Topic: Worst ever performance by a player at the World Cup?

[Paul Tomkins]

I'll start the bidding with Ronaldo last night. To say he was a disgrace is an understatement.

What a player he used to be. He still knows where the net is; unfortunately, someone should have put a net around him as he made his way to the pie shop. Still, I guess he is the *biggest* star at this year's tournament...

Any other personal shockers spring to mind?

[nidgemo]

I'll start the bidding with Ronaldo last night. To say he was a disgrace is an understatement.

What a player he used to be. He still knows where the net is; unfortunately, someone should have put a net around him as he made his way to the pie shop. Still, I guess he is the *biggest* star at this year's tournament...

Any other personal shockers spring to mind?

Might be due to it being fresher in my mind, but I really can't think of any worse that that non-performance last night - he really was shocking. So many times I watched him instead of the ball, and to say he looked uninterested was an understatement. Even in good positions, he just wasn't making any runsinto the box, no attempts to find space etc at all.

Just to make some contribution, I'll see your 2006 Ronaldo, and raise you a Ronaldo 1998 version v France. Another complete no show, for different reasons - but a total no-show all the same, in a world cup final, by the best player on the planet at that time.

[byrnetred]

henry's performance against senegal in '02
on the bounce from a cracking season for arsenal and plays like that

actually hold on...
frances performance in the last world cup...

[Buster 'Hook Hand' Bluth]

actually hold on...
frances performance in the last world cup...

And this one?!

[Crosby Nick]

Bit before my time but what about Peter Bonnetti against West Germany in 1970? Only played cos Banks had food poisoning, England cruising at 2-0 up and the Cat goes and lets one roll underneath him. A couple of shockers later and a highly fancied England team are on their way Back Home! Assume it was his first and last appearance at the World Cup.

[byrnetred]

And this one?!

ill report back to ya in 10 days...

[hooded claw]

Hmmm. Actually 'the worst', or simply the largest slippage between perfoamnce and anticipation?

[nidgemo]

Hmmm. Actually 'the worst', or simply the largest slippage between perfoamnce and anticipation?

That's where I'm going with Ronaldo v.98. Though I would have said performance.

[Something Else]

Ronaldo got to be up there, just his lack of effort gets t me, if he lay off the pies and went for the odd jog he could still be one of the best players in the world but frankly he dont give a shit

[byrnetred]

Hmmm. Actually 'the worst', or simply the largest slippage between perfoamnce and anticipation?

if your talking about henry i suppose it would be a mixture of them all...

but if you didn know who the player was you would be simply shocked at his performance...

[Moley]

Hate to pick on our own.....but didnt Dudek have an absolute nightmare of a game in Japan/Korea where Poland lost 3-0 (cant remember the opponents for the life of me)

[classycarra]

henry against uruguay where he missed early chances and got sent off after commiting two fouls that could have both constituted a red. thats comparitively to expectation though, i'm sure there have been worse

[classycarra]

Hate to pick on our own.....but didnt Dudek have an absolute nightmare of a game in Japan/Korea where Poland lost 3-0 (cant remember the opponents for the life of me)

i know this is going to sound like i'm wearing red tinted glasses, but it wasn't as much his fault as the rest of their team. they were woeful. he made a few decent saves but also a couple of mistakes. he definitely thought he was bad though. he without doubt lost his confidence in himself for a while after that.

[gerry7]

I dont know about the worst ever,but if Ronaldo gets a mention for last night I think Adriano gave him a run for his money in this one.
I know people expect more from Ronaldo but I thought Adriano looked even  less interested.His first touch was awful and he was knocked off the ball very easily almost every time he got near it.
It looks like the two of them are well out of sorts and are not arsed unless its put on a plate for them.One will not put the graft in for the other so the other says fuck him if i will do it for him.

[LymmRed]

Ronaldo and Adriano were pretty woeful last night

i distinctly remember another Brazilain though, from the 82 World Cup in Spain, i'm pretty sure his name was Serginho! I remember thinking at the time how the hell did he get into the squad as he was fluffing chances left right and centre! couldnt hit a cows arse with a banjo that fella!

[The Cappuccino Kid]

I'll start the bidding with Ronaldo last night. To say he was a disgrace is an understatement.

What a player he used to be. He still knows where the net is; unfortunately, someone should have put a net around him as he made his way to the pie shop. Still, I guess he is the *biggest* star at this year's tournament...

Any other personal shockers spring to mind?

Watching Ronaldo last night was about as embarassing as watching your dad attempt a moonwalk at someone's wedding. Such a sad sight to see one of the greatest players in the last ten years just not give a shit.

[bellinter]

Was watching last night and couldnt think of ever having seen a worse performance by a player in the world cup. An absolute disgrace. As bad as Adriano was, at least i actually saw him running once in the match. I couldnt believe what I was seeing, for a man 3 goals short of becoming to top world cup scorer in history to be that lacking in motivation, i would have fancied Jon Stead to be more clinical

[Something Else]

Watching Ronaldo last night was about as embarassing as watching your dad attempt a moonwalk at someone's wedding. Such a sad sight to see one of the greatest players in the last ten years just not give a shit.

love it, class post

[The Cappuccino Kid]

Was watching last night and couldnt think of ever having seen a worse performance by a player in the world cup. An absolute disgrace. As bad as Adriano was, at least i actually saw him running once in the match. I couldnt believe what I was seeing, for a man 3 goals short of becoming to top world cup scorer in history to be that lacking in motivation, i would have fancied Jon Stead to be more clinical

I thought Jon Stead actually would have been more clinical if you told him he was playing against Everton as opposed to Croatia.

[Devastatin' Dave]

Watching Ronaldo last night was about as embarassing as watching your dad attempt a moonwalk at someone's wedding. Such a sad sight to see one of the greatest players in the last ten years just not give a shit.

Wouldn't that imply your dad could once do the moonwalk, but has lost the skills. So are you the son of Micheal Jackson.

[Paul Tomkins]

Watching Ronaldo last night was about as embarassing as watching your dad attempt a moonwalk at someone's wedding. Such a sad sight to see one of the greatest players in the last ten years just not give a shit.

What was it that Tibor Fischer said about Martin Amis' "Yellow Dog" ?

"It's like your favourite uncle being caught in a school playground, masturbating..."

[Scarlet`]

Viera was horrible in the France vs. Switzerland......more than Henry

Nothing beats Ronaldo though

[neil4ad]

From the BBC: Ronaldo was "slow and weird" 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2006/5078194.stm

Kovac says marking Ronaldo 'easy'
By Mandeep Sanghera
BBC Sport in Berlin 


Croatia centre-back Robert Kovac says he was bewildered at the lack of threat posed by Brazil striker Ronaldo.
The holders won 1-0, but 29-year-old Ronaldo was anonymous and was substituted after 69 minutes.

"I don't know what happened to him," Kovac told BBC Sport. "He didn't run and stayed in front of us. He must be tired. He hardly touched the ball.

"It was very easy. I've played against him before and it was very difficult. I don't know what's happened with him."

Ronaldo entered the competition on the back of a troubled season at Real Madrid with criticism being levelled at him for being overweight.

He seemed to run faster when he was taken off against Croatia than for most of an outing which saw him have just one noteworthy shot.

The performance even surprised the Croatia bench, with second-choice keeper Joe Didulica saying: "I would love to see the statistics of how far he ran.

"I think he made three or four sprints of 10 metres or so. I was amazed looking on from the bench."
But Croatia defender Josip Simunic offered some support for the man who scored 12 goals in three previous World Cups.

"Ronaldo is the most dangerous player in the world," said Simunic.

"I don't know what everyone is talking about and I am 100% sure he will score four or five goals in the tournament. Just wait and see."

Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Parreira and Tuesday's match-winner, Kaka, were both quick to jump to Ronaldo's defence.

Parreira admitted the player was "lacking a little bit of sharpness" but that he would still start their second game against Australia on Sunday.

"Ronaldo has not been playing for the last two months and has had only two friendlies so it was natural he felt a bit heavy as it was very hot, but I'm sure he will improve as the tournament goes on," he said.

And Kaka added: "Ronaldo has said he has not reached his ideal level of fitness so let's wait until he improves his performance and is the Ronaldo that we know and like, but yes a little more movement from him would be ideal."

The Brazilian newspapers were less supportive of Ronaldo, who to date has 12 World Cup goals under his belt.

Former World Cup winner Tostao, writing for the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper, described him as "slow and weird."

[Hanson]

what about Mwepu Ilunga of Zaire in 1974?


Brazil have a free kick 25 yards out. The referee blows, at which point the Zaire defender runs out and belts the ball back down the pitch. 

[TheRedBull]

I'll start the bidding with Ronaldo last night. To say he was a disgrace is an understatement.

What a player he used to be. He still knows where the net is; unfortunately, someone should have put a net around him as he made his way to the pie shop. Still, I guess he is the *biggest* star at this year's tournament...

Any other personal shockers spring to mind?

Agreed with everything you said there. Pareira must be really really pissed off behind the scene.

[The Cappuccino Kid]

Wouldn't that imply your dad could once do the moonwalk, but has lost the skills. So are you the son of Micheal Jackson.

Since you didn't put a question mark I'll take that as just a general statement. Shame, I would have give you an answer otherwise.

[Devastatin' Dave]

Since you didn't put a question mark I'll take that as just a general statement. Shame, I would have give you an answer otherwise.

That is a shame?

[The Cappuccino Kid]

That is a shame?

Is it?

[Devastatin' Dave]

Is it?

It is.

[Rizla]

Ronaldo was a disgrace last night...with his 'pieceps' bulging out of his shirt, just looked completely unarsed. A shambles...but to be honest, Adriano was also lacklustre alongside him.

Think that was probably the worst I have seen of Ronaldo and possibly conspicuously the worst display I can remember from a top class forward in the WC

[alal]

"pieceps" 

I know he's struggled for fitness for about 5 years, but looked like he didn't give a flying feck about trying.  There's plenty of worse performances from the whipping boy teams - Saudi's keeper against Germany last time round won't enjoy watching replays of him picking the ball out of the net 8 times - but I don't think I've ever seen a player underwhelm so much.  Simply shocking.  Brazil played with 10 men last night.

[losrojillos]

Ronaldo and Adriano were pretty woeful last night

i distinctly remember another Brazilain though, from the 82 World Cup in Spain, i'm pretty sure his name was Serginho! I remember thinking at the time how the hell did he get into the squad as he was fluffing chances left right and centre! couldnt hit a cows arse with a banjo that fella!

Serginho Chulapa - every chance created by Zico, Falcao and Socrates died by his feet. Still, Ronaldo last night, Beckham against Brazil 2002 and Henry's no-shows (again in 2002) were very bad.

[Arch_Stanton]

I remember Hakan Sukur of Turkey had a nightmare 2002 world cup. Missed some absolute sitters, was subsistuted early in all the matches he started. Though he did End up scoring the fastest world cup goal ever in the 3rd/4th place playoff vs S.Korea.

[Raul!]

I thought that Adriano perked up a bit after his rotund partner was prematurely retired to the sidelines.  Anyone playing next to Ronaldo the other day would have had to (a) have gone to sleep (b) become clinically depressed or (c) both of the above.

[Ron]

Not really to do with performance but to see a coked up Maradonna being sent home was quite embarrassing as well.

[Red Squiggle]

what about Mwepu Ilunga of Zaire in 1974?


Brazil have a free kick 25 yards out. The referee blows, at which point the Zaire defender runs out and belts the ball back down the pitch. 

Wasn't Zaire under the military rule of Josef Mobutu at the time and the players had been told they wouldn't be coming back alive if they lost more than 3-0 to Brazil. Think I'd do the same in that situation! (being already 3-0 down to Brazil and facing a Revelinho free kick 25 yards out!)

[BigV]

Ronaldo was awful but he didn't cost them the game, they still won. 

Henry against Uruguay in 2002 when he got sent off, that cost France badly. 

[mersey_paradiso]

Henry was bad the other night but you wouldn't have known that viera was on the pitch !!!

think he touched the ball twice !!

 (still, having said that , ALL the french players were pretty bad although they were playing the "bolton" of the world cup , switzerland )

domenech is a terrible manager.... i still expect them to come good though....

[Eric]

Lampard 06.  How is the 2nd best player in the world so crap?

[StevieG26]

Lampard 06.  How is the 2nd best player in the world so crap?

Agree with you there. And Gerrard played out of position as a holding midfielder and still played well and scored. I really fail to understand all this hype regarding Lampard.

EDIT: Rio Frogface's performance was dreadful too. Terry had to spare his blushes every time, especially with that header cleared off the line.