How Cristiano Ronaldo’s innuendoes foretold Portugal’s weak World Cup exit

In a press conference before Portugal and Spain played at the FIFA World Cup, the Portugal captain and talisman, the great Cristiano Ronaldo said some things that foretold what was about to happen.

According to him, no matter what happened during the game, his conscience was clear.

Coming from a very passionate and ambitious player like him with an utter winner’s mindset, those words were very damning and not those of a winner but more like those of someone resigned to the inevitability of fate and that though they had tried their very best, it hadn’t been good enough.

So, unsurprisingly, they lost the game weakly by just one goal scored very late by a Spain substitute, Mikel Merino, from an assist provided by another substitute, Ferran Torres, who would later go on to score the goal that would win the World Cup for Spain against an Argentina team that had the great Lionel Messi in it as its talisman.

Anyone who knows Ronaldo’s extreme winner’s mentality, and heard those surprising words coming from him, especially the statement, “no matter what happens,” knew immediately that the game was over for Portugal because the words certainly weren’t those of someone that believed they would win Spain but rather that they would just try their best and see what happened.

And, considering that the Portugal team is filled with immense talent, and many people believed they would win the World Cup, they really let themselves down with their pre-attitude to the Spain game, as transmitted to the world through Ronaldo, and it’s obvious his stance also arose from what he was feeling in the dressing room as well as the defensive tactics they were training for against Spain.

And defensive play is never a good thing in football.

Football is one sport that the adage, Attack is the best form of defense, is true of, so if only they had attacked Spain with gusto and belief, they would have won the game as Spain wasn’t so special itself and just scraped by them with a goal that can be said to be lucky and that they produced in a Portugal moment of loss of concentration.

Sadly, they didn’t attack, their defensive play was very embarrassing for a team of their talent, stature and experience, and Ronaldo’s statement, that his conscience is clear no matter what happened in the game, which was probably intended to mean that he was committed to giving his best in the game as he does for every game, now actually sound like the opposite of what he meant.

Oh well, that’s just life for you.

It won’t always go the way you want it to.