England came into the World Cup with all the hype in the world. Thomas Tuchel’s side was supposed to roll through Group B and maybe make a deep run. Then Carlos Queiroz showed up with a game plan that looked like it was designed to suck the life out of the sport.
Ghana played a 0-0 draw against the Three Lions on Wednesday night, and it was about as exciting as watching paint dry. Queiroz’s team parked the bus, fouled strategically, and basically dared England to do something creative. They couldn’t. And that has a lot of people furious.
But not Rio Ferdinand. The former Manchester United and England defender came to Queiroz’s defense on his podcast, Rio Ferdinand Presents, saying the criticism is missing the point.
“Darren Fletcher was messaging us in the WhatsApp group with United players and he said exactly what I was thinking. This is typical Carlos Queiroz: set them up hard to play against, hard to beat, well drilled, tactically very good,” Ferdinand said. “And they’re maybe ‘boring’ for some to watch, but I think if you think, from a coach’s perspective, he’s got out of his team what he set out to get. So you have to respect that.”
Ferdinand knows Queiroz better than most. The Portuguese coach served two stints as Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United, first in 2002 and then again from 2004 to 2008. During that second spell, United won two Premier League titles and the Champions League. Queiroz also famously left the first time to manage Real Madrid, which lasted about a year before he was sacked and came back.
Not everybody at Old Trafford loved Queiroz. Roy Keane famously clashed with him, and in his autobiography, Keane said a fight with Queiroz over loyalty was one of the reasons he left the club. On ITV’s World Cup coverage back in 2018, Keane said his one big regret was that he probably should have ripped Queiroz’s head off. More recently, during this World Cup, Keane called his former coach’s personality “a dead fish.” So not a lot of love there.
What the draw means for Ghana
That point against England all but guarantees Ghana a spot in the knockout rounds, which is a huge deal for Queiroz and the country. He turned a team that wasn’t expected to do much into a group that made England look ordinary. That’s not nothing.
Fans and pundits can call it boring all they want. Queiroz probably doesn’t care. He got the result he needed, and his team is moving on. Meanwhile, England has to go figure out how to break down a defense that isn’t afraid to just sit deep and dare them to shoot from 30 yards.
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