Ronaldo hat trick leads Real Madrid to Club World Cup title in extra time

After an uncharacteristically ineffective hour, Cristiano Ronaldo scored a penalty and a pair of extra-time goals to dig Real Madrid out of a 1-2 hole and win the Club World Cup final 4-2 over a spirited Kashima Antlers in Japan on Sunday.

The first hat trick in the tournament’s final made Real the world champions among clubs for a second time in three years, after the royal whites also claimed two UEFA Champions League crowns in three years.

But if the champions of Japan, the seasonally-appropriate Antlers and the only team in the tournament not to have won its continental club competition to gain entry, didn’t induce much fear from the outset, they nevertheless put up a fierce fight before Real Madrid made it a 37th straight game without defeat.

Kashima pressed high and harried Real at a pace manager Zinedine Zidane wouldn’t have expected in a game against players few outside of Japan have heard of. After all, just two in the Antlers team have played for the Japanese national team more than once, and none in more than a dozen games. They were utterly undaunted and unimpressed by the prospect of playing perhaps the biggest club in the world and would briefly hold the lead in the second half.

Kashima’s was already a remarkable story. Because in the Club World Cup, all sides are not created equal. Each confederation sends a single team and the hosts, Japan this year, get to invite its champion as well. Since the Antlers had not won their continental continental club competition last year but merely the Japanese L-League, they had to enter the tournament in the playoff stage. It took three wins just to get to the final, while the European and South American champions began the tournament in the semifinals. Kashima became the first Asian team to reach the final.

The Antlers, however, had to beat Auckland City of New Zealand, the Oceania champ, in the playoffs, 2-1. Then they topped African champion Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa 2-0 in the quarterfinals, and then won 3-0 in the semis over Copa Libertadores champion Atletico National of Colombia – the same team slated to play Chapecoense in the Copa Sudamericana final last month, before that Brazilian club’s fateful air crash. That earned a trip to Sunday’s final against Real, which had bested the Mexican North American champion Club America 2-0.

Less than 10 minutes in, it seemed like Real Madrid would cruise with the early goal that would surely break Kashima’s resistance. Luka Modric ripped a volley at goalkeeper Hitoshi Sogahata, who stopped the shot only to have the ball fall right into the path of Karim Benzema. The Frenchman was alert to the opportunity and dinked the ball into the net.

But the Antlers, as if to signal their intentions, immediately responded with a rocket that sailed just high by Mitsuo Ogasarawa from outside the box on a nice play.

From there on, Real was fairly dominant but didn’t create a whole lot else through the puny spaces left by the Antlers. And Ronaldo was playing an unusually limp game.

Just before halftime, Kashima equalized. Casemiro was beaten and Raphael Varane was incapable of clearing. Gaku Shibasaki capitalized and scored with a tidy finish.

Indeed, Varane didn’t cover himself in glory.

In the 52nd minute, the Antlers brazenly went ahead. Shibasaki won the ball in midfield, found a seam in the real defense and popped a shot past Keylor Navas from the edge of the box for his second.

Before the hour, however, Benzema combined with Lucas Vazquez, who was clattered to the ground by a clumsy Ogasawara challenge, who asked for a video replay but was denied one, as his infraction was obvious. Ronaldo converted.

For the remainder of regulation, there would be chances both ways, with the Antlers putting on a late assault that necessitated several interventions from Navas and a clearance off the line by Casemiro.

Sergio Ramos was miraculously spared a second yellow card in the last minute of the game. Referee Janny Sikazwe seemed to be reaching for his card after Ramos made a plainly illegal challenge, but then apparently changed his mind.

In extra time, Ronaldo won the game in the 97th minute. Benzema passed the ball into him and the Portuguese, rejuvenated since his penalty goal, opened up to it off the defender’s shoulder and finished well.

And then he bagged the insurance goal, picking up a deflected Toni Kroos shot and smashing it in.

It was hardly comfortable for Real Madrid, as Kashima’s Cinderella story finally came to an end. But now the 11-time European champions can also call themselves five-time club world champions.