US national team star Landon Donovan has stated that Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is probably worth the whole team combined. Ronaldo recently scored his 50th goal of the season with an audacious back heel volley to help his team get a point against Valencia. The forward is the current holder of the FIFA Ballon d’Or award. Donovan will be coming up against Ronaldo at the World Cup 2014 since the US will be facing Portugal in the group match.
This is seen as the toughest group in the tournament Germany and Ghana are the other opponents. The US will have a lot of confidence going into the match since they have been doing well in recent major tournaments.
Yet, Donovan says that the biggest test of the team will be coming up against Portugal. The first match of the tournament will be against Ghana followed by the match against Portugal. The US will be hoping to recover from the recent run of poor form, which has seen them take only one win in the last five matches. They are tipped by the duitsland portugal odds website to return to form.
Donovan says that there is no excuse for the much better quality Portugal have their since the US must play well regardless of the opponent strengths.
“There are realities, right? So Cristiano Ronaldo, I’m guessing, earns more than our whole team combined. He is, from a value standpoint, worth more than our whole team combined, if someone bought him versus our players on the open market. You can’t ignore that. It’s not an excuse, but it’s reality. He’s a special player and a special talent. If we play very well, are we capable of beating Ghana? Yes. So what has to happen is we have to play well, no question,” said Donovan, whose role with the team has been a major doubt over the last few months.