I am still waiting for Sir Alex, the self appointed defender of “English” soccer to denounce his player, Cristiano Ronaldo for thumbing his nose at all that is decent in this game. This cynical and manipulative cheat is doing what he does best. Dive. Last weekend he was booked for diving. Rob Styles obviously got it wrong but Ronaldo has cried wolf a number of times. Styles was probably playing it safe after the referees association lambasted him for awarding a penalty kick to Chelsea following a Florent Malouda dive.
Today it was Derby’s turn and this time Ronaldo succeeded in bamboozling Chris Foy into giving a penalty, flopping under an innocuous Tyrone Mears challenge. He promptly took it denying Carlos Tevez a chance to score a hat trick. A spoilsport too.
Didier Drogba was taken to task by fans for diving last year. He has since cleaned up his act. If Sir Alex is serious about saving “English” soccer then he should clean his own house otherwise it is just another exercise in self serving lip service. Let him have a talk with his blue eyed boy or let some of his senior players give him a talking to. Otherwise one of these days someone else will take matters into their own hands and attempt a facial reconfiguration on Ronaldo.
9 comments on “Cristiano Ronaldo: This man is still a cheat and a spoil sport”
cristiano is a soccer player and all soccer players do certain and if not everything to help their team, he didnt dive in my opinion, he was just intelligent and obviously wen he was denied a penalty last week, wat do you expect, he obviously feels ref is not going to be giving him his penalty, so he has to play it smart, i am not a united fan, i am just being a realist…..
Ok first of all, I really don’t think you can claim Drogba has cleaned up his act. He certainly hasn’t. If you ever watch a Chelsea game where they are losing, or tied, he will do whatever it takes to win. If you don’t believe me, go watch Chelsea v Aston Villa from earlier this season. His antics were outrageous.
Now onto Ronaldo’s penalty. He didn’t dive. There’s a difference between diving and looking for a penalty. I personally think there’s nothing wrong with looking for a penalty/foul, because if you have no other options, it makes sense. Diving would imply that there was no contact by the Derby defender, and if you saw the event, there certainly was contact. Did Ronaldo look for contact? Yes he did, but it wasn’t diving. Not to mention Ronaldo has been booked 3 times this year for diving (Everton, Fulham and Lille), all of which were fouls. Because of Ronaldo’s speed, defenders constantly foul him instead of trying to actually get the ball, and referees do thing. He was having the crap kicked out of him throughout the game, and I think him forcing the penalty was a way of getting back at them. It’s easy to say you wouldn’t do the same thing when you’re not playing top level football.
And as for Tevez, he obviously didn’t care too much about because he was the first one celebrating the goal with Ronaldo afterwards. When Rooney was on a hat-trick against Villa, Ronaldo let him take the penalty and he missed. Against Chelsea, he let Saha take it, and he took it very poorly and luckily went in. He’s the best penalty taker, and I’m sure after Rooney’s miss he’s under orders to take all penalties, especially when goal difference is so important when Arsenal and Liverpool are right behind them.
C. Ronaldo def dove, the defender swept for the ball and he pulled his legs up and fell forward.
It’s been obvious for years that C. Ronaldo is greedy. Most of his moves that earn him recognition do little to beat the defender, except appear on highlight reels. Ronaldinho does moves to beat defenders, C. Ronaldo makes them to show up on tv. Additionally, the reason he’s having such a ‘great year’ is that he takes 3 times as many shots as the next closest person.
He is a cheat…he shouldnt go down so much…but still….he is one of the best in the world and the fans love him…
He’s also one of the best players in the world, and I love watching him on the pitch.
I am not denying that he is an exciting player to watch with mesmerizing ball skills. But he is one of the most scheming players in recent years. His wink after Rooney was sent off in the last World Cup showed what a calculated move that was. I think that was a pretty defining moment for me. Whatever respect I had for Ronaldo as a player evaporated right after that. The World Cup is war but that was downright sleazy.
There is talk that he had improved this aspect of his game but the Derby game served as a reminder. What is disappointing is the reaction of Sir Alex to all of this. He used to love Roy Keane and Gary Pallister, tough but fair minded players whose devotion to the game was absolute with zero tolerance for gamesmanship. Someone like Ronaldo would have already gotten a tongue lashing by them. Ask Rio and Gary Neville.
And mbyte84 is right, his shots on goal average is phenomenal. It gets him goals but it also makes him a ball hog. And not a very accurate one as David Healy was the top scorer in the Euro qualifiers. Still he does enough to keep Man Utd ticking and that is enough I suppose for Sir Alex, in his avatar as the great pragmatist.
Andrew, Giggs is a great penalty taker. Why not give it to him? And why would you not trust Tevez with a PK. He took a few while at West Ham and I am sure he has taken some for the Argentina team and Boca Juniors. Its another thing that Tevez was happy with his own performance to really care but I don’t think it should come at the expense of undermining ones ability to take a PK.
I know Tevez can take penalties, but so can Rooney. It’s the point that Ronaldo is designated to take them. And while it annoys me that he often shoots when he should pass, he still scores a ton of goals and United win games. Also last year he led the league in assists.
And as for the World Cup “wink” that’s the biggest load of garbage. No one knows who he winked to or why, and people just assume the worst.
And look, for all we know, maybe Fergie did tear him a new one for diving, although I still don’t think it was a dive. I’m not saying he doesn’t dive, but he does it way less than most players, and catches more flak for it than anyone.
Fact: He is one of the top three players in the WORLD and no one can deny that.
Also, its called football you yanks! this website is TOSS
Hey, man, it’s you English that have to come up with cute nicknames for everything. We Americans aren’t nearly clever enough to come up with ‘soccer’ out of ‘association football’ all on our own. You only have yourselves to blame…
On all other points, agreed. As far as I’m concerned, if you don’t love watching Ronaldo play, you don’t love socc…er, football.