What If Cape Verde Advances To the Knockout Stage of the FIFA World Cup... AND Portugal Doesn't?!

Rich floated the dream scenario to Taylor Twellman: what if Cape Verde advances to the World Cup knockout stage and Portugal doesn't? Twellman said he'd give anything for it.

First, the math. Twellman walked through Cape Verde's narrow path, explaining that the first tiebreaker among the best third-place teams is points, so they'd likely need to reach four, which means winning a game. But there's a sliver of a window: if the cutoff falls at three points, it goes to goal differential, and Cape Verde could conceivably sneak through on three draws.

The Portugal half is where Twellman has been planting his flag for months, knowing it makes him the most hated man among Cristiano Ronaldo fans, who he joked already have his face plastered everywhere. His argument is that Ronaldo has gone more than 1,000 minutes without a goal from the run of play, roughly ten major-tournament games, and at 41, as the oldest non-goalkeeper ever to play in a World Cup, he no longer moves the same way and stalls everything.

Twellman isn't dismissing the all-time greatest goal scorer. He's arguing for a role change. With the best midfield in the tournament, Portugal needs mobility, fluidity, and uncertainty, and Ronaldo, in his current form, offers none of it as a starter. Make him a super sub for the end of games when you need a goal, Twellman said, and roll the dice. His proof was the previous match, where he believes Bruno Fernandes should have scored but Ronaldo got in the way, more concerned with matching Messi, Mbappe, Haaland, and Harry Kane than winning. Portugal wins, Twellman insisted, if Ronaldo simply lets that ball slide across to Bruno. He can't do it, and it's hurting Portugal.