For nearly two decades, Cristiano Ronaldo has lived with a burden that very few athletes in any sport have had to carry.He has spent most of his career being measured not against his contemporaries, but against his own past. Against the winger who burst through at Manchester United. Against the athlete who leapt higher than defenders and outran full-backs. Against the machine that scored 50 goals every season almost as a matter of routine. That standard has not changed. Only the player has.Which is perhaps why Portugal’s 1-1 draw against DR Congo in Houston quickly became less about the result and more about Ronaldo. The criticism came from everywhere. Thierry Henry accused him of thinking about his own goal when Bruno Fernandes was in a better position. Paul Scholes described him as a ‘problem’. Chris Sutton suggested Roberto Martinez was too afraid to substitute him.The contrast with Lionel Messi only amplified the noise.A day earlier, Messi had scored three against Algeria. Kylian Mbappe had announced himself with a brace. Harry Kane had scored twice for England. Erling Haaland had found the net too.And then there was Ronaldo. Three attempts. No shots on target. No goals.Ronaldo’s performance sparked the debate that has the 41-year-old become a liability compared to younger stars lighting up the FIFA World Cup.The numbers, however, paint a more complicated picture. Yes, nobody needs numbers to tell them that Ronaldo had a poor night in front of goal, but football has never been a game where strikers operate in isolation.What happens around them matters almost as much as what they do themselves. The deeper data suggests Portugal’s biggest problem may not have been Ronaldo.According to FIFA’s post-match tracking reports, Ronaldo made 47 off-ball runs during the match — second only to Mbappe’s 50 and more than Harry Kane and Haaland combined. Yet Portugal found him with a pass only 10 times, meaning just 21.3 percent of his runs were rewarded with possession.
Messi, by comparison, made 32 runs and received the ball on 16 occasions, a 50 percent success rate. Kane received four passes from 15 runs while Haaland was found twice from eight movements.The figures raise an uncomfortable question for Portugal: was Ronaldo ignored too often?The passing numbers tell their own story, and perhaps explain why comparing Ronaldo directly with Messi has become increasingly misleading. Messi attempted 40 passes in Argentina’s opener, twice as many as Ronaldo, and completed 30 of them.The difference, though, says more about role than influence. Messi operated deeper, often dropping into midfield and acting as Argentina’s chief creator. Ronaldo, meanwhile, attempted only 20 passes, the same as Harry Kane and more than Erling Haaland’s eight.More interestingly, he completed 19 of them, giving him a 95 percent success rate – the highest among the five.
At 41, Ronaldo is increasingly resembling a penalty-box striker whose value lies in movement rather than orchestration.Haaland’s numbers offer perhaps the closest parallel. The Norwegian attempted only eight passes because Manchester City’s approach with him has long been built around service rather than involvement.Ronaldo’s passing load points in the same direction. He is no longer trying to be the man who touches the ball 50 times and runs the game.The challenge for Portugal is that while their captain has evolved into a specialist finisher, the team around him still appears caught between using him as a focal point and asking him to do things he no longer needs to do.Where the criticism holds weight, though, is in front of goal.Ronaldo’s three attempts failed to trouble the goalkeeper. Messi produced six shots and four on target en route to his hat-trick. Mbappe hit the target with all four of his efforts and scored twice, while Kane and Haaland also made their chances count.Physical data offers another intriguing insight.Ronaldo covered 8,389 metres during the game – more than Messi’s 6,808m – dispelling claims that he no longer puts in the hard yards. However, the numbers also reveal where age has caught up.
He registered only 73 metres of high-speed running at 25 km/h or above. Haaland managed 438 metres, Mbappe 225 and Kane 117. Ronaldo still has the speed to touch 30.7 km/h, but the repeated explosive bursts that once defined his game are becoming increasingly rare.What has changed is not his willingness to run. It is the frequency with which he can produce those explosive bursts that once terrified defenders. Haaland covered six times more distance at top speed. Mbappe remains in a different category altogether.
Portugal also created very little all evening. Their expected goals figure stood at just 0.57, comfortably the lowest among the five teams led by global superstars in this comparison. Argentina scored three. France scored three. England scored four. Norway scored four.Portugal scored once inside the opening minutes and spent much of the evening struggling to regain control. Roberto Martinez himself admitted as much afterwards.“We didn’t reach the final third at the level we needed in order to provide service to the striker and make use of his movements,” he said.
Ronaldo’s finishing deserves scrutiny, but the idea that he was unwilling to work does not stand up to data.He kept running. Portugal simply kept looking elsewhere.And as the World Cup has shown before, one quiet opening game rarely tells the whole story. Lionel Messi failed to score in Argentina’s first match in Qatar four years ago before lifting the trophy weeks later.
