Why Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2026 FIFA World Cup opener wasn’t as simple as zero goals

For nearly two decades, Cristiano Ronaldo lived with a burden that very few athletes in any sport have had to bear.He spent most of his career comparing himself not to his contemporaries but to his own past. Against a winger who made his mark at Manchester United. Against an athlete who jumped higher than the defenders and outran the full back. Against a machine that scored 50 goals every season almost like a routine. This 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. Criticism came from everywhere. Thierry Henry accused him of thinking of an own goal when Bruno Fernandes was in a better position. Paul Scholes described him as a ‘problem’. Chris Sutton suggested Roberto Martinez was too scared to replace him.The contrast with Lionel Messi only amplified the noise.A day earlier, Messi scored three goals against Algeria. Kylian Mbappe reported with a brace. Harry Kane scored twice for England. Erling Haaland found the net too. And then there was Ronaldo. Three tries. No shots on target. No goals.Ronaldo’s performance fueled debate about the 41-year-old becoming a hindrance compared to the younger stars lighting up the World Cup.But the numbers paint a more complex picture. Yes, no one needs numbers to tell them that Ronaldo had a bad night in front of goal, but football has never been a game where forwards operate in isolation.What happens around them matters almost as much as what they do themselves. The deeper data suggests that Portugal’s biggest problem may not have been Ronaldo.According to FIFA’s post-match tracking reports, Ronaldo made 47 offballs during the match – second only to Mbappe’s 50 and more than Harry Kane and Haaland combined. Yet Portugal only found him with a pass 10 times, meaning just 21.3 per cent of his runs were rewarded with possession. Messi, by comparison, made 32 runs and received the ball 16 times, a 50 percent success rate. Kane received four passes from 15 runs, while Haaland was found twice from eight moves.The numbers raise a nagging question for Portugal: has Ronaldo been ignored too often?The numbers coming in tell their own story and perhaps explain why comparing Ronaldo directly to Messi is increasingly misleading. Messi attempted 40 passes in Argentina’s passing game, twice as many as Ronaldo, and completed 30 of them.But the difference says more about role than influence. Messi operated deeper, often dropping into midfield and acting as Argentina’s main creator. Ronaldo, meanwhile, has only attempted 20 passes, the same as Harry Kane and more than Erling Haaland’s eight.More interestingly, he passed 19 of them, giving him a 95 percent success rate — the highest of the five. At 41, Ronaldo increasingly resembles a penalty-area striker whose value lies in movement rather than orchestration.Haaland’s numbers probably offer the closest parallel. The Norwegian only attempted eight passes as Manchester City’s approach to him has long been one of service rather than involvement.Ronaldo’s passing load goes in the same direction. He’s no longer trying to be the guy who touches the ball 50 times and runs the game.The challenge for Portugal is that even though their captain has developed into a specialist finisher, the team around him still seem to use him as a focal point and ask him to do things he no longer needs to do.However, where criticism has weight is in front of the goal.Ronaldo’s three attempts did not 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 attempts and scored twice, while Kane and Haaland also made their chances count.Physical data offers another interesting insight.Ronaldo covered 8,389 meters during the game – more than Messi’s 6,808m – disproving claims that he no longer relies on hard yards. However, the numbers also reveal where the age has come. He only registered 73 meters of high-speed running at 25 km/h or faster. Haaland managed 438 meters, Mbappe 225 and Kane 117. Ronaldo still has a speed of 30.7 km/h, but the repeated bursts that once defined his game are becoming rarer.What has changed is not his willingness to run. It’s the frequency with which he can produce those explosive bursts that once terrified defenders. Haaland covered six times the distance at top speed. Mbappe remains in a completely different category. Portugal also created very little all evening. Their Expected Goal was just 0.57, comfortably the lowest of the five teams led by global superstars in this comparison. Argentina scored three goals. France scored three goals. England scored four goals. Norway scored four.Portugal scored once in the opening minutes and struggled to regain control for most of the evening. Roberto Martinez himself later admitted this.“We didn’t reach the final third at the level we needed to, to serve the striker and use his movements,” he said. Ronaldo’s finishing deserves scrutiny, but the notion that he wasn’t willing to work doesn’t hold up in the data.He ran on. Portugal simply looked 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 game in Qatar four years ago before lifting the trophy a few weeks later.