Don’t let the title of this article fool you: of course I think Cristiano Ronaldo is still Portugal’s best player.  It’s just that sometimes recently, he’s had to do it on his own.  And when he hasn’t shown up to work, the results have been downright embarrassing.

In the past decade, football fans have witnessed Portugal wax to almost Euro 2004 winners and routine vanquishers of Brazil (in friendlies mostly, but still), and then wane to something less than.

Currently they occupy an ambiguous position where they’re not real contenders for a major international trophy, but on their day, can trash anybody.  It’s difficult to see them negotiating a knockout stage the way Spain did — beating Holland, Germany, Paraguay and of course, Portugal, to win the World Cup.  But it’s also hard to see them treading the Dutch’s route (Slovakia, Brazil, Uruguay before losing to Spain) or Germany’s (England and Argentina before losing to Spain).  What’s happening here?

During the 2010 World Cup they escaped their challenging group by avoiding loss to Brazil and got dumped out of the tournament by Spain.  Through this game we can see Portugal’s problem.  They still have  the problem today, but maybe they have a way out of it, too.  Towards the end of the Spain game and down a goal, the Portuguese team would often just lob a ball to lonely Cristiano Ronaldo up top, who was quickly and comfortably closed down by the Spanish defense.  The Portuguese support players didn’t know how to get past their Iberian counterparts, and the attacks usually died before the commentators could begin to describe it.

When talking about Spain, people can’t refer to “the support” because over half the team has ability to change games.  Fabregas, ostensibly a support player for Spain though clearly one of the most complete midfielders in England, played the ball to Iniesta to win the tournament.  The support team on Portugal can be the ten players behind Ronaldo, which is never the recipe for success in football.  I don’t mean to slight the very solid players they have, but as of summer 2010, only Cristiano Ronlado was a game changer.

Now, as Nani said of himself recently, there could be another one in the works.  While it’s easy to mock his arrogance, Nani is right in that he is winning games for Manchester United.  He is decisive, or at least he has been for the opening part of the season.  Whether he can continue this form will be vital for United, but more so for Portugal.

If someone can help the Real Madrid man create chances, take on opponents, score goals — and do this all well enough to win matches — then Portugal will have a much better chance than they’ve had in the past 2 major tournaments, where “Ronaldependencia” might have cost them.  Look at the demolition that Portugal inflicted on Spain most recently.  It’s not as if Ronaldo was the only player on the pitch.  To be sure he was excellent, and his excellence raised the game of his compatriots.  But Nani showed up in fine form too, making Portugal that much harder to contain.

It’s currently unclear if midfield players like Raul Meireles, Miguel Veloso and Coutinho can hold the center of the pitch adequately against top opponents, or if the center back pairing of Pepe and Bruno Alves will be stingy enough (after Carvalho hangs up his boots).  But perhaps a newly excellent Nani in attack, coupled with the exciting Fabio Coentrao and the always-determined Ronaldo can lead Portugal towards something great again.

This isn’t to say Nani is the only other good player on the team.  There is plenty of talent in Portugal, as evidenced by the savage defeat of Spain.  It’s just that of all the players, Nani is the most likely to help bring the team to new heights.

Portugal will most likely be missing Cristiano Ronaldo when it hosts Bosnia-Herzegovina on 11/14/09 as it looks to build some momentum prior to the return leg in Bosnia on the 18th of November. Unfortunately for the Portuguese the latest report claims Ronaldo will be out for about a month which means he will not feature in both matches for the national team.

It is hard to determine the extent of the damage that Portugal will suffer as a result of his absence yet his performances during the qualifiers have been mediocre at best by his standards. Regardless of previous displays, missing out on the current world player of the year is definitely not an encouraging sign, in particular when the opponent is a dangerous Bosnian side full of offensive menace. While Bosnia’s defense remains susceptible, which would have meant more chances for Ronaldo to shine, the country’s attack features some lethal forwards in the shape of Edin Dzeko (pictured above right), Vedad Ibisevic, and Zvjezdan Misimovic. The Bosnian national team registered 25 goals in the group stage, trailing only England, Spain and Germany in the goals scored by any national team in European qualifiers. It would be wrong to assume the Bosnian team is limited to a potent attack although the defense has leaked 13 goals during the campaign. The Bosnians also have the advantage of playing the return leg on home soil.

On the other hand and despite the likely absence of Ronaldo, Portugal will still have its plethora of stars with Chelsea’s Deco, Manchester United’s Nani and of course defenders Pepe (Real Madrid), Jose Bosingwa & Ricardo Carvalho (both Chelsea), Atletico de Madrid’s Simao Sabrosa. The Portuguese side might have sneaked into the play-offs after a stuttering start, yet the fixture list featured a single defeat and revealed a water-tight defense which conceded a mere give goals in a group which also included Denmark and Sweden. It will be an interesting tussle between Portugal’s stingy defense and Bosnia’s elusive attack force. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to underestimate the set of skills that defines Portugal’s creative players such as Deco. One factor that may serve in Bosnia’s favour is the experience of the shrewd coach Miroslav Blazevic who led Croatia to the semi-finals in France 1998 when the French eliminated the Croatians on route to the World Cup triumph.

With Ronaldo missing, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the Portuguese players react and whether they will work hard together in order to offset his absence. On the other side, a hungry opponent in the shape of the Bosnian players will try to feed off the frenzy that has been created by the advancement to this stage of the qualifiers. Let the fireworks begin in what should be a cracking game between two sides more than capable of scoring on their day.