Anything Lionel Messi can do, Cristiano Ronaldo seems to no longer be able to do better. Just one day after the Argentine superstar affirmed his class with a performance showing that his talent still lasts with time, his biggest opponent opened the World Cup in a completely opposite way, exposing signs of age and decline.
The hat-trick against Algeria helped Messi increase his total number of goals at the World Cup to 16, double Ronaldo's achievement. More importantly, that performance proved that Argentina's strategy of building a team around a veteran legend is still completely reasonable.
Conversely, in the third consecutive major tournament, Ronaldo is facing doubts about his role in Portugal's playing style. The 1-1 draw against the DRC shows the difficulties when they try to place all expectations on a monument that has turned 41.
For one of the championship contenders, it was a disappointing start. Portugal had problems. And perhaps Ronaldo is part of that problem.
The draw against Congo puts Portugal at risk of facing a more difficult draw in the knockout round, while blurring the prospect of the final reunion between Ronaldo and Messi at the World Cup.
Despite participating in his sixth World Cup in his career, Ronaldo has not yet been able to become the first player to score in six different World Cups. And in the match in Houston, he did not even approach that milestone.
Currently, Ronaldo has gone through 10 consecutive matches at the World Cup and EURO without scoring for Portugal. Portugal controlling the ball for nearly 75% of the match time but only creating a expected goal score (xG) of 0.69 partly reflects the inefficiency in the attack. However, the bigger problem lies in Ronaldo no longer having enough speed to exploit the space behind the opponent's defense, and no longer being able to move flexibly to stretch the defense system.
European Selecao" almost had to play with a striker very little present in the penalty area. They could not put pressure continuously, could not pull the opponent out of position and could not create the necessary spaces.
Even in a situation that seemed to be heavily marked by Ronaldo - a header goal - the scorer was midfielder Joao Neves, not their captain.
Ronaldo finished the match with 3 shots, but none of them were on target. In one situation, he shot hastily while Bruno Fernandes was in a more favorable position and was completely unmarked. Disappointment was evident on the face of the Manchester United captain.
However, Ronaldo was still present on the field for 90 minutes. From a certain perspective, this is understandable. It is very difficult to withdraw from the field a player who has scored 143 goals for the national team and nearly 1,000 goals in his career when the team needs a decisive moment.
But that also highlights the feeling that Ronaldo is being treated in a special way. Bernardo Silva was substituted. Pedro Neto was substituted. Even when Goncalo Ramos was brought on, the person leaving the field was Vitinha, not Ronaldo.
This is also a familiar story under Roberto Martinez. At EURO 2024, the Spanish strategist only replaced Ronaldo once in 5 matches. All personnel decisions seem to apply to all other players, except for the captain.
Since then, Ronaldo has still scored in the qualifiers, Nations League and Saudi Arabia national championship. However, that form is no longer re-enacted on the highest stages of world football.
The remarkable number is not 973 goals in his career, but a streak of 10 consecutive matches at the World Cup and EURO without scoring. CR7's goal drought at major tournaments has now lasted 801 minutes.
The question is how long will that series of matches last for Martinez to dare to change?
