Pauleta’s rain dance leaves out Poles

Portugal’s victory left them on three points in group D, one fewer than both South Korea and the United States, who drew 1-1 earlier on Monday. Poland, who lost 2-0 to the Koreans in their opener, are eliminated from the tournament without a goal to their name.

“It was a well-fought game in which Portugal entirely and justly got the result they deserved. Everything is still open but we do have our first three points,” Portugal coach Antonio Oliveira said. “The difference today was the team spirit.”

Pauleta, whose hat-trick was the first by a Portuguese player at the finals since Eusebio in 1966, opened the scoring in the 14th minute.

He brought down a diagonal cross from Joao Pinto on the Portuguese left, turned inside his marker and beat Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek at his near post with a powerful right foot drive.

The Portuguese had the better of the rest of the match but pouring rain turned the pitch into a skating rink, thwarting their attempts to play their trademark fluid football.

But in the 65th minute Pauleta added his second, stealing inside his marker and sliding in on the edge of the six metre box to meet a Luis Figo cross and force the ball over the line.

Figo curled a shot against the base of Dudek’s left hand post two minutes later as the Portuguese continued to pile on the pressure. Pauleta completed his hat-trick, the second of the World Cup, in the 77th minute, weaving past defender Tomasz Waldoch before slamming a low shot past the unfortunate Dudek.

The rain which many had predicted would be a major feature of this World Cup finally came just before kick-off in the 32nd match of the tournament. (Reuters)