RONALDO GIVING RIVAL THE HORNS
Portugal phenom pleads case as greatest of all-time with magical World Cup effort
Portugal wasn’t just fortunate in Wednesday’s narrow win over Morocco.
The Iberians have been living on borrowed time for years, beginning with their improbable run at the European Championship.
Better put, they’ve been riding Cristiano Ronaldo’s incessant goal-scoring form en route to continued success at major tournaments.
This is the same Portuguese side that managed just one regulation win before stealing the European title in 2016.
Even coach Fernando Santos knows they’ve gone through eight of their nine lives.
“For Morocco, it’s maybe an unfair result,” Santos said in the aftermath of Portugal’s 1-0 win. “That’s football. If you score, you win.”
At least Portugal’s chain-smoking bench boss was honest. He had to be after watching his side defend endlessly in a match that was more one-sided than anyone expected.
“I’m not happy with the performance of my team,” Santos said. Excluding Ronaldo, of course, who showed up at Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium Wednesday sporting a newly sprouted goatee with an emphasis on the “GOAT.” The typically clean-shaven goal-scoring machine undoubtedly wanted to send a message via his new facial hair: that he’s the greatest of all-time.
It didn’t matter that Ronaldo did absolutely nothing in this match but score. His headed goal minutes into Wednesday’s Group B fixture validated his repeated gags.
He stroked his hairless chin last week amid punishing Spain with a hat trick.
“He has a great coach,” Santos jokingly said post-game, later suggesting “Portugal continues to follow its normal path” at major tournaments. Santos, the realist, knows what he’s talking about. Even he’s wondering when a banana peel is finally going to appear; when and if Ronaldo isn’t going to finish his only opportunity.
“It is a lot easier to play with a player who has a goal opportunity and scores,” Moroccan coach Herve Renard said.
It was the politically correct way of saying “we did everything but score.” It’s too bad nobody will remember this Moroccan side when the tournament is done. We’re quick to forget good sides that aren’t from UEFA. Few recall Algeria’s heroic run four years ago. No, they’ll look back and see Ronaldo’s name on the score sheet. “The most gifted players are the ones who make all the difference,” Renard said, stating the obvious.
But this tournament is about more than who’s gifted. It has descended into a side show to bestow the “greatest” tag — or to at least tilt it in Ronaldo’s favour. You’d be naive to think Ronaldo isn’t viewing this World Cup as an opportunity to move ahead of Lionel Messi after the Argentine attacker struggled and squandered a penalty kick against Iceland.
He almost certainly views Monday’s meeting with Iran as an opportunity to seal the Golden Boot before the knockout phase begins.
“He’s like an (aged) wine,” Santos said of the 33-year-old Ronaldo. “He knows how to age at his best — his technical prowess, his strategy. He’s constantly evolving. He knows himself and what he can do.”
Yet here he is, at another major tournament, still doing things that stun viewers into reconsidering whether Messi really is on his level or where this Portugal team would be without him. “He has a team with him,” Santos said amid a barrage of questions concerning his captain. “Nobody plays alone.”
With Ronaldo, though, you get the sense he could do what he’s doing now with any number of teams at this World Cup.
His goals here haven’t been team goals. They’ve been individual efforts or free kicks or, like Wednesday, due to having more desire to get on the end of a
He’s like an (aged) wine. He knows how to age at his best — his technical prowess, his strategy.
corner kick.
“In some aspects, this game has some things similar with Spain,” Santos said.
For the second straight match, Portugal was second best in every single statistical category. It simply doesn’t matter when Ronaldo is raising the bar in pursuit of the designation he craves, maybe even more than winning this tournament.