Exacty. It's about performance. Amusing how Messi's CL Final against Juventus for example is called out as some sort of poor performance. That's a big red neon sign reading "I didn't see that match" if you post that.
Find that post and quote it instead of flat out misrepresenting what was said.
Nobody called out Messi vs Juve because of "poor performance" - what was said was that some Barca players stepped up and played a bigger role in that final, Busquests and Suarez, for example.
Messi didn't "dominate", though noone said he didn't contribute.
The whole comparison was used when people refuse to give out any credit to Ronaldo for "not dominating" finals, when the guy has won 3 CL titles.
Or calling him out for the missed pen vs Chelsea, despite him splitting MoM honors with V.d.Saar accross all media and fan votes.
Now, noone seems to mention that Real and Ronaldo played Atletico in those two finals.
A side they managed to beat both times, but hardly dominated...
I mean, who really dominates Atletico.
To put it into perspective, the same side that Real managed to beat 4-1 in the CL finls (after an injury time equalizer), a game in which Ronaldo was ordinary, yes...
That same side came a week earlier to Barcelona to the last round of the La Liga, 3 points ahead of Barca and on much worse goal difference.
That match was just as big as the CL final.
All Barca had to do to win the title was beat Atletico on their own turf in the last La Liga round.
Yet that same Atletico team made Barca look completely pedestrian in that game, on Barca's home ground, and it ended 1-1, with Atletico winning the title.
So, why would you blame Ronaldo for somehow not "dominating" Atletico, while not appyling the same logic to Messi a week earlier?
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Also, someone mentioned Argentina's 3 finals.
Well, I'll give you Germany and the WC, Germany was the favorite.
But surely, Argentina was favorite to win vs Chile. You'd expect them to do so both times... Or at least once, at least on neutral ground.
Yet they didn't.
Does that make Messi a choker or whatever?
Of course not. Dude's a machine and performing all year long, same as Ronaldo.
But if you're using a certain logic on one of them, lets use it on the other.
You'll soon end up with Toto Schillaci as a better player than Del Piero, or Materazzi being better than Maldini.
TLDR; Even great players do not dominate every game, sometimes including finals.
But both Messi and CR7 have won so many trophies with their teams, while being the focal points of their teams on the way to doing so, so many individual accomplishments, records and awards, that anyone calling them out for not being "winners" or "big game players" etc., has got to be joking, biased or simply hating on them.