India, July 7 -- Cristiano Ronaldo's final World Cup finished exactly as it started -- under a cloud of doubt about whether a 41-year-old had any business still starting for his country at the grandest stage. Portugal's 0-1 defeat to Spain in Texas on Monday, in the Round of 16, didn't answer that question so much as confirm it. It was at this tournament that Ronaldo became the first man to score in six different World Cups, but that record will be a lonely bright spot in a tournament that, for long stretches, asked more questions of Ronaldo than it gave him answers.

The debate over his place in the starting XI never really went away, and it began well before the tournament even got underway in North America. Fernando Santos had shown on...