Ronaldo breaks all-time scoring record at World Cup with goal against Ghana

Ronaldo breaks all-time scoring record at World Cup with goal against Ghana   

 

Associated Press

 

DORTMUND, Germany -- Ronaldo scored his 15th World Cup goal Tuesday to become the tournament`s all-time scoring leader.

 

The striker scored in the fifth minute of Brazil`s match against Ghana in the second round of the World Cup. He broke through an offside trap, received a perfect through pass from Kaka, broke down goalkeeper Richard Kingson with a nifty stepover and shot it just as defender John Pantsil arrived.

 

The goal put Brazil up 1-0.

 

``It was never my goal (to break the record),`` Ronaldo said. ``It just happened match after match.

 

``I want to continue to increase the record, but without forgetting that the main goal in the World Cup is winning the title,`` Ronaldo said. ``We know that we are going to face more difficult rivals every time, and we have to be prepared for that.``

 

Ronaldo came into the match even with Gerd Mueller of Germany with 14 goals. He had two goals in Brazil`s 4-1 win over Japan last week, surpassing Pele as Brazil`s career leading scorer in the tournament.

 

Tuesday`s goal was Ronaldo`s 67th in 103 matches with Brazil. Pele, the team`s career scoring leader, netted 95 goals in 114 matches.

 

Ronaldo had disappointing performances in Brazil`s first two matches against Croatia and Australia, when the Real Madrid striker was held scoreless and substituted for twice.

 

He was also bothered by a series of distractions, including a weight controversy and a string of minor health problems.

 

At his fourth World Cup, Ronaldo arrived overweight after enduring a series of injuries with Real Madrid during the season, having to work separately from his teammates to regain his form.

 

Ronaldo was crucial in Brazil`s fifth world title in South Korea and Japan in 2002, scoring eight goals in seven matches. He scored twice in the final against Germany.

 

Ronaldo was with Brazil when it won its fourth title in 1994 in the United States. He could equal Pele`s feat as a three-time World Cup winner with another championship this year.

 

Pele won it in 1958, `62 and `70.

Klinsmann's attitude rubs off on the players

Klinsmann’s attitude rubs off on the players   

 

Associated Press

 

BERLIN -- Juergen Klinsmann never lacked confidence when he was a swashbuckling striker for Germany. That self-belief hasn`t left him as coach, either, and it`s rubbing off on his players.

 

When he became coach of Germany two years ago, Klinsmann promised to give the host nation its fourth World Cup title.

 

It was an astonishing declaration for a man entering his first coaching experience in one of the toughest jobs in soccer, at a time when the image of German soccer was at one of its lowest in decades.

 

The Germans were World Cup finalists in 2002, a surprise run, but they tumbled out of the 2004 European Championship without winning a game, which was closer to reality. They were playing dull, plodding soccer and Klinsmann`s promise seemed completely out of place.

 

The man who gave him the job didn`t have doubts, though.

 

"I`ve known Juergen for many years and I know very well his determination," said Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder, a co-president of the German soccer federation. "I always believed he could do it.

 

"This team has developed great self-confidence, and that comes from having a coach with such a positive energy who is convinced of his mission," said Mayer-Vorfelder, once the president of Stuttgart, Klinsmann`s first major club as player. "If you don`t have that self-belief you won`t project it."

 

That confidence is more than evident ahead of Friday`s quarterfinal match against Argentina, although Germany has not beaten one of the elite soccer nations since October 2000, a run of 16 games.

 

Listen to Torsten Frings, a midfielder, who is likely to have to deal with Juan Roman Riquelme, the Argentine playmaker.

 

"I don`t care what happened in the last six years. I am not thinking one second that we can lose. We are sure that we`ll win," Frings said Tuesday. "We are stronger. We are top fit. We can go for 90 minutes. We can go for 120 minutes if necessary and I don`t think Argentina likes a team that is always coming at them."

 

Klinsmann already has said that quarterfinals won`t be the team`s final stop. "We won`t stop. We want to go all the way to the end," he said.

 

Central defender Christoph Metzelder said Klinsmann was always ahead of his players.

 

"He`s convinced us of things that we couldn`t really believe," he said. Midfielder Sebastian Schweinsteiger added; "Now we know what he wants us to do."

 

Assistant coach Joachim Loew, a friend of Klinsmann who is the team`s chief game plan creator, said the coach was a good motivator.

 

"Klinsmann always had clear visions and he was always consistent in his work. He is frontman that can delegate very well and he is a good motivator," Loew said.

 

To motivate reserve players, Klinsmann gives them the job of firing up the team with short speeches before games.

 

He is also aware of the needs of his young players, who don`t like being closed up in the team`s hotel for a long time. After games, he`s allowed them to go home and the players are usually free to do what they want outside practice times.

 

"He gives us responsibility and a lot of freedom. We use them but we don`t abuse them," Metzelder said. "The team is prepared to win and we have to give credit to the coach and his staff. It`s impressive what he`s done."

 

Although he is a novice in coaching, Klinsmann can draw on the experience of six major finals he played in, winning the World Cup title in 1990 and the 1996 European Championship - the last two titles Germany won.

Youthful Spain faces experienced France

Youthful Spain faces experienced France   

 

Associated Press

 

KAMEN, Germany -- Spain is quick, confident and eager to shed its tag as underachiever. France, full of veterans from its 1998 World Cup title, looks to dispel the impression it is too old to win.

 

So it`s Spanish youth and ambition pitted against French experience Tuesday in the second round of the World Cup.

 

``The French team is good physically, so age won`t be a factor, but experience might be,`` France defender Willy Sagnol said. ``It`s better to have a team crammed full of experience rather than the other way around.``

 

Spain earned three straight wins in the first round, while France had to settle for second place in Group G with two draws before a 2-0 win against Togo.

 

``They ended up in second place for a reason. I don`t think that it was by accident,`` Spain striker Fernando Torres said. ``We know that it is a great team, and we have respect for them as (former) world champions, but we don`t have any fear.``

 

Between racial insults, missed penalties and individual rivalries, there are plenty of scores to settle on both sides.

 

Spain has never won a competitive match against France, a fact that irks the Iberians as much as their failure to win a World Cup title. And the Spaniards have not advanced past the World Cup quarterfinals since placing fourth in 1950.

 

Spain coach Luis Aragones dismissed suggestions his team might get increasingly anxious the higher it climbs in the tournament.

 

``I don`t have vertigo,`` he said. ``I think we will end up winning. The bigger the match, the less vertigo I feel.``

 

Aragones said the key against France was to maintain possession, employing skillful midfield playmakers such as Xavi Hernandez, Xabi Alonso and Cesc Fabregas.

 

But France coach Raymond Domenech said Spain wasn`t the only team that likes to take command of the game.

 

``We know they like to keep the ball. Spain has always played that way,`` he said. ``But they didn`t buy the ball. They don`t have a divine right to it. We can have it as well.``

 

Many of France`s 1998 veterans remain, including Lilian Thuram, Thierry Henry and Zinedine Zidane, who is retiring after the World Cup.

 

The match in Hanover will provide some less-than-cheerful reunions.

 

Aragones and Henry are not the best of friends after Aragones` used a racist remark in referring to the France striker while trying to motivate Jose Antonio Reyes, an Arsenal teammate of Henry.

 

Henry said he had put the 2004 incident behind him.

 

``The whole affair has been closed for me for a long time now,`` he said.

 

For Henry, Tuesday`s game will also offer a rematch against Spain`s defensive commander, Carles Puyol of Barcelona. The two last met in May when Arsenal lost the European Champions League final to Barcelona.

 

``If he gets a lot of space to run, then he is very dangerous, and we have to try to prevent that from happening,`` Puyol said. ``We can`t do man-on-man marking, but make sure that he doesn`t receive the ball easily. And above all, not obsess with Henry, but focus on their whole attack.``

 

If Spain wins, it would be Zidane`s last match, which Spanish sports daily Marca noted with the headline: ``We are going to retire Zidane.``

 

But French players have other ideas.

 

``They think they`ve already beaten us,`` France defender Eric Abidal said. ``But the hardest is yet to come for them. Spain have got technical players, but they don`t have a Zidane. Zidane is a competitor who only knows the top level. He is a winner.``

 

For France, Abidal and Zidane are returning from suspension, meaning Mikael Silvestre and David Trezeguet likely will be relegated to the bench.

 

Coincidentally, Tuesday`s match marks the 22nd anniversary of one of Spain`s most bitter soccer memories: the 1984 European Championship final it lost to France 2-0.

 

France beat Spain in the same tournament in 2000, this time in the quarterfinals after Raul Gonzalez botched a last-minute penalty kick.

 

Raul could get his revenge on his 29th birthday. Fabien Barthez is still guarding France`s goal, and the Real Madrid striker looks likely to return to the starting lineup after playing with the substitutes in the group stage.

 

``I hope things will be different, above all, that the result is in Spain`s favor,`` Raul said. ``I think we can do a lot of damage to them.``