Ronaldo showed that is still blessed with the touch of goal and he proved to be lethal to the MLS Select defense. His two goals help Real Madrid to win its 16th Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu on Tuesday, defeating the squad of MLS stars 5-0.
The official presentation of the Real Madrid squad for the upcoming season came in front of a crowd of 60,000 that saw the local team beat the MLS Select team in the XXVII edition of the Trofeo Santiago Bernabéu just five days prior to their debut in La Liga and still with time to finalize the 4-1-3-2 system that head coach Wanderly Luxemburgo likes to impose.
David Beckham opened the scoring with a freekick, Ronaldo had two goals and Guti and Raúl also scored for the entertainment of Real Madrid fans, who saw Jonathan Woodgate play in Estadio Santiago Bernabéu for the first time. The British defender played only five minutes, but got the standing ovation of the night.
The pressure over the MLS Select team was intense and their ball thefts provoked diabolic counteratacks that Raúl and Ronaldo had to finalize. The captain was an extension of Luxemburgo, to whom he spoke constantly through an electronic device.
Baptista was the object of all the attention. His physical presence was enormous and the rivals appeared to get smaller next to him. One of his runs ended up being the first goal of the night. Beckham, with millimetric precision, sent a freekick inside the left post of the goal defended by Matt Reis of the New England Revolution in the 22nd minute.
MLS Select had good intentions, but they could not overcome the Real midfield commanded by Thomas Gravesen, who did a great job in his defensive duties. Goalkeeper Diego López, who was replacing an injured Iker Casillas, did a great job stopping any chance that the U.S. team had inside the box when thay dared to attack, and when they did they left plenty of spaces open in the midfield that a very active Zinedine Zidane tried to take advantage of.
That's what he did with a great pass to Ronaldo, who did not miss for the 2-0 lead in the 39th minute. The first half ended with a number of details for closed study and with the impression that Real Madrid still has room for improvement.
The MLS Select team was not a real threat, and when they got close to the penalty area, there was Ivan Helguera to clear any danger. In the second half the game lost its intensity. The team seem to pay for the long and tiring preseason and Luxemburgo started thinking about moving some of his pieces.
Guti was the man who the fans wanted to see playing and when the coach finally put him in the field, substituting Zidane, the fans cheered like crazy. His presence resuscitated Ronaldo, whose connection with Guti is always a delight. It had to be Ronaldo who scored again. In an exceptional pass from Baptista, Ronaldo left the mark of two defenders behind and scored the third.
Guti continued with his little recital and saw an unmarked Baptista who couldn't score thanks to a great save by Reis. While he didn't score, he gave the fourth of the night to Guti in the 80th minute, who curled his shot to beat Reis. Raúl then finished off the event with a goal in the final minute.
CF Real Madrid 5, MLS Select 0
August 23, 2005 -- Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, Spain
Scoring Summary:
RM -- Beckham 22
RM -- Ronaldo 39
RM -- Ronaldo 73
RM -- Guti 80
RM -- Raúl 90
REAL MADRID: Diego López; Michel Salgado (Carlos Diogo 85), Iván Helguera (Jonathan Woodgate 86) , Francisco Pavón (Álvaro Mejía 87), Roberto Carlos (Raúl Bravo 87); Thomas Gravesen (Pablo García 68), Zinedine Zidane (Guti 63), David Beckham, Baptista (Michael Owen 80); Raúl, Ronaldo (Javier Portillo 87).
MLS SELECT: Matt Reis (Nick Rimando 88); Frankie Hejduk, Pablo Mastroeni (Douglas Sequeira 74), Jimmy Conrad, Jose Burciaga (Ricardo Clark 86); Shalrie Joseph, Ronnie O'Brien, Justin Mapp (Jeff Cunningham 45), Clint Dempsey (Jason Kreis 69); Landon Donovan (Youri Djorkaeff 61), Jaime Moreno (Amado Guevara 24).
REFEREE: Iturralde González.
