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Cristiano Ronaldo World Cup 2026
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00:00Ronaldo was indulged at this World Cup and Portugal paid the price.
00:03We've been talking about this.
00:04Against Spain, Ronaldo looked sadly what he is.
00:0741-year-old legend of the game was well past his best.
00:10It was a man trying and failing to hold back the hands of time
00:14while clinging to the hope that he might somehow get to lift
00:18the one major trophy that has eluded him.
00:21Do you think Ronaldo held Portugal back?
00:24Clearly, and it's very frustrating for me as a professional takesman
00:28because I was so right about what was wrong with Portugal
00:31and then I was so wrong that they had fixed it.
00:34Because I didn't believe in Portugal from the beginning of the tournament
00:36because of this issue.
00:38And I said on the show I was picking Croatia to beat them
00:42because of this issue.
00:44I watched them in person against Colombia
00:45and saw them draw a game that they needed because of this issue.
00:51They're not playing down a man, but it's close to it
00:54for big stretches of these games.
00:56And then I thought Roberto Martinez had found the gumption
01:02to do what needed to be done.
01:04And I thought even though Ronaldo was so upset in the moment of being subbed off
01:09that maybe the euphoria of the win,
01:12that he was going to be able to take on, mixed metaphors a bit,
01:18cream late, late 80s Lakers.
01:21Like, hey, you're still important and we're still going to use you.
01:25And in fact, we might even draw up a championship-saving play for you
01:29like they did for 40-year-old Kareem.
01:32Like, you're going to have your moment,
01:33but you're not going to be the featured attraction.
01:35You're not necessarily...
01:36Kareem did start, but it's a different thing.
01:38You're not even Ronaldo's thing.
01:39You're not necessarily even going to start,
01:41but you're going to give us 25 amazing minutes at the end of these games
01:47and you are going to have the opportunity to check the only box missing.
01:50Dude, I think you vastly underestimated this guy's ego.
01:55Yes, and it vastly overestimated...
01:58I mean, Kareem had a pretty big ego himself.
02:01Vastly overestimated Roberto Martinez's ability to do that.
02:05And I'm just mad at myself because at the beginning of the tournament,
02:08I'm like, listen, I'm doing the Vasco da Gama Magellan thing
02:11about famous Portuguese guys and about how you can't bench him.
02:14But I was stunned that he took him out in a tied game against Croatia.
02:19And I was like, if you can do that, you can now do what needs to be done.
02:23He didn't.
02:24And yeah, I'm not saying they would have won the World Cup had they done this,
02:27but they would have had a better tournament had they done that.
02:31So yeah.
02:31I think Portugal held Portugal back.
02:34And Ronaldo was absolutely a part of that.
02:36But if you want to go through the checklist of where they failed,
02:43I think you start right at the top.
02:45Roberto Martinez, the head coach, like you rightfully said,
02:49you think he makes the right decision to take him off the field.
02:52And then against Spain, it was clear that the right decision was to sub him out again.
02:56And I said, very unequivocally in that show,
03:00I don't think Roberto Martinez is going to have the gumption,
03:03great work by the way, the stones, whatever you want to call it,
03:05to do that because of Ronaldo's reaction
03:07and because of the fact that you're going to live by the sword, die by the sword.
03:12Part of this is Portugal somehow with as much talent as they have,
03:17not having a bona fide challenger to say,
03:20hey, we have full faith and trust in this guy,
03:23so we're going to take Ronaldo off the field.
03:24Giancarlo Ramos is their backup striker.
03:27He scored a great goal, the game winner against Croatia.
03:31But again, you look at his actual production with the national team,
03:34with his club team, and he isn't a player that you're going to be like,
03:37he has to play over Ronaldo.
03:38Ronaldo scored the goals that he was supposed to score in the moments.
03:41Portugal's midfield was incredibly poor the whole tournament,
03:44and Roberto Martinez could never quite figure out, other than Uzbekistan,
03:48how to make this team of supremely talented individuals coalesce
03:52and become a better team.
03:54They are the most disappointing team in the entire tournament for me.
03:57They rightfully went out against Spain.
03:59Yes, Ronaldo, you have to take some of the criticism because your ego probably
04:04wouldn't allow you to say, hey, I don't want to be on the field anymore
04:07or you need to take me off the field.
04:09But Roberto Martinez was a bigger issue.
04:11Well, you wonder, was there a conversation maybe after he took him out
04:15in the previous game, whether it was Ronaldo and Martinez
04:19or some higher-ups and Martinez, whatever, right?
04:24But I do think he held him back.
04:26That game yesterday was a lot closer than I expected.
04:29I still think Spain would have won, but who knows, I mean,
04:33if they didn't have him in there.
04:34But I just think, one, he just wasn't very active throughout the game.
04:38Two, I do think his teammates just deferred to him.
04:42You're thinking maybe a little too much.
04:45You want to get him the ball.
04:46Is he impressed with you?
04:47That's what happens with legends that are, you know, past their prime with you.
04:51And then I even think it makes Martinez coach differently when he's out there
04:56because you're catering to him.
04:58So I think in all those ways, he definitely hurt him.
05:00They only scored one goal.
05:02But can you tell me the other number on there?
05:04It was 1-2.
05:06It was 1-0, as you say in soccer.
05:081-0, exactly.
05:09And so this was the fifth game that Spain has played?
05:12Stunning.
05:13So if I carry the 0-0-0, 0-0, they've allowed zero goals.
05:19They've made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup.
05:21Let me check your math.
05:22Yeah, yeah.
05:23Did you get the same?
05:24Yeah, yeah.
05:24Yeah, you're right.
05:25Zero plus zero.
05:26Yeah.
05:27Listen, I know it's Wilds' thing, defense wins championships.
05:30He trademarks that phrase.
05:31Sure.
05:31But zero goals allowed for Spain through five matches.
05:37It's a World Cup record.
05:38Yeah.
05:38And then when you add on top of it, we should just show some of the beauty.
05:42Like, their one goal today was beautiful.
05:45They have all of these chances.
05:46They dominated the match.
05:49And they still have this ability, I feel like, to just string combinations together and the ridiculous passes.
05:57And that was one of their older goals with volley, volley, volley.
06:01It's just their high watermarks are so wildly impressive that they don't put it in the back of the net
06:09as much as France.
06:10They don't have the star power, maybe, of Messi.
06:12Nobody does.
06:13But I feel like if you've allowed zero goals and when you do score, it's as pretty as this, their
06:20ceiling to me is as high as anyone in this tournament.
06:23Yeah, I don't disagree with you.
06:24And I don't actually think this was a particularly great Spanish performance.
06:27But the one thing that you do have is a full framework and ethos from which you play.
06:34And everything else falls into place after that.
06:36They are elite defensively, the best team in the world.
06:39And the best part about it is that wasn't really the narrative even coming into this tournament.
06:43The narrative was, okay, with Lamina Mall, how great of a tournament is he going to have?
06:49Their ability to keep a stranglehold on the game through possession, create chances through possession.
06:54It's going to be this aesthetically dominant and beautiful performance, game in and game out.
06:58It hasn't always looked like that.
07:00It's been more fleeting, I would say, the aesthetic dominance.
07:03Completely agreed.
07:04And so the one thing that you can fall back on when you don't play well or when you're attacking
07:08players have an off day
07:09is that you still have an excellent back line.
07:12And a back line that mixes, I think, the requisite amount of grit, calm, ability under pressure,
07:21youth and experience with Kubarsi, who's young, playing in his first World Cup,
07:26and Laporte, who's that veteran, steadying, experienced guy with Unai Simon and goal.
07:31They're an extremely balanced team.
07:32They're an extremely difficult team to break down.
07:35And while I don't necessarily think Spain was great today,
07:38they were never really bothered that much by Portugal.
07:41And Portugal never convinced me in this tournament.
07:44They were very frustrating, one of the more disappointing performers in the entire World Cup.
07:48But when you get to the 90th minute, and when you are six minutes away from extra time against Spain,
07:53you give yourself a chance.
07:54To concede a goal like that, it shows Spain, their ability to not only beat you,
07:58but the depth that they have, because that goal was a combination between two substitutes,
08:03and the depth and lack of, I think, high-level coaching that Portugal was missing.
08:08And Roberto Martinez, not fundamentally capable of changing anything tactically to make Portugal look a little bit more dangerous,
08:15and not having the horses on the bench to come in and change a game.
08:17So, they draw with Cape Verde, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, Austria, and now Portugal.
08:24So, that's their resume of the five teams they've played in this World Cup without allowing a goal.
08:28But if you go back further, they are now unbeaten in 35 straight matches.
08:33It's incredibly impressive.
08:36I feel like we're nitpicking a little bit when we talk.
08:39If it's 35 matches since a loss, no goals allowed in this World Cup.
08:44I know Nico Williams has a serious hamstring injury, and we're not expecting anything from him the rest of the
08:48tournament.
08:49But what's the flaw exactly of a team that hasn't lost in 35 matches and hasn't allowed a goal?
08:55Not a ton of flaws.
08:56I think the only thing you could say and nitpick is that Lamin Amal doesn't really look back to his
09:00best yet.
09:02He was a little sloppy, a little careful.
09:04You can either look at that as a positive or a negative for other teams.
09:07Because once he gets back to his best, it does feel like a very tall task in order to beat
09:12this team.
09:13But Lamin Amal will get better.
09:15He was a little bit sloppy today.
09:17He was a little bit rusty.
09:18He was playing against the best fullback in the world, the best left fullback in the world in Nuno Meng,
09:23who was fantastic until he had to come out with an injury.
09:26But it is a daunting task to have to play any one of these favorites remaining in Argentina, in France,
09:32or in Spain.
09:33I do think that there is a clear delineation between France, Argentina, Spain right underneath that, and then everyone else,
09:41the field.
09:42So I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that if the U.S. men's national team gets through
09:47Belgium tonight that they can spring an upset.
09:49But it would have to be a monumental, almost perfect performance.
09:54Spain has outshot every opponent they've played in the World Cup thus far.
09:57A couple of those opponents outshot them by 10-plus shots.
10:00So with the loss, Cristiano Ronaldo's World Cup career comes to an end.
10:05He said that this was going to be his last World Cup.
10:0811 goals across 27 appearances.
10:10The only player in history to score in six different World Cups.
10:15And in this one, he finished with three goals, including a penalty in the round of 32 against Croatia.
10:22Dax, it's impossible to sum up a legend's career here.
10:25But how will you remember Ronaldo's World Cup?
10:27I'll remember Ronaldo's World Cup for exactly what I thought it was going to be coming into this tournament.
10:32I thought he would score goals.
10:33I thought he would be a difference maker against teams that Portugal was clearly dominant over.
10:39But against the best teams in the world, against the best back lines in the world, where they are extremely
10:44organized, fit, athletic, have the legs on Ronaldo, I thought that he would struggle.
10:49And that's exactly what we saw.
10:51And it's not just a Cristiano Ronaldo problem.
10:53I thought that this Portuguese team would be significantly more dynamic in the final third than they were.
10:59Their midfield didn't play well.
11:00Their manager got the tactics wrong in almost every game.
11:04And it was a moment of brilliance here and there that kind of bailed them out.
11:07But other than that performance against Uzbekistan, where Cristiano Ronaldo had two really well-taken finishes, that shows you him
11:14at his absolute best.
11:16The entire Portuguese team absolutely was not good enough on the whole in this tournament.
11:21It is a shame that it is coming to an end for Ronaldo in this fashion because he is going
11:25to take a significant amount of criticism, fairly or unfairly.
11:29I do not think it is all deserved.
11:31I think that in the moments he stepped up and finished his chances, he did what he is supposed to
11:35do.
11:35Now, I think that Roberto Martinez needed to come up with more solutions to help his team play better, to
11:41help Ronaldo look a little bit better.
11:43But ultimately, I don't think anyone should be surprised that he feasted on the teams that were overmatched and didn't
11:48necessarily...
11:49He was, I would say, a little bit more anonymous against the great teams in this tournament that they played.
11:53I mean, they were openly talking during this broadcast that Spain did not really need to respect him when he
11:58was hanging back because he couldn't outrun anybody on their team.
12:01And, you know, still a dangerous player, but not, like, defending him in a completely different way than he would
12:06have earlier in his career.
12:06And the saddest part about that, Danny, is that he was still Portugal's most dangerous player in terms of opportunities.
12:11That's the double-edged sword of the whole story.
12:12Correct.
12:13So that is a Portugal problem, not necessarily a Cristiano problem.
12:16So, listen, I thought that, you know, this was a World Cup of Stars, and in a somewhat disappointing World
12:22Cup for Ronaldo, he still had three goals.
12:24Yep.
12:25Amazing, given that we've seen World Cups where he's had zero.
12:28Yep.
12:28But it's just kind of the era of which we're playing in right now.
12:31But also, not to look too far ahead, and not to bring in too much of my NFL or NBA
12:39brain to this, the next World Cup's in four years.
12:42The host countries, Spain, Morocco, and Portugal.
12:47Oh, boy.
12:47We're positive.
12:49Like, we're positive that this is Ronaldo's last World Cup, or maybe is he more of, like, a ceremonial figurehead
12:55that would come off the bench and, yes, take up a roster spot,
12:58but be there for, you know, we see it with Brazil's roster.
13:02Sometimes you just get a guy on the roster who's like, we're happy that you're here because of who you
13:06are.
13:07Yeah, I think that I'm not positive with anything these days in terms of some of the things that we
13:12have seen in this World Cup.
13:13Four years comes fast.
13:14It's some of the shocks that we've seen.
13:16I am as close to 100% as you can possibly be that this was Ronaldo's last World Cup.
13:22And it would be an utter shock my jaw would be on the floor if he's even mentioned,
13:27and even in the Portuguese national team set up six months from now.
13:30Okay, yeah.
13:32Maybe an assistant coach, a player coach.
13:34He doesn't have to be six months from now.
13:36He just needs to be on the roster when they actually host the World Cup.
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