The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Does Portugal Have a Cristiano Ronaldo Problem? | Local Hour
18 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest updates on Cristiano Ronaldo's performance?
Football is back. Mbappé's flying through the air Ronaldo's here for one last prayer Will Messi come out to play? Or is it victory for the USA? It's corner kicks when the box is packed That's how you know that football is back, Jack Let me hear you say, football, football, football. Football is back, Jack. The time is here, open the gates.
The long wait is over, so we'll yell, let's go, States. No need to back down. Just strike the ball, start the attack. If you say this game's the best, I'll say it's a gag. Football is back, Jack.
Let me tell you something. I've been wrapped up in this World Cup. I stayed up. I watched all the games yesterday. I can confirm.
Columbia, great fans. I told you. I haven't been an expert on all things soccer. I mean, I can't believe that Jude Bellingham has returned to the pitch with the form of two years ago. But Harry Kane and the superstars being great at the most beautiful game. And Ronaldo, like right off the bat. And oh, you, you're a problem. Ronaldo, you star. He stinks.
Well, but he stinks so much that you got to get him off the field. You might win it without him, but you sure aren't going to win it with him because he hasn't scored an important goal since 2021. And it wasn't that long ago, Zaz. Like when we talk about these GOAT conversations, it's amazing to look back and be like, Yeah, about seven, eight years ago, we were saying Messi wasn't going to be in.
Ronaldo was the best player in the world.
Mike, you'll have to help me here. Because Ronaldo has not scored in his last five World Cup matches, in his last ten international appearances. Is Ronaldo's last international goal the one where... It may have hit like a hair on his head and he tried to take credit for the goal. Remember that? Was that his last goal? I have to look it up. You may be right.
He tried to take credit for a goal that was not his.
The Ronaldo storyline, this is a storyline that transcends. Obviously, he's a huge personality, one of the biggest superstars in the history of sports on this planet, right? And he's 41 years old. and he's always going to be tethered to the hip of Messi. I kind of felt like Messi put that debate to rest with his performance in the last World Cup.
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Chapter 2: How does Ronaldo's current form affect Portugal's World Cup chances?
Tunisia had one of the more puzzling performances of the opening round of matches because they don't concede. Now you could... pick apart the fact that they really got lucky in qualification, but they were supposed to be this stout defensive team. And they let in a billion goals against Sweden. And so a man who's a bit of a football vagabond, Dan, he's been coaching men's and women's teams.
It's Saudi Arabia, French women's team.
And what's his nationality?
Herve Renat? Yeah. I believe he's French.
Yeah, his nationality is gorgeous. Put it on the poll at Levitard Show. Is Herve's nationality gorgeous? Because I don't think, I question the video team in a number of different ways, and I don't want to exclude the audio audience here, but I don't believe that they went and chose the photos that were handsome enough, okay?
I don't believe that they're doing this man justice when he was introduced to us, okay?
It has been. A couple years.
But don't show me modern photos of him, please. He still looks wonderful for his age. He's exactly the guy you get if you're going to fire a coach after one game. But I want the original. I saw photos of him. This is the guy you're talking about, Dan? No. The video team does not judge it very well, and attractive is very high on the list of what they don't judge well.
Okay, because they've done this poorly. They've put in front of me a man, it may be because they're playing with that AI still, that is not as attractive as the most beautiful man I've ever seen. When this man came into my life, he did so with a jawline. I was hypnotized. I looked into his eyes and could not stop staring.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of Ronaldo's lack of scoring for Portugal?
Instead, Ronaldo drags his foot back to try to intercept the pass, and rather than have the team score the goal, Ronaldo was going to score the goal. So now the conversation is either Ronaldo looks himself in the mirror, which he does often, and says, you know, you're still super handsome, but we've got to change our game up. There's no way that happens. I...
I think he can be hugely impactful as a match-dependent sub. You have one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of the sport. You'll never convince him to do that. He's there. I think his legs aren't what they used to be, so if you bring him on in one of these knockout rounds as an extra-time sub, I think that there is a role where he can absolutely help his team.
And I think his branding would really... have a positive spin on it if he assumed this role player, leader type of role for Portugal. But right now, his ego may be getting in the way because he is quite literally, physically getting in the way.
Okay, but what you're saying, and this is why this is fascinating, and I do want to get to the celebration of the people who are great, and we have a bunch of Giannis developments that everybody wants to get to. That is the beautiful Ronaldo, the statue for Ronaldo, one of the worst pieces of art ever made.
But one of the reasons what you're saying is patently ridiculous on whatever it is you imagine sports ego to be, okay? Melo wasn't going to the bench. Whatever you think sports ego is, I heard a coach yesterday who understands Ronaldo's place in the world, a manager, scared to say the wrong thing about I'm going to bench this person.
It would be his ego who would have to choose it because no one's going to do it to him. They understand what that resume is and they understand the insult in it. We're here still talking about Jalen Brown, should he be hurt or insulted? Yes, send Ronaldo to the bench during the World Cup.
See if he's hurt or insulted with wherever ego is on soccer divas, and not just soccer divas, because the soccer divas can make the wide receivers look ridiculous when it comes to ego. The soccer divas, go ahead and do it with this one, the one who's pretty, too. Like, see how that goes for you. The one who's an international superstar, handsome.
Hey, would you like to go to the bench and not take it as insult that you're literally getting in the way? Do you want to look in the mirror in a way that's self-aware as opposed to vain?
The place where I would go, and I guess this... And look, maybe they've had these conversations and we're not privy to it. Like, that's totally possible, but... How did they not know, the manager, all the people who run the team, how was there not at least an idea that this may be a thing? Can we take care of this before the first match at the World Cup?
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Chapter 4: How does Hervé Renard's coaching style influence team dynamics?
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Stugatz. That's a good algorithm. This is the Dan Levitar Show with the Stugatz.
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Chapter 5: What are the potential strategies for Portugal to succeed in the World Cup?
So we will find out shortly whether or not we can get in there and we'll get to the Giannis stuff. Maybe we'll get some Giannis opinions from Amin at the parade if his internet works, which I do not trust. I have no faith in everything that's about to happen here or not happen.
But Chris, put up on the screen now, video team, the picture of the beautiful Renard by your judgment, because you guys have no judgment when it comes to... That's actually a beautiful one. There weren't many ugly ones, but you guys... We did it! No, that is a beautiful one, but yeah, like that. That, where he looks like a scarecrow from Ukraine.
I mean, they must have some hot-looking scarecrows in Ukraine.
No, look...
Are you glad you brought me in here?
Yes, I'm going to tell you why, even though your breath smells like breakfast. Are you ready? I'm going to tell you why. The best moments in life are shared, okay? I want you to love this man with me. So you come right in here.
I'm coming.
You come here. Okay.
Okay.
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Chapter 6: What are the reactions to Ronaldo's performance from sports analysts?
And you have been very aggressive.
I don't think I've been very aggressive. I think I'm aggressive compared to you guys. And one thing that you omitted, Dan, is like, yes, I've been critical, but I've also been the most right about this team over the last few years. And another eye roll from Jeremy Tasche. Jeremy, you've been the most wrong.
Well, but they have made two finals, and I want to stop diminishing that.
No, that's why I said the last few years. And yes, they were doubted. And that, quite honestly, might have been the worst thing that ever happened to this cult. No!
Because you guys... I hate going to the finals.
All right, we said immediately after they got waxed in the finals against Denver. The rest of the conference is elevated. And you just got told pretty resoundingly that you don't have enough. We all knew that we needed a player better than Jimmy Butler. That was the aim. Instead, we end up jettisoning Jimmy Butler. We don't get a player better than Jimmy Butler.
Now Bam's your best player, and you're constantly whiffing on getting a player to pair next to Bam. I think there's an interesting conversation here about their standards. We all know how difficult it is for them to trade. They don't want to have a trade hurt. But I think you look at the lay of the land, too.
Guys, it's not just the whales that they're striking out on, because we know that they haven't had the assets compared to other people, and the Dame thing got screwy, in part because of how Miami approached that. Really impactful acquisitions that aren't superstar acquisitions.
In the last few years, from the Toronto Raptors purge of an incredible roster in retrospect, everyone was saying that championship team was, you know, it was Kawhi and a bunch of randos and Golden State got hurt. Go ahead and look at that championship roster. It's one of the most loaded championship teams ever.
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Chapter 7: How does the discussion shift to Giannis Antetokounmpo's updates?
But the internal misread on, no, no, no, OG's not worth it, let's hold firm, when OG could have been a piece that helped you get those stars down the line. The thing is, the idea for them to develop guys that they already had instead of giving away pieces for a guy that maybe would have been good, right? So they've developed so many guys through those years. I get the debate.
I'm very clearly playing the result here, but I'm saying that— You're also playing the process, though.
Look, it's easy to play the result right now. Everyone agrees with the result. Pat Riley agrees with the result. You're also here criticizing the process because you're saying, correctly, just collect assets. It doesn't have to be either or.
Dan and Jeremy, since the finals lost to Denver, they have constantly misread their own talent level, the lay of the land inside their conference.
Since Dion Waiters and Hassan Whiteside were signed to extensions, they've been having more misreads than we're used to.
The thing that they did was believe in Tyler Hero. That was part of this, was they believed he was a better complementary piece to what was then Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo than OG Ananobi or Pascal Siakam would have been. Plus, he was younger.
And so their belief was if you were going to be in this position now, who would have not only been a more valuable asset, but maybe turned himself into... into that third piece to a team that could have continued to compete for championships. And that was their read. He did become an all-star last year. And now here's where we sit.
So this is where these things get interesting on both process and result. Everybody's mad about the result. No one is satisfied with the result now. They did develop Tyler Hero into a one-time All-Star. That is correct. They did acquire Norman Powell, who became an All-Star. But the team's not good enough, and any conversation after that starts there. There is no question they've fallen behind.
Nine teams in the conference, younger, better, and it doesn't even matter if it's process or result. It's what's happened. Like, so that's where we are. And we can make all sorts of assessments about that that would be accurate and fair as criticisms. But there is new information coming out all around this. And the Jalen Brown conversation continues to be interesting to me.
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Chapter 8: What are the key points regarding Jalen Brown and Tyler Herro's trade discussions?
She's just like, hey, just have him hold your backpack as you walk through. I was like, really? And we're in. And so if you look right there, Champions Way, Broadway, this is the Canyon of Heroes. This is the whole parade route. We've got about three hours before it starts, but you can see the crowd is already crazy.
As I said earlier, there's a massive crowd waiting on the other side of that barricade. And when they get over here, I don't know how good of a shot we're gonna get. You can hear people cheering and loud, clapping and everything.
Okay.
Oh, he's in. Okay, he's in. It's pixelated, and that's going to only get worse. That was not terrible. It was okay as sound. I'm worried about this because it's probably not going to be good video if we keep getting pixelations. It's not yet crowded. Like, it's crowded. Maybe they're going to pump more Wi-Fi in as more people come.
Yeah, for sure. Is that a real thing? The plan now is just we're going to have them P&P. When we have signal, he'll flag us down. If we're going to try to go to them, we're going to see how it goes with Internet.
Yeah, I heard you say as we marched in, like, man, ESPN's coverage looks good. They don't have any internet issues. And I'm like, Chris, they have a production truck that's on site with a satellite. We got Sean McGill in a backpack.
He's got Ron McGill's kid with a giant backpack.
We just slung shot Sean McGill up to New York.
Tony's looking. He doesn't like slingshot being made as slingshot.
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