ARLINGTON, Texas — Let the official record list the time of death as 4:01 p.m. local time, 10:01 p.m. in Lisbon and 11:01 p.m. in Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo’s career at the World Cup is over. The requisite obituary confirming as such, the one that has been written several times over, may finally stick this time around according to the man himself who said on Sunday that this would indeed be his last such tournament.The cause of death, to twist the knife on the moment even further on the glorious end to the great footballer’s career on such a stage, was nominally a 1-0 loss to Spain in the latest dramatic conclusion to an Iberian Derby in the most meaningful of all 42 such occurrences. It was in practice Mikel Merino, the subbed on Arsenal midfielder taking a perfect through ball from a Cruyff-turning Ferran Torres that was slotted home beyond the outstretched hands of keeper Diogo Costa. In reality though, the true cause is much closer to home for the man who had his No. 7 shirt nearly everywhere you turned at AT&T Stadium on Monday afternoon.Martínez, Portugal Pay Price for Blind Loyalty to RonaldoRoberto Martínez has shown incredible loyalty to Ronaldo. | Rico Brouwer/Soccrates/Getty Images)It was Ronaldo himself who is chief to blame for this sixth and final World Cup exit. It is the brass with the Portugal federation, too, with an equal amount of egg on its face after it willingly kept bowing down to the star’s every wish. And it was manager Roberto Martínez, who didn't have the guts–or more appropriately given its opponent cajones–to avoid building his attack around a 41-year-old who operates like a black hole atop the pitch despite fielding a team which otherwise was more than capable of winning it all.“Today we had to keep the structure and there wasn’t a case to take your center forward, your top goal scorer, out of the game in the 90 minutes,” said Martínez, who confirmed his tenure in charge of Portugal was over. “I’m not disappointed, no, I’m sad. I’m sad because we lost, we wanted to get to the final. I really felt that we could get eight games in this tournament.”Instead he got just five such games and had Portugal looking nothing like the No. 5 team in the world, much less the one who triumphed just last year against the Spaniards in winning the UEFA Nations League with a dramatic set of penalties. This was a group full of star players—some of the highest paid in the world at some of the best clubs across the continent—who were made to look ordinary. All because of its overreliance on trying to find Ronaldo time after time, hoping he could simply produce something out of nothing with runs that were either space inhibiting for better placed teammates or which made him look like an injured gazelle being left behind from the herd. Portugal kept trying to cross it to its center forward in order for him to produce a magical moment, only for it to wind up sealing its fate in one of the most disappointing efforts across the past six weeks that this World Cup has seen.Aside from the 5-0 romp against Uzbekistan that allowed Ronaldo to become the first ever to score across six World Cups, this tournament run from the Navigators may be best known for alerting the world to the great story of DR Congo and making the image of some of the latter’s dancing fans iconic as they celebrated a 1-1 draw in the group stage surrounded by a sea of disappointed others in Lisbon. It was, unequivocally, a failure of a World Cup. But hey, at least Ronaldo had a few moments that will fade to the background as old nemesis Leonel Messi keeps on playing and a few new stars like Spain’s Lamine Yamal do the same.Reaction to Ronaldo Spoke VolumesRonaldo was left to his own thoughts after the final whistle. | Ryan Pierse/FIFAGetty Images Perhaps it was fitting that, when cameras caught players returning to the field from the halftime break, there was just a solitary shot of No. 7 walking alone. Ronaldo sprinted to the center circle solo before his teammates eventually joined him in fanning out around the pitch, a sight repeated when the final whistle blew as nearly half of the quarterfinal-bound Spain side congratulated him on his career before more than one teammate did.In ways both seen and unseen, Ronaldo stands as the center of attention in a solo fashion. He drew media members from all over the planet trying to get in a question as he wound his way out of the mix zone, stopping five times to answer questions but limiting his answers to just Portuguese and Spanish. The tears he shed during the final moments on the pitch were gone, but any body language doctor could tell you that he was only begrudgingly accepting that he would not be back in the way he’s accustomed to the last two decades.“He has been an exemplary captain. I got to Portugal at a time where there was a lot of confusion, a lot of questions in terms of Cristiano’s position,” added Martínez. “He has been an example in the three and a half years that I’ve been with him, not only in terms of the number of goals, the assists, the assistance he gives in attacks and counter attacks, he has committed day in and day out with how he looks at football. He is a role model. This is someone that we need to celebrate. There is nothing we need to look at beyond this. “He is a football icon. There aren’t too many Cristiano Ronaldo’s out there.”WIN FIFA WORLD CUP 2026™ FINAL TICKETS & OTHER PRIZESCompete against the world. | Sports IllustratedThe Great ObsessionNow it seems the original is not going to be out there either, at least on this stage given that he will still be looking for some club in 2026-27 to keep adding to his tally of 976 career goals and the obvious desperateness such a number brings with it to cracking four figures. Still, it won’t be next week in Los Angeles against Belgium because Spain looked like much the more complete product of a team, one not oriented solely around a single star but operating at peak efficiency as a well oiled machine. La Roja truthfully dominated the game for long stretches and its 1.77 xG even belies the fact that it came so close to adding to the scoreline far earlier than Merino’s stoppage time winner several times over. Striker Mikel Oyarzabal missed several opportunities in front of the net that were pulled wide or high in the first half and even Yamal’s brilliance was just a tad off as he was corralled well enough by Nuno Mendes before the defender exited with an injury just before the hour mark. It will still take the 1-0 result of course, a notable nod to the last time it beat Portugal by that same scoreline in the Round of 16—back in 2010 when it wound up hoisting the trophy in South Africa. It appears Spain are capable of doing the same this year.Spain Showed Portugal the BlueprintSpain reaped the rewards for playing into its collective strengths. | Juan Luis Diaz/Quality Sport Images/Getty ImagesSpain’s powerful midfield looked like it may be the only solution to containing fellow World Cup favorites like France or Argentina and man of the match Rodri was an effortless workhorse as part of that—responsible for 18% of the team’s completed passes. He complemented a backline and a keeper in Unai Simón who have yet to have allowed a goal so far, a record streak which exceeds 600 full minutes at the World Cup and dates back to its 2-1 group stage loss to Japan in Qatar four years ago. Mostly though, Spain is an outfit which is looking greater than the sum of its parts and full of enough nous to do something with it in the latter stages. Possibly all the way to the eighth game that the Balaguer-born Spanish manager on the other side was hoping to hit instead.Alas, he and the rest of Portugal stuck to its guns with the one player feted above all others. It was to its detriment from the start this summer and finally allowed the rest of the world to call time on Ronaldo’s tenure in predictable fashion. READ THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FCAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow