Chelsea Champions (Chelsea 3 - Manchester United 0)

A pretty bad day all around. I got the timing of the game wrong and only managed to watch the 2nd half. Anyway it didn't really matter. We were 1-0 down at that time. Chelsea played well, and quite frankly were the better team. Their defense held and like everyone who faced them this season (barring Barcelona), we were unable to test them much.

I don't like to be the ones handing them the title. I wish and had thought we would have given a better account for ourselves. At least from what I saw, we tried our best. We were simply second best. Hopefully we'd go on and win the remaining 2 games and get that 2nd spot. And more importantly, we can now concentrate on building towards next season.

As long as Sugar Daddy is still with Chelsea, I doubt we can beat them, however I sure as hell hope we can give them a good run next season. I'm not being a defeatist, but being a realist. As long as Chelsea control the transfer markets, the other teams can only play second fiddle, or pick up the crumps left behind.

Please, say 'no' to Riquelme.

It was rumoured that Fergie was eyeing Riquelme as the answer to our midfield woes. After catching both Villarreal Champion League semi games against Arsenal and both our group matches against them last year, I would like to, for the record, say 'no' to Riquelme ever wearing a Red jersery.

I hope Fergie saw the game a couple of days back and drop whatever lameass ideas he has on bringing the Argentine over. Here's a summary of what happened. Villarreal was one goal down on aggregate and with 2 mins left on the clock, got a penalty. Riquelme stepped up and missed the penalty. I'm fine with him missing the penalty, however his reaction right after that miss was simply disgraceful. He simply stopped playing despite the fact there were 2 mins left, excluding whatever the referee would add for injury time. He showed absolutely no will, and not willing to take the responsibility upon his shoulders to fight it out for whaever time remaining. In short, he's not a fighter and definitely not a winner. Not a Manchester United player.

You would never see someone like Rooney or Neville react like that. Sure there would be disappointment but our players would be desparate to take it upon themselves to make things right. They would feel it is their responsibility to make up for the mistakes. Even Ronaldo has shown in during the 9 game winning streak that he was willing to track back whenever he lost the ball. In fact I think all but one of our players have that characteristic in them, even the much maligned Evra.

Which brings me to Rio Ferdinand. He has all the skills in the world, but he lacks that special passion. He's like Riquelme, just another player who plays for his wages. If he showed a tenth of the kind of passion shown by Rooney or Giggs, he would probably forever live in our hearts as one of the United legends.

Funny how this entry came one whole round just to make a dig at Rio. Anyway shame on you, Riquelme........and Rio!

New Link
Added a new link called 'Salted Fish United'. It's a blog site for my soccer team. Unfortunately the webmaster is a lazy git, hence hardly ever updated.

The Kimchi Gift (Spurs 1 - Manchester United 2)

The game started with a bang and ended with a wimper for us. Rooney scored twice in the first half to give us a narrow victory. The winning goal was a gift from Spurs left back Lee Young-Pyo, allowing Park to poke the ball away from him onto Rooney's feet for an easy goal.

I caught the game with Cow and Kentona, and we all agreed that Park probably owes Lee a kimchi meal for that piece of sloopy defending. Spurs played really well and probably deserved a draw for their efforts. Good thing I was watching and chatting most of the time and not concentrating on the game much. Spurs were easily the better team, by far.

Don't get me wrong, I've never really liked Spurs as a team. The reason being, it's my elder cousin's favourite team. Although we never clashed much as soccer fans, it's sort of a sibling rivalry thingy. Another reason was that I always liked Arsenal more in the 80s than Spurs. I mean any team that had Tony Adams was worth a laugh or 3 then. Not to mention that Michael Thomas goal that denied Liverpool the League Championship in the dying seconds of the last game of that season.

However, I'm impressed with what Martin Jol has done to team. He's bought young players into the team, played an attractive brand of soccer and more importantly built (or is building) a team with young English men as the nucleus or backbone of this team. You've got to admire that in a foreign manager.

At the end of the day, it was a good victory. Although by no means convincing, it still helps us consolidate the 2nd position. We probably need one more victory in the next 3 games to make sure of that, since we have a superior goal difference to Liverpool.

Goodbye Sunderland, You Sad Bunch of Pussies (Manchester United 0 - Sunderland 0)

The entire world expected us to beat Sunderland and put pressure on the much hated Chelsea. Unfortunately Sunderland suddenly decided to play defense. The result officially relegates Sunderland. Hopefully we'd NEVER ever have to play this bunch of pussies in the league again. If these bastards played the way they played the entire season instead of just this game, they wouldn't have been relegated. Yes, I'm pouring the hate on them, something they thoroughly deserve.

As for our performance, well....we were too one-dimensional. We kept playing right thru the centre, and kept over complicating our attacking play. There was hardly any width despite playing two out-and-out wingers, and one pretender in Giggs in the centre of midfield.

Speaking of Giggs, he should never touch the ball unless it's in a deadball situation. I do not have the statistics with me, but it seems like everytime he attempts a pass, it goes awry. We badly need a midfielder.

Everyone else played pretty well this game, except for my favourite whipping boy, Evra. I've realised his best position is on the bench where he can't do any damage. He's utterly pathetic. Twice in the game, he held on to possession for too long and when he finally made the pass, he put in a teammate in trouble, almost resulting in a Sunderland goal. As mentioned time and time again, he's not a footballer.

Probably the only good thing out of this game is that Ole is back. I honestly thought his United careers was over. Good to see him back. The other bright spots were that Heinez and Fortune were also on the bench.

And finally we can put all that silly title talk behind us. Now we wouldn't have to read the stupid papers or the soccer related sites of us challenging the title anymore. Let's concentrate on consolidating that 2nd spot and preparing for next season. I would be really pissed if Liverpool pip us to that 2nd spot.

Couple of Updates

Scholes
Our forgotten man seems to be back. His eye condition seems to no longer be a concern anymore. Chances are he wouldn't be playing this season, but he'd probably be back next season. Here's the problem, where do we play him? Or more importantly, with all the transfer rumours of a midfielder coming in, who will he replace? At 31, his window of opportunity is getting smaller and smaller.

The Replacements
Speaking of incoming midfielders, looks like Diarra is the frontrunner. To be frank, I'm not at all impressed with him. I've caught both the Lyon - Milan quarter-finals champions league games and found absolutely nothing special about him. I can't believe they are comparing him with Essien, who played for Lyon last season. Essien WAS Lyon. Diarra is nothing.

Not to mention if we're going to get him, we're going to fork out ridiculous money. I certainly hope we get some Premiership tested and proven midfielders. Someone like Scott Parker.

FC United
I'll be the first to admit I hardly know any of the players nor watched any of their games. But it seems that they have won promotion. Maybe in the next few years, we might even see them in the lower divisions.

Torrents and watching games over the Internet
Apparently this option is no longer available. SKY/EPL has come down hard on the forums that I have been visiting, practically shutting them down if they offer torrents or url links to live games over the internet. Perhaps it hasn't occurred to these dicks that there are people in this world who want to watch soccer but their countries don't provide it.

I'm still able to access most of the websites, but the links on this blog have been removed for security reasons.

South Park Rules!
^ says it all. All hail Matt and Trey for yet another wonderfully scripted 2-parter on so many levels. Gotta love Jesus shitting on Bush.

Red Pride (Manchester United 2 - Arsenal 0)

This is what soccer should be all about. The game was exciting, and the play was end to end. Both sides played wonderful football and at the end of the day the team which wanted it more won, and won it convincingly. I watched the game with Ken, Mike, Cow, Pok and the utter sour puss, Matt. Thankfully Mr. SourPuss left at the half, and drastically changed our mood, not to mention our fortune. ;o)

I still refuse to submit to talk of pushing Chelsea down to the wire for the championship, but I have to admit that we're showing championship form. Unfortunately, it's probably too little too late, especially with Chelsea giving West Ham a sound thrashing, despite starting the game with one goal and a man down.

Take nothing away from this Manchester United performance. We played like men and like champions. Hopefully the team will remember this day and bring such passion and work ethic into the next season.

The first half was helluva exciting, and practically end to end goalmouth action. Both the Arse and us were playing at a very high tempo, peppered with magnificent saves by both sets of goalkeepers. Both sides were also fielding very young sides. Looks like the future looks very bright for both teams. Unfortunately, were we robbed a penalty when Kolo Toure handled a goal bound shot by Rooney, which was missed by the referee. At half time Ken, Mike and myself were thinking that that wasn't going to be our day.

The second half started with the same amount of pace and tenacity as the first ended. However this time we showed we wanted this game more. Rooney practically willed us forward, and rightfully scored the opening goal. He also placed the ball on a platter for Park to score the second, sealing our win.

Everyone in a Red shirt played their hearts out. Special mention to Rooney who of course was heads and shoulders the best player on the pitch. Vidic and Silvestre also deserve an honourable mention, playing outstandingly in defense. And as Ken mentioned, Silvestre seems to have improved his crossing tremendously. In fact the first goal started from an awesome tackle by Vidic to Silves, who crossed it to Rooney, leaving him an easy shot on goal. Neither Vidic nor Silves put a foot wrong today, something which can't be said every week.

Personally, I would give the man of the match award to both Vidic and Silves, although Rooney probably deserved it. But we're come to getting used to Rooney putting up such a performance that it's no longer an exception. He's practically a shoo-in week-in week-out, that's how good he is.

I'm proud of this team. We were worthy winners.

Once again before I end, I would just like to say that I love Arsenal's approach to the game, their style and their players. However I refuse to show any respect for them as a team, for the sole reason that they are an English team that can't field an English player.

Ruud Winner II (Bolton 1 - Manchester United 2)

What an entertaining game! I thoroughly enjoyed this game on 2 levels.

Firstly, it was an exciting game. A game which we went a goal down and dug deep to come back to win it. Not to mention Bolton played for the win too, making it an exciting end to end game. The type of game we would all enjoy watching.

Secondly, I caught the game with Kentona and Cow, and their respective better halfs.

The icing on the cake here is that both Saha and Ruud scored, the winning goal supplied by Saha for Ruud. Maybe Fergie should contemplate playing them together more often. There was also good news elsewhere, the much hated Chelsea drew against the lowly Birmingham. Finally Birmingham decided to play soccer and gave Chelsea a tough game.

There has been talk/hope all around that we might just be able to pip Chelsea to the crown, based on how both teams have been playing and the general hatred of Chelsea all around. We're currently 7 points behind Chelsea with only 6 games left to play.

Let's be realistic. We would have to win ALL our remaining games, including one against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. And to beat a very rampant Arsenal and Spurs as well.

And assuming we do the impossible by winning all remaining games, we would still have to rely on Chelsea to at least not win 2 other times. That means Chelsea only needs 4 games in 6 games to win the title. If Chelsea were still in the Champion's League, there might be a possibility of that happening.

So you see, there is no way we're going to even get a sniff of the title this season, and using Premiership Title and Manchester United together in the same breath is just silly talk by the media. Chelsea is too far in front and the odds are too highly stacked against us. It is theirs to lose and not ours to win. I'd be delighted to eat some serious crow should the unimaginable happen, but it's not.

Just before I end here, I'd just like to say that I hate Chelsea. I've caught them play in the last few games and all I can say is that they are a bunch of whining cheats. However between them and Liverpool for the title at any point in time, I'd still pick Chelsea to win. I have too many Liverpool fans as friends and having lived through the 80s, I wouldn't want to relive that nightmare again.