{"id":507709,"date":"2026-06-23T20:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/507709\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T20:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T20:15:13","slug":"portugals-ronaldo-scores-2-in-world-cup-against-uzbekistan-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/507709\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal’s Ronaldo scores 2 in World Cup against Uzbekistan : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cristiano<\/p>\n

\n Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the World Cup match against Uzbekistan in Houston on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Michael Steele\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Michael Steele\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It did not take long for the questions to surface about the aging star. <\/p>\n

\"Lionel<\/a> <\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo was virtually invisible in Portugal’s opening World Cup match against the Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite playing the entire game last week, he was essentially absent in the 1-1 draw. Gone were his flashes of excellence and otherworldly goalscoring ability.<\/p>\n

The whispers about the 41-year-old turned louder. The drumbeat on social media and chatter from television commentators grew: should the team captain limit his minutes? Was he a distraction? Were his teammates deferring to him too much during the game?<\/p>\n

As Ronaldo watched his fellow stars dominate at this thrilling tournament \u2014 Argentina’s Lionel Messi scored a hat trick<\/a> in his opener, followed by two goals<\/a> in Argentina’s second game; France’s Kylian Mbappe and Norway’s Erling Haaland have each scored four times \u2014 you could tell his poor performance bothered him.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, as he took the field against Uzbekistan, he looked like the Ronaldo of old. It took all of six minutes<\/a> for Ronaldo to shake off the doubters. Deep inside Uzbekistan’s penalty area, Ronaldo struck a powerful right-footed volley into the net. He is now the first player (man or woman) to score in six World Cups.<\/p>\n

\"Cristiano<\/p>\n

\n Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal celebrates scoring his first of two World Cup goals against Uzbekistan. He becomes the first player to score in six World Cups.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Wilson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Charlotte Wilson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

His face showed it all. The worry. The concern. It was all gone. Replaced by relief. A smile. Fist pumps. His teammates mobbed him. The crowd in Houston roared to life.<\/p>\n

And he wasn’t done. <\/p>\n

In the 39th minute, he streaked down the field and, with a perfectly-placed pass from Bruno Fernandes, struck it by the Uzbek goalkeeper. Ronaldo’s second goal of the game<\/a>. His teammates tried to get him his hat trick, but it was not to be. <\/p>\n

Still, Portugal defeated Uzbekistan 5-0. Portugal was back, and so is Ronaldo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the World Cup match against Uzbekistan in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-507709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}