That second was actually a really good finish. It's the sort of finish only top strikers could do. Don't want to exaggerate it as it wasn't out of this world but just saying that's a finish only top 4 level premier league strikers could do.
Cristiano Ronaldo - performances 2017/18
- Thread starter SirAF
- Start date
It isn't just that. If it was that easy everyone would hang around the box. It's all about reading the game and being 3-4 steps ahead and predicting where the ball will land after those few steps and being in that position. This is why poachers are so valuable as they are masters of this skill (not to say Ronaldo is just a poacher)
Take Harry Kane for example. He isn't a poacher either but he is incredible at reading the 3-4 steps ahead. It's almost like chess for these players who have that knack.
You’re right in that it is an acquired skill but it’s what the best strikers will do. They make a poor ball into a good one because they’re in the right spot. They pick up the rebounds. As a team we don’t do that enough.
Ronaldo is wise enough to not rely in a hail mary of using the pitch to move the ball 3 centimeters higher, he can score 95% of his PK without that. If you try to do it on purpose you're just risking a slip if the pitch breaks with the tension you put there.
Now, everyone will say one thing or the other, these are the kind of situations that can create a legend about a player, but the first time Cris watches this he probably would be relieved that the pitch didn't screw him by moving the ball to much or by breaking and having him in falling, just to be on every cover in Europe tomorrow.
Now, everyone will say one thing or the other, these are the kind of situations that can create a legend about a player, but the first time Cris watches this he probably would be relieved that the pitch didn't screw him by moving the ball to much or by breaking and having him in falling, just to be on every cover in Europe tomorrow.
I just think some players have it and some won't ever get it unless they learn to at a young age. Ronaldo became much better at it but he always had that ability to get into goal scoring opportunities.
You can definitely have an instinct for it. It can surely be improved though. Even if not perfecting it making more runs will always help.
There's no way he meant that. He didn't practice it so he could break it out for the first time at 33 years old
My take on it is that his standing leg is exerting that much force onto the pitch which may have moved the top layer of the pitch slightly.
I think it's also players are very goal hungry, they always take these gambles (making runs even when there is good chance goal keeper will clear the ball) and expect chance will come to them. Some players won't make a move unless ball is there to win by which time defenders clears them.
But there is making constant runs and then there is knowing which run will result in a goal and which one wont. That's the difference I see in many strikers/attackers based on how many they score.
Of course how willing they are to take a gamble does come into play too.
Yeah and what's even the point?
I think most goal scorers make constant runs, so many times ball won't reach them but they won't stop making those runs.
I would put Ronaldo in that category. I would put most goal scorers in that category.
I don't think bold part actually happens, it's just that we concentrate on the run when player scores so we assume player knows when to make runs when in truth (again my assumption) they make same runs all the time without getting ball.
I'm gonna get heat for this, but Cristiano has basically been Inzaghi in the past 3 years or so. He had like 3 one on ones with the keeper, fecked up 2 of them and scored with his knee. Didn't touch the ball beside that and was offside 40 times.
I can't wait for how overrated he'll be in the next 25 years or so, but I saw it with my eyes and he does not deceive me. The real heros of this Madrid are Modric, Kroos and Marcelo. Even Ramos maybe.
I can't wait for how overrated he'll be in the next 25 years or so, but I saw it with my eyes and he does not deceive me. The real heros of this Madrid are Modric, Kroos and Marcelo. Even Ramos maybe.
It doesn´t matter how were the goals. The point is that when was needed, he scored 2
Ronaldo had many one touch passes for counters today. Not holding the ball long but is an important open man. He is playing as striker so that's his job.
How can adjusting your game at 31 to become one of the greatest box strikers in history be overrated in 25 years?
Did your eyes also see how he won the games against Bayern, Juventus and Atletico Madrid last season and how Ronaldo scored more than 50% of Madrid goals in CL this season?
True great of the game, said it before for me Pele/Maradona/Messi/C.Ronaldo are the 4 greatest players to have ever played the game, we are so fortunate that 2 are playing together in the same era.
People will be watching videos of C.Ronaldo many years from now (like people do now with Pele 50 years later) and in those clips he will be wearing a Manchester United shirt, as a club we should be proud of that.
People will be watching videos of C.Ronaldo many years from now (like people do now with Pele 50 years later) and in those clips he will be wearing a Manchester United shirt, as a club we should be proud of that.
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You forgot Cruyff and Beckenbauer.
Cruyff > Ronaldo
None of those players wait in the box for tap ins
Maybe they should have
No, look at that chance he missed in the first half, his physical decline is very very noticeable, and at this level and for his type of player even a relatively small decline could mean the end. It's a massive credit to him that he still manages to be so good despite that, and how much it affects his game.
Of course given the level he started from he's still pretty good physically compared to most other players, but it's had a big impact on his play, which is normal. Said this before but it's really quite incredible what he's done in the last 3 seasons
Cruyff wasn't better than Ronaldo at 33.
But it's clear to me you don't have a clue about football if you think C.Ronaldo has been the same type of footballer he is today all through his career (still the current Ballon d'Or holder i may add) - Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or here at United as a Neymar type player, Ronaldo adjusting his game the way he has, winning the Ballon d'or as 2 different types of player (in 2 different countries), shows greatness to me.
I'm sure not to you though, as i sense some kind of agenda, too bad 'gilbers' won't have any baring what history books say though.
That there's going to be a lot of people selling the story that he did it un purpose because that gets clicks and reactions, when in fact, doing that would be an absurd thing to do, like shooting a backheel penalty for "surprise factor", saying that he did it on purpose can make him look dumb when he really isn't.
He may even say that was on purpose (I'd say it too if I'm a public figure and everyone wants to hear that from me, who cares) but I really doubt that was something intended. Just another thing some people will use to get views, and a lot of haters can use against him.
No he stopped on time and kimpembe fell because he was bracing for the contact that didn't happen. Sort of an unintentional dive
Obviously not, Prime Cronaldo was a monster which is what pisses me off when people say he hasn't declined like a lot of these pundits on tv.
Cruyff was different to Ronaldo at 33 and became the de facto playmaker
Ok the first part, you mean it as a diss, which is the funniest part of all. "Hey look! Over the last 3 years, between the ages of 30-33 past his physical peak, he's only been one of the best strikers of the last 30 years!"
Second part: games are won by goals. He scores ze goals. I hope he scores another 10 goals all with his knees, ass, nose, dick and balls, with a hat trick in the final were first he literally trips on the ball and somehow ends up scoring a scorpion, second he deflects a shot with his ass, third he a defender tries to clear the ball and hits him and it ricochets into the net
Cruyff retired from the Netherlands NT being 30, went to a joke league like the NASL being 31 and was playing for Levante in Spanish Second division by 33. His last "great" year came in his first season with Barcelona when he was around 27, after that a lot of Barcelona legends have told that he liked spending time in the massage table and walking through the rambla more than actually playing football for Barcelona.
There's a reason Kubala was THE greatest player ever for Barcelona almost until this century where Cruyff romanticism and his coaching feats with the club brought him up to a place he wasn't before that. If you think Cruyff at his prime wasn't better than Ronaldo, then he has no business being compared to Ronaldo at all using your logic.
How many goals has he scored since the turn of the year? Seems he gear himself up in 2nd half of season for the big awards again.
Awful today, classic Ronaldo game though. Nothing close to MOTM but gets some very very jammy goals.
Mostly against very weak competition prior to today. He messed up a ton of chances today but to his credit he had a nice penalty and fortunate goal with his knee that fell his way.
Outside of that it’s hard to say “he’s back” when he was very poor for at least 80% of the match today.
Mostly against very weak competition prior to today. He messed up a ton of chances today but to his credit he had a nice penalty and fortunate goal with his knee that fell his way.
Outside of that it’s hard to say “he’s back” when he was very poor for at least 80% of the match today.
9 goals in 7 games in 2018. A few of those were jammy though
No offence but this is one of the dumbest tings I have read on the Caf in recent times.
Maybe I worded it differently. I guess my point was that even in those runs there is the right run and then there is just coming inside the box. Players who are good at it such as Ronaldo, Kane or a young Micheal Owen make a run based on "if the ball is going to come in it will likely be here so I will run this way" -- of course all of this happens in split seconds.
If you listen to player/pundits though, they will say these players read the game very well in terms of where/how the ball will be in play 3-4 plays for now. It's their reading of the game in the final third that is just so good.
To your point, yeah they constantly make runs when they do but still they do it best to their estimate as where the ball will arrive and most of the times they wont get the ball but you only need one or two to come off in a game.
Classic moaners in here.. how are those goals jammy?
The goal with his knees was absolutely jammy, he was poor for most of the game, real had a very hammy result even Madrid fans would admit but who cares they got the result they needed
I don't want to argue the performance but the penalty was a high pressure penalty that was very well taken. The "goal with his knees" was a really good finish. He had to adjust his body in a split second. If the ball had just hit him it would have gone somewhere else. He actually guided that ball in.
The penalty was great, the second goal was very very lucky, ronaldo was in the right place at the right time but I thought he was quite poor today and screwed up so many chances for Real.
There's just an inch of luck in that goal
I've been saying this for months and just this same week, the fact that he's only now starting to score these chances it's merely a stat, he's been doing this a lot this season, even if he only touches the ball with his knee to finish it, most of the goal comes from the way he plays with his position and the threat he represents. He gets the defenders to commit 5 fatal mistakes, Berchiche and Kimpembe not clearing well because he's around, Marquinhos doubting about helping against Ronaldo or pressuring Modric, Meunier being extra close to Ronaldo leaving Marcelo open and Marquinhos positioning badly for the cross by checking Ronaldo when he already shifts out of his cover as soon as he loses visual contact. Then comes the poacher, but he has done a lot of work without the ball prior to that.
The only fair criticism you can give him in games like this (ignoring that he's 33 years old and obviously his game had to change) is that this wouldn't fly in other teams with worse players because they'd be unable to exploit the amount of holes he creates around him, but make no mistake, he probably wouldn't score this goal if you swap Modric, Marcelo and Isco for Darmian, Fellaini, Mkhi and Mata, but he'd still be pressing the right keys.
That's his merit, that's how even being a shadow of the player he once was, he keeps turning up in important games and breaking records, Inzaghi was a good poacher, but he surely wouldn't be able to create the amount of chances he does just by doing the right thing every time. Cavani might be the only player I've seen that gets close to what he's doing.
He scored two goals, was a constant threat and worked his butt off defensively. It was the best that I've seen him this season.
I thought the 2 goals are well taken goals (2nd one has a bit of luck factor but other players could have easily squander it given same situation), and Ronaldo was a constant threat throughout the match. But most of his early shots were not sharp and abit off. Anyway you can’t discredit him with 2 decisive goals in such a big match.