Beauty of a Goal...Did Someone Say Beauty of a Goal?

Ronaldo...all hail Ronaldo.

There is only one Ronaldo and there is hope for football yet.

This became more than apparent in Sunday's classic encounter between Santos and Corinthians at the Vila Belmiro.

Corinthians rolled over Santos in front of their home crowd and it was he who made the difference.

With seemless calm and skill that overfloweth, Ronaldo scored a double in this first leg of the Paulista Championship final.

The scoreline read 3-1 in favor of Corinthians at the end, but make no mistake this was a match where the home team Santos pressured from start to finish and might have come away victorious were it not for...him.

His first goal was a beauty coming off a long ball which he calmly brought down with one foot and slotted in with the other, making it Corinthians 2-0 at a time when Santos pressured for an equalizer.

The second came completely against the run of play. Once more with the score at 2-1 and Santos threatening to equalize, he made it 3-1 and ended all hopes of a comeback.

Ronaldo's second goal in this match is one which I won't even venture to describe. If you haven't seen it, then look it up on any of the video sites out there or world sports news.

This writer won't venture to describe the subtle control, shift of direction and football art which deceived eveyone possibly even some cameramen.

Watch it yourself and come to your own conclusions.

I'm only here to write about the genius of the man who is Ronaldo.

Dribbling his way past the doctors, reporters, scandals, and the odd footballer as well, right into my living room.

Football art which gives us all hope that football is as alive as ever.

After the match Ronaldo showed his off-field skills as well while answering reporters questions.

He credited the victory to the team and downplayed his own spectacular performance.

When pressured specifically about his two golden contributions he had this to say:

"This is the place where the king (Pele) scored many goals...and to be king in the king's house, if only for a day, is very good indeed."