Ronaldo's Tears and Why Imperfections Are Box Office Entertainment | Euro 2024

TO SHOUT OUT LOUD!

Will Hunting is a great movie for many reasons. Robin Williams's stellar performance, Ben Affleck's petty feuds with his brother on-screen and in real life, the fact that Affleck and Matt Damon's Oscar-winning screenplay is actually (somewhat) autobiographical; both are from Massachusetts, Affleck's father was a janitor at Harvard, while his mother went to college, as did Damon, before dropping out. The movie is a good watch, a classic, enjoyable arc of self-discovery, with a mostly happy ending that avoids the trap of being too cheesy. The protagonist (Will, played by Damon) is a complete idiot who punches people, fights the police, insults his mentor's dead wife, ignores other people's time and energy while taking his seemingly God-given talent for granted, but you end up rooting for him anyway, because genius is a bewitching and seductive thing.

Watching Cristiano Ronaldo against Slovenia was like watching Good Will Hunting if Will wasn't very good at math. Or rather, watching a sequel, where Will, 39, was good at math but has forgotten how to be good at math, so all that happens is that instead of focusing on potentially more interesting characters who could enhance the narrative, the cameras follow Will as he walks around crying, with an absurd sense of entitlement.

That’s not to say that Ronaldo’s performance or the 120 minutes of scoreless football weren’t entertaining. Unless you have a Social Media Disgrace fan account dedicated to Ronaldo that refers to him exclusively as CR7 (grow up), Monday’s game was a box office success. Partly because Slovenia displayed great mastery of defense and counterattacking football, but also partly because of the schadenfreude of watching a grown man get all worked up over not getting what he wanted. Slovenia had Ronaldo’s number. How do you like those apples? Having sent what seemed like 1,057 free-kicks into Row Z and generally stinking up the joint while Portuguese forwards Joo Flix and Gonalo Ramos looked on morosely from the touchline, Ronaldo appeared inconsolable after the excellent Jan Oblak saved his penalty in added time, sobbing uncontrollably on the pitch.

Bruno Fernandes and João Palhinha tried in vain to come to Ronaldo’s aid, like children hugging a crying father who has just lost a parents’ tug-of-war match on sports day. But in the end, Ronaldo and Portugal were saved by one man: their goalkeeper Diogo Costa, who saved all of Slovenia’s penalties in the penalty shootout to qualify for a quarter-final against France. Even the strongest people have their own luck. [bad] “I was at my lowest when the team needed me the most. I was sad at the beginning, but now I'm happy. That's football. Moments, inexplicable moments. This Portugal-France match should be a thriller,” Ronaldo explained with humility. shouldwe watched the France-Belgium game. Portugal can't kick a barn door and France have scored two own goals and a penalty in four games. People call it imperfections, but no, it's the bright side of things.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

We can try to find those who didn't vote and encourage them to go and vote to make sure that the far right can't get into power. They want to take away our freedom and take away our living together. And that's my political position. After being voted player of the match in the 1-0 win over Belgium, French full-back Jules Kound is using his platform to try to stop his country from becoming a political firestorm.

EURO 2024 DAILY LETTERS

Following Peter Oh's comparison between Coldplay, headliners at Glastonbury on Saturday night, and 11 other English plodders (yesterday's Euro 2024 Daily Letters), I was at the Pyramid Stage the following afternoon, with an anxious eye on Rob Smyth's MBM for the England game. Early in extra time, Janelle Mone started playing Tightrope, and by the time I got a phone signal again, it was 1-1. I'd like to think it was this musical fluke that kept England in the tournament, although the lyrics to Ha cause you get too high, no you'll certainly be low don't bode well for quarter-finalist Ian Rodin.

It seems clear that since Brexit, all the bile and fury directed at the EU apparatchiks is now spilling over into our society like the contents of the Spuds’ sheets. I therefore call on Gareth Southgate to make one last great sacrifice for his country and stay on as England manager forever, so that he can become the eternal lightning rod for all the anger and frustration of the English people. This will allow us to live our lives in an atmosphere of calm and goodwill towards our neighbours, knowing that the opportunity to lash out is never more than England’s next match against Chris Goater.

As for the conclusion of the Euros, if it ended in a Germany v Switzerland final (which is not impossible) it would do wonders for the self-esteem of the Tartan Army. Why a defeat and a draw against the finalists? That's as good as third place, isn't it? Ken Muir.

Send letters to [email protected]. The winner of today's Letter of the Day is Chris Goater, who wins a copy of European Summits: The History of the UEFA European Championship from 1960 to 2016by Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookstore here. The general conditions of our competitions can be consulted here.

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