Category: Pinoy Soccer

John Boye of Ghana scored a self goal in the Portugal’s net giving Portugal a lead by 1-0. It was the Group match of G game. The sour image of Portugal and Ghana will be remembered for ages as 1.7m euro was transported to the hotel of the team and Ronaldo did not feel like giving interview after missing many chances to score a goal.

Christiano Ronaldo came to collect the trophy of man of the match with bandaged knee and showing signs of limping. He seemed to be disappointed as he could not score the goal before 10 minutes thus his goal did not matter. In this World Cup his arch rivals Neymar and Messi are still basking in the glory of Brazilian sun but Ronaldo struggled with his form. Being awarded the Player of the Year he failed to turn the opportunities into winning goals. So Portugal remained at number 3 from their group and in the first match itself against Germany they proved to be no match as Germany scored 4-0. Pepe’s sent off was crucial according to Portugal coach and they were literally handicapped with Ronaldo not being cent percent fit enough to carry with his form. He seemed to be frustrated with the team and largely by himself by drawing the match against U.S.A by 2-2.

Bento came at the rescue of Ronaldo stating that it was team’s fault and not an individual mistake. As Ronaldo has always risen to the occasion and proved his mettle time and again but it was the grave mistakes by his team that led Portugal out of 2014 World Cup. In fact if Ronaldo would have been fitter things would have been different for the Portuguese team. Ronaldo’s mood was of sadness and nothing could be amended.

Argentina midfielder Angel di Maria has claimed that the Argentina players will be able to be more relaxed at the World Cup 2014 compared to Brazil since they do not have the home support. South American teams are expected to receive a lot of support if they progress to the latter stages of the tournament with Brazil having been knocked out. At the same time, those teams will be without the pressure at the initial stages. Di Maria is hoping to take advantage of this fact and do well at the World Cup 2014.

Compared to other teams like Spain and Germany, Argentina have been given a relatively easy group with no major title favourites being alongside them. Argentina will be up against Nigeria, Bosnia, and Iran at the World Cup. They are expected to top the group without any major difficulties. Di Maria comes on the back of a title winning season with Real Madrid. He won the Champions League title with the Spanish team. As a result, he will be in a buoyant mood ahead of this tournament. The 26-year-old has stated that this year is proving to be successful for him and he is hoping that it ends with a World Cup title to his name.

“Brazil won the Confederations Cup against Spain, the defending world champions, so they should be confident, but they have more pressure than us. Everyone knows it’s not easy to win [the World Cup] and that, for many years, Argentina haven’t been champions nor reached a final. They are things we have to be relaxed about, knowing we can do it because we have great players, the best in the world at the best clubs in the world,” said the winger, who has been converted into a midfielder by Carlo Ancelotti this season.

Brazil’s World Cup winning star Ronaldo has claimed that this current national team faces a huge pressure to win the title playing in front of their supporters. Brazil will be hosting the World Cup 2014. As the five-time winners of the competition, there is expectation that they will be able to lift the trophy to bring an end to the dominance of Spain. Even when they are not playing well, people of Brazil expect the national team to win. Such is the pressure of playing for Brazil, which Ronaldo claims that will not be easy.

Ronaldo lifted two World Cup titles with the national team, while he also holds the record for the most number of goals scored in the World Cup finals. His record is in danger of being broken by Germany striker Miroslav Klose, but Ronaldo is hoping that his record lives on. Brazil has not won the trophy for the last several years, while the people have been engaged in an uprising against the government due to the enormous spending they have carried out especially in terms of the stadium development.

However, the government has not paid enough attention to local infrastructure, which was the foremost aspect expected to be developed when Brazil were awarded the rights to host the competition.

“The players, when they don’t know if they are going to win or lose, by definition, they are under enormous pressure. Of course, playing in your own country is an additional responsibility. Brazilian people of course hope that all is prefect with Brazil winning. We have a great team, but the pressure is huge. But hasn’t it always been very, very important for the Brazilian team as the favorite? So the Brazilian players are just used to this huge pressure,” said Ronaldo, who recently retired from playing after a stellar career.