Gästebuch » ame anymore. And thats going to take some getting used to

As new chapters are added to Guillem Balagues Cristiano Ronaldo biography, we look at an extract telling the tale of the Euro 2016 final. Ronaldo, having been taken off with an injury in the first half in Paris against France, spent much of the game barking instructions alongside manager Fernando Santos. But did his behaviour go too far? And was this more Cristiano Ronaldos win than it was Portugals?You can purchase the updated Cristiano Ronaldo: The Biography HERE I was very sad, recounted Nani. It was a very special moment for us, very emotional, we were all in it together, and when I saw him fall down and cry, tears welled up in my eyes too. I realised that he was going to miss the rest of the final, the most important one of his life. I was really gutted and I grabbed the armband quickly and tried to tell him that we were going to give our all to do him proud and show what the team was made of, that we were going to fight. Portugal beat hosts France in Paris in July The game went flat after Cristianos injury. But after [Ricardo] Quaresma was brought on in his place, the Portuguese midfield seemed to come more into their own. In fact, the impression was that after the blow of losing their leader, Portugals morale recovered and they felt capable of anything if they stuck to the formula that had got them this far: hard work and playing as a team.We tried to lift each others spirits by talking to one another and shouting things like, Come on, lets do it, its OK, were going to win this, weve got quality too, come on! And as time passed and France failed to score, we grew in confidence, Nani said.The players came face to face with Ronaldo at half-time. Yes, he was looking at his knee and was disconsolate, Nani recalled. Cristiano had cried his eyes out, but he pulled himself together in order to rally the troops. Lads, were going to win 2-0. Stick together and fight to the end, he told them.During the game, Cristiano barked out instructions from the dugout. He shouted at everyone to track back when they lost the ball, urged the centre-backs to go up for a corner and put his hands to his face when Éder went close with a header. Ronaldo was forced off with an injury in the first half After Eders goal, Ronaldo took up a position behind Fernando Santos in the technical area. Initially he was tentative, seemingly aware that he was invading the coachs space, wanting to be there but knowing he shouldnt be. At one point, Santos threw up his arms and Ronaldo followed suit. After that, the player continued to coach the team, with Santos ignoring him.During the match I looked over to the dugout and thought, Whats Ronaldo doing over there? admitted Nani, But then I refocused on the game. Six months half price Upgrade to Sky Sports to watch Man Utd v Arsenal on Saturday and get the first six months half price Cristiano repeatedly told his team-mates not to bring the ball out from defence hastily. He rebuked the forwards for not defending. He called on the fans to get behind the team. He advised Nani to hold the ball up, spread play and keep possession. Dont gamble, pass it around and play it backwards! he shouted at Nani and Eder.Ronaldo celebrated the moment of victory alone. Turning towards the crowd (his audience) with a skip, his arms aloft, he looked up and shouted. A member of the coaching staff hugged him, but he did not reciprocate. Then he dropped dramatically to the ground, his sidekick still hanging on to him, and lay there spreadeagled, well aware of where the cameras were pointing. Ronaldo lifts the trophy after Eders extra-time winner They say happiness is only real when its shared, and if youre Ronaldo, you can share it with the whole world.Nani said: I only saw all of Ronaldos shenanigans in the dugout after the match, when we were in the dressing room laughing together. We were happy and we watched the videos. He had them on his phone and showed them to me. We laughed. He said to me, Look, look at what I did...The sports psychologist Bill Beswick told me that at the beginning of their careers footballers fear the cameras, but once they become better players they develop a love affair with this object that embraces them, indulges them and showcases the good things that they do. And once they are stars, they get addicted to them. Ronaldo shares the trophy with manager Fernando Santos, but did the Real Madrid man steal the limelight? Footballers create a mental script before games. This is a sort of story detailing how the match might play out. Ronaldo would have visualised himself having a starring role. When he got injured, he wanted to continue feeling important and so decided to help the team from outside the pitch. He believed he could have an influence from the fringes, and thats why he stood just a metre from the touchline. And performed those highly theatrical gestures.It was his moment, but it was snatched away from him on the pitch. So he did what he felt was necessary off it.Ronaldo couldnt imagine the team winning without him.The way he shook Santos (who all the while looked at the ground or watched the play) suggested that he did not see him as a superior. He was just the one who named the team, guided them towards the trophy and asked Cristiano to sacrifice himself. Which he did. But none of that meant that Santos outranked him.Interestingly, when Ronaldo affectionately shoved the coach, he did not push him towards the action, but rather in the opposite direction. As if he wanted to remove him from the stage, as if Santos were stealing his limelight. Santos is thrown up by players after the win, Portugals first major tournament success As narratives are so often driven by results, it was repeatedly stated in Portugal that the team had benefited from Ronaldos passion and leadership. But not everyone shared this view. Portuguese foot­ball legend Antonio Simoes criticised his behaviour. So did José Mourinho: Ronaldo lost a little emotional control. He didnt do any harm, but I dont think he helped in any way by doing that in the final few minutes of a European Championship final. It was the 11 players on the pitch who did the job, and it was the coach who led the team. Id like to think it was just an overflow of emotion from someone who saw that there were just minutes to go to achieve an objective that everyone wanted.A few weeks after the final, Santos spoke out in Ronaldos defence: Since I had so many instructions to give, I turned to him, just like I turned to my assistants, to tell [Ricardo] Quaresma to close down the space around Raphael Guerreiro.The coach claimed that he never felt his authority had been undermined because Cristiano was never guilty of trying to usurp him as the manager, he had simply externalised his nerves in his own way.Talk about a gracious explanation.You can watch Premier League and EFL Cup football, plus Englands tour of Bangladesh and the Mexican Grand Prix on Sky Sports. Upgrade now and enjoy six months at half price! 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CHICAGO -- Ron Santo never saw this. Fergie Jenkins never did this. Ernie Banks never lived to see this moment -- to watch the universe change before his eyes.But finally, on Saturday at 9:45 p.m. Wrigley Daylight Time, when the world turned upside-down, it finally happened. That moment.There were two outs left until Cubs Armageddon. Yasiel Puig tapped a one-out ground ball toward shortstop, where Addison Russell realized immediately what had a chance to happen here.The baseball -- THAT baseball -- was hopping directly at him. And his first thought was: I could not believe it. ... He hit it to me. He hit it to ME.But this ball was traveling so slowly, he wasnt sure it was a double-play ball. So all he told himself was to make sure he got one out -- and if we get two, thats even sweeter.Except Russell was feeding that baseball to a second baseman who believes everything and anything is possible. Of course Javier Baez was going to get this baseball to first base on time. What else would he do?So I decided to turn it, Baez said. And we made it happen.Baezs relay throw whooshed toward Anthony Rizzo at approximately 178 mph. It popped into Rizzos glove a millisecond before Puigs foot hit the first-base bag. And it is barely possible to describe what happened next with mere words.With hugs, maybe. With tears, maybe. With a lifetimes worth of emotions spilling through the night, definitely.The Cubs -- the Chicago Cubs -- were going to the World Series. Did you think youd possibly live long enough to read that sentence? Did you think the baseball gods would ever permit something that crazy to happen?Well, its happening, ladies and gentlemen. Its happening. In real life. In your life. For the first time in 71 years. In this actual world that you live in.I cant believe it, said Cubs legend Billy Williams after the teams 5-0 triumph over Clayton Kershaw and the?Los Angeles Dodgers?in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series that finally made that dream come true. Im standing on the field, and the Cubs are going to the World Series. I cant believe that.Williams played for the Cubs for 16 years. In the 1950s. In the 1960s. In the 1970s. He has been retired for 40 years. No wonder his brain and his heart were having trouble processing a moment this powerful, this historic. How can any of us truly comprehend something this mysterious, something that very few people you know had ever witnessed?So maybe we can help you make it all sink in. Maybe we can make you appreciate how lonnngggg ago 1945 really was. Ready? Since the last time the Cubs played in a World Series:-- 1,275 different men played for the Cubs -- in seasons that didnt end this way, of course.-- 606 different men threw at least one pitch for the Cubs -- none of them in a World Series game.-- the Cubs played 11,309 baseball games -- not one of which could be described as a World Series game.-- World Series games were played in 45 different ballparks -- none of which were known as Wrigley Field. At Coors Field, yes. At Chase Field, yes. At Ebbets Field and Citi Field, yes. Even at Tropicana Field. But at Wrigley? Iconic Wrigley Field? Never.-- the Yankees played in 26 World Series in that endless time span. The Dodgers played in 15. The Cardinals played in 11. The Cubs watched or listened to all of them from their living rooms, from their man caves or from some fishing boat in the middle of a distant sea.-- Banks played more than 2,500 games for the Cubs. Williams played more than 2,200. Ryne Sandberg and Santo played more than 2,100 apiece. Thats a whole lot of box scores. Just not World Series box scores.So what happened at Wrigley Field on Saturday night was more than just a baseball game. More than just a sporting event. The world changed on this night. Lives changed on this night. Millions of lives. Millions.This transcends baseball, said Ryan Dempster, a man who pitched 376 games for the Cubs over nine different seasons -- and never had any of them end like this. You know how many people I saw cry tonight? People crying. People hugging each other. This is far more than a baseball game. I dont know how to put it into words, except its an event in these peoples lives that they will forever remember. And to be here, to watch it all happen, was just incredible.So how do we define what changed on this night? After all, it wasnt as if the Cubs won a World Series. They merely won a game that will allow them to play in the World Series -- against a team from Cleveland with its own history to rewrite.But even the?Indians?have at least played in four World Series since the last time the Cubs played in one. Meanwhile in Chicago, the Cubs hadnt reached this perch on the mountain since the Harry Truman administration, hadnt clinched a World Series berth at Wrigley since 1932, hadnt won a single best-of-seven series since 1908.So even though there is more to do and more baseball to play, what happened at Wrigley Field was as epic as a league championship series clincher can possibly get. The Cubs didnt just end a drought here. They busted more ghosts than Bill Murray ever did.Getting to the World Series is a big accomplishment, said the manager of this ghostbuster crew, Joe Maddon. Of course, winning it would be even greater than that. But I still believe that, in seasons to come, people are going to believe more easily now. Theyre not goingg to look for the next shoe to drop.dddddddddddd Theyll believe that something good is going to occur, as opposed to something bad.But wait. Maybe those people actually crossed that threshold before the final out on this night. Maybe there was a sign from the heavens, in the ninth inning of this game, that it was OK to believe. Really.It happened with one out in the ninth. On a 3-and-1 pitch from Aroldis Chapman to Carlos Ruiz. Ruiz swung at a 101 mph Chapman infernoball and got just enough of it to lift a high foul ball that drifted down the left-field line and floated just out of play -- into a section that looked waaayyyy too familiar to anyone who saw Game 6 of another NLCS, back in 2003.Somebody said to me that that one-out foul ball was right where [Steve] Bartman was, said Cubs catcher David Ross. Somebody said that in the dugout. And I just said, Who cares, you know? Weve got one out and the guy on the mound throws 100. I like our chances. ... So when he said, Ooh, that was right where Bartman was, I just went, Perfect. It went all the way in the stands. Foul ball. So now we can win.And three pitches later, what do you know? Thats exactly what they did.Mark Grace never had a night like this. Don Kessinger never felt a feeling like this. Sammy Sosa never hopped around Wrigley when the planets lined up like this.But Baez? He was there. He was part of it. He was a cowinner of the NLCS MVP award -- along with?Jon Lester?-- on the night the Cubs booked their trip to the World Series.Crazy, he said. Its crazy living this life right now.And Russell? He was there, too. He pounded a second-inning double off Kershaw. He started the artful double play that turned Wrigley into a sea of noise, high-fives and selfies. And he spent the next hour and a half wandering around this magical ballpark with a smile on his face as wide as that street beyond the bleachers that was obviously named with him in mind.Were going to the dance, man, he said. And were gonna dance.And Ross? Yep, he was there, too. He didnt play on this night, though he did become part of a very cool feat when?Willson Contreras?homered in the fourth inning -- and made the Cubs the first team in history to have three different catchers (Contreras, Miguel Montero and Ross) hit home runs in the same postseason. But nevertheless, Ross was summoned to the victory podium behind second base -- along with the brass and the manager and the co-MVPs -- and the cheers were so loud, they filled up his eyes with emotion.Theres been a feeling about this city since we landed [Friday morning], Ross said, as he nears the end of his final season. Theres just a buzz here. Everybodys excited. This is the Holy Grail of sports championships. And this moment here just shows you how great this city is and these fans. It hasnt always been this way. But I think they appreciate it more, because theyve had so many low times.But five years ago, the Cubs hired a master of curse zapping named Theo Epstein to perform another baseball magic act. Then, in the fall of 2014, they hired a silver-haired renaissance man named Joseph J. Maddon to lead people, embrace the moments and change this culture. Well, you could feel that culture shifting again on Saturday, right before your eyeballs.Asked whether he had allowed himself two years ago, back when the Cubs hired him,?to picture the sights and sounds of what he called this crazy cool evening, Maddon shook his head, his eyes twinkling in the electric night.I just didnt want to do that, he said. I wanted to be surprised. And its just as youd expect. But I dont even know what it looks like outside. Oh my God.No kidding. Beyond those ivy-covered walls, the streets were thumping with life. But not just streets named Waveland and Clark and Addison. Were talking about many, many streets, stretched out across many, many miles, where life as these people had always known it had just shot all these folks into a cosmos they had never known.These Cubs might have four more humongous baseball games to win. But theyve already erased 71 years of history and heartbreak. So even now, nothing is quite the same anymore. And thats going to take some getting used to -- even for the Cubbies themselves.Asked what he thought had changed on this night, Maddon answered with one powerful word: Perception.You know that thing Id always heard, about the Cubs being lovable losers, I never quite understood that, the manager said, because thats not how I was raised. So getting here and really not paying attention to all the nonsense, the superstition that really has dragged a lot of peoples minds down -- to escape that is great. Now we can just continue to move it forward.That job -- the moving-it-forward part of the gig -- begins Tuesday in Cleveland. But first, the 2016 Chicago Cubs had another big job they had to get to.As the sign in the stands said, they had to party like its 1945. And from the looks of things, they were up to that job, too -- almost as up to that job as the people whose lives they had just transformed.Theyre ready for this moment, Baez said of those people. And were ready for this moment.So how long, he was asked, could they all celebrate what just happened here?Ooh, gushed the NLCS co-MVP. Forever. ' ' '