Ronaldo goals won’t please ‘everyone who loves football’ but he’s made his point | OneFootball

Here he is, look. Here comes Cristiano Ronaldo.

This World Cup has been a party where all the stars had dazzled with one conspicuous exception. But, after a rotten display from Ronaldo specifically and Portugal generally against DR Congo, this was far more like it against a Uzbekistan team simply not up to the task of dealing with any of it.

There was undeniably a change of approach from Portugal and Ronaldo here. We don’t want to say it was a more humble Ronaldo. We’re really not sure there is such a thing, and the celebration after his opening goal of the tournament wasn’t that of a man feeling any kind of reduced status by watching Messi, Haaland, Mbappe and co. fill their boots.

The inevitable ‘Well done, it’s Uzbekistan’ responses are harsh, though. The sense of relief at his first goal of a tournament his fellow superstars have lit up was genuine and understandable.

But there was also a different sense to Portugal here. Maybe it was a response to the criticism from the opening game, maybe not. Maybe it was just, like another stand-out contender for the title in Spain, a team warming to their task after a sticky start.

But there was a difference in mood even before the goal, which took barely seven minutes to arrive. A greater sense of Ronaldo as part of a team of equals rather than still striving desperately and unnecessarily and above all counter-productively to be the centre of all attention to the detriment of himself and his teammates. They really are better off this way, and so is Ronaldo.

His opening goal was a brilliant near-post finish that was hit, in cricket parlance, on the up rather than merely on the half-volley, amplifying the difficulty tariff significantly. His second was a classic one-on-one finish after being expertly played in by the assist king Bruno Fernandes. These were goals where Ronaldo’s expert finishing came from high-class build-up play. It’s not rocket surgery: Ronaldo doesn’t need to be involved in absolutely everything when there is so much quality throughout this team. He can apply the finishing touches.

Without wishing to get too zero goals about it, we must admit our favourite Ronaldo contribution wasn’t either of his goals but his pantomime performance for Portugal’s second. It hinted at a welcome and unexpected degree of self-awareness.

When Portugal won a free-kick on the edge of the box, all eyes were instinctively on Ronaldo. He knew it, too. Standing there in classic pose, shorts pulled up and thighs flexing. Abduvahkid Nematov was still looking at Ronaldo when Nuno Mendes caught everyone out by simply slamming the free-kick into the middle of the goal.

Ronaldo so expertly playing up to his pantomime villain role as the selfish stifler of Portugal’s hopes was, it must be said, f*cking brilliant. It was a fabulous performance.

Ronaldo’s existence as the main/only topic of discussion was hammered home by ITV’s bizarre reaction to it all. When he scored Portugal’s third goal, Sam Matterface instinctively announced the score as 2-0. Only Ronaldo goals really count, don’t they?

Lee Dixon spent the entire game under the curious misapprehension that Ronaldo is universally loved and adored. The idea that ‘everyone who loves football’ would be pleased to see him score is to misunderstand Ronaldo himself, and football fans more generally.

FIFA will be pleased. Whether anyone there truly loves football or not we leave for you to decide, but they surely can’t believe their luck at this point. If we were to sum up this tournament so far in four words it would be ‘Football Finds A Way’. The actual football has been far better than anyone involved in the organisation of this tournament deserves.

The expansion of the tournament has led to mismatches, but also to great moments from Cape Verde and Curacao among others, while an undeniable effect of the increase in potential mismatches has been to see the very best players in the game highlighted rather than diluted as we’d feared.

It was no surprise to see Ronaldo remain on the pitch as Portugal made the inevitable raft of substitutions while easing to a restorative 5-0 win – he hasn’t completely lost the plot.

But there is an undeniable irony to it all for Ronaldo. By showing greater willingness to play to and with the strengths of his phenomenally gifted team-mates he went a long way to returning himself to the centrality and status he so craves. He even managed a smile rather than a scowl when missing a late chance to complete the hat-trick he wanted so desperately.

In a tournament of almost non-stop record-breaking, Ronaldo now has his own slices of history. The first man to score in six World Cups. Ahead of Eusebio now as Portugal’s all-time leading World Cup goalscorer. Into the top 10 for all-comers.

He is no longer the player he once was. It is no longer sensible or necessary for him to be Portugal’s sole point of threat. But in this more munificent mood he and this fabulous team can do plenty of damage in this tournament.