Crissy’s ineffectual performance against what looks again to be the team to beat (plus his general lack of a cutting edge in the group games) saw the old temper rise to the surface for a split second. The interweb is abuzz over his latest act of disrespect: hocking a loogie at the feet of a cameraman, then pushing past reporters while seeming to blame his coach for the loss.
Let’s all cut him some slack. He’s an outrageous talent, and part of that is his belief in himself. If he was humble, he would never be such an explosively exciting (though selfish) player to watch. He’s as great as he is bratty, and though you may hate him, you’ll still watch him.
2 comments
JSNovy
July 1, 2010 at 10:22 PM
Those who have been watching Cristiano Ronaldo for a number of years don’t really find that kind of off field thing out of character. To be fair, however, after watching the incident, I find it hard to believe he was actually spitting at the cameraman.
The most noticeable difference in this Ronaldo is clearly his workrate on the pitch. In his really successful days at United, he always seemed to hunt the game. He always tracked back to defend, demanded the ball, beat guys with outrageous tricks and pace, and always went for the goal. He beat people in the air, with free kicks, off the dribble, just about anyway an individual could beat someone.
Toward the very end of his time at Utd, and in the past year in Madrid, his hunger for being in the game seems to have abandoned him. Now, he waits for the ball, tries to beat a few guys, loses it, and pouts. Tactics might have a bit to do with this. His best position always has been as a true winger, with the ability to run wherever he wants. The further he plays up the pitch, by design, the less impact he seems to have on the game.
At Utd, every teammate of his seemed to be working to put him in a position to do something positive, and he responded to that by working his tail off. Obviously, he was about as arrogant a footballer as you can imagine, but he did win a number of trophies, Europe included (despite the missed penalty), and he was overwhelmingly the best player in the world for a number of those years. Seems odd that he looks so much worse with Kaka, Higuain, and the rest of the galacticos than he did when his passes came from Park and Fletcher.
It should be good theater seeing how Mourinho deals with him. Tactically, if Ronaldo plays as one of a front three, he will be forced to defend much deeper than he now seems to like. Just look at how deep Eto played in the CL final. He was almost another fullback. If he plays as a true winger, maybe he will be more like his old self.
Suman
July 2, 2010 at 1:45 AM
Excellent commentary, Mr Novy. We’ll lift this out of the obscurity of this comments section and turn it into a proper post..but maybe we’ll wait a couple months, whence we turn our attention to the club season.
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