In many ways, it’s not really his fault.If you were indulged and told you could do something for long enough, even though the evidence is pretty clear that you can’t anymore, you would probably try to keep doing it too.If you were consistently picked by a manager who ignores the obvious, you might think you still have it.If you walked into a stadium full of people, many who have come to specifically see you and one of whom made a sign that said “With or without the World Cup, you will always be my GOAT”, you might think you were still worth seeing.Cristiano Ronaldo is still worshipped by his fans (Joe Buvid/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)It’s hard to let go. Especially when there’s always another milestone to reach for. Another tournament to play in. A thousand career goals to reach. And especially when your peers and old rivals are still doing it.But Cristiano Ronaldo can’t do it anymore. Or at least, he can’t do it to anywhere near the standard required for Portugal, a team who, in theory, are among the favourites to win the World Cup.For just over an hour of Wednesday’s 1-1 draw against DR Congo in Houston, Ronaldo basically did nothing. It wasn’t even as if he was doing things badly, rather that he wasn’t doing them at all. He was a void, a theoretically corporeal being but one that might as well have been a wisp, a spirit of no substance.There weren’t really any shanked shots, any terrible passes, any egregious errors. Nothing that someone could create a supercut of to put on social media to mock him. Nothing.Then, after half-time, he had two shots. They were pretty much identical, efforts that went wide of the near post from cut-backs at the byline.This was the first: … and this was the second: Neither were sitters — although you could argue a prime Ronaldo would have gobbled them up — and the first was from a pass that was behind him and very difficult to direct goalwards.The second was slightly more symbolic, in that if he had let it run then Bruno Fernandes, who was right behind him, would’ve had a clearer effort on goal. It was something Thierry Henry picked up on Fox Sports. “The team needs to score. You don’t need to score,” Henry said, suggesting Ronaldo is putting himself above the team. ”If he goes into the six-yard box, it would have been a tap-in for Bruno Fernandes.”Then after that… nothing again.The most telling moment was arguably not either of those two missed chances, but one shortly afterwards when a cross came over from the right with Ronaldo at the far post. It looked like a decent ball, the sort that he used to to rise magnificently to head home. This time he didn’t rise. In a literal sense: he just didn’t jump. Because he can’t anymore? Because he didn’t want to? Who knows. The ball was cleared by Congo defender Chancel Mbemba, in what turned out to be a routine header away from a guy who used to be Cristiano Ronaldo.