Ronaldo thrives in fat city
DORTMUND, Germany – The fat man sang Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean it’s all over.
Defending champion Brazil, powered by goals from Ronaldo, Adriano and Ze Roberto, swept into the quarterfinals of the 2006 World Cup with a fault-free 3-0 victory Tuesday over Ghana in a game in which the South Americans seldom had to move into a higher gear.
The goal was Ronaldo’s third in four games at Germany ‘06 and it made him the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history with 15, but it has been difficult to tell whether he is on a roll because of the roll that’s on him.
Even Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, involved himself in the national debate over whether the country’s star striker was “fat.” He then apologized, especially after Ronaldo mentioned the politician’s fondness for a drink now and then.
The Brazilian media were less forgiving. After the three-time FIFA world player of the year had looked slow and ponderous in Brazil’s 1-0 opening victory over Croatia, former Brazil World Cup player Tostao, writing in a Sao Paulo newspaper, called Ronaldo “slow and weird.”
Ronaldo, who has experienced problems with dizziness and blisters while at the tournament, was marginally better the next time out, setting up one goal in Brazil’s 2-0 win over Australia.
In the world champions’ third game, against Japan, he scored twice in a 4-1 rout, thereby surpassing Pele as Brazil’s all-time World Cup scorer and tying Germany’s Gerd “Der Bomber” Mueller for the world record. “Ronaldo is back,” trumpeted Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Well, yes and no.
The focus was still on his fitness, if not his flab. “I knew I arrived at a level below my teammates, and that I would have to work really hard to reach them,” Ronaldo said.
In front of 65,000 on an afternoon of watery sunshine and light drizzle, it took Ronaldo only 5 minutes to make the world record his.
Timing his run to perfection, Ronaldo ran onto a through pass from Kaka, faked out Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson with a nifty move and slipped the ball into the net just as defender John Pantsil arrived on the scene.
“I sensed that I had to trick the goalkeeper somehow,” Ronaldo said. “I thought it would complicate things if I kept the ball too long, so I decided to do that dribble.”
Germany’s Mueller set the record of 14 goals at the 1970 and 1974 World Cups. Ronaldo has scored 15 goals in the 1998, 2002 and 2006 tournaments after being a member of the victorious 1994 team in the U.S. as a 17-year-old who never left the bench.
“I want to increase the record, but the main goal is winning the title,” Ronaldo said.
Parreira had resisted calls to bench Ronaldo and kept starting him because he believed in the striker.
“We never had doubts over Ronaldo,” he said. “He is a special player and a player for big moments. He is going to be key … I am sure of that.”
Brazil will play France in the quarterfinals on Saturday.