Barcelona’s soccer superstar Ronaldinho helped his side to a 2-1 victory over South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns at a packed Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria on Wednesday night.
The visitors were trailing 1-0 for most of the exhibition match, raising the hopes of the 45 000-strong crowd. Surprise Moriri was the player responsible for Sundowns’ only goal, which quickly came a minute and a half into the match.
But while Sundowns took the early lead, it seemed as though Barcelona were just biding their time. In the second half, like a cat playing with a wounded bird, Barcelona began to squeeze and scored twice in the last 10 minutes.
The two goals came courtesy of Santiago Ezquerro, in the 78th minute, and Marc Crosas, who was well set up by Ronaldinho — who also captained — to kick home the winning ball.
The Ronaldinho aura has diminished somewhat since his bitterly disappointing form for Brazil during the 2006 World Cup in Germany, but there is no doubt he remains one of the few soccer players who can be proclaimed a genius at his craft.
It was a display of professional soccer by Barcelona, as coach Frank Rijkaard agreed. He was quoted by the Citizen newspaper as saying: ”We came here for a win and the guys were told to put away the fancy football. Sundowns are a good side and they really surprised us with their pace and strong players.”
Barcelona were deprived of the Spanish league title by Real Madrid through a peculiar head-to-head rule on Sunday after holding the title for the past two seasons.
There had been some misgivings surrounding the highly anticipated showpiece at Loftus, revolving mainly around how Mamelodi Sundowns, the Premier Soccer League champions, would fare against such daunting opposition.
Sundowns had only resumed training on Monday after a three-week break following the Absa Cup final defeat against Ajax Cape Town, raising doubts over their fitness and preparedness for a game against one of the top club combinations in the world. However, their impressive play on Wednesday evening, especially in the first half, has surely silenced their critics.