Through Feast of Goals, Stealthy Genius Is Revealed

Manchester United's Dimitar Berbatov celebrates scoring his fourth goal during the English premier league soccer match between Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford, Manchester, north west England on 27 November 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

By Rob Hughes

The New York Times

LONDON — The cold snap of Europe's winter arrives, but nothing warms the true European soccer fan more than a day out at the stadium when his team is afire.

The clubs with the largest stadiums in England, Germany and France opened up their latent scoring power at the top of their leagues this weekend.

Manchester United scored seven times to the cheers of 74,850 spectators in its "Theater of Dreams." Borussia Dortmund allowed Borussia M?nchengladbach a goal advantage to start, but then scored four goals to please its 79,200 customers inside Signal Iduna Park.

And Olympique de Marseille routed Montpellier, until Saturday the league leader, by a score of 4-0. L'OM's Stade V?lodrome is slightly smaller than Manchester or Dortmund, but the atmosphere generated by its 51,237 supporters makes the place rock, a place where opponents fear to tread.

Teamwork wins matches, but one man's performance transcended all others Saturday.

Dimitar Berbatov, the Bulgarian in the Manchester United lineup, scored five goals in the 7-1 demolition of Blackburn Rovers.

Five goals, and I swear he spent half the match trying his best to set up a goal for his partner, Wayne Rooney. "It is good to have Wayne back," Berbatov said after the game. "He knows how I play and I know how he plays, and we understand each other's game well. We showed it on the field."

Didn't they just.

Rooney is returning after he preposterously claimed United did not have the talents to match his ambitions. Berbatov chose Saturday to show Rooney and all the rest who doubt his quality that he is an extraordinarily gifted individual.

He had not scored a goal since mid-September, but on Saturday he scored five, and it could easily have been more. He was a ruthless destroyer with a velvet touch. His goals came in such a variety of ways that poor Blackburn did not know how to stop him, or even where to find him.

Berbatov's third goal was the pick of the crop.

It began deep and wide on the left flank, when Berbatov, with a seemingly nonchalant flick of his heel, set Patrice Evra racing out of defense.

Berbatov moved with him, received the ball back and carved out a 30-yard pass with the outside of his right foot to Nani on the far side of the field.

What happened next was soccer genius. Nani dazzled his opposing defender with a short, sharp, impulsive burst. He looked up, and who was there, inside the Blackburn penalty area? Berbatov, of course.

And the quiet Bulgarian, sometimes so laid back you scarcely are aware of him, was gesticulating with his arms wide apart, demanding the ball back. In those few seconds we could see a sporting brain working.

He knew where this was going to end up before any of us, and when Nani obeyed his call, Berbatov simply side-footed the goal from close to the penalty spot.

In less than 20 seconds, one man had made his teammates comply with his vision, and his opponents stand and stare at his movement. In 10 previous games, he had not only failed to score, he at times made himself invisible on the field.

But that is Berba. He confounds friends and foes alike. A tall and slender figure, his balance can seem balletic at times. His technique can stun the ball at a stroke, a caress of his right foot. And his stealth can fool opponents and spectators alike into wondering whether he is there at all.

That stealth is a weapon. The man is almost 30 years of age, he has scored goals wherever his career has taken him — from Bulgaria to Leverkusen in Germany and then for ?11 million, or million, to Tottenham in England before moving on again for ?31 million to United.

At his best, he is magnifique. I use the word because Manchester United has not had such a tall, graceful, yet baffling leader of its attack since the Frenchman Eric Cantona departed the team in 1997.

Cantona conjured up more performances, more outrage and more joy, than Berbatov has thus far. But there is a connection, a sense of remoteness, inside them.

Each could be the conductor of great talents around them, the spark to absolutely memorable performances; and each could in his own way remain an enigma that even teammates will never explain. 

Neither will Berbatov. As he cradled the match ball like a baby in his arms, he stood before the Manchester United TV cameras and tried to answer the questions. "It was great," he said. "I can't believe I scored five. But it happened.

"I scored five before, but a long time ago back home. To do it in the Premier League is different."

Just three players — Andrew Cole in 1995, Alan Shearer in 1999, and Jermain Defoe in 2009 — had done it since the league formed in 1992. Berbatov is the first foreigner to achieve it, and maybe years from now they will talk of the day the languid Bulgarian brightened a harsh winter's day.

Should anyone unlock the brain that, occasionally, moves this mercurial artist, they could make a fortune as the next manager of United.

By comparison, it is easier to rationalize what keeps Dortmund on top of the Bundesliga, and what has just brought Marseille its finest week for years.

Good coaching, sound teamwork, and the communion of decent players and demanding home crowds.

Dortmund's studious coach, J?rgen Klopp, is creating a team of eager young Germans, linking it with the Turkish influence of Nuri Sahin, the Japanese touch of Shinji Kagawa and the South American guile of Lucas Barrios and Antonio da Silva. And while Bayern Munich and others wait for Dortmund's bubble to burst, its lead at the top stretches further than they might be able to catch up to.

Marseille's coach, Didier Deschamps, is trying to take the team to where he went as a hard-running player in 1993: the Champions League title. After winning in Moscow last Tuesday, and destroying Monpellier on Saturday, Deschamps said, "We're sending out a strong signal to ourselves." Three leagues, three teams, and goals aplenty to keep out the chill.

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