There is a new name and new role for Chad Ochocinco.

International soccer fan and emergency kicker for Cincinnati kicked the extra point, and what proved to be the decisive point, late in the second quarter of the Bengals’ 7-6 victory over the Patriots on Thursday night.

Ochocinco said that “Estaban” Ochocinco, the most interesting soccer player in the world, was back. He said that everyone needed to remember that he had always said that his number one sport was soccer. He added that he thought Ronaldinho would be proud of him right now.

Ochocinco does practice kicking, but had never done so in any preseason or regular season games in his eight year career with the Bengals, with the first seven years being under the name of Chad Johnson. However with Shayne Graham suffering from a sore groin during the pre-game warm ups, Marvin Lewis, Bengals coach, decided to rest one of the team’s franchise players and let Ochocinco show what he could do.

He did it very well.

After the game was over, Ochocinco pulled his PDA out and showed off a photo of him with David Beckham, the soccer star.

He said that soccer was his first love and that kicking was easy for him, like riding a bike. He said he could kick from 50 to 60 yards from either the right or left hash mark and that he kicked all during high school.

The receiver, who is the team’s career leader in yards receiving and catches, was able to power the football through the uprights, which can be a tough task if it is not done on a regular basis.

Wes Welker, wide receiver for the Patriots who kicked an extra point and field goal for Miami on the same field in a 27-10 loss to the Patriots in October 2004, said it wasn’t easy. To kick the extra point was really something and he got some good height on the kick.

By the time the extra point was made, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was finished for the night and his backups Brain Hoyer and Kevin O’Connell were unable to bring the Patriots team back during the scoreless second half. However, Brady had already shown in the game that he could take a hit, coming back from his left knee injury which ended his season after suffering the injury during last year’s opening game.

He got knocked down twice during the 13 snaps that he took, following the game the week before when he stayed upright on all of the 24 snaps that he took in the Patriots’ 27-25 win in Philadelphia. Brady got up quickly each time he got knocked down.

Keith Rivers softly tossed Brady after the 2007 NFL MPV threw an incomplete pass during his third snap, with Brady landing on his back.

Rivers said he didn’t notice whether it bothered Brady, and that it felt just like a regular hit.

On the first play of Brady’s second and final series, Robert Geathers, left end, flattened him after easily getting around Nick Kaczur, the Patriots right tackle. Brady landed on his left side.

Fred Taylor, running back, said the good thing was that he got up after being hit good. He is tough.

New England scored twice on 32 and 41 yard field goals from Stephen Gostkowski. With 1:55 remaining in the half, the Bengals scored on a 24 yard pass from J.T. O’Sullivan to Chris Henry. Then Ochocinco trotted out onto the football field, lining up behind Kevin Huber, the holder. Everything worked as planned- snap, hold, kick.

O’Sullivan said that nothing surprises him, but that all the jokes aside, he was able to kick the ball through those uprights and won the game for us. He added that some people might find it funny but that it was important.

The Patriots later in the game drove all the way down to the Bengals 12 with a first down, but the Bengals’ Marvin White was able to recover a fumble from Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis with just 3:43 minutes remaining in the game. Bill Belichick, Patriots coach, said that in just about every aspect of the game that they were pretty sloppy.

O’Sullivan started for Cincinnati, with Carson Palmer sitting the game out due to a injury to his right ankle that was suffered in the team’s 17-7 loss against New Orleans in the exhibition opener for the Bengals. Palmer does not expect that he will miss the team’s regular season opening game and may return to playing before then.

Lewis said that they played a finesse team last week and that this week showed that they were capable of competing against a power team. He added that he thought they had a good response and were mature.

For the second week in a row, Brady proved that he has put his knee injury behind him. However, some of the passes he threw were off target, which included overthrowing an end zone pass to Welker. Brady was 4 for 8 with 57 yards, which included a 32 yard gain from Welker, who gained most of the yards running. Brady was more productive in the teams opening 27-25 win in Philadelphia where he passed for two touchdowns to Chris Baker.

However Brady could do nothing to overcome Ochocinco’s winning kick but watch from the sideline.

Lewis, smiling, said that he reminded him of that.