SI:AM | Portugal Has a Cristiano Ronaldo Problem

The legendary striker is doing the team more harm than good, as evidenced by his poor play in a 1–1 draw against DR Congo.

Cristiano Ronaldo did little to help Portugal in the team’s 1–1 draw against DR Congo. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images

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In today’s SI:AM: 
🇵🇹 Portugal struggles in WC opener
⚾ MLB All-Star picks
🇲🇽 Mexico’s NBA draft prospect

How do you say “washed” in Portuguese?

Cristiano Ronaldo is undoubtedly the best player in the history of the Portuguese national team, but it’s time for the team to accept that his time as a global superstar is just that—history. 

Portugal opened its World Cup campaign on Wednesday in Houston with a 1–1 draw against DR Congo. The Portuguese scored just six minutes into the game on a header by João Neves but never really threatened again. DR Congo got an equalizer just before halftime and clamped down in the second half to earn a valuable point. 

Ronaldo contributed little to the game. He didn’t record his first shot attempt until the 67th minute, and all three of his attempts were off target. Or maybe it’s better to say that Ronaldo’s most significant contributions were negative ones. Throughout the game, he appeared to be more focused on scoring a goal than helping his team to score a goal. He seemed to believe the entire offense should run through him. 

On the Fox postgame show, Thierry Henry gave a detailed explanation of how Ronaldo’s selfishness was harming the team. Henry pointed to one moment in the second half where Portugal was threatening in the final third. Portugal had three players in the 18-yard box and three Congolese players marking them. If Ronaldo had made a run toward the goal, it would have freed up Bruno Fernandes to receive a pass with time and room to shoot. Instead, Ronaldo ran toward the ball, into the path of a pass apparently intended for Fernandes, and shot the ball wide. 

“The team needs to score, not you need to score,” Henry said. 

Ronaldo has had one of the most successful club careers of any player in the history of the game. He’s won the Ballon d’Or five times, five Champions League titles and seven championships in the biggest leagues in Europe. But success at the World Cup with Portugal has eluded him. For a player whose career has been so closely tied to Lionel Messi, the lack of a World Cup trophy is the biggest thing separating their careers. 

Ronaldo isn’t going to lead his country to a World Cup like Messi did in 2022, but he could still be part of a team that wins it. Ronaldo’s selfish, arrogant play is the biggest thing holding Portugal back right now. The DR Congo match marked the 10th straight game at a major international tournament where he did not score a goal. The Portuguese team is full of talent playing for some of the biggest teams in Europe, but it remains focused on appeasing a 41-year-old who’s spent the past four seasons collecting a paycheck in Saudi Arabia. 

That isn’t to say that Ronaldo can’t still be a positive contributor for Portugal. It’s just that his role needs to change. It’s unbelievable that Ronaldo, as ineffective as he was against DR Congo, was allowed to play the full 90 minutes. Why not bring him off the bench when the team needs a goal late in the game? Rather than having to conserve his energy to play an entire game, you could bring him on as a substitute and free him up to make more aggressive runs at goal without worrying about depleting his stamina. Fernando Santos, who managed Portugal from 2014 to ’22, was bold enough to bench Ronaldo at the last World Cup. After failing to manage a shot on goal in either of the team’s last two group stage matches, Ronaldo was not in the starting lineup for either of the team’s final two games of the tournament. Gonçalo Ramos took his place in the Round of 16 against Switzerland and scored a hat trick in a 6–1 victory. Ronaldo replaced Ramos as a substitute in the 73rd minute. He also came off the bench in the quarterfinal loss to Morocco. 

The trouble for Portugal is that Ronaldo and Ramos are the only two true strikers on the roster. Ramos’s star burned brighter a few years ago when he was tearing up the Portuguese league with Benfica and was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for about $75 million, but he’s coming off a so-so season at PSG (six goals in 30 league appearances). Still, it’s at least worth seeing if he helps the team’s offense find its rhythm better than with Ronaldo leading the charge. The good news for manager Roberto Martínez is that the team’s next game, against Uzbekistan, is a good opportunity for some experimentation. Portugal should be able to beat the World Cup debutants even if Ronaldo is still clogging up the area in front of the net. 

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… things I saw yesterday: 
5. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s dive to beat a runner to first base. 
4. Everson Pereira’s catch in center field as he crashed into the wall. Pereira’s White Sox were losing to the Yankees, 10–3, at the time. Give him credit for putting in maximum effort even with the game out of reach. “That’s what we are here for,” Pereira said of his play, speaking through an interpreter. “Even though we were down seven runs, we have a pitcher on the mound. The runs count for him, too. We want to do our best to help each other.”
3. Daniel Muñoz’s brilliant one-touch finish for Colombia’s second goal against Uzbekistan. 
2. Caleb Yirenkyi’s winning goal for Ghana against Panama late in stoppage time. Yirenkyi got the goal, but it was Antoine Semenyo’s through ball and Brandon Thomas-Asante’s dead sprint to retrieve it that made the play possible. 
1. The small cluster of Congolese fans celebrating their team’s goal against Portugal at a watch party in Lisbon.