory Coast to get back in position. When he was at his peak, Deco looked to play key passes but now he appears content to keep the play moving and depend on others for creativity, which wasn’t forthcoming.
Ivory Coast were less ambitious going forward, but Portugal's gap between midfield and defence was greater than the Ivory Coast's, meaning Gervinho was able to find space between the lines
Portugal didn’t look to catch out the Ivory Coast’s high defensive line with balls over the top, with Liedson looking to receive short passes to feet. Nor did they really stretch the play laterally – Ronaldo wanted to be involved in everything and came into the centre of the pitch, as did Danny. With the full-backs unable to get past their markers, Portugal’s play was narrow and lacked any real purpose.
Ivory Coast quiet going forward
The Ivory Coast’s attacking threat was no more potent – in fact, they showed less ambition throughout the game. But at least they had a clear plan – get men behind the ball, try and tempt Portugal’s full-backs forward, and then counter-attack at speed. It wasn’t particularly successful – although Ricardo Carvalho was bypassed a couple of times, and Gervinho looked dangerous – but there was a clear tactical plan, and creating a tight, scrappy game and waiting for the introduction of Drogba was hardly a bad idea.
No variation from Queiroz
When a Portuguese attacking player received the ball in midfield, he was quickly surrounded by two or three Ivorian players
Carlos Queiroz continues to be an extremely frustrating manager because he rarely seems to identify a problem and look to change formation or tactics accordingly. Today his substitutions were infuriating - natural width was required, so the introduction of Simao Sabrosa was understandable, but he took off Danny in a straight swap, rather than removing Deco and letting Danny have a go in his best position in the centre.
Queiroz clearly agreed that Deco wasn’t playing well, as he was the next to go, but his replacement was Tiago – a good player, but not what Portugal needed, as he’s another one content to knock the ball sideways. The final substitution was to bring on Ruben Amorim for Raul Meireles – pretty much a straight swap, but another one that said a lot about Queiroz’s mentality – Amorim was the man to replace Nani when the Manchester United player became injured – that is replacing a tricky, pacey winger with a steady, functional midfield player. How Amorim has jumped ahead of Miguel Veloso in the midfield queue despite not being considered part of the initial 23 is another question.
Conclusion
Not an exciting game, but a very interesting one – both defences were solid and well-organised and deserved clean sheets. Which attack performed better depends on your outlook – Portugal were the more ambitious, but the Ivorians had more of a cohesive plan. For one of the sides to display a combination of the two would have been nice.
Portugal need a change of system, because North Korea will do exactly what the Ivory Coast did and defend in numbers against them, whilst Brazil will also deny the attacking players space. A more direct central midfielder is possibly the key (although Meireles had a decent game) because the midfield trio today just doesn’t work well together.
Many will be disappointed with the Ivory Coast, but at their last World Cup they turned up, played an attacking, explosive game, and got well beaten by Argentina and Holland. Eriksson’s pragmatism may not win him many friends, but today his tactical plan was spot on, and in the final minutes his side looked the more likely to score.
Ivory Coast 0-0 Portugal: defensive organisation defeats attacking talent
Good write up.
This first round is turning out expectedly slow, with tactical conservatism prevailing in every game, especially between the “2″ and “3″ seeds. How do you explain Eboue playing in center along Yaya? It was weird at first, I think him and Demel should swap since Demel is more robust and a bit slower. Eboue would have added width to IC’s counters.
Brazil starts in about nine minutes. Let’s see some goals!
Can’t even count on African teams to play offensive football in this World Cup. Virtually every team is playing ulta-conservative under the guise of “tactics.” There is no brilliance in tactical defending anymore. Any fool can do it. Teams should be praised for brilliance in attacking football. That’s the tough one to master.
ZM, thanks a lot, again. I have to admit I felt asleep while watching the game, these background noise vuvuzelas make me sleep…, and woke up at the end. But after reading your article, I learned more about the game, that I would have seen by myself, and got a good sleep.
I couldn’t agree more. This was the most boring WC match I’ve ever seen. Except for C.Ronaldo’s shot to the post, this game was great for a nice nap. . .
Portugal was extremely frustrating to watch. The midfield has been the weak-link on this team for over 2 years. Unfortunately, I don’t know what Queiroz can do to change this. He’s now stuck with a poorly selected squad. He doesn’t have a direct back up for Deco and he’s short on flair without Nani.
The only possible option I see is to switch to a 4-4-2 diamond (losango) with Pepe in front of the defense, Danny behind the 2 forwards, and Ronaldo paired up front with Liedson. Ronaldo would start wide and look to move into the box. For this to work, both fullbacks (especially Coentrao) would need to provide attacking width. It’s not too far fetched since most of these guys are playing in a similar tactic for their clubs and Quieroz used it last fall in some of the remaining qualifiers.
Good analysis. Maybe a note about the fact that two systems that were essentially the same ended up voiding each other. One option for Portugal would have been to go with a 4 men midfield in a diamond formation, with Mendes sitting deep, Veloso on the left, Amorim on the right and Danny on the tip. This would release Coentrão on the left (with Veloso covering) and would let Amorim take the right flank, in a similar way he did for Benfica through the season when called to play there. This would have given Portugal an extra man in midfield, which could have changed the game.
During the game, the addition of Tiago had only one virtue: he moved the ball around faster than Deco.
A note about Eriksson: he is unfairly regarded by british fans as something of a mediocre coach after his spell with England. This fails to consider that he took them to three straight finals and then to 3 quarter finals, where they lost first against the eventual champion and then twice on penalties after their best player had been ruled out (first by injury then by a red card). What he did with Ivory Coast here is surprising only by how fast it was done.
Ericksson was terrible with Mexico. Many fans were very excited about his knowledge and expertise but certainly it didn’t work or wasn’t a great fit. He did introduce a 4-3-3 in a few friendlies but that’s about it and he knew what an “actual international keeper” looks like, Memo Ochoa or Oswaldo Sanchez.
My gosh he got away with a LOT OF MONEY FROM MEXICO.
His Mexican teams were about as interesting as watching paint dry. Not that they, Mexico, are currently WC favorites or anything, but they are certainly more creative.
could we have an analysis of the Cameroon/Japan game?
Not covering that, sorry.
That match was pure torture and both teams should be handed an extended ban from all FIFA competitions. I can’t remember such a dreadfully terrible World Cup match ever. Even the “shame of Gijon”, the truce between Germany and Austria, which saw both go past the group stage, was less painful to watch. The sooner we eradicate that game from our collective memory the better.
As for the Portugal vs. CIV match, one has to remember these are two traditionally overhyped nations. Not as overhyped as England, but still. A better tactical and technical quality than in quite a few of the other games we have seen so far was visible, but I’m not sold on either team. Parking the bus and setting the occasional counter sting is relatively easy if you have a certain level of quality on your team. Other than Ronaldo’s thunderous blast early on neither side came close to scoring though and that’s the hard part in the modern game.
Brazil and North Korea are very functional sides, as were CIV and Portugal today. Will they be able to find ways to outscore their remaining opponents ? Their showing today certainly casts some doubts on that one.
Was a very interesting game to watch. Ivory Coasts defensive midfield was very impressive, central backs no push over either. Sadly both teams equalizing themselves to some degree.
Now for the last game today, PRK looking quite impressive. Waiting for fast counter attacks, and so far looking quite good (up to the point when they have to shoot on the goal). Sweet passing of the Jabulani…
Width players on the left for Brazil are not looking for Elano’s runs down the channel. He made two or three runs straight down the pipe, between the right back and the right center back, and was looking for a relatively hard but not an impossible ball over the top. Bastos and Robinho just could not see him or weren’t looking for him to make a run.
Love the PRK play; had some really crisp passes on the counter. Should have made JC work a little bit on those shots though.
Given the personal they now have, ie lacking enough good wingers, they could try the Brazil system.
Think about it. Ronaldo as Robinho, Pepe as Gilberto, Danny as Kaka, and Deco as Elano.
“Meireles was the man to replace Nani when the Manchester United player became injured”: No, Rubén Amorim was the one who replaced Nani when he became injured.
Aside from that, great analysis. Looking foward to your next ones.
Oops, that was what was meant…
Ivory Coast defended well because of the little space between lines as it was said in the article.
But the fact that gervinho almost made a man-to-man marking on Mendes and the team left both central defenders with plenty of space and time to play, meant that they had a spare man in the midfield (usualy Toure), that was always controling the movements of the Portuguese forwards.
And I think Liedson was not a good choice for this game, as all the defensive players from Ivory Coast were twice his size. Maybe Hugo Almeida, or Simão with the front tree playing like Barça would be better.
Wow! That was bad. 4 functional sides in a supposed group of death. The Portuguese camp is in revolt after the Nani affair and Deco’s reaction to being subbed. I wouldn’t be suprised if they drew with North Korea and loss to Brasil. Ronaldo’s going to have show all of his brilliance in the group stage if Portugal are going to advance. I won’t talk about them tactically because other people have and there are so many better options than what they brought today.
All four teams have big, strong central defenders but only Cote D’Ivoire’s defenders have pace also. If Drogba is healthy they’ll beat North Korea with ease and really trouble Juan agianst Brasil. Oddly, Kaka comes to recieve the ball really deep because of Brasil’s two holding players. Toure and Meireles need to be physical against him and both teams forwards have to a go at him to stop Brazil from beginning attacks. Brasil will probably win the group but second place is wide open.
I’m sure ZM’s excited for both Chile and Spain tomorrow.
I thought that Meireles is supposed to be the one who does darting forward runs into space in the penalty box, but then Portugal’s lack of width denied him that space…
Portugal is not any different than Brazil, Italy, Holland, England, USA, South Africa, Ghana, Slovenia, Ivory Coast, Uruguay, France.
They played for the result. I don’t understand why they are taking so much heat. I do think teams will start to open it up as they chase points.
1 point is 1 point.
ZM said: “Carlos Queiroz continues to be an extremely frustrating manager because he rarely seems to identify a problem and look to change formation or tactics accordingly.”
Amen! The subs choice was dreadful, what is he thinking?
In the first half everyone tried to play the ball for Ronaldo and many of Ivory Coast’s counters began with balls Ronaldo had lost. When he tried to track back to have the ball it got even worst: if he wants to track back when the team is lacking crativity then he must play with more collective notion, passing the ball, not trying to make his own way trough goal when he’s 40 yards away! He’s too hungry for the ball, he starts to dribble to soon, and honestly, ever since Ronaldo became the captain i haven’t seen Portugal play a single good game. Wonder what Deco and him were talking about at half time, and the way Deco nodded his head afterwards made me wonder even more.
Btw, i agree with João André, if we had gone in with a diamond formation we might have done better, having more width right from the back. Coentrão is at a tremendous shape but the tactics robbed him any chance to display his attacking qualities.
Also, Ivory Coast are tremendous physically and we were playing our weakest players in midfield. Veloso would have coped better with the physical struggle, and he’s the best to offer a long range threat. And since a change was definitely needed watching the distance between the wingers and the side backs, i think the diamond would have been the best option. It would also ease the problem we’re having with Liedson alone upfront, and it would have placed Ronaldo closer to goal. And it would have given more options in central midfield, maybe the time and space for Deco to play a long ball or support Mendes more often.
In fact the diamond might be the system for the next games after Nani’s injury, he was the one that ignited the team in the last games. Simão is getting slower by the day and Danny is not a winger nor the player for today’s kind of game. Portugal lacking wingers, that’s odd.
ZM said: “Portugal need a change of system, because North Korea will do exactly what the Ivory Coast did and defend in numbers against them (…)”
Boy oh boy we’re really doomed with Queiroz aren’t we? I’m sure Portugal’s approach will be different, although i can’t help feeling worried when Queiroz said it himself after the game that he “expects the Coreans to have a different attitude in the next game because it’s the second game and every team will act different”. His and Ronaldo’s excuse was that Ivory Coast never took the initiative. Well, it’s Portugal who’s in 3rd place in FIFA’s rankings, not Ivory Coast, what would you expect?
I would like to think that with Queiroz you should except the unexpected, but sadly it’s even worst, it’s really like expect the expected: bad things.
@Joao, I agree with you that Queiroz is part of the problem for Portugal. He’s a good second coach, but he has yet to convince me that he has the makings of a top level manager. I was also somewhat surprised that he and C-Ronaldo said that the Ivory Coast parked the bus. Either they are too arrogant to count out this more experienced and skillful IC side, or they really believe they are that good.
I disagree with a lot of the posters here. The games are not boring, but they aren’t scintillating either for a reason. The main objective is to get the teams to the next round, get the tactical acumen sorted out and set up, and avoid injuries. We hear this complaint often in the early stages of most World Cup tournaments. If anything, this stage of the tournament is a lot like the group stage of Champions League matches – same objective. Similarly, the next stage will be similar with only a few of the competitive brackets being the exception to that.
‘The use of Yaya Toure in his best position in the holding role also gave the Ivorians more steel. With Portugal playing two wide players who increasingly looked to come inside, Yaya Toure was able to deal with them without the need for Kolo Toure or Zokora to come out to confront the player receiving the ball, and they were able to focus on tracking Liedson’s movement – which is usually very good but against two centre-backs, even when one followed Liedson, the other was the free man and able to cover.’
ZM, it appears that you have not watched so much Yaya Toure.. Because i have, as he is one of my favorite players, and i have followed every single step in his career from 2005..
Yaya’s best position is an attacking md, not a holding one.. He has been largely used in the latter, because of his physical characteristics..
The truth is that, if you study the guy closer, you see that he is just OK in a holding role, but he is astonishing in a more attacking one… Not as a ‘classic number 10′, a trequartista, but the old number ‘8′ , the one that can gain meters with the ball on his feet and make a killer pass also, or threaten the opposition outside the box..
And that’s why Ivory Coast lost today.. Portugal was dreadfull attacking and had erricson played Another CB, Zokora as a holding and Yaya with Eboue or Tiotte alongside, would have created far more dangerous penetrations of their defence…
“And that’s why Ivory Coast lost today” … just like USA won 1-1 the other day, eh?
sorry, i meant ‘thats why they didnt win..’
My thoughts exactly.
Out of all the players in the IC midfield, only Yaya Toure looked capable of being that creative influence. I think playing him as a defensive midfielder, sitting infront of the centre-backs robbed IC of something they cannot get from any other member of the team (as far as I could see).
Barcelona have Xavi, Iniesta, Messi etc..players who are creatively better than Yaya Toure. IC do not. He needs to be given more license to get forward and create.
It seems to be a theme of the West African teams in this world cup..Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory Coast all look like being attacking midfielder away from being very good. They all lack that player with the guile and composure to unlock defenses and service their pacey, physical attackers.
“Deco looked to play key passes but now he appears content to keep the play moving and depend on others for creativity, which wasn’t forthcoming.”
He did play some throughpasses, such as for Ronaldo and Danny, attempted some dribbles, a flick from a throw-in, and put in dangerous crosses.
Portugal lacked width, and the central midfielders rarely went far forward, so there was a lack of penetration. Ronaldo aside, they even lack pace on the counter as well. It is hard to see how they will play against Brazil.
You mention Danny Alves as the Portuguese centerback, however I believe you mean Bruno Alves. Am I right?
This game wasn’t any worse than Slovenia-Algeria, or Japan-Cameroon, or….. anyway, this World Cup hasn’t exactly been a showcase for the beautiful game (we are comfortably below the two goals per game mark).
I’ve noticed that, without the ball, a lot of teams are letting the opponents’ defence play the ball, and start pressing at the middle of the park. I guess the importance of ball-playing central defenders will end up highlighted at the end of the tournament.
I was very impressed with the Ivorian Coast’s defense. Not speaking tactically or positionally, although they did fine in this area, but rather physically. The ref basically allowed them to hack at will and harrass the Portugal players all game long. And the Ivorian’s are beastly studs, each of them were physically awesome. They took full advantage, and chances came few and far in between.
Deco must be benched. Not only is he lacking in creativity, but physically he is weak and slow. He looked like a 5 year old child next to the Ivorian’s. Portugal should have attempted different tactics for sure. Balls over the top would have been nice, at least to give the backline something to think about so the field would open up for them. They didn’t get into the final 1/3 of the pitch easily at all. Portugal seemed to lack a cohesive strategy to get up field. They should have switched things around.
Even considering the Ivorian’s physical prowess, Ronaldo had pace on all the defenders. Why not knock some balls over the top for him? On the one play that i noticed Portugal attempted to break at speed, they had a clear goal scoring chance. It was Ronaldo here who made the mistake of passing, instead of taking it on himself. He had a clear path to goal about 35-40 yards out and instead attempted a through ball to the central striker which was intercepted.
Portugal had much more skill on the ball, but I believe their downfall was due to the manager. No creativity, no strategy, no tactical adjustments. Basically, the manager just sat over on the sidelines and dwiddled his thumbs. A bad performance by Portugal. That said, it is more likely that the Ivory Coast foul up in the games ahead than Portugal. So i see Brazil/Portugal going through.
With this ball, balls played over the top of the defenders are impossible to perform, as the ball will skip off the turf and pick up pace and inevitably end up as a goal kick or with the keeper. Through balls need to be along the ground like the Germans played.
I think Gervinho is a really strange player.
He’s tricky, pacey and always looks like a danger, but he rarely does anything really effective towards the goal..
Totally lacks any killer instincts.
I think that was the same during the Africa Cup.
This is even more interesting when you see his goal record in Lille(13 in 30)..
I just don’t understand it.
A win for either side would have gone a huge way toward qualifying for the next round, but both teams seemed happy with the draw. Their strategy must therefore be to outperform the other in the remaining fixtures against Brazil and North Korea.
I wonder how they feel now, after watching Korea defend so resolutely against Brazil? Brazil never tested the Koreans aerially, and if there is a weakness there then I think Ivory Coast would exploit it better than Portugal; for all Ronaldo is “good in the air for a skillful man”, Drogba is able to dominate almost any defence with his strength. Another factor is that Portugal play Korea in the second match, where the Koreans will still be fighting to qualify. By the third match against Ivory Coast, they may only be playing for pride. Therefore I think the odds are on Ivory Coast coming out ahead of Portugal in the Korean match.
Conversely, although both sides will surely be thrilled to take a draw against Brazil, Portugal rate to do slightly better. It seems to me they are more set up to directly counter Brazil, leading to a lower scoring affair. Secondly, if Brazil have already qualified then they may be resting players in their final match.
On balance, I think the draw has shifted slightly in favour of Portugal, though the Ivorian’s no doubt disagree, if their celebration after the match are any guide.
Yes, Eriksson has organised them well. But they may sorely regret not pushing harder for the win against a Portugal side low on confidence (and no wonder, given the manager starting Mendes-Meireles AND Deco in the middle). The way the fixtures fall is surely more beneficial to Portugal. Again, I credit the effort and I felt the Ivorians were actually the more ambitious team considering the players each nation had available to use at kick off. But ultimately, I’m not sure a point here is going to be enough for the Ivory Coast.
One lie leads to another.