Atletico flop likely to end Ronaldinho’s World Cup dream

MARRAKECH, Morocco, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Ronaldinho’s hopes that a good performance at the Club World Cup might earn a Brazil recall have been dashed by Atletico Mineiro’s shock elimination at the hands of Raja Casablanca.

The ever-grinning former World Player of the Year gave two tantalising glimpses of his unique talent before drowning in a sea of mediocrity in Wednesday’s match.

He scored Atletico’s only goal in the 3-1 defeat with an exquisite free kick and, buoyed by that, cheekily flicked the ball over an opponent to send the Brazilian fans into raptures. For most of the game, however, Ronaldinho, 33, looked off the pace and ponderous as the ageing South American champions were upstaged by a team of run-of-the-mill Moroccan league players. The low point was when he tried to pass a defender with a cheeky dribble on the byline and was easily dispossessed.

Ronaldinho won the World Cup with Brazil in 2002, was part of the team which went out in the quarter-finals amid high expectations in 2006 and was omitted altogether by coach Dunga in 2010 in South Africa.

His performance on Wednesday was painfully similar to his ineffectual display for Brazil in a 2-1 friendly defeat to England last February in Luiz Felipe Scolari’s first game in charge of the five-times world champions.

On that occasion, Ronaldinho was substituted at halftime after missing a penalty and performing sluggishly.

Scolari gave him a couple more run-outs in low-key friendlies but was clearly unimpressed and left him out of the Confederations Cup squad in June.