Thursday, November 30, 2006

Strange Game, Good Win (Manchester United 3 - Everton 0)

Can't quite put my finger on this game. We played with a makeshift side after the weekend draw with Chelsea. Vidjic, Giggs, Scholes and Saha all did not feature in the lineup at all, replaced by Fletcher, O'Shea, Richardson and Silvestre. Rooney and Ronaldo were partnered upfront.

To be honest, for most of the game we looked horrible. There was no cohesion in midfield and the only guys making any good passes were the front two. Thankfully Everton looked equally bad, with the exception of a certain Neville. Wish he was still wearing Red today.

You would think that after Sundays great performance against Chelsea and the absence of Scholes in midfield, this was the perfect setting for Carrick to shine. Unfortunately I thought he utterly stunk! His passing was wayward, and his control was terrible. All of a sudden, I wished he was the InvisibleMan again.

Anyway we scored 3 goals today. A brilliant effort from Ronaldo, showing some superb technique volleying a deflection to open the scoring in the first half. Then in the second half Evra scored his first goal in a red shirt, and O'Shea rounded up the goals with a sweet goal at the end of the game.

Despite my constant whining over players like Evra and Carrick, I've never really brought myself to hating any United player, past nor present. However Richardson is really close to breaking that duck. He not only doesn't seem to understand the game, his attitude generally sucks. I can't exactly put a finger on what exactly he did today, but his general behaviour is ungentlemanly and lacks the class of a player wearing the Red jersery. If not for the fact he turned down West Brom to fight for a first team place, he would have been in my doghouse a long time ago.

Man of the Match.....Evra. It was a close call between Rooney, Ronaldo and Evra today, but Evra probably pipped the rest. He did not really play a brilliant game by any means, but he brought countless entertaining moments throughout the game, the best being in the 60th minute when he got booked for tripping over himself and falling right into Arteta. A most bizarre yellow card! And of course he scored his first United goal a couple of minutes later. I suppose after all the rollicking he's been getting from this site, he probably deserved this award.

Monday, November 27, 2006

Advantage Chelsea (Manchester United 1 - Chelsea 1)

But...but we drew! How is that advantage Chelsea?

Well, let's put things into pespective before all this championship contender status gets out of hand. We played last year's top 3 at Old Trafford and have only come away with 4 points. A loss against Arsenal, a draw against champions Chelsea and a victory against a woeful Liverpool, who can't get over their travel sickness.

To add to that, we have a waffle thin squad and a thick schedule coming up before the transfer window opens. Another injury to any of the quintuple, Rooney, Ronaldo, Saha, Giggs or Scholes and we would be going into December with a monkey on our backs. Already a wrench has been thrown into the works with Ronaldo and Saha taken off injured today. How serious their injuries are is still unknown at this present time.

Compare this with Chelsea's squad, they have ample replacements at every department. Enough to last till January when they can just go into the transfer market and pick the best available.

The Game
As for the game itself, it's probably going to be reflective of how our entire season will unfold. In the first half, we were pretty much up for the challenge, showing plenty of desire. Add to that we were much more hungry going after the ball, and really putting Chelsea under pressure every step of the way.

Saha's first half goal was probably well deserved, and it was coolly taken too. He sidefooted the ball into the net from outside the penalty box. Despite all the talk about his head being messed up over the midweek penalty miss, he shown that he was back in control.

In the second half, Chelsea showed what they were made of. They worked hard and kept pushing forward for the equalizer. We had to endurea blue tide, but were unable to withstand the irresistable force before us. By the 70 min, Chelsea had already broken thru with a Carvalho header, and to be frank, they looked more likely to win the game than us.

In the end we were probably glad to have come out of this game with a point, especially after Saha and Ronaldo were both replaced because of injury. To emphasize the quality of our subsititutes, we had John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher come on for us, while Chelsea had Joe Cole and Arjen Robben come on for them. Nothing against Fletcher or JOS, but the disparity in quality showed.

Unless we can field the same 11 eleven every game till the end of the season (which we can't and wouldn't), it's just going to be a matter of time before Chelsea catches up and fills that meagre 3 point gap.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Nakamura's Freekick Sinks United (Celtic 1 - Manchester United 0)

Just had an eye operation so will keep this one really short and really sweet. We dominated most of the play but were simply unable to make that final pass. Nakamura struck a sweet freekick to give Celtic the win in the 81st minute.

Saha had a chance to equalise at the end of regulation time but his penalty was saved.

So here's how it looks, Celtic face Benfica in their last game which they probably should win, while we face Benfica at OT. If Celtic wins their game, they go top regardless of what our result is, due to a superior head to head record against us. To make matters worse, should we lose our last game against Benfica, we would have to settle for 3rd in the table and out of the Champions League.

It looks like it might take a might effort to beat Chelsea this weekend.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Rooney Wins It for Manchester United (Sheffield United 1 - Manchester United 2)

We won this one despite going on down early in the game.

Evra in particular was awful. After a run of good games, he couldn't keep it up, especially after being called up to the French national team in midweek. His passing was awful and Keith Gillespie was practically having his way with Evra. In the 13th minute, Gillespie headed the ball beyond Edwin to give Sheffield United the lead with Evra nowhere in sight. Throughout the entire game, Gillespie was abusing Evra. I haven't seen a black man so badly beaten since Rodney King.

Thankfully we have Rooney to thank. He scored 2 really brilliant goals, one in each half. The first goal was a result of a really great first touch, taking out the defender and flicking the ball past the keeper. The credit of the second goal has to go to Evra. He made amends with a superb cross that found Rooney who volleyed it in from close range.

We then proceeded to miss a number of good chances, the best falling to Ronaldo who somehow missed an open goal from 2 yards out. We played some really good soccer in the second half, but couldn't find the net due to good defending by the Sheffield defense and our own failure to take our chances.

In all, this was a good win against a hardworking and dogged side like Sheffield United. More importantly, with Chelsea winning, we go into next week's game with a good 3 point lead and a superior goal difference. But before we jump that far ahead, we still have a tough Champion's League game at Parkhead against Celtic.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Rain Fails To Slow United (Blackburn 0 - Manchester United 1)

It didn't just rain, but it poured....literally. The conditions were simply awful at kickoff. I'm sure had it not been for a ground that had such superb drainage (Ewood Park has always been voted one of the best Premiership grounds), the game could have been called off.

I was worried that the cold and the wet would harm the hamstrings of Giggs and Ronaldo. It would also bring out the clumsy streak in Rio and Evra. But worst of all, it could hamper the passing and especially the tackling of Scholes, who is prone to make rash challenges once in a while.

Thankfully not all my fears were realised. Despite the appalling conditions, we still managed to eke out some brilliant passing. Unfortunately we were unable to find the net in the first half despite our superior play. Rooney was guilty of missing two point blank open goals.

The weather did look to clear up in the second half, and Saha gave us the lead after some determined play from Giggs. Against Blackburn, it was nearly not enough, as our defenders were guilty of slipping and sliding on the slippery surface. Good thing they were not able to capitalise on our mistakes in the back.

We looked really good for most parts of the game and really should have wrapped it up pretty early, or at least put it beyond Blackburn. Scholes and Ronaldo were particularly brilliant with and without the ball. Scholes played the perfect defensive midfield role, pinning back Tugay and refusing to give him any room to move or pass.

Ronaldo was unselfish when there were players around, and when he needed to, he took on the opposition to devastative effect. He, Rooney, Saha and Giggs practically tore the tired Blackburn defense to shreds but were just unable to finish off their moves.

The scoreline did not reflect our good play, but I'm glad to have just taken all 3 points, especially with Chelsea thumping the hapless Watford earlier today. Our next game is against the Blades next week. Plenty of time for our players to recover from the knocks they received in today's game.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Holders Dumped (Southend United 1 - Manchester United 0)

I'm going to make this short and sweet after watching this game with one good eye and a splitting headache due to a freak accident in my own cup final.

We played down to our opposition's level and was duely rewarded yet again. Southend's keeper, Flahavan, was in fabulous form, saving a hattrick of saves from the only player who actually played well wearing the red shirt, Ronaldo.

Our passing was horrible and wasteful throughout the entire game. The attack was non-existent, except for Ronaldo's long range efforts. Alan Smith was horrible, and thankfully was substituted early in the second half. I believe he was pretty much screwed last season by playing in midfield. He seems to have lost all his attacking instincts.

Besides Rooney and Ronaldo, all those who played in the weekend were rested. I thought this game would have been a really good test for Carrick. We badly needed someone who could pass the ball. And we badly needed to see if Carrick could dominate the midfield against poorer competition. But unfortunately it was not to be. Perhaps Fergie decided against having his 18 million pound signing embarassed against a side lying at the bottom of the second division. Sadly for Ferguson, he still got embarassed on his 20th year in charge of Manchester United.

At least we have one less competition to worry about, and fewer games to play.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Some Call The Cops! There Was A Murder At Old Trafford (Manchester United 3 - Portsmouth 0)

My God, we were awesome! Simply superb display of complete and utter dominance.

By the first 10 minutes we were 2-0 up, with goals from the spot from Saha and an outstanding freekick from Ronaldo. We were in complete control through out the entire first half. And everytime we pushed forward, it looked like we were going to increase that 2 goal margin. Gary Neville could've had a hattrick is probably testament to how one-sided the game was.

Had it not been got David James' heroics, the first half would have ended in a rugby scoreline.

I missed parts of the second half due to my p2p clients dropping the connection, however from what I read we continued to tear Portsmouth to shreds. We did add a third when Neville crossed the ball right onto Vidic's head, and he took to gift with a delighful header beyond James.

When I did manage to get the feed back, we were playing at quarter pace, but still looking immersely comfortable on the ball. Even in the first half, we dominated the game while playing at half pace, or at least looking like it.

Everyone had a good game today. There were no silly fuckups and everyone looked the part. Even the normally invisible Carrick cleaned up well in front of the back two.

We can only hope injuries do not rob us of our first eleven. The squad, although deep, is not filled with quality players. But let's enjoy the victory.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

When Will We Ever Learn? (Copenhagen 1 - Manchester United 0)

Alex Ferguson for some inexplicable reason decided to rest Rio and Scholes, after injuries had already ruled out Giggs, Saha and Neville. We were on auto-pilot for most of the match until the Danes, somewhat luckily, scored in the 73rd minute. We then threw men forward, but the battle was already lost.

Had we shown any kind of endeavour prior to the goal, we would not have lost this game. Why does Ferguson time and time again field weakened teams in the Champions League is beyond me.

Flash back to 2 seasons ago, when we fielded weakened teams after qualifying. The result was that we ended up in 2nd in the table, faced AC Milan in the second round and promptly got dumped. This time round, we decided to up the level of stupidity by fielding a weaken side even before we assured ourselves of qualification.

As for the performance of individual players, there's not much to say. Like the Mickey Mouse Cup game a week ago, we played down to our opponents. Most of the team was sleep-walking thru the game.

Special mention to Michael Carrick who continued his piss poor invisible man act. Besides passing the ball diagonally, he was not much use on the pitch. Being paired with O'Shea, I expected him to push forward much more while O'Shea played the defensive midfield role. Instead, for most parts of the game, O'Shea pushed forward while Carrick continued losing the ball. I know it's alot of expect him to live up to that ridiculous price tag, but I'm really running out of patience on him to even be a good player. Overrated, overpriced.

To make matters worse, Evil Ronaldo surfaced for a brief moment in the game. Thankfully there wasn't much time on the clock for Evil Ronaldo to totally manifest itself.

Let's hope that stubborn mule of a manager learns from his mistake. I can't remember when was the last time we played well in a European game away from Old Trafford. I'm definitely not holding my breath here.

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