RONALDO PROVES HIS GREATNESS AT MESSI’S EXPENSE
Portuguese striker may be the best ever with team on cusp of the knockout stage
Some athletes want it to happen. Others wish it would happen. The greats, however, make it happen.
Michael Jordan’s words utterly characterize Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup to this point.
They also explain Lionel Messi’s anonymity.
Ronaldo has been everything to a decidedly average Portuguese team that has needed him to find goals.
They’ll likely need him to do it again today and for as long as the defending European champs are in this tournament.
Begrudgingly, I find myself tempted to leave Team Messi after watching the diminutive Argentinian essentially shrug his shoulders in an embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Croatia. He wasn’t much better in a 1-1 tie with Iceland.
Messi’s beyond fortunate coach Jorge Sampaoli was the preferred target last week following their country’s worst moment.
Messi could just have easily bore the brunt of criticism considering his effortless outing wasn’t beyond reproach.
But set aside, for a moment, criticism of Sampaoli’s selection and Argentina’s team sheet and any other excuses that were given for Messi’s laboured showing.
Messi’s performance Thursday didn’t result because of who was around him or the game state. It was the consequence of his lack of desire.
It’s inexcusable a player with so much freedom finished the first half of the Croatia match with the second fewest touches on his team.
He made it easy on a Croatian squad that was playing more open than Iceland and leaving the five-time Ballon d’Or winner plenty of space to pick up additional possessions.
But Messi didn’t want to or wouldn’t. He disappeared well before Croatia put the game out of reach, leaving Sampaoli to be the fall guy.
It’s as if he’s treating this tournament like an obligation instead of an opportunity, like he wants something to happen, but isn’t obsessed with making Argentina a threat to return to the final.
Ronaldo has done the exact opposite with a supporting cast that’s no better than the group currently surrounding his counterpart.
The difference, though, is you can tell Ronaldo is constantly in search of goals. He’s driving his teammates on and living and dying with every touch in the final third.
What’s separating the Portuguese from Messi right now is his desire to turn a mediocre team into a contender.
A player with less God-given talent is inching ahead of the Argentinian in the “greatest” race through sheer determination.
Ronaldo has made things happen at this World Cup because he knows it’s the only way Portugal can reach a quarter-final.
Anyone on the fence between these two players is either leaning toward Ronaldo or has already fallen off after taking in these performances. It only adds intrigue to this week’s slate of decisive group stage games that will go a long way in determining whether Ronaldo can legitimately point to himself as the best ever.
However, the problem with this never-ending debate has been the tendency for one of these two players to one-up anything the other does.
They’ve been trading Ballon d’Ors and La Liga awards for the better part of a decade.
The expectation, therefore, should be that Messi will get the last word when Argentina enters a do-or-die game Tuesday against Nigeria.
We know he has the ability to grab hold of this decisive fixture and single-handedly rescue Argentina’s blushes.
The only question is whether he wants to, whether he desires knocking Ronaldo off his current pedestal.
And that, in essence, is why I’ve moved to Team Ronaldo following the previous two weeks.
You get the sense the Portuguese legend is hell bent on dragging his country across the finish line.
Messi’s greatness stems from talent alone. Right now he’s lacking the ingredient that’s making Ronaldo shine at this World Cup: relentlessness.
Anyone on the fence between these two players is either leaning toward Ronaldo or has already fallen off after taking in these performances.