Arteveld: I totally agree, when a player starts to be a cult person, and gets cash from commercials, he plays like s..t. ;)
Perhaps it's just my [and my friends] selective memory, but when Ronaldo gets the ball, and reaches the other teams 20m goal radius he's bound to trip over on an invisible leg, and then look like a kid who's just got robbed of his candy [kinda like that Nicholas Cage facial thing, but less grotesque]. And of course, with all the bad mouth at the ref.
Many times he does get lost doing his thing, then he fumbles on his own and usually ends up 'ass in the grass' waving his arms at the ref, yes, you're not seeing things, i see that too ;)
But i don't see that so much as faking, more like him trying to throw his weight around after the fact. I'm not saying he doesn't fake at all, he does, just more or less the same than everybody else.
I think Ronaldo's value as a club player is undeniable, but when it comes to the national team that's a whole different story. That goal he scored against DPR ? He hadn't scored one in 14 months and if i'm not mistaken that other one was a penalty, so he really hasn't been 'the best' or most productive player on the team in a long time, not by a long shot.
But, he's Ronaldo, so he ends up getting praise when he deserves it and sometimes when he doesn't, like FIFA handing him the 'best player of the match' award. He did gave the award to Tiago, which does shows some maturity and that maybe in time he'll end up turning out to be a good captain for the team. Really, nice gesture, and one that caught me totally off guard.
FIFA must have been watching some other Portugal - DPR match btw, because, Coentrão, Tiago, Meireles, anyone of them played alot better than Ronaldo.
Arteveld: Have You seen how Ghana reacted to the ref today? No yelling, no shouting, no gestures. And at one occasion, after one of the Germans fouled one of the opponents, another Ghana player tapped him on the shoulder, and asked him to play nice and help the guy get up. The whole thing looked priceless, the German guy was lost.;)
I did noticed that. They carried themselves nicely even later on when the news from the other game weren't so great (when Serbia scored). Very nice, even because sometimes it doesn't take much for African teams to loose their focus and start messing about in terms of their game or their disciplin or both. That's another reason i was glad Ghana made it through, cool team.
Edit: What the hell ? SInce when have the boards trouble dealing with ^'s, ~'s and ç's ?