U-20 World Cup: Round of 16 red card disaster, Portugal worst offender, Uruguay sore losers (video)

The FIFA Under-20 World Cup Round of 16 was a round of red and yellow as an unheard-of 9 red cards and an eye popping 57 yellow cards were handed out during the 8 matches played. There was no more embarrassing display during the round and tournament so far than Portugal’s display of football and lack of sportsmanship against Chile in their 1-0 loss.

Incidents took place throughout the 8 matches. In the 43rd minute Gambia's Tijan Jaiteh was sent off against Austria. Brazil was reduced to 10 when they saw Leandro Lima red carded. A pair of substitutes were red carded in the match between Japan and the Czech Republic, Seiya Fujita and Jakub Mares respectively. For Poland it was Dawid Janczyk against Argentina and for Congo it was Franchel Ibara against Mexico.

If you map the red cards against losers, every team with a player red carded save the Czech’s (1 red for each team) and Chile (2 for Portugal, 1 for Chile) lost their match. There is something to be said for discipline and how it contributes to success.

The worst losers of the night were Portugal. A late match loss of composure saw the Portuguese re-live the end of the game festivities against France in the semi-final of Euro 2000. During that game Abel Xavier hand balled and gave France a winning penalty. There were players all-over the referee which saw FIFA levy suspensions after the match.

Last night it was the juniors who joined the hall of shame. The incident started in the 89th minute as midfielder Fabio Coentrao was fouled hard and then given a knock by 2 different Chileans while on the ground. This saw right-back Manu lash out at Christian Sepulveda who knocked Coentrao and slapped him which sent the Chilean sprawling. When the referee was attempting to send Manu off, the Portuguese began surrounding the referee and forward Zequinha audaciously took the red card from referee Mohd Salleh’s hand. In slow motion you can see the referee say “whoa” and Zequinha also saw red. Things fell apart from there as players started showing each other down and shoving. From that moment on it was a rugby match.

It was a horrible match anyway. Portugal were dead awful, unable to even get a shot on goal until the 89th minute. And that one was from 35 metres away from goal. In the first Portugal didn’t even have a shot at goal or a corner kick and even a free kick! 35% of ball possession told the story better than anything. From the games I saw, Portugal were weak in defense all tournament with a pair of relatively clueless center backs, but this game was the opposite: up from Portugal were all long ball and wayward passing, balls into an empty box and nobody really interested in making anything good happen.

It was an embarrassment not only for the player’s behavior but for the team. A performance like that: quicker forgotten the better. Looks like the injured captain Bruno Gama was more important to Portugal than anyone knew.
Here is a video of the incident:

The day before, Uruguay, well known for being sore losers in international competitions decided to have a go at the Americans after the USA’s comeback win against them. Unlike the Portuguese, Uruguay at least staked claim to a result, having played pretty well and looking for large parts of the match like winners. Frustration overcame them at the end though as players started going after each other. Have a look at the fracas:

My overall perception of the tournament so far is how fragile the mentality of the players is. While there has been some decent football, especially Spain vs Brazil, teams seem to crumble easily when their guile is tested.