In other words, it’s good to be Ronaldo

He scores goals and makes hearts flutter. He is to his sport what Mickey Mantle was to his, even wears the same number. Bob Costas probably is a big fan.

This Cristiano Ronaldo guy is so good-looking that he turned my wife into a soccer fan a few years back, when he played for Manchester United in England.

Ronaldo, who is from Portugal, now plays club soccer elsewhere on the Iberian Peninsula, for Real Madrid in Spain, which is like the Yankees and Celtics and Cowboys and the Montreal Canadiens all rolled into one.

On Sunday, Real Madrid defeated former Las Vegas High standout Herculez Gomez and Club Santos Laguna of the Mexican league 2-1 in the World Football Challenge at Sam Boyd Stadium.

Every time Ronald touched the ball, or came within 10 yards of touching the ball, cameras flashed as if Derek Jeter was playing in the attacking midfield.

Did I mention that Ronaldo is dating Russian supermodel Irina Shayk, who was pictured on the cover of the 2011 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition?

So this guy, Ronaldo, who is 27 and one of the best soccer players in the world, if not the very best, has a lot going for him. Even men develop crushes on him. It reminds me of the "Seinfeld" episode where George was totally "down" with Elaine's hunky new boyfriend Tony, played by Dan Cortese, who used to be cool like Cristiano Ronaldo when he was on MTV and/or "Melrose Place."

I've known Daren Libonati - his company, Justice Entertainment Group, promoted Sunday's game - for a long time. Libonati used to kick field goals for UNLV. He does not develop man crushes.

That was before the run-up to Sunday's friendly, before this charismatic lad named Ronaldo tweeted, "Las Vegas, I will see you next week. We're excited to play Santos Laguna. See you there."

Libonati was totally down with that. He predicted it would be a great event.

And it was a great event, or at least a pretty good event, despite all of the skepticism going in, despite all of the following that conspired to work against it. Such as:

- Las Vegas' fickle reputation for supporting live sports, especially live international sports. Or have you forgotten the 2000 Fed Cup starring Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Monica Seles and Lisa Raymond vs. Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Spain at Mandalay Bay?

- Juventus dropping out. When the popular Italian side canceled its U.S. trip to play footsie with the Chinese, the change killed advance ticket sales. A lot of people wanted their money back.

- The heat. It was 103 degrees at kickoff on a Sunday night that could best be described as sultry, or like a blast furnace. Or pretty normal, for around here.

- Lofty ticket prices. It cost $71 for a cheap seat; $256 to sit in Cristiano Ronaldo's lap. But it cost a lot more to bring Ronaldo and Real Madrid to town, hence the admission price of one arm and one leg.

- Team USA gymnastics, plus Misty and Kerri on the beach on tape delay from the Olympics. Plus, no blackout on the Fox Soccer Channel.

Sunday's announced attendance was 29,152. It wasn't a full house, but it certainly wasn't a disaster.

The crowd of 13,176 that turned out to watch D.C. United and Paris St. Germain play to a 1-1 tie at RFK Stadium? That was the Hindenburg going down in a tsunami.

If you're curious about the results and attendances of other games played in this exhibition series, here they are: Chelsea (England) 4, Seattle Sounders 2, 53,309 at CenturyLink Field in Seattle; Liverpool (England) 1, Toronto FC 1, 33,087 at Rogers Centre in Toronto; Chelsea 1, Paris St. Germain (France) 1, 38,202 at Yankee Stadium; Chelsea 1, AC Milan (Italy) 1, 57,748 at SunLife Stadium in Miami; Real Madrid 5, LA Galaxy 1, 30,317 (record crowd) at Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., on Thursday night.

So like Santos Laguna, the crowd was very respectable. Impressive even.

"The single biggest soccer event in the history of Sam Boyd Stadium," said Libonati, who by the 85th minute had lost his voice, as if he had been calling for Ronaldo to pass him the ball in the 18-yard box.

By halftime, Ronaldo had left the building, as far as anybody could tell, as Real Madrid put the guys who wear the high jersey numbers in the game, like in baseball spring training. Jose Mourinho, the Real coach, put in a guy named Nacho who was wearing the sort of high number of 27.

The cameras stopped flashing. Hearts stopped fluttering. Not a lot of Nacho fans, one supposes.

But it was a good night for international soccer, a good night for Las Vegas, a good night for 29,152 soccer fans clamoring for something more, something better than Sporting Kansas City vs. the Columbus Crew.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.