Portugal

Portugal failed to live up to expectations in their first match of this World Cup and I have a feeling they will again today. Take away Ronaldo from Portugal and you are left with very little and if he is not having one of his special days, he is just another player.

I am writing this so I can be wrong. I so desperately want to see Ronaldo do well but in this team, I can not see it happening. Also, I suspect North Korea are going to be very well organised and they will know all about threat levels.

Portugal will be without winger Nani for the World Cup after he picked up a shoulder injury last week.

I wanted to write influential winger about Nani but he isn't really, despite having a much better end to the season with Manchester United. He would be with most teams, but with Ronaldo, Portugal can feel confident that they have the best in the business.

We know little here at the World Cup 2010 website about the Portugal squad. We know many of the players yes, but we must admit we are a little unsure about this side, how they have played together and how we expect them to do, so we asked Ricardo, our Portuguese friend.

Ricardo wasn't surprised that Carlos Queiroz picked Pepe, despite him not playing for real Madrid since December but he is a little upset that Ze Castro was the player that made way. So upset that a little tear appeared in his eye.

Portugal are fairly sure they know who they will be taking to South Africa next month and as such, have announced today their provisional 24 man squad - six players less than they are allowed but only one more than they have to submit on June 1st.

The big surprise in the squad is Real Madrid defender Pepe who has been out of action since December with a knee injury and has only just returned to light training.