Speak Up, Critics of Cristiano, Ye Ronaldo Rippers; We Can’t Hear You Now

…Well, maybe we can hear you, but we’d just laugh it off, wouldn’t we? Shouldn’t we?

What will Cristiano Ronaldo’s most violent critics say now? What will Danish fans cheer when they watch the Iberian Reds in Round 2? What can anyone say to question Ronaldo after today, with the Portuguese running Holland out of the Euros on the windmill merchants’ third straight loss, sending the Danes packing at the same time?

In that game last week, well, yea… Ronaldo wasn’t great. His breakway miss – which was actually more due to the brilliant play of goaltender Stephan Andersen than Cristiano, himself – put the bitter and battered icing on what was a poor game for the world’s best winger, in a match that would have been called a monumental and disastrous loss for Portugal had Silvestre Varela not scored what was, at that point, the goal of the tournament.

And so, there was Ronaldo on Sunday, with his team and country down 1-0 quite early to a surprisingly possessed Dutch side, and his teammates giving up more scoring chances than a Mormon at the Madison.

And so, he started firing. And, firing. He shot everything. He scored twice, with those bullets he has, and he turned in what was easily (probably) the performance of the Euros.

His second goal (*not the one in the video above) was a patent example of the exact play we want to see from him. He held, faked out some dude in Oraanje, clutched it, and comfortably tucked it home. It was perfection to a tee, and the Czechs are next.

(*Of course, his teammates looked pretty pedestrian, but they’re through, aren’t they?)

For too long, Ronaldo has been knocked because he’s got matinee idol looks and the social life to accompany it. He’s loved by women more than he is by the males who watch the sport, and he’s been dogged in his comparisons to Lionel Messi, as if being second-best was somehow a bad thing.

But, Messi’s not here. Ronaldo certainly is.

The tactician has arrived, and today he looked like Rommel on a soccer field.

Maybe Portugal will win this thing, or maybe they won’t. It doesn’t matter right now. Because, for today, the boys of Lisbon owe everything to the tiny island of Madeira, and the forgotten village of Funchal.