Monday, June 21, 2010

Cristiano Ronaldo Gets His International Mojo Back

Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal clashes with Cha Jong-Hyok of North Korea during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group G match between Portugal and North Korea at the Green Point Stadium on June 21, 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa.

(That headline wasn’t intended to be a pun. But it’s too late now. So I’m sticking with it.)

The underperforming star player we all talked about pre-World Cup 2010 was Leo Messi, and how he didn’t perform for Argentina as he did for Barcelona. The fact that Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo hadn’t scored for Portugal since February 2009 (and even that was a penalty kick against Finland in a friendly) and didn’t score at all during World Cup qualifying was somewhat overlooked.

Before the World Cup Ronaldo had said that “The goals will come. They’ll come naturally. It’s like a great player once told me: goals are like ketchup … you keep on forcing it, then it comes all at once.”

The first splodge of that metaphorical ketchup was finally squeezed out today, when Ronaldo scored the sixth goal in Portugal’s 7-0 win over North Korea.


Portugal 6-0 North Korea

Simão | MySpace Video

Ronaldo clearly had no idea about the first two touches, off his neck and his head, but he was composed enough to accept his good fortune and score with a simple sidefoot volley.

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