Euro 2016: How Cristiano Ronaldo played himself by ripping Iceland
Iceland's adorable underdog soccer team played Portugal (and its fútbol demigod, Cristiano Ronaldo) to a 1-1 draw in its Euro 2016 opener Tuesday. This unexpected result made The Mountain, among others, very happy.
Iceland's players were also visibly elated after the final whistle. The island nation, with a population of just 330,000, is the least populous nation at Euro 2016 and is making its very first appearance in a major international tournament.
But Iceland's show of joy at its draw with a favored opponent made Ronaldo, a three-time FIFA World Player of the Year, quite cantankerous -- mad enough to rip Iceland after the match.
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"I thought they'd won the Euros the way they celebrated at the end," Ronaldo said after the match, according to ESPN.com and other outlets. "It was just unbelievable. When they don't try to play and just defend, defend, defend, this in my opinion shows a small mentality and are not going to do anything in the competition."
Well then.
The irony, of course, is Ronaldo appears "small-minded" if he can't understand the joy of a tiny underdog fighting for an unexpected draw and the opportunity to advance in its first-ever major tournament appearance. Beating Portugal was not absolutely necessary, but a loss would have damaged Iceland's hopes. Tuesday's draw keeps them alive.
Moreover, it was a draw with a team ranked eighth in FIFA's world rankings. FIFA rankings are notoriously unreliable, but by way of a ballpark comparison, Iceland is currently ranked 34th.
In Ronaldo's defense, he wanted his team to win the match and was understandably disappointed that they didn't. But for all his brilliance on the pitch, many fans see Ronaldo as off-puttingly arrogant.
Lashing out against Iceland and the feel-good story of Euro 2016 so far just gives those critics more fodder.
To borrow the wisdom of DJ Khaled: Congratulations, Ronaldo, you just played yourself.
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Sam Laird is Mashable's Senior Sports Reporter. He covers the wide, weird world of sports from all angles -- as well as occasional other topics -- from Mashable's San Francisco bureau. Before joining Mashable in November 2011, his freelance work appeared in publications including the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Slam, and East Bay Express. Sam is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz, and basketball and burritos take up most of his spare time. Follow him on Twitter @samcmlaird.
