Ronaldo’s 15th goal a weighty achievement

Despite arriving overweight at the World Cup in Germany, Ronaldo hit the mark early yesterday, Korean time, as he scored his 15th career goal in the tournament, becoming the all-time scoring leader.
History was written in the fifth minute of the match between Brazil and Ghana, when Ronaldo gave his team the lead on a pass by Kaka.
The 29-year-old striker faked out Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson on a stepover move and flicked the ball into the net. Brazil overpowered the upstart African nation 3-0 and will face France in the final round of eight.
German Gerd Mueller, nicknamed “Der Bomber,” held the previous record of 14 World Cup goals, which came in 13 games in 1970 and 1974.
Ronaldo took 18 games to accomplish his feat.
Nevertheless, the Brazilian striker made clear his quest for greatness is not over.
“What are my objectives from this point on? I want more, more, more! I want to keep scoring goals because I’ve still got plenty more to give. I want to keep scoring a lot of goals,” Ronaldo said, according to FIFA’s World Cup Web site.
In 1994, he scored twice in a 4-1 win over Japan and added four more goals in the 1998 World Cup.
In 2002, at the joint World Cup held in South Korea and Japan, he scored eight goals in seven matches, two of them coming in the final against Germany.
Germany’s Miroslav Klose is the goal leader of this tournament, with four goals, while Ronaldo is in second place tied with five other players. Nevertheless, with Spain eliminated, only three other players still playing in the tournament are tied with him.
Ronaldo was congratulated by Gerd Mueller in an interview with FIFA that was posted on its Web site.
“I’ve always said that I wasn’t the record holder. That honor, for me, goes to Just Fontaine, who scored 13 goals in one tournament [six games]. He’s the best in my book. Although Ronaldo is now in his third World Cup, this is nevertheless still a great achievement on his part,” the German said.
“Playing at such a high level over such a long period of time, always managing to be fit at the right moment, is unusual nowadays. In my opinion, he’s the best, most complete attacker there is at the moment.”

by Brian Lee