FERNANDO|maróstica

Ronaldo looked overweight and distracted when Brazil opened play in the tournament two weeks ago. But on Tuesday against Ghana, he executed with typical panache in breaking the World Cup scoring record and setting Brazil on its way to a 3-0 victory.

The victory gave Brazil a berth in the quarterfinals for the fourth straight time and eliminated the last African team remaining in the tournament. Brazil will face France on Saturday in Frankfurt.

With three goals in this World Cup, Ronaldo has 15 in his career, one more than Gerd Müller, the West German star whose record had stood since 1974.

Brazil created a comfortable lead by the end, but Ghana displayed some of the fine attacking skills it had shown in the group phase and often troubled Brazil despite being unable to get the ball in the net.

“The score may suggest it was easy, but it was not,” Brazil Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira said. Ronaldo broke through in the fourth minute. With Ghana trying to push its offside trap almost to the halfway line, the Brazilian midfielder Kaká was left with plenty of space to direct the ball behind the defense and into Ronaldo’s path. Ronaldo had only goalkeeper Richard Kingson to beat. He feinted right, took a quick step over the ball and moved left all in one movement, leaving Kingson sprawled on the ground as he ran
forward to tap the ball into an empty net.

Ghana, which advanced from Group E with victories over the Czech Republic and the United States, responded by pushing forward with its distinctive quick-passing game. It came closest to scoring in the 41st minute, when John Mensah, a big defender, met a corner kick with a crashing header three yards from the goal.

The ball seemed bound for the back of the net, but somehow the Brazilian goalkeeper, Dida, got his right foot to it.

Within minutes, Ghana’s near miss was even more costly. Kaká and Cafu, Brazil’s right back, broke down the right flank. Adriano appeared to be offside as Cafu fired in a low cross, but the linesman’s flag stayed down as Adriano put the ball into the net with his thigh.

The goal, coming against the run of play and right before the halftime whistle, was clearly demoralizing to Ghana, and the team never looked as dangerous in the second half.

Ghana Coach Ratomir Dujkovic said he was thrown out of the game at halftime for criticizing the referee, Lubos Michel of Slovakia.
Four Ghanaian players were given yellow cards in the first half, and it seemed unlikely that the team would finish with 11 men on the field. Sure enough, in the 80th minute, Asamoah Gyan, a striker, was given a second yellow for diving in the penalty area.

Brazil was dominant in the last 10 minutes, and Zé Roberto slipped through yet another offside trap to flick the ball over Kingson and tap it into the open net. When asked if Brazil was playing beautiful soccer, Parreira said, “History does not remember beautiful football as much as it remembers champions.”

Brazil has shown tremendous skill and fluidity in patches, but has not consistently played at its highest level. Defense was supposedly its weakness, but that has proved to be its anchor; Brazil has conceded one goal in four matches. Dujkovic called Brazil “unbeatable.”

Parreira heaped praise on Ronaldo, predicting his impact would be large in the quarterfinal and beyond.

“The big guys are coming to the quarterfinals,” Parreira said, according to The Associated Press. “It is getting closer and closer. It’s getting tougher and tougher.”

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The Brazilian striker Ronaldo tied Gerd Müller’s World Cup finals record of 14 goals, scoring twice in a 4-1 victory yesterday over Japan in Group F in Dortmund, Germany.

Ronaldo equaled the record by Müller, the former striker for West Germany, when he grabbed his second goal of the game in the 81st minute.

Japan, coached by Zico, the former captain of Brazil, took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Keiji Tamada in the 34th minute before Ronaldo, who had been criticized for his performances in Brazil’s first two games, scored in first-half added time.

Second-half goals by Juninho Pernambucano, Gilberto and Ronaldo allowed Brazil, the defending champion, to finish group play with a maximum 9 points.

Brazil will face Ghana in the Round of 16. Japan, with 1 point, was eliminated.

“I’m very happy I’ve made such a significant improvement physically and technically during the competition,” Ronaldo told reporters after the match.

“Patience is the key word,” he said. “I managed to stay calm and patient in all the difficult moments.”

Ronaldo kept his starting spot when Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira made five changes for the game against Japan.

For the first 20 minutes, Brazil’s game flowed freely for the first time in the tournament as it sliced through the Japanese defense.

Only goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi stood between the defending champions and a significant lead.

Kawaguchi turned away two shots from Ronaldo and one each from Robinho, Kaká and Juninho.

But Brazil left gaps in the defense, and Japan took advantage when Tamada fired a first-time shot past the Brazilian goalkeeper Dida.

It was the first goal Brazil had conceded in its last seven international matches, the last being against Bolivia last October during qualifying.

Brazil was knocked off its feet, then scored the equalizer out of the blue. Ronaldinho’s diagonal pass found Cicinho, who headed across the goal mouth, and the unmarked Ronaldo nodded the ball home.

Juninho put Brazil ahead with a dipping 40-yard effort that went through Kawaguchi’s hands in the 53rd minute.

In the 59th minute, Ronaldinho produced a slide-rule pass for Gilberto to break down the left and put the third goal past Kawaguchi.

Ronaldo made the score 4-1 when he swiveled before curling in a shot from the edge of the box.

“Ronaldo is not in the best possible physical shape, but step by step and little by little he is getting there,” Parreira said. “I’m sure he will be better as each game goes. We deserved to win. We had about 25 shots blocked.”

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Brazil, five times champions and firm favorites to take home a sixth trophy, entered a charged World Cup arena in the German capital’s Olympiastadion on Tuesday and defeated a determined Croatia, 1-0.

But Brazil, the defending World Cup champion, had to withstand sustained pressure from Croatia in the second half. Only the sure hands of Brazil goalkeeper Dida, who has looked fallible in the past, kept Croatia at bay.

It took a moment of brilliance from Kaká, a midfielder who plays for A.C. Milan, to decide the outcome.

Taking a pass from Cafu, the veteran Brazilian captain, in the 44th minute, Kaká swiveled sharply left past two Croatian players on the edge of the penalty area. Then, after looking up quickly and without breaking his stride, he fired a left-footed drive into the top left corner of the net. In the grand tradition of Brazilian artistry, the goal was conjured from nothing.

Brazilian supporters, who had been uncharacteristically silent for most of the first half, erupted, and the steeply banked stands were transformed into a pulsing sea of yellow and green.

For much of the match, Brazil looked ordinary. Its star striker, Ronaldo, who has scored 12 World Cup goals, the same number as Pelé, is clearly overweight. He was a study in lumbering immobility until he was replaced in the 69th minute by Robinho, a teammate at Real Madrid. Whether Ronaldo is fit enough to make any impact on this tournament is an open question.

Alongside him, Adriano was also subdued. With two of the four members of its glittering attacking quartet — Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho and Kaká — making scant impression, Brazil was a side drained of its customary brio.

Instead, Brazil will be satisfied, and relieved, to have taken 3 points from the team expected to be its toughest opponent in Group F. Brazil will next play Australia, which beat Japan on Tuesday, in Munich on Sunday.

It was a historical setting for Brazil’s first game. Germany has refurbished rather than rebuilt the Olympiastadion, the stadium completed for the 1936 Olympic Games, which opened under Hitler’s gaze and amid a sea of Nazi swastikas. Jesse Owens’s name, as well as that of Nazi architects, is still engraved in the stone of the Marathon Gate.

Croatia, which finished in third place in the 1998 World Cup in France, started with a confidence reflecting the fact it had not been beaten in its previous 10 competitive games.

Its most prolific striker, Dado Prso, was immediately menacing. A defense that had conceded only five goals in its 10 qualifying games looked solid. Several stray passes from Ronaldinho, the Brazilian midfielder widely regarded as the best player in the world, reflected his team’s apparent unease.

Only in the 14th minute did Brazil test Stipe Pletikosa, the Croatian goalkeeper. First, he tipped a searing drive from left back Roberto Carlos over the crossbar.

Then, from the ensuing corner, Pletikosa palmed wide a curling shot from Ronaldinho. Another corner, from Ronaldinho, produced a crashing half-volley from the onrushing Roberto Carlos that rocketed over the bar.

But Croatia was not ready to bow to Brazil. In the 21st minute, Robert Kovac, Croatia’s best defender, almost burst through the defense, and in the 37th minute, midfielder Niko Kovac failed to connect with a swerving free kick from left back Darijo Srna in front of an empty net.

Croatia then suffered a double blow: the departure of the injured Niko Kovac in the 40th minute and, four minutes later, Kaká’s extravagant, ice-cool display of marksmanship.

Still, Croatia repeatedly threatened to tie the score in the second half. Dida had to be at his best to save shots from Prso in the 50th minute and from Ivan Klasnic three minutes later.

The Brazilian defense, marshaled by Lúcio, looked porous, and it often needed the fine covering of the defensive midfielder Emerson.

But Brazil also went close to extending its lead. In the 61st minute, Ronaldinho, whose impact grew as the game went on, almost did something he does very rarely — score with a header. He came drifting in to meet Cafu’s cross from the right wing, but somehow Pletikosa clawed the ball away at his left side.

A brief and surreal interlude marked the game in the 85th minute when a Croatian supporter somehow made his way onto the field. The Germans, who have meticulously planned this World Cup, seemed flummoxed by the unexpected intrusion. Nobody moved.

Eventually, a single security guard made his way across the field, the man was escorted off, and Brazil and Croatia played the remaining minutes without incident.

It was the end of the game, but only the beginning of a long night of samba in a German capital flooded with Brazilian fans.

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