Gibson Sinks Spurs

Manchester United 2 - Tottenham 0
Scorer
Manchester United: Gibson (16, 38)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Neville, De Laet, Anderson (Tosic 82), Gibson, Park, Obertan (Carrick 62), Berbatov (Macheda 62), Welbeck

United's kids bounced back in fine fashion after last week's defeat at the hands of Besiktas in the Champions League.

Last year's League Cup finalists met in the quarter-finals in this year's edition. Runners-up, Spurs fielded a superbly strong team while United opted to keep in line with the policy of blooding our youth blended with some old heads.

Based on the teams fielded, it wasn't a surprised that the men from London had the stronger opening. They had the lion's share of the possession and looked the likelier team to go ahead.

Yet against the run of play, Darron Gibson scored a scorcher of a goal. And he scored another equally wonderful goal in the 38th minute.

The second half was more Spurs pressure, but the experienced defense in the United side stood tall and repelled everything that was thrown at them. Eventually Spurs fizzled and we started to gain the upper hand in the game.

We came close to adding a third as the game ended, but it was seem cruel against a Spurs side that showed plenty of desire but just weren't good enough to breech the backline of Brown and Vidic.

Gibson may have stolen the headlines today, but for me the man who really took the game by the scruff of the neck was Anderson. He was everywhere on the pitch, breaking up Spurs' midfield, leading the charge upfront. It would be nice if he could do this week in week out. In any case, this was a good win and a confidence booster for the kids in the team. There are alot of promising youngsters in the squad, and with the right amount of experience, some of them would eventually find a place in Ferguson's plans.

And just to round this off, Kentona and I have this private thing going on and it's time to bring it up to another level. Watch and enjoy.

Just A Poor 4-1 Win

Portsmouth 1 - Manchester United 4
Scorers
Portsmouth: Boateng (pen 32)
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 25, 48, pen 54), Giggs (87)

Team: Kuszczak, Brown, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick (Anderson 76), Scholes, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney

Don't let the scoreline fool you. I thought we were absolutely terrible for most of the game. Good goalkeeping from Kuszczak kept us alive in the early stages of the game, before Rooney was fouled in the penalty area. Rooney stepped up and scored from the spot giving us a shortlived goal advantage.

Ferguson watched the game from the stands, a punishment for his recent outburst against the referees. And true to the mark, the referee of the day, Mike Dean, proved just what Ferguson was on about. He awarded a penalty for the home team that left everyone scratching their collective heads. No one knew exactly at that point in time what the fuck the penalty was for. Not the players, not the commentators (both the English and Chinese ones) and definitely not me. It was an abysmal decision and Mike Dean is a lucky lucky man that the decision did not have a deeper impact on the game other than adding more fuel to fire the disgruntle feelings towards the modern day referee.

Boateng levelled the score from the spot, while we struggled to gain a foothold on the game.

The second half started on a brighter note and Rooney missed a glorious chance. On the subsequent attack, Giggs put him thru again, and this time he finished neatly giving us the lead for good.

Rooney completed his hattrick from the spot after the evergreen Giggs was fouled in the box. We were enjoying a good spell at this point, with Giggs, Valencia and Rooney playing particularly well.

Then we begun to relax and take the foot off the paddle, allowing Portsmouth room to come at us. Make no bones about it, Portsmouth is a limited team, but at the same time they are a desparate team. And they came at us with a ferocity of a caged animal. Good saves kept the scores respectable in our favour. Our midfield and defense was really at sixes and sevens for a good period.

Having weathered the storm, Giggs added salt into Pompey's wounds with a delightful freekick, rounding off the scoring for the day.

This was really a difficult game to watch. We weren't anywhere near our best, but we haven't really been up to our standards bar the odd game here and there. I feel there is something lacking in this squad, but I can't really put a finger on it. All that I know is that we're really not as good as we think we are.

Still Work To Be Done

Manchester United 0 - Besiktas 1
Scorer
Besiktas: Tello (20)

Team: Foster, Brown, Vidic, Neville, Rafael (Evra 75), Anderson, Gibson (Carrick 75), Park (Owen 69), Obertan, Welbeck, Macheda

It's all gone abit south the last couple of games in the Champions League. We've qualified and Ferguson is justified to field a less than stellar lineup today, opting to blood some of the younger players.

For much of the first half, we were pretty damn awesome and had it not been some poor finishing, we could have given a very ordinary looking Besiktas a good hiding. Yet totally against the run of play, Beskitas took the lead with a long distance shot that Foster really could have done better. His footwork prior to the goal left much to be desired.

We spent the remainder of the half literally parked in the opponent's half. Our play was enterprising and really should have yielded some reward.

The standard of play went dramatically down in the second half. We were still the far superior team, but the final ball was lacking. In the end, Besiktas held on to the victory and we're left with another game against Wolfsburg to secure the top spot in the group.

As for the lads, Obertan impressed me massively. He's dribbling and speed reminded me of a Portugese who left us recently. The crucial thing missing from his game is the final pass to a teammate and his goal scoring. I don't know if he'd tease us like how Nani has done, but I can't wait to see more of him. Slowly but surely he has to be making inroads into Ferguson's plans. Definitely a player to watch out for the future, if not the present.

Before I end this post, I'd just like to share a video clip that had me in stitches for the past week.