At 41, under fire Ronaldo proves his hunger for goals is undiminished
We have been here before. Us, the hapless sports scribes, who marshalled every tenet of footballing logic to argue against his presence. The weary supporters, who no longer found the energy to defend their idol. The opponents, who assumed he had lost his powers of intimidation. And between us — the writers, the supporters and the defenders — him. Cristiano Ronaldo. Whenever the writing on the wall has appeared too glaring to ignore, whenever numbers have suggested his stocks were falling, the inevitability of a Ronaldo riposte has arrived. As it did in Houston on Tuesday, where he led Portugal to a 5-0 win over Uzbekistan. If not for that inevitability, the post-game discourse could have been strikingly different. The narrative of Ronaldo being counterproductive to Portugal’s title hopes would have gained fresh momentum. And for a fleeting moment, it seemed it would. Ronaldo missed a tap-in from a sublime Nuno Mendes cross in the fourth minute. Indeed, even the seemingly immortals possess elements of mortality. Even Lionel Messi missed a penalty yesterday. The difference …
