Real Madrid Makes Its Intentions Known
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Version 0 of 1. LONDON — When you play in the Champions League and both the history of your club and the size of your salary exceed those of every other competitor in the game, you need to put on one heck of a show. Cristiano Ronaldo did exactly that on Tuesday night. On Sunday, he signed a new contract committing the rest of his athletic prime to Real Madrid. A bespectacled Ronaldo and a seemingly grateful club president, Florentino Pérez, completed the deal in a televised event in the stands of Bernabéu Stadium. It is reported that the figures guarantee Ronaldo a post-tax salary of €21 million, about $28 million, for each of the next five years. About 48 hours after signing the deal, Ronaldo got down to business. He dispensed with the glasses and wore what might have been his Superman costume. Real Madrid is synonymous with European club glory. Its mammoth spending over the years is geared, above all, to get the elusive “La Décima.” That is the quest to do what no other team has done and win the European Cup (now the Champions League) for a 10th time. The problem is that other teams, like Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, along with new pretenders like Manchester City, Paris St.-Germain and Juventus, want the same prize. And Madrid has been dreaming about La Décima for 12 seasons now, but has not won it yet. If ever there was a statement of intent, Tuesday provided it. Man United and P.S.G. hit four goals apiece. Man City and Bayern opened up with three goals. Money and power talk in the Champions League. And Cristiano Ronaldo and Madrid talked loudest. The team had a more than difficult task on the first night of the tournament, with an away game in the Ali Sami Yen Sports Complex, which is Galatasaray’s home in Istanbul. Not only are you on the edge of Asia there, you are in a cauldron that seethes with hostility. Real lost on its previous visit there in the Champions League last season, although that was a second-leg encounter and Madrid had a sufficient lead to withstand the defeat. For 20 minutes, the crowd roared. The home side, with the former Champions League victors Didier Drogba and Wesley Sneijder in its distinctive red and amber colors, put Real on the back foot. Madrid’s goalie, Iker Casillas, made a save but was soon replaced after damaging a rib in collision with his own defender, Sergio Ramos. Still Galatasaray dominated. But you cannot sustain domination without taking opportunities against a team like Madrid. Felipe Melo, a Brazilian in Gala’s midfield, either hesitated when his chances came or was thwarted by Casilles’ deputy, Diego López. Then the game turned. After 33 minutes, Isco, a young Spaniard also acquired at great cost in the summer, showed stealth and strength in equal proportions in holding off defender Emmanuel Eboué and scoring with perfect precision off the base of a post. Then, with Drogba off after injuring a shoulder and Gala’s other striker, Burak Yilmaz, missing a header from seven yards, the concentration and the fighting spirit drained from the Turkish champion. It was alarming to see it, and Fatih Terim, the brimstone-and-fire home coach, did not mask his dismay. “We lost the game in a terrible way,” he concluded. “We suddenly conceded goals for no apparent reason. My players gave up the game, both physically and in terms of morale.” Didn’t they. Melo’s careless header at 54 minutes opened up his defense for Karim Benzema to strike the second goal, and Ronaldo did the rest. The Portuguese picked apart the remnants of Galatasaray’s resistance. He scored twice with quick reactions to stray balls in the home side’s confused goalmouth. He combined with the substitute Gareth Bale to set up another easy strike for Benzema. And then, the game already won, Ronaldo adorned the evening with his masterpiece. His feet danced and his composure shone as he wove his way through three defenders — Selcuk Inan, Aurélien Chedjou and Dany Nounkeu. These are big men, but Ronaldo cannot be bullied, and for sure his quality is bigger than theirs. When he was done twisting them this way and that, he smote the ball with such velocity that it was in the net before the goalie could even dream of getting a hand to it. And CR7, the striker of 206 goals in 204 games since joining Real in 2009, walked off with the game ball. He has scored 21 hat tricks for Real and is chasing down the legends of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Raúl for the club’s scoring records. And his contract and prowess suggest he will get there. But will he get Madrid La Décima? In Manchester, another big player, Wayne Rooney scored only two goals in Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen. After unsuccessfully trying to engineer a move to Chelsea just a month ago, Rooney was the catalyst, the driving force, the energetic game-winner on Tuesday, surpassing even his strike partner, Robin van Persie. Rooney scored twice and created the third. He ran until the Germans wilted and the Old Trafford crowd, which believed him gone in the summer, rose in mass applause when he left the field just before the end. There is a small matter of the Manchester derby – United versus City – this coming weekend. And with City breaking its barren run in European competition by winning, 3-0, in Plzen on Tuesday, both sides will be up for the contest this Sunday. Speaking of being up for things, Bayern Munich is the reigning continental champion. There had been murmurs from within the camp that the club’s flow and fierce willpower were not the same under Pep Guardiola, the former Barcelona man who took over after Bayern retired last season’s title-winning coach, Jupp Heynckes. Bayern’s sporting director, Matthias Sammer, had goaded the team with comments about “lackluster” effort. The response was that the champion came out to dispose of CSKA Moscow, 3-0, with goals from David Alaba, Mario Mandzukic and Arjen Robben. “The team picked up tonight where they left off at Wembley,” said Munich’s chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. Wembley was where Bayern became European champion last May. |