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New king of the Cup
Ronaldo confirms that he is this World Cup's biggest star
Posted: Thursday July 09, 1998 10:53 AM
Special from L'Equipe, the French sports daily
Ronaldo was perceived and described early in June as a cold-blooded soccer
hit man, and expected, as such, to kill Juste Fontaine's World Cup record
of 13 goals.
Ronaldo is used to dealing with these situations. Last year, at the age of
21, he already remained unruffled by the craziness that surrounded his
transfer from FC Barcelona to Inter Milan. "I only think of playing
soccer," he said then.
"I don't talk about money. I know people are waiting for me, expecting a
lot from me. But I like this situation. I like for people to come see me
and I like to surprise them."
Ronaldo has already succeeded in this World Cup, by imposing his rhythm,
his style of play and his approach. That's the way he is.
The way he achieves his goals is as important to him as achieving them.
Just like on the pitch, he stuns.
He disappointed a lot of people, including Pele, when he didn't score a
bunch of goals in the first few matches.
To this day, the press in Brazil is still
questioning his shape. "That's not the important part. My goal is for
Brazil to be a World Champion again," Ronaldo commented, smiling.
Ronaldo has won everything there was to win with Brazil, FC Barcelona or
Inter Milan. Now he has a chance to win the World Cup, and he still has a
shot at finishing as the best scorer and best passer in the process.
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Ronaldo says his only goal is for Brazil to win the World Cup (AP) |
This World Cup has brought as much to Ronaldo as Ronaldo has brought to
this competition. While remaining playful at heart, Ronaldinho has changed,
grown, to reveal Ronaldo.
In the first round matches, especially in the 1-2 loss to Norway,
Brazilian journalists, his teammates and coach Mario Zagallo begrudged him
with playing in hiding. Zagallo asked him to participate in the game more,
to get rid of defenders and not to forget his open teammates.
Ronaldinho had never done this, or maybe just a bit with Barcelona. Ronaldo
did it against Chile, Denmark and the
Netherlands
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In the first match, he scored twice and hit the post twice. In the
following match, he played behind his usual position and offered goals to
Bebeto and Rivaldo. He displayed all these new talents against the
Netherlands.
In the first time, he struggled deep inside the Dutch defense. "I just love
tight defenses, difficult situations in which you have to look for
solutions. I've discovered that it's always possible to create goal-scoring
situations," Ronaldo said.
Then Ronaldo played more behind, participated in the game's animation,
scored and finished the overtime in a dazzling shape. "Yes, I'm happy about
the way I played. But I still regret not to have scored the second goal.
It's my fault, I didn't notice that Edgar Davids was coming back in a
hurry," he said.
But Brazil qualified, and while Taffarel thanked God, Zagallo, cried and
Roberto Carlos sympathized with Clarence Seedorf, Ronaldo was laughing and
running, jumping in Leonardo's arms and sharing his happiness with
Brazilian fans. The hit man laughed for a long time.
Copyright 1998, L'Equipe
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