Euro 2016: A defense of Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo can’t seem to find his footing in Euro 2016 after another disappointing match vs. a poor Austrian team.
Wow.
There is no arguing that Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the two best players in the world right now, but after another disappointing match vs. Austria people are beginning to speculate Euro 2016 might not be his international break.
Portugal came into the tournament touted as the obvious group F winner and as having a good shot at bringing home some hardware. Now, after two incredibly disappointing matches, especially for Ronaldo, Portugal is not even a lock to move out of their group, sitting in third place.
For Ronaldo, this tournament can easily be described as a nightmare. The stats themselves don’t paint a pretty picture for him, but the highlights make it even worse. He only managed to put 2 of his 11 shots on target vs. Iceland, missing golden opportunities to secure his country a critical three points. After another incredible season for Real Madrid, both in La Liga and the Champions League, he was missing opportunities that his club side fans would have already been celebrating. He had headers going stray and he put multiple free kicks right into the goalkeeper’s hands.
After that game almost everybody assured fans that there would be no way Ronaldo would have another performance as poor as that. Unfortunately for Portugal fans, they were wrong.
While he was struggling to capitalize again vs. Austria on match-day two, the heartbreaking moment came in the 79th minute. After an Austrian defender made a tackle in the box that NFL defensive coordinators would have applauded, he stepped up to the mark and put his penalty kick off the left post. He even had a chance to redeem himself in the 85th minute, but was flagged offsides on a free kick he headed into the back of the net.
As a fan of entertaining soccer, it pains me to watch a player of his caliber struggle so much, even if he did make some classes comments after the Iceland game.
Even with his struggles in this tournament, I think it is ludicrous to call Ronaldo a choker. All you have to do is look at his club honors and his individual honors to realize that this accusation is an absolute joke at the club level.
As far as his international record goes, since his debut in 2003 Portugal have made it past group play at every major tournament except the 2014 World Cup where Ronaldo saved any chance of them getting out of group play with an incredible cross in second half stoppage time against the US. In 128 appearances for his country, he has scored 58 goals, which means he scores a goal almost every other game.
To understand just how good Ronaldo is all you have to do is look at the criticism he has faced after two bad games. For a man who has over 800 appearances for club and country to be subject to such scrutiny after two games, both in which Portugal has gotten a point, shows his caliber.
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- Portugal’s Pepe confirms his availability in Euro final
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Not to mention, Portugal has absolutely dominated both their games in every way besides the final scoreline. While at the end of the day that’s really the only stat the matters, it should be noted because if Ronaldo had been finishing those chances I think people would be saying that Portugal looks like the most dominant team in the tournament.
Even though this was said before the Austria game, I really can’t see Ronaldo not stepping up going forward. I will not hesitate to fall on my sword otherwise, but I think Euro spectators should prepare for an insane turnaround.
Ronaldo knows at 31 years of age that he has this tournament and the next World Cup left before he is no longer 100% and I expect that to show from here on out. Outlandish as it may sound, I think these two games could be a good thing for Ronaldo, giving him an all important wake up call.