This was supposed to be Cristiano Ronaldo's night. His moment to shine again on the world stage and show football fans everywhere that the Ronaldo-Messi debate should still be ongoing. Instead we witnessed a dour match in which Spain - as they have done throughout this tournament - looked very much mortal, but Portugal were just not able to take advantage.
As soon as I saw Bruno Alves walking up to take that fourth Portuguese penalty the contest already felt over.1 I understand that Paulo Bento had selected the order of his five penalty takers before the shootout started, but why was Ronaldo picked to take the last penalty? In a contest such as a penalty shootout where there is no guarantee you'll have a fifth kick, it makes no sense to 'save' your best player until last. Perhaps most will disagree but I always feel the fourth penalty is the most important one. By this point in a shootout there has nearly always been at least one or two missed kicks, and very often the fourth penalty is the 'win or go home' decider. The fact that Portugal elected to have a defender - one who never takes penalties for his club - take this crucial kick is severely flawed logic.
Whether Ronaldo actually would have scored his penalty is another thing altogether. He has been extremely impressive from the spot since his transfer to Real Madrid, where he is the number one penalty taker. During his professional career he has scored thirty-four of his thirty-eight spot kicks, a number obviously inflated in recent years given the integral role he has taken on for both Real Madrid and Portugal. However, as good as the those numbers may look, he has struggled somewhat in shootouts. As recently as April he missed a critical kick in Real Madrid's Champions League semi-final shootout defeat to Bayern Munich, and Manchester United fans will surely remember the shootout kick he missed in the final of the same competition in 2008, although his team ultimately won that night.
Regardless of what role he had in the decision to kick last on Wednesday night, footbal fans coming away from this game will be left with a feeling of disappointment. Ronaldo performed reasonably well but never seemed to take charge of a match that was crying out for someone to take it by the scruff of the neck. The Messi-Ronaldo debate may not be quite over yet, but despite his heroics earlier in the tournament, Ronaldo's inability to truly leave an imprint on Wednesday night's game, is certainly a missed opportunity to make the debate a more heated one, once again.
_________________________________________________________________________________
1. Despite being told he was to take the fourth kick, Alves was so nervous that he mistakenly tried to walk up to take the third kick. He was chased down by the actual penalty taker, Nani, who proceeded to slot his penalty to the net.
No comments:
Post a Comment