Viva Ronaldinho!
The great Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho has once again showed the world why he is three times and currently FIFA World Player of the Year and also presently holder of the title as European Player of the Year. The Catalan team, FC Barcelona humbled Italy’s AC Milan in their home stadium at San Siro in a stirring first leg semi-final UEFA Champions league match. It was the first home defeat for Milan in nearly three years of European competition.Barca secured the only goal for the match. But no it was not Ronaldinho’s goal. Barca’s only goal was delivered by the Frenchman striker Ludovic Guily. So why Ronaldinho?
Since football is a team sport, a good football player is distinguished not only by individual scoring feats. It is also measured by one’s mastery in the art of playing set-pieces or providing good oppurtunity for the team to score a goal. Ronaldinho is master on both counts.
Right from the start of the match AC Milan made sure that Ronaldinho could not come close as to make any attempt to shoot at goal. Ronaldinho was closely marked by the Italian’s defense. But such maneuver didn’t handicapped Ronaldinho. The footballing genius of Ronaldinho took such manuevers against him as an oppurtunity to gain an openning for his teammates to attack. With awesome magical skill on ball control Ronaldinho enticed AC Milan’s defense to close in on him leaving his other teammates free. That was how Barca scored a goal against a tight and effective AC Milan’s line of defense. Ronaldinho effortlessly passed the ball in the most precise angle for Guily to strike it straight to the goal.
Their second leg semi-final match is surely another exciting match to watch. With just one more game separating them from the Paris final, Barca are enjoying a truly impressive run in the Champions League. Everyone in planet football is looking forward to a UEFA Champions League Grand final match in Paris between Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal FC and Frank Rijkaard’s FC Barcelona. But with Ronaldinho’s genius I’m pretty sure that Barca will be the next title holder of the UEFA Champion’s League.