Amsterdam Tournament - 9 Men United Beats Porto (Manchester United 3 - Porto 1)

Amazing how quickly things change in just a month. All the p2p programs that I had been using since the World Cup were outdated and I had to spend over an hour downloading the latest versions. As a result, I completely missed the first half, 2 goals and Rooney's sending off.

But I'm glad to have caught the second half. I caught glimpses of a couple of our youth and am impressed with a couple of them. We were leading comfortably thanks to first half goals from Scholes and Rooney (a delightful chip over the keeper), despite being a man down. However the numerical advantage for Porto increased early in the half with Scholes getting a second yellow for a reckless tackle.

With 9 men, United struggled to keep possession, allowing Porto to surge forward. However my good man Ole broke into Porto's penalty area and slided the ball past the Porto keeper from an impossible angle to put us 3-0 up, after good work from Richardson. It was a brilliant individual goal. Ole had to dribble past his man, face the keeper at the byline and somehow managed to slide the ball between the keeper's legs and into the net. Vintage Solskjaer!

Porto did reply with a superb long range effort from Pepe, and piled on the pressure but Ben Foster was a man mountain standing between Porto and that elusive second goal. I can't fathom why the idiots at the club want to buy Kuszczak from West Brom. From what I saw today, Ben Foster is probably going to better than our own Van Der Sar. I can't see any weakness in his game yet. Except for experience, he could possibly walk into at least 15 EPL teams as the first choice keeper. Yes, in this game, he was THAT good.

The other outstanding player for me was Lee Martin.....no not the same Lee Martin who played for us in the 90s. He was quick, skilful and made good use of the ball. However there were times he was caught showboating, ala Ronaldo, abit too much. Could be a very useful player if he develops the way we want him to.

Also caught abit of Carrick before he was substituted out. He didn't impress me at all. After Scholes was sent off and Giggs was subbed, he was supposed to be THE man in the middle, but he didn't show me he could handle the role. He was hardworking without doing much. Maybe he would show more as he gets used to our system of play as well as his new teammates. Perhaps to save him from further embarassment, Fergie wisely took him out shortly after.

As for the rest of the team, we played a good game. Our defense was pretty tight and whatever got past the defenders couldn't get past EVS or his replacement Foster. Park, Scholes and Ole combined well on a number of occasions but lacked the sharpness. I'm overall happy with what I've seen today.

Before I sign off, just want to rant alittle about today's referee. Someone must have forgotten to send him a memo to inform that donkey in black that this is a friendly tournament. That means today's game is a FRIENDLY! Fancy sending 2 players off.