Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal, Part 1: The Boy and the Burden (2003-2014)

234 caps and 146 goals, more than any man in history. And yet for twelve years Cristiano Ronaldo kept coming home from tournaments with Portugal without a trophy. Part 1 of our two-part documentary takes it apart, tournament by tournament: Greece's man-marking in the Euro 2004 final, Nuremberg and the wink, Scolari's 4-3-3 and Löw's answer in Basel, the 740 days without a competitive goal under Queiroz, Busquets' 98 of 106 in Cape Town, Bento's team built around him, and the night in Stockholm. With the line-ups, the tables and the numbers behind every game. Subscribe: @PitchTheory11 Chapters 0:00 The record and the riddle 1:47 2003: The golden generation 2:44 Euro 2004: The home final 8:12 2004-06: Nuremberg and Gelsenkirchen 12:09 2007-08: The inside forward 16:09 2008-10: The drought 20:06 2010-14: Built around him 28:14 Close: The ledger Research: Positions on tactical boards are approximate (from match reports, not tracking data). Sources: UEFA and FIFA match reports and technical reports (2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014); RSSSF; Wikipedia match and tournament articles and their sources; The Guardian; BBC Sport; Reuters; AP; AFP; ESPN; Zonal Marking; FourFourTwo; Sports Illustrated; Sky Sports; 11v11. Photos (Wikimedia Commons, free licences; cropped/adapted; adapted images shared under the same licence): Cristiano Ronaldo Euro 2012 - Roger Gorączniak (CC BY 3.0); Euro 2004 Final - Jarrett Campbell (CC BY 2.0); Charisteas' Siegtreffer im Finale der Euro 2004 - Fritz Duras (CC BY-SA 3.0); Cristiano Ronaldo im EM-Halbfinale gegen die Niederlande - Fritz Duras (CC BY-SA 3.0); 2004 UEFA Euro Runner Up Medal CR7Museum - Tkotw12 (CC BY-SA 4.0); Luiz Felipe Scolari - José Cruz/ABr (CC BY 3.0 BR); FIFA World Cup 2006, Iran 0-2 Portugal - Mahdi Zare (CC BY 4.0); Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal vs Brazil - wonker (CC BY 2.0); C Ronaldo - Gordon Flood (CC BY 2.0); Carlos Queiroz - Franco Zagagagoria (CC BY-SA 4.0); Portugal 2-3 Denmark, Nani - José Goulão (CC BY-SA 2.0); Cristiano Ronaldo (5079838876) - Dagur Brynjólfsson (CC BY-SA 2.0); FIFA World Cup 2010 Portugal North Korea - Warren Rohner (CC BY-SA 2.0); Paulo Bento - Portugal vs. Argentina, 2011 - Fanny Schertzer (CC BY 3.0); Cristiano Ronaldo 20120609 - Ilya Khokhlov (CC BY-SA 3.0); thumbnail: Croatia v Portugal 2013 - Fanny Schertzer (CC BY-SA 3.0). Map data: Natural Earth (public domain). Music: original, made for Pitch Theory. #Ronaldo #Portugal #CristianoRonaldo #Documentary #PitchTheory