United Rues Missed Penalty (West Ham United 2 - Manchester United 1)

Upton Park has been a poor hunting ground for United in recent years and today's result just adds to the mystic. For some unknown reason we're just not able to beat the Hammers.

West Ham started the brighter of the two teams and should have had the lead in the opening 10 minutes. Mullins struck the post and Noble could not put the rebound into the empty net. It could have proven fatal as minutes later Ronaldo opened the scoring from a quick counter on the 14th minute.

A good pass from Saha allowed Giggs the time and space to pick a surging Ronaldo from the left flank. Ronaldo flew in and header the ball into the goal giving United the lead.

Given the quality United had put on the pitch, it should have been an easy victory, but neither Fletcher nor Hargreaves could stamp their authority in the centre of the park. Mullins, Parker and Noble were outstanding and West Ham controlled a good portion of the midfield and 50/50 balls. The truth was that West Ham should have drawn level on a number of occasions had it not been for some inspired keeping from Kuszczak to keep Solano's thunderbolt out and some poor finishing from Charlton Cole.

In the second half, United won a penalty when ex-United player, Spector handled the ball in the area. Ronaldo, who has been in fine goal-scoring form, fired the ball wide. It was a pivotal moment in the game. A 2-0 lead would have completely taken the air off West Ham. Instead the miss inspired West Ham to come forward in search for an equalizer.

And equalize they did. On the 77th minute, substitute Anton Ferdinard climbed above the United defenders to head home the equalizer. 5 minutes later, Matthew Upson completed the come from behind victory with yet another header.

The truth was that West Ham deserved the victory. They fought harder and had wanted the win more. It was a lacklustre and disappointing display from our lads. We simply had no answer as the Hammers dominated midfield. They were the better team on the day.

Looks like Fergie will not be having a very happy birthday this year, especially if Arsenal manage to bring home 3 points against Everton later in the night. One thing's for sure, I won't wanna be Birmingham come New Year's Day. They are going to be facing a very pissed off United.

United Hands Black Cats A Sound Drubbing (Sunderland 0 - Manchester United 4)

The game was as easy as the scoreline suggests. I had expected a tougher fight from Keano's men, especially after the last minute goals from two previous matches robbed them of crucial points.

Kentona and I met at the kopitiam near my place to watch the game. Both of us were prepared for a rough night, half expecting our makeshift side to wilt under some intense pressure from Sunderland. Instead it was Sunderland that wilted in front of their home crowd, many of whom didn't even stay till the final whistle.

The gulf in class between the two sides was apparent, and by the half, United were already 3-0 up, without even a telling attack from the Black Cats.

Rooney sprung the offside trap on 20 minutes to open United's account, clinically finishing a good pass from Wes Brown.

He turned provider on the half hour, when Saha met his cross to put United 2-0 ahead. Ronaldo continued with his fine scoring form to add a three before the half from a wonderfully struck freekick.

And all this despite not having Giggs, Anderson nor Tevez on the pitch. Even with a seemingly 'weaken' midfield pairing of Carrick and Fletcher, we were running rings around whatever Sunderland could offer.

United significantly took the foot off the pedal in the second half, yet Sunderland could not muster a meaningful attack. Such of United's dominance, that we could afford to give Ronaldo a rest with over 30 minutes to go, giving Park his first game of the season.

Even at half pace, United could have added a couple more.

In the 85th minute, Nani earned United a penalty. Perhaps he was the only guy who didn't get the memo from Fergie not to embarass Keano, since he was the only guy in a United jersey who was still running his socks off.

Saha converted from the spot to score his second and United's fourth to complete the drubbing.

You can feel for the Sunderland players and the wrath they are going to face from Keano. I suppose in all honesty, Keano must know that his squad of players are simply not good enough at this level. They were given a footballing lesson today. Unless there is drastic improvement, Sunderland are in for a quick return to the Championship.

With this win, we are once again perched at the top of the Premiership table, pending Arsenal's game with Portsmouth.

Ronaldo Snatches A Lucky Win (Manchester United 2 - Everton 1)

Looks like Everton's dismal record against us will have to continue to the next campaign. Visiting OT on the back of a 13 game unbeaten run, this was probably Everton's best chance of taking a victory away in 15 yrs.

Taking the cue from Bolton's victory a month back, Everton came into the game with a robust presence, with the full intent to bully us into submission. Everton's hopes must have been heightened when Edwin Van der Sar (possibly dropped for his performance at Anfield), Rio (possibly dropped for his disgraceful part in the midweek Christmas celebrations) and Hargreaves (probably just rested) were missing completely from the teamsheet.

I missed the first 20 minutes of the game buying food for our own mini Christmas celebrations at Cow's place. The 'party' was a tame affair and the guys and I could really have used a Rio in our midst, even though the WAGs were present.

Thankfully, the presents were not opened during my absence. As soon as I arrived, the opening goal was scored from a pretty good individual effort from Ronaldo. It was a shot from outside the penalty area that left Tim Howard flapping.

Everton hit back barely 5 minutes later with a Tim Cahill header. United's defense just wasn't good enough to keep the lead.

Much of the game was played in Everton's half thereafter without much headway. In truth, Everton defended stoutly and looked good for a draw.

Just when it looked like a draw with Everton packing numbers in the defense and United failing to create clear cut chances, Steve Pienaar decided to send a gift our way. In the spirit of giving, he tripped Giggs in the area with 2 minutes remaining, leaving the referee with no choice but to point to the spot. It was harsh on Everton, who I felt really deserved a point, given the way they fought today. To add injury to insult, Giggs was going absolutely nowhere with the ball.

Ronaldo stepped up and clinically put the ball into the net, grabbing all three points. The honest truth was that this was a lucky victory against a quality side. Irregardless, I'm not complaining about the win. We need all the help we can get to catch Arsenal.

A couple of game notes:

• Anderson's surprised me this season. He's been superb. He's caught up to the English game faster than many have predicted and is quite possibly one of the best midfielders playing in the country right now. And he's only 19! However, if there is one down side to his game is the flashing of imaginary yellow cards to the opponents. I'm glad Howard Webb booked him for ungentlemanly conduct in today's game.
• O'Shea needs a shot of confidence in the worst way possible. When he came on for Danny Simpson in right back after half time, he kept giving the ball away. Luckily Everton had already set up stall to defend or the consequences could have been dire.
• Is it just me? Evra can't jump. Don't get me wrong, Evra's been brilliant this season. I know I have a history of ragging on him relentlessly, but since Heinze's betrayal, I've taken him as one of my binkies. His defence is still somewhat dodgy, but he makes it up with a huge dose of heart. Not to mention he's been great doubling up as a second left winger. However he still seems to get out-jumped by any and everyone. Cahill's goal was a prime example of Evra getting out-jumped again. It's really getting quite embarassing for a man of African descent.
  

Christmas Parties, Champions League Draw and Manucho

Stupid Spoilt Whores
I've been dreading to write about this, but having received a grand total of a whooping 2 emails on the subject (over 66.6% of my readership), I've decided to put my unpopular 2 cents worth on the subject.

As we all know, the news in the past week have been all about our blotched Christmas party organised by our resident party animal, Rio, and the alleged rape by Johnny Evans. What's perhaps more disturbing were the raunchy details that have found their way into the news.

Firstly, I'd just like to say I'm not surprised that Rio was the ring leader of it all, given his legendary 'roasting' stories that have made the news in various forms and different times. While it was probably not his fault that things came to the state that they are now, I still hold him responsible for the aftermath and ultimately tainting the image of Manchester United....once again.

Ferguson reading him the riot act does little to alleviate the tense situation. Rio is a first class dick and has always been. Time and time again, he puts his brain into reverse mode and undoes all the good he has done. Despite his good performances, he somehow manages to find a way to get himself into the negative side of both the news and the fans. I bet, if not for the fact we paid a record fee for him, he'd be shown the door faster that Ruud or Stam. Fucking wanker!

I just wish that the club would have the balls to do the right thing with Rio. I'd rather have a defence that is leaking goals than have this piece of human trash lying around.

As for Johnny Evans, I'll keep my opinions until the evidence finds him guilty. The truth is that it's a matter for the police and the courts to decide based on the evidence gathered. If he's found guilty, by all means throw him to the lions. Rape is a serious crime and the guilty should be punished.

And for the rest of the players, I'll just have to say I'm sorely disappointed, but I understand. I was young once (although no where near as rich). Hopefully they learnt their lesson. Like it or not, they are ambassadors of the club, whether they wear the jersey or not and such behaviour is unbecoming of players of the greatest club on the planet.

Human Trash
And while I'm on the topic of stupid spoilt whores, I might as well add my 2 cents worth to this. Judas extraodinaire, Sol Campbell has been urging the FA to put a stop to abuses against players and managers.

I have nothing against the message. It is a sound and timely one. And about time someone had the balls to bring it up. Racist chants in particular are the most vicious and reflects the type of people attending these games. And Sol Campbell is absolutely right when he says that 'animals don't behave like that'.

Unfortunately, it was the right message, by the wrong person. Of all the people in the world, Sol should be the last person complaining. We're talking about a guy who betrayed his club to join the enemy on a free transfer. And we're not even talking about normal rivals but possibly the greatest rivalry in English football....that of Arsenal and Spurs!

I'm sorry, but Sol deserves every bit of abuse he gets, coz he JUST DOESN'T GET IT! What he did was worse than what animals would do. He bit the hand that fed him and even the most foul of beasts in the animal kingdom wouldn't do it. If there is one piece of human trash that is worst than our own Rio, it's gotta be Sol Campbell. He is the reason the term 'Judas' was coined over 2000 years ago.

Champions League Draw
Now that we're gotta the whole hate-filled venom off my chest, let's move on to more pleasant stuff like the champions league draw which was done a couple of hours ago.

We got picked to face Lyon. Lyon is probably no longer the force they were a few seasons back, but they are still no pushovers. I have every bit of confidence that we will beat them handily and move into the quarters, if we have our heads screwed on correctly.

The other interesting draws are that Liverpool and Arsenal got to face Inter and AC milan respectively. I'll probably be rooting for both Pool and Arse to make it past their Italian opponents only for the sole reason that it should keep them distracted from the Premiership race. Either way, it's good to get two strong clubs out of the way, whichever sides win.

United Signs Manucho
United just signed 24 year old Angolan, Manucho.

Who? Exactly. I'm as clueless as you.

Searches on youtube for 'Manucho' and 'Mateus Alberto Contreiras Goncalves' have drawn up a blank. Maybe when the news gets around, someone would put something up, if only just to tease us.

I can only assume that at his age, he's going to be a player for the present and possibly going to be our fourth striker. The not so good news is that he wouldn't be around in January since he's going to be involved in the African Nations Cup.

I personally would have preferred to have Anelka as the fourth option (or even the third, displacing Saha), but I'll defer to Ferguson's judgement. ;o)

United Survive Early Scares To Take Points (Liverpool 0 - Manchester United 1)

Whilst it's still too early in the season to dub this game as a title decider, we did fairly well to stamp our authority in the standings by wrestling top stop from Arsenal, albeit for a couple of hours. What's more important with this 1-0 victory was the psychological edge we have over Liverpool, whom I deemed since the start of the season as our closest rivals to the title challenge.

Not to take anything from Arsenal's fine run till now, but they are quite frankly a team that's out performing themselves. I'm not dismissing Arsenal's title credentials, but they will only go as far as that kid, Fabregas will carry them. Chelsea's the last to form the quartet, but both themselves and Arsenal will have to contend with losing crucial players to the Africans Cup of Nations. Thus I fully expect them to fall off the pace during that period.

As for today's game, we rode out luck early this game after Van der Sar made two uncharacteristic errors to almost gift Liverpool with a couple of goals. Had it not been for Anderson's and Evra's timely goal mouth clearances, we would have been staring down the barrel of a gun.

Neither side played to their potential as the game was played at a frenzy pace, leading to an error-filled game in the middle of the park. Neither side could hold on to possession for any sustainable period of time, with both sets of midfielders cancelling one another out.

The game took abit of ingenuity from a set piece to open the scoring. 2 minutes before the whistle signalling the end of the first half, United won a corner. Insteading of whipping the ball into the box, Giggs found Rooney at the edge of the box (ala Sheringham).

Failing to pick up Rooney from the box, almost the entire Liverpool defense panicked and collapsed on Rooney. Rooney, on the other hand, was no Sheringham, and he scuffed the shot. The ball fell to the ever alert Tevez and he needed no invitation to scoop it into the empty net. 1-0 to the good guys!

Liverpool tried to storm back in the second half with a good amount of possession, but without a creative influence in midfield, were easy pickings for the United defenders. Our midfielders, Anderson, Hargreaves and the entire back four played their hearts out, holding Liverpools ineffective attacks at bay.

Such was Liverpool's ineffectiveness upfront that we could even afford to go a man down by bringing Mr Invisible, Carrick, on to the pick with almost 10 minutes to go. ;o)

It was nothing more than we deserved. Besides the scares Van der Sar had given us in the first half, it was apparent that Liverpool had failed yet again to meet our standards.

The squad should be well rested by next week when we face Everton at OT in a fixture-packed Christmas program.

United Holds Roma (Roma 1 - Manchester United 1)

Not much to say really. Given the circumstances, I was expecting a boring game with both sides resting players for the weekend fixtures.

With the exception of Rooney, United fielded a team which consisted of fringe players and kids. Roma, too, shuffled the pack and took the chance to field a couple of reserves and a couple of youth players. Despite that, Roma still looked more like their first team.

The first half lived up to expectation with neither side really showing up to play football. Roma, in particular, was awful. For large periods of the half, United enjoyed possession in midfield.

Slightly after 30 minutes, Pique headed home from a corner. From the way the game was played, it was fitting that the goal came from a set piece. Roma did look menacing for a while after the goal, but had nothing to show for it.

The second half was a much better affair as Roma chased the game. There were good chances from both sides.

On the 71st minute, Mancini scored a beautiful individual goal to level the score. Roma pressed on for the winner, while United hit back with the counters. There were chances aplenty for both sides but neither could add to the scoreline.

What started off as a boring game ended decently and above my expectation. No doubt, we were probably more pleased with the result than Roma, especially considering our lineup.

Just a couple of notes:

• Good to see Eagles playing. He's been somewhat of a forgotten man, after playing a couple of games at the beginning of the season.
• Simpson started the game at right back and switched to left back when Wes Brown came on. Had a decent game, however if there was a criticism of his game, it was that he tends to hold on to the ball too long in his own half. He was caught in possession a couple of times by the Roma players.
• Is it just me or is something up with Saha? He just isn't the same player this season. Mentally he just doesn't seem up for it.
  
• Pique and Johnny Evans did a credible job in the heart of defence. There is still a long way to go for them in terms of getting to the top.
• Token appearance from Dong, who basically contributed nothing to the game. Would have preferred to see Febian Brandy instead, but there was a need to cater to the millions of Chinese fans who would be sleepwalking at work tomorrow.
  

Giggs Century Leads The Way (Manchester United 4 - Derby 1)

Before I begin proper on this game, I did manage to catch the Fulham game whilst in Korea. The commentary was in Korean but a few things stood out from that game.

1. Offsides. There were plenty of offsides and most of it undeserved.

2. Ronaldo's yellow for diving. It probably didn't look like a penalty, yet at the same time didn't look like a dive. Either way, a yellow card didn't look like the right decision. If anything, Ronaldo did more diving in today's game.

Today's Game
It was a wet and heavy pitch and the passing just wasn't as crisp as expected from Manchester United. But we did dominate the game without really putting in our best effort. It was against a woeful Derby County and for large periods in the game you just get the feeling that the lads felt that by just turning up in a red jersey, victory was guaranteed.

I would have preferred to see alot more effort, but in truth, Derby are a really awful team. We could have really embarassed them if we really went for it.

After toying around with Derby for a good 40 minutes, Giggss opened the scoring, pouncing on Ronaldo's rebound. It was his 100th league goal for the club. Moments later, Tevez added a second. It was some seriously woeful defending from Derby, failing to clear the ball after Tevez had initially missed kicking the ball. At the second bite of the cherry, Tevez fired home.

On the hour mark, Tevez gave us a 3-0 lead with a superb strike. Derby should have been dead and buried. But as mentioned, we never did really turn up to play football today.

Derby managed to get a consolation goal when Evra allowed his man to run past him on the left and Van der Sar was caught in no-man's land. The cross was met by Steve Howard who managed to somehow poke it in despite some last grasp defending by Brown. This was Derby's first away goal. Probably gives some notion of just how out of depth Derby are playing in this league.

Given the way we played this game in the wet and cold, I would have gladly taken a victory. However, Ronaldo had different ideas. Right at the end of the game, he earned a penalty. Waving away Tevez, Ronaldo went on to slot home the penalty.

It was possibly be the right result at the end of the day, given just how woeful Derby was. There were probably only 3 United players who turned up today in their soccer boots. Tevez, Giggs and Rooney were outstanding. Everyone else was a shell of their former self.

In midweek, we should be sending a shadow squad to Rome and the lads should be well rested against Liverpool. Given the amount of rest we have, we had better get a good result against the grannystabbers.

Ronaldo At The Death (Manchester United 2 - Sporting Lisbon 1)

Wow....what a blistering finish after a lacklustre start.

Fergie brought in the changes after the 1-0 lost to Bolton. As expected, Ronaldo returned to the starting lineup. Fringe players Fletcher and O'Shea also featured, replacing Hargreaves and Brown respectively. Saha was sent upfront alone, with Anderson, Nani and Ronaldo supporting in the attack whenever possible.

The game started brightly for us but it slowly went downhill as Sporting showed a greater urgency and understanding. Our players were guilty of trying to make the fancy pass far too often for my liking, and it resulted in way too many misplaced passes. It wasn't a surprise that Sporting went ahead in the 20th minutes, albeit from a rather fluke goal.

Abel's miskicked cross somehow beat Kuszczak on his near post. Maybe he should have been better positioned but frankly I felt it was just an incredibly fluke goal. However, given the way Sporting had approached the game till that point, it was a well deserved lead. This was especially impressive given the fact that the average age of the Sporting players on the pitch was probably no older than 23!

To make it even more astounding, we were outplayed for the rest of the first half. No one in a red jersey performed well. We were simply shit.

After his tirade at half time against Bolton, I'm sure Fergie gave the same, but this time to his players. The non-performing Fletcher and Nani were both taken off and replaced but Tevez and Giggs.

And what a difference it made. We played with so much more urgency and actually looked threatening going forward, something which was never a feature in the first half.

It was not surprising that Tevez levelled the scores on the hour. Saha cleverly laid the ball on for Ronaldo to shoot, and his shot, which incidentally was going wide, hit Tevez and rebounded into the net. It did look like and own goal....but hey who was counting? OT burst into life while the players celebrated.

The Sporting players were deflated while we pressed on for the winner. Some great goalkeeping and desperate defending prevented us from taking the lead.

2 minutes into the 4 minutes of injury time, Anderson won a freekick outside the box. Up stepped Ronaldo to send one of his trademarked belters into the net. It probably took a deflection but I certainly wasn't looking as I was jumping up and down in the room, possibly waking the entire estate.

It was cruel for Sporting to lose in such a manner after their brave performance, but given our determination in the second half, it was well earned.

This result was important for a number of reasons.

1. We qualifed from the group as the top team irregardless of the final result against Roma.
2. Ferguson's resting of Ronaldo at the weekend was justified to a certain extent. I still think Ronaldo should have played in that game and rested in this one, but at least this victory lessens the pain. Let's just hope that result will not be crucial in the grander scheme of things to come.....ie winning the premiership.
3. We can play our reserves and fringe players in Rome. It would be good to see how some of the youngsters can handle the pressure of playing in a hostile environment in Rome.
4. We might actually get a chance to see Dong. Having him play means selling more shirts in China.
5. Since the Roma game is now basically academic, maybe a good portion of the fans would not be travelling to Rome. Remember in the first half of the year when our travelling contigent were ambushed by the Roma Ultras. Let's hope a repeat is not on the cards.
6. Our main players might not get to travel to Rome in a couple of weeks time, thus resting them for that weekend game at Anfield. I'd be miffed if we do not get anything from that game, especially if our players are well rested compared to their counterparts.
   

Sir Solskjaer?

My isp has been acting up and not loading blogger for the past few days. I've been able to access blogger but the goddamn page hasn't been loading until now. If not, I would have shared this news earlier.

Apparently, Ole has been knighted in the Norway for outstanding contribution to society.

Dunno bout you guys, but if there's anyone who deserves it, it's our very own Ole!

Naive Fergie Pays The Price (Bolton 1 - Manchester United 0)

This defeat was a bitter pill to swallow. I had penciled in this fixture as an easy victory, especially considering the league table, the forms of both teams and previous head to heads. It didn't even matter if hat-trick hero of last season, Rooney, was injured or not.

Kentona and I were in jubilant mood, discussing how sweet it would be for Ronaldo to once again make Bolton his personal bitch, then the starting lineup dropped a bombshell. Once we saw the lineup and the substitutes bench all we could mutter was....Oh Fuck.

Fergie tried to shuffle the pack and gave Ronaldo a nights off after his Euro exploits. Obviously Fergie must have missed watching all the past videos of Ronaldo tormenting Bolton.

Anderson was benched and Pique was partnered with Rio. I would have preferred to have Brown's experience beside Rio and the opening goal by Anelka confirmed it.

The first half was probably and possibly the worst we've played this season. There was no passing and hardly any movement off the ball. It didn't help matters that Carrick and Hargreaves were placed at the heart in midfield. Both sat too deep and neither were there to pick things up when the loose balls fell in midfield.

It wasn't a surprise that Bolton scored an early goal. From a Campo freekick, Anelka trapped the ball and scored a clinical goal on the turn. Pique's lack of experience showed when he jumped for the ball and missed it completely, allowing Anelka the space.

One nil down and we didn't have anything to show. It was a disjointed display for a good 70 minutes. It didn't help that referee Clattenburg made a few non calls which eventually drove Fergie to the stands with his rantings. On the night, it didn't matter. The damage was done before the ball was even kicked.

How Kevin Davies stayed on the pitch in the first half remains a mystery to me. He had committed enough fouls in the first half for the referee to send him off twice. The second non call was for a blatant handball in the penalty area that denied us a spot kick. It looked blatantly obvious to me that Gardner had delibrately handled the ball in the area in the second half, but neither the linesman nor the referee saw fit to call it.

The last 20 minutes was a much much better display with more urgency shown. Alot had to do with Anderson coming on and providing that thrust from midfield. We came desperately close to equalizing but in the end it simply wasn't enough.

I suppose to sum it up, the statistics told the story today. We only had 3 miserable shots on target. The makeshift team we put on the pitch just wasn't good enough.

I'll probably be missing the next Premiership game against Fulham. I'd be taking a short and well needed break in Korea. The markets have been killing me since August and a break is needed to rejuvenate the spirit. More importantly the break will prevent me from making any more trades, before I lose my pants!

Boston Celtics
This probably needs a thread on its own, but I'm feeling rather lazy so I'll lump it here as well. The Boston Celtics look really good this season. The big three of Pierce, Garnett and Allen have meshed together faster than I would have expected. If they last the distance, there is a geniune chance of actually winning it all this season! Of course I've just jinxed the team by mentioning it.


'Tione - All Star
Again this needs to have a post on its own, but I'm really lazy tonight.

There's an on-going campaign to vote former Celtic Antoine Walker into the starting 5 for the NBA All Stars and many bloggers have jumped on the bandwagon. For those of you who are clueless, the NBA All Star voting is nothing but a glorifed popularity contest. It's not the best players that get to play, but the most popular.

The whole campaign is to make a mickey of the current system by voting in Walker....who used to be good. This is taken from the original source why Walker was picked for this:

• He's a funny dude.
• Exemplifies the average american - lazy, overweight, and working just hard enough to collect his paycheck.
  
• Who doesn't want to see the shimmy in the 2008 all-star game?
  

For further instructions on how to participate and join in the fun, you can visit the AllStarShimmy website. Hint: The videos and pictures are hilarious.

Ronaldo's 2 Minute Blitz (Manchester United 2 - Blackburn 0)

After a scathing report on Ronaldo the previous game, he decided to bring his A-game today. A brace in a space of 2 minutes by the Portuguese maestro, in the first half settled the game.

I caught this game with Kentona over at Cow's place and I was completely knocked out by the time I reached home. Hence this late report.

Blackburn gave a really good account of themselves, and were probably one of the toughest opponents we've faced at OT this season. Their form and record against the other top 3 opponents spoke for itself.

The game was pretty even with both sides coming close to scoring. But it was Ronaldo who scored twice in as many minutes, to put United in front. The first was a beautifully placed header from a Giggs corner in the 34th min. The second came shortly after when Tevez found Ronaldo on a counter attack.

Early in the second half, Blackburn were reduced to 10 men. Kentona, Cow and myself were expecting another round of goals, but it didn't materialize. Sparky's team had inherited his character and spirit. Even when down to 10, Blackburn didn't hang their heads down but continued fighting. Very simply put, this Blackburn team is really quite good.

Couple of additional notes:

- Evra seems to be getting better and better. He's defending is still abit dodgy, but his forward forays adequately makes up for it. There were many instances in this game where I thought he was an awesome winger.

- Owen Hargreaves is awesome. He seems to have formed a pretty solid partnership with Anderson, who is pretty damn good himself. I still don't like the price at which we got them, but I can't deny the quality that they bring.

- Giggs. Despite missing a couple of really good chances, he was really flying in this game. He would have been my man of the match had it not been for the next guy.......

- The guy who printed Bentley's jersey. He completely butchered 'Betnley's name on the back of the jersey and provided many hilarious moments while we were watching. Hell initially we though we all suffered from collective dyslexia!

Rooney Out 4 Weeks

Rooney injured his ankle in training and is ruled out for 4 weeks.

Looks like we're going to see plenty of Tevez and Saha together upfront. There are a couple of things that worry me here.

Firstly, neither Tevez nor Saha has really played together. Their chemistry together has not been tested. And it comes as a bad time especially given how well both Tevez and Rooney are clicking, slowly but surely.

Secondly, I'm terribly afraid of pinning our hopes on Saha. No doubt he's a good striker, but when we begin to rely on him, he's just going to let us down by getting himself injured.

With this injury, suddenly the sale of Rossi and Smith (to a lesser extent) seems to have come back to haunt us. Things may not be as dire as this post suggests, it's still nonetheless a cause for concern.

At least in desperation, we can still use Ronaldo or Giggs as an auxiliary striker to partner Tevez or Saha, although I honestly rather not see Giggs in that position. In the worst case scenerio, we still have Brandy or Dong to fill the role. I hope it wouldn't come to that. Brandy is obviously not ready and Dong is really doing well selling shirts in China so let's not spoil his image.

United Sweeps Aside Kiev to Progress (Manchester United 4 - Dynamo Kiev 0)

It was a convincing 4-0 victory to see United into the knockout stages. And it was well worth it braving the rain in the middle of the night to catch the game with Kentona at the kopitiam near where I live.

The first half was a pretty dormant affair with little excitement, but somehow we managed to get a 2-0 lead.

Pique, who had his first start in the CL in place of Rio, opened the scoring in the 30th min with a rather fortuitious goal. The ball had rebounding off a blatantly off-side Tevez before he headed it into the Kiev net. While the build up was lucky, take nothing away from Pique's header which was well placed past the keeper.

The second goal 7 mins later brought back memories of when the soul brothers played together. Tevez stripped a Kiev midfielder of the ball and received a give-and-go from Tevez to find himself one on one with the keeper. He had the simple task of blasting the ball to give us a 2-0 lead going into the half time break. We didn't create many chances in the half, but the lead was well deserved since we had almost complete control of the game.

The second half was a much better affair. Kiev came out of the blocks with a purpose and had it not been for substitute, Kuszczak's brilliant saves, we would have had a hard battle on our hands.

Instead it was United who went further in front thru Rooney in the 76th minute. And Ronaldo finished off a demoralised Kiev with a brilliant individual goal.

Personally, I felt Ronaldo had a pretty piss poor game. He spent too much time trying to showboat when we were 2-0 up, which I thought was unnecessary and rather insulting to the opponents. We had beaten them rather comprehensively and there was no need to add insult to injury. I suppose if there is one thing I would love to see him improve on is this.

Overall it was a competent display and the scoreline reflected our dorminance although Kiev did threaten in very short spurts.

With Roma and Sporting drawing in the other game in this group, we've progressed into the knockout stage.

Knowing Fergie, I'm pretty sure he's going to start using this opportunity to start resting players. I would rather we go all out to win at least one of the next two games to ensure that we qualify as the top dog from the group. I remember vividly that we were in a similar position a few years back and we went on to fuck up the next two matches, and more importantly, lost the top spot in the group, thus facing a stronger than expected opponent in the next stage. I believe it was the season where we faced Real Madrid and lost out to a brilliant Ronaldo (the fat one) hat-trick. That one was a fucking nightmare.

Let's hope someone has learnt his lesson and not start taking things for granted.

Just Shut Up Fergie (Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 2)

Seriously, Fergie should just keep his bloody mouth shut sometimes. His tirade over the Sports Ministers comments were way out of line. Albeit that it was probably a jest, it was in poor taste. I'm sure the 'mob' that supports FC United didn't see the funny side of it. Sadly, I actually think off the pitch, our debt-ridden club will be in for a hard time in the near future. The recent sub-prime woes have exposed the dangerous ground we're walking on building a club based on debt.

But that's another topic for another day.

And just to keep with the title, Fergie issued another tirade after our 2-2 draw at the Emirates. Quite honestly, I don't even know what he's ranting about. We were our own worst enemies today, throwing away the lead twice. Fergie, try looking at our own backyard first.

As for the game proper, the first half was quite honestly a dry affair. Both teams were reluctant to take risks, hence contributed to a drab half. Gallas own goal was the only highlight, and it happened in the dying seconds of the half.

The Gooners came out of the second half firing on all cylinders and it only took them 2 minutes from the restart to draw level. Some comical defending on our part led to Fabregas placing the ball into an almost empty net. Vidic did his best Crocodile Dundee impression when he went on his walkabout, leaving the marking job of Adebayor to Hargreaves. Adebayor out-muscled and out-paced Hargeaves to run riot in the box and the ball fell to Fabregas with both Vidic, and EVS stranded. Rio decided the best course of action was to stand at the goal line instead of staying in front of the Spaniard, and Brown was day-dreaming. In short, it was a fucking comedy of errors by everyone involved.

With their tails up, Arsenal were coming forth in droves without actually threatening. Eventually we managed to regain our composure and matched whatever Arsenal had to throw at us. Fergie threw on Saha in place of an ineffective Tevez and Tissueboy conjured up a beautiful reverse pass into the path of Evra who ran straight thru the heart of the Arsenal defence, causing panic. While the entire defence converged on Evra, he had the presence of mind to lay it a wide open Ronaldo, who promptly took the gift.

It was a wonderfully crafted goal that should have won United the 3 points, but it was not to be. After taking the lead, both Anderson and Hargreaves sat deep, allowing Arsenal to draw level once again. Perhaps fittingly, it was Gallas who scored, rounding off the goals after he had put one into his own net to start it all off.

For the neutrals, it was probably a fitting results since both teams contributed to an entertaining game, but as a United fan, it was probably 2 points lost, both due to our own mistakes. At least we didn't lose ground to.

After watching Arsenal play the last few games, I'm confident that it's just a matter of time before we overtake them in the table. I personally feel that Arsenal is playing the best that they can with the personnel at their disposal.

At the same time, we're just barely scratching our potential. And when we do, we're going to beat them in the next meeting.

United On Fire (Manchester United 4 - Middlesbrough 1)

United just gets better and better. We scored another 4 goals, making it 4 in 4 games. Don't know about you guys, but it's fast becoming my favourite number. I hope I don't jinx team with the number four fetish.

Before I forget, this win takes us temporarily to the top of the table for a good 24hrs as Arsenal faces Liverpool on Sunday.

United started the game with a scintillating goal from Nani in the 3rd minute. From a midfield position, Nani wiggled his way to the edge of the penalty area and let fly a superb volley straight into the Boro net. Mark Schwarzer didn't have a chance in hell to even get near the ball. Nani's celebration, although probably frowned upon by Fergie, was just as spectacular as the goal scored.

Tevez had a chance to double United's lead a minute later but a superb tackle foiled the chance. Unfortunately, in the 6th minute, it was Boro that scored. Aliadiere got in between both Rio and Vidic and equalized with a header placed beyond the outstretched arms of EVS.

The goal dragged Boro back into the game. After looking like being over-run by United very early in the game, Boro's spirits were lifted. In truth, Boro's equalizer did shock us and the lads played poorly. Tevez, in particular, looked shakened by his earlier miss and made a number of terrible passes.

But United under Fergie is made of sterner stuff. Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves (who replaced the injured Scholes) ran the midfield and harassed the Boro players. On the half hour mark, Nani harassed Downing into giving the ball away to Rooney around the penalty area. Rooney didn't need a second invitation and scored his 8th in 7 games.

The second half gave more reason to cheer as United were rampant and it wasn't long before Rooney and Tevez combined to scored a wonderfully crafted goal. A lob from Tevez and a backheel return by Rooney exposed the entire Boro defence, leaving Tevez with the simple job of passing the ball into the Boro net. 3-1 up and Boro were truely dead and buried.

United could afford to shift a couple of gears down and contain a hapless Boro side that, quite frankly, never looked like scoring. It wasn't a surprise to anyone that United scored a 4th before the game was over. On a counter attack, Rooney found Tevez lurking on the left flank. Tevez's shot was deflected into the net.

It was a seriously another brilliant performance. Tevez and Rooney looked awesome going forward. Hargreaves and Anderson were pretty darn good in midfield, flanked by our two Portuguese wing wizards. Carrick is going to have a hard time getting his position in midfield back. Once Scholes returns, I can foresee Scholes and Hargreaves as Fergie's first choice partnership, and Anderson possibly cementing his place as the first option off the bench.

This all sets up nicely for our next game against Arsenal next week at the Emirates.

Superb Win (Dynamo Kiev 2 - Manchester United 4)

It was a superb display by the boys in red, and the scoreline did not do our performance any justice whatsoever. Rio, Rooney and Ronaldo(2) all got on the scoresheet, but it could and should have been so many more. The Dynamo defence didn't know what hit them, as we rained shot after shot on goal.

At times it almost seemed too easy and we often took an extra touch or dallied alittle too long. Such was our dominance that our defence went asleep and conceded two goals.

There were injury concerns before the game started when Scholes hurt his knee in the training session the previous day and Evra hurt his calf just before kickoff. O'Shea and Fletcher were called upon to replace them.

Rio opened the scoring early in the game when he rose unmarked to meet a Ronaldo freekick. Rooney added a second on 18 minutes to tap home a simple goal created by both Ronaldo and Brown. Dynamo's defence was in tatters as we ran and ripped them open time and time again.

Yet against the run of play, they pulled one back. Our defence was caught ball watching during a Dynamo corner and Rincon headed it beyond a flapping Van der Sar. I felt both EVS and our defenders should have done better.

In the larger scheme of things, it really didn't matter. We poured forward and literally camped in Dynamo's half. 40 minutes into the game, Giggs turned back the clock as he pushed the ball and ran past his marker down the left flank. He put in a superb cross right on the head of Ronaldo and Ronaldo had the simple task of heading it home. It was the best goal of the game and our cushion was restored.

The second half was more of the same magnificient stuff as we tore Dynamo apart without really adding to our advantage. Anderson, who's been sensational, struck the post.

After missing a hatful of chances, we took the foot off the pedal, probably eyeing the Saturday fixture against Boro. For a brief moment....just a brief moment, Dynamo showed that they belonged in this weight category and actually looked threatening.

Yet we were the ones who scored next. In a counter attack, Tevez's cross was handled by the defender in the box and a penalty was awarded. Up stepped our regular penalty-taker Ronaldo (God forbide Rooney from another penalty) and we were 4-1 up. The game was as good as wrapped up.

Dynamo rounded up the scoring by adding another consolation goal, after we went asleep again.

We probably could have ended the game with a flourish, but both Ronaldo and substitute, Nani, got abit too fanciful.

At the end of it, it was a great performance. We've been banging in the goals lately and the entire attack seems to have clicked. We look awesome going forward and everytime it seems like we're going to score.

Special mention must go to Anderson today. I know that in my private circle of friends, I've been extraordinarily harsh against Anderson, but with Scholes out of the game, Anderson probably had his best game in a United shirt. He was spraying passes left and right, long ones and short ones with great accuracy. And what was really great to see, was that he looked pretty good tackling too....at least he looks better than Scholes while doing it. The kid is maturing before my eyes. Now all that remains is for him to do it against some really opponents.

It's been a long time coming, but Giggs was simply awesome today. At times it was like watching a 17 year old Giggs against Arsenal again! I don't know what he had for lunch, but I'd like to have some of it too. Very simply, he was my man of the match today.

Despite the recent additions to our injury list, everyone had a pretty much great game today. We're sitting really pretty with 9 points on the table and progress to the next round almost confirmed. More importantly, we looked awesome getting them. Maybe, just maybe I've been too hasty writing our chances off a little too early. As long as we play like this, we have a great chance of beating anyone and actually winning the Holy Grail.

Bring on Southgate and his whiny bunch pussies this Saturday. I can't wait to see us cream them....and for Ronaldo to score another penalty.

The Swagger is Back (Aston Villa 1 - Manchester United 4)

I'll make this one short since the Rugby World Cup finals is just around the corner.

This was a convincing performance, and it was way before Villa were down to 9 men in the second half. Despite having Ronaldo on the bench, we started out strong and determined. But it was Villa who took a shock lead when Agbonlahor headed the ball into the net on the 13th minute. With Vidic out injured, Villa had their chances to test the defence marshalled by Rio and Pique, but they couldn't convert their chances.

It was a different story on the other end of the pitch. Tevez, Nani, Scholes and Rooney combined to great effect, occasionally showing signs of tearing the Villa defence apart with their passing.

Putting his midweek disappointment behind (England lost to Russia), Rooney helped himself to a couple of goals in the 35th and 44th minute when the Villa defence went to sleep. The first was a simple tap in when Rooney came from the blindside and stroked the ball into a wide open net. The entire Villa defense went to sleep and when they realised where Rooney was, it was too late.

The second goal resulted from a good pass by Tevez. He mesmerised the Villa defense with a jerky run and found Rooney with acres of space. Rooney promptly passed the ball into the net.

A minute later, Rio added his name to the scoresheet, scoring after Villa failed to clear a United corner.

United had complete control of the second half, thanks to the sending offs of Reo Coker and Scott Carson. Reo was sent off for a second bookable offense and Carson received his marching orders for bringing Tevez down in the area. Rooney stepped up to take the penalty and and complete his hat-trick, but he was too casual with it and the substitute Taylor saved it.

With over 20 minutes on the clock and Villa down to 9 men, it looked alot like a training exercise, with Villa concentrating on defense and United keeping possession. And it wasn't long before Giggs added a 4th. His shot was deflected twice into the net. Nothing more than United deserved. Even with the full compliment, we were heads and shoulders the better team on the pitch.

The rest of the game played out without anymore goals, although there were chances aplenty. What's more important is that you have the feeling that the swagger that has been missing since the season started is back. We finally look menacing going forward.

Tevez Leads Rout Against Latics (Manchester United 4 - Wigan 0)

United's already packed treatment table had to endure more load after today's game. Already losing Carrick to a mid-week elbow fracture, tissue-boy (Saha) did himself no favours when he hurt himself during the warm-up to today's game.

Once again in an absolutely crazy weekend where there was only one 3pm kickoff (and we're not on that list yet again), we had an early kickoff. And what it meant was that Kentona and I had to spend a mini-fortune bringing our better halves for another expensive prawning trip just to catch the game in peace.

In a first half plagued by injuries to both Vidic and O'Shea, we had little to show for. Their replacements Anderson and Danny Simpson showed what little depth and experience we had left in reserve. With further injury scares to both Evra and Pique, Kentona and I were left wondering what else we had to offer from the bench. Thankfully we were playing one of the worst away teams in the form of Wigan. Had the competition been any stiffer, we could have paid the price for our lack of imagination going forward.

Ferguson must have given the blow-dryer treatment during half time, coz when the teams returned in the second half, there was a determined attempt to blow the opponents away. Giggs hit the crossbar with a rasping shot that brought out the Oohs and Aahs from the crowd.

Then Anderson threaded a wonderful pass for Tevez to chase. Not known for his pace, Tevez shown strength holding Kilbane to get to the ball, guile to cut inside Bramble and skill to go around Kirkland before coolly firing the ball into the net. It was a goal to be behold. Classy.

With the first goal scored, the weight was lifted off the shoulders of the United players. Confidence was oozing back into the players and it wasn't long before the second goal was scored. Kirkland was only able to palm away a Giggs' shot onto the path of Ronaldo who was lurking in the far post. Ronaldo gleefully nodded it into an empty net.

The Latics were beaten and they knew it. Ronaldo added a third after Rooney beautifully crossed a ball from the left. It was set on a platter for Ronaldo.

Rooney finished off the rout when Simpson, who was largely ignored on the right, swung in an inch perfect cross for him to head home.

While I wouldn't exactly say that the free-scoring United of last season was back, but this is a good start. For large parts of the first half, we had trouble breaking down the opponents but once Tevez scored the first goal, there was going to be one outcome. All it needed was the confidence to return.

The good thing is that the next game is 2 weeks away. Hopefully some of the walking wounded will return before we face a tough Villa side away.

Just Enough (Manchester United 1 - Roma 0)

I'll make this one short since there isn't many positive things to talk about. Moreover it didn't help that I constantly nodded off while watching the game. Yup, that's right, we're turning into a boring team.

There was no repeat of April's 7-1 scoreline. It was a cautious and cagey affair and neither side were really looking to score for most parts of the game. Had it not been for Rooney taking a half chance in the 70th min, it would definitely have ended 0-0.

There was plenty of creativity and penetration from the Portuguese wingers, Nani and Ronaldo, but it was not matched by the other players on the pitch. As a result, both were cutting into the middle far too many times for my liking. Having Saha starting and spearheading the frontline, I was expecting a bombardment of crosses.

At least the midfield and defence stood firm. I have to say we're one helluva stingy team. Quite honestly, Roma never did look like scoring until the dying minutes when they failed to convert 2 absolute sitters.

Anyway we're sitting pretty on top of the group table having taken maximum points from 2 games. Next up would be a double header against bottom of table Dinamo Kiev, who we really ought to beat....twice.

Ronaldo Opens Premiership Account (Birmingham 0 - Manchester United 1)

This was, by far, not a vintage performance but we secured the points and kept a clean sheet. I almost did not catch the game, but fortunately Kentona's gf was kind enough to make a detour to pick me up and send me to Queens Country Club to catch the game with Kentona. I know this sounds abit gay, but I think I've caught every weekend game with Kentona since the season started.

Before I go into the game, I'd like to add a few comments on the game that I missed during the midweek. We were dumped out of the Mickey Mouse Cup by a determined and persistent Conventry side in front of a record home crowd (debatable) for a Cup game. A day after a very VERY youthful looking Arsenal side kick the crapshit out of an experienced Newcastle team, I was actually expecting alot from our own highly touted lads. As we all know by now, we had nothing to show for. Our 'future' didn't turn up, and quite frankly, there was little, if anything, to cheer about. Our academy had stopped producing gems since Fergie's fledglings left the perch in the 90s. Granted Brown, Fletcher and O'Shea have come thru the ranks, they are certainly not setting the world alight. The juice seems to have run dry. Already we fall far far behind the likes of Arsenal and Barcelona in terms of youth development. Slowly and surely, whether we like it or not, we're turning into a cheque book team and our summer spendings on young prodigies like Nani and Anderson do little to disspel that notion.

As for today's game, the first team turned up and did credibly. There was little style in the win, but it was backed up by substance. It wasn't an easy win by any means, but still a job well done in the end.

Steve Bruce's side could have, and probably should have, had a couple in the opening few minutes, but their lack of cutting edge in attack was cruelly exposed when they failed to capitalise on their only dangerous moments of the game. Both Rio and EVS did well to avert the danger. After that it was all United.

We didn't exactly light it up, but we controlled the tempo as well as the game, even though Birmingham shoved and tried to bully their way into the game. In a way they almost succeeded. Giggs was hurried, pushed and kicked into giving possession away cheaply everytime he had the ball. Thankfully Fergie saw what we saw and substituted Giggs on the 64th minute. Perhaps this signals the end of Giggs' reign as an automatic starter. If it comes to pass, it certainly comes a couple of games late, but in Giggs' defence, he's earned it. I, for one, would love to see him start for a few more games....just for old times' sake.

Our goal wasn't a classic, but we capitalised on our only chance when it came. Frank Queudrue dallied a Rio punt forward long enough for Ronaldo to nip in and steal it. While it was a defender's mistake, the goal itself was coolly taken. Ronaldo took his time to round Maik Taylor and score the only goal of the game.

A win's a win's a win. Take nothing away from it. I'm only worried that our lack of penetration forward and the shortage of clear cut chances will come back to haunt us soon enough. Meanwhile, we celebrate our position in second, waiting for Arsenal's long awaited slump to come.

United Piles on the Blues (Manchester United 2 - Chelsea 0)

There was plenty to celebrate this week. We won away in Europe, Moanrinho left Chelsea, Tevez scores his first goal, we score two in a match (finally), we beat Chelsea, we climb above Pool and we finally found a referee worse than Rob Styles (not an easy feat!).

With the exception of that one night in Barcelona, I can't think of a happier way to end the week.

To be truthful, I had a bad feeling about today's game. Today's game was the classic game in which we usually screw up. For the first 30 minutes I felt that my worst fears were close to realisation, Chelsea was probably the better team despite all their on and off field troubles. They were taking the game to us in our own backyard.

Then incredibly, referee Mike Dean showed a straight red card to Obi Mikel for a foul on Evra. It was harsh, and the replay suggested so as well.....but I'm not complaining. It changed the complexion of the game. Chelsea settled to defend deep while we forayed forward. Our attacks still lacked the cutting edge but we were eventually rewarded with our persistence with a Tevez goal deep into the first half injury time.

Chelsea was poor in the second half. With Brown and Evra having outstanding games, we withstood everything the ten-men team threw at us (which really wasn't very much). Saha, who replaced Tevez, scored a dubious penalty (awful refereeing again) in injury time to end the second half the way the first ended.

The game wasn't pretty but we were competent in containing Chelsea, especially after they were down to 10. Brown, Evra and Carrick should be singled out as outstanding performers. Any attempt by Chelsea to come forward was stopped by them.

It has been a long week and Fergie has the opportunity to rest players this week when we face Coventry in the Mickey Mouse Cup in midweek. It should keep the players fresh when they play Birmingham in the weekend.

Ronaldo Scores Against Old Club (Sporting Lisbon 0 - Manchester United 1)

Dry, drab, awful....these are a few adjectives that you could use to describe this encounter, and you're probably being way too kind. In truth this was possibly the worse game of football I've seen in a while. Well..... the Italy vs France Euro 2008 Qualifier a couple weeks back probably topped this one in terms of boredom, which is way I hope those two teams NEVER get to play one another EVER again.

Despite the level of play, the condition of the pitch and the inability of both sets of players to lift their game, Ronaldo stood out. And it was probably fitting that he scored the only goal from possibly the best move of the game on the 63rd minute. It was a beautiful diving header delivered by Brown that gave the Sporting keeper no chance whatsoever. Besides the goal, the game had little to nothing to offer from every perspective.

I can't really say we deserved it for turning up uninterested in the fixture, but I'll gladly take the 3 points and a step towards the next round. However I can say this, we're not going to win the Champions League this year, next year or ever, if we're going to the opposition ground and play scared. It's been the case for the past few seasons. We've lost our swagger since the tactical switch to play 4-5-1 in Europe, especially in the away fixtures. And I think it's pretty obvious to everyone who has watched United play in Europe the last 4-5 seasons.

Yet Ferguson and Queiroz are the only ones who seem oblivious to the fact. Today, their decision seem justified, but further down the competition, we'll face tougher opponents like the AC Milans and the Barcelonas and their are going to whip our sorry asses.

Silvestre's Out For The Season

Ouch! Silves suffered a cruciate ligament and is ruled out for the rest of this season. This is awful news for already left back-challenged Manchester United.

The position currently rests entirely on the dodgy shoulders of Evra. He's the only recognizable left back left at the club. With the next transfer window only available in January, it looks like we might have to rely on some really inexperienced players (Johnny Evans or Phil Bardsley), something I'm not entirely comfortable with. This compounds the fact that I'm already not comfortable with Evra playing in that position.

At least on the bright side of things, despite playing like crap, we've somehow managed to claw our way back to within touching distance of the top teams. Chelsea and Arsenal don't scare me one bit. Come the African Nations Cup, both teams would be severely depleted with key absentees. Liverpool, in my opinion is the strongest challenge to the title, with the strongest squad. In fact last season, they possibly had the strongest squad. However, as long as Benitez continues to handicap his team by NOT playing the strongest 11, the window is always open.

All that needs to happen now is for Ferguson to stop being stubborn and start Saha as our focal point of attack.

United Grinds Out Another Win (Everton 0 - Manchester United 1)

Alex Ferguson doesn't like early kickoffs and neither do I. Early kickoffs on Saturdays usually means that I would miss the match since it usually coincides with a bit of time I share with my girlfriend. It's usually the only time of the week we get to take time off our schedules and meet for a nice dinner, before rushing back home to catch United play.

Since knowing about the schedules 2 weeks ago, I hatched upon a plan and knowing that Kentona would be facing the same dilemma, we arranged to go prawn fishing as a couples outing. Both our gfs like prawn fishing and both of us love United. It also helps alot that the pub beside the fishing pond was showing the game live. While the ladies were occupied exercising their patience, we would be seated comfortably in front of the projection TV watching the game. Brilliant plan of keeping the ladies happy, as well as satisfying our needs.

Now that I've almost sprained my shoulders patting myself on the back, let's get to the game proper.

I was terribly disappointed that Ferguson opted to start Giggs upfront along side Tevez. To me that seemed like a recipe for disaster. I really thought that Saha would have been a better complement for Tevez. For the entire first half, we did absolutely nothing as an offensive force. In fact until the goal, we never threatened the Everton goal.

The return of Ronaldo from suspension did nothing to booster our attack. Sure there were times we did look really good going forward, but the end product severely lacked substance. The first half was so dull that the only moments that stirred the emotions were when Scholes did look like he was going to get a red for a couple of mistimed challenges and when Silves injured himself. It did look like a pretty painful injury when his knee buckled under his own weight....and I'm speaking from experience, having my own knee give way under my own imposing weight. Silves was replaced with Nani and Evra, who was doing pretty damn well playing in left wing, was pushed back to defence.

The second half was more of the same crap from both sides and the game looked like heading for a scoreless draw. On the hour mark, Ferguson must have heard both mine and Kentona's rants and replaced the ineffective Giggs with Saha. Honestly, it didn't make much of a difference to the level of play, although I certainly felt much better having a striker on the pitch.

As the game wore on, Everton looked like the side that were increasingly able to take the points, while we were continually frustrated every time the ball reached the last third of the pitch.

In the 83rd minute, we won a corner. Suddenly remembering that we scored from one two weeks ago against Keano's men, I turned to Kentona and told him that we were going to score. It was totally against the flow of the conversation we were having since we spent most of the time bitching about the quality of the game.....or the lack of it.

Up rose the majestic Vidic to head the ball home. It was a brilliant header! He ran past two defenders and stuck his head to the ball, beating the Everton keeper in the near post. An absolute stunner!

The entire pub must have been filled with ABUs coz the only two people celebrating were Kentona and myself. Fancy being a pub with dozens of beer drinkers, and the two insane people prancing around were a couple of guys drinking Coca-Cola!

The is our third consecutive 1-0 victory and it brought us to the top of the table, if only for a mere 45 minutes. We need to do better and play better. There were many moments in this game where it things could have gone terribly wrong. For long periods in the second half, I felt we rode our luck. But in the end, we ground out a result.

I'm sure I'd be crucified by saying this, but Ferguson needs to stop playing favourites. Giggs has been a wonderful employee and one of the most loyal players, but he needs to either play on the wings or be benched. There is simply no place for him upfront when Saha's fit. There were many moments in the game when I cringed whenever Giggs got the ball. I only hope that Ferguson was saving TissueMan (Saha) for Sporting this midweek in the Champion's League.

Speaking of Sporting, let's hope we get the results in Portugal, especially with our current form. We're pretty poor travellers in Europe and a last few seasons are a testament to that statement.

Saha's Goal Separates Sides (Manchester United 1 - Sunderland 0)

We entertained Keano's Sunderland and for a good 70 or so minutes played terrible football. We had a good portion of the possession for most of the game but failed to make any meaningful impact, resulting in possibly one of the dullest first halves Old Trafford had to endure this year.

It wasn't till the half hour mark before we had our first shot at goal. Anderson was blooded, and partnered the hardworking Tevez upfront, but apparently the mismatch pairing of Argentinian and Brazilian upfront didn't produce any South American flair. It was as clear as daylight that the pairing simply wouldn't work and Ferguson opted to replace Anderson with Saha at the half.

Immediately Saha made an impact by chesting a long ball, turning and volleying on instinct, forcing a save from Sunderland keeper Craig Gordon. At the same time, Tevez was released to roam freely, while the Sunderland defence concentrated on Saha. The game instantly became significantly more watchable from a neutral view.

On the 70th minute, Saha put us ahead with a header from a corner. I suppose given the way we dominated possession, it was possibly deserved. Sunderland provided nothing in the form of scoring and much of it due to the industry of the entire team, in particular both Owen Hargreaves and Patrice Evra (in the absence of Judas, I'm giving Evra a generous amount of love).

Perhaps it's a good thing that next week is an international weekend. I'm sure given the way we're playing right now, I can't see us producing the goods at Goodison. It would give Saha sometime to get himself match-fit. I can't emphasis how important it is to have a target man upfront (as seen from today's result). Not to mention, we'd be having Ronaldo back, which in itself is huge.

Champions League Draw

Ok, here's the draw result:

Group A
Liverpool
Porto
Marseille
Besiktas

Group B
Chelsea
Valencia
Schalke
Rosenborg

Group C
Real Madrid
Werder Bremen
Lazio
Olympiakos

Group D
AC Milan
Benfica
Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group E
Barcelona
Lyon
Stuttgart
Rangers

Group F
Manchester United
Roma
Sporting Lison
Dynamo Kiev

Group G
Inter Milan
PSV
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce

Group H
Arsenal
Sevilla or AEK Athens
Steaua Bucharest
Slavia Prague

Phew. That was one helluva long draw. I don't recall last year's being this long. Bloody took an hour on a dodgy stream. I can't exactly say I'm pleased with the teams we're facing. On paper, we should be able to top the group but as you know, football isn't played on paper.

What scares me is the whole revenge factor being so fresh on Roma's minds. I honestly don't know, given our domestic problems, that this is a good time to face Roma. Then again, there are no easy games in the Champions League. At least on paper (again), we're facing two other weaker European opponents in Sporting and Dynamo Kiev.

On the whole, all the top seeded teams look set to advance. With the number of good teams knocked out in the qualifying stages, there doesn't seem to be any potential banana skins on the way to the next round.

My Favourite Ole Moments (Baby-Faced Assassin Retires)

After being plagued by injuries the last few years, Ole has finally succumbed, bringing an end to an era. Ole has always been one of my favourite players, not only for his goal scoring exploits but also for his loyalty and humbleness.

His retirement comes as mini-shock to the system and I haven't a fitting tribute. Instead I'll just recall 5 of my most memorable Ole moments. I'm sure most of you remember most of them as well.

1. Blackburn in 95 - We were playing Blackburn when Ole came on for David May. The only thing on my mind was.....who the hell was this kid (I only knew he was cheap and from Molde)....and more importantly....how the hell do you pronounce his name. The next thing I knew, he squeezed in between two Blackburn defenders and poked the ball home to score on his debut! I don't think anyone really cared if we mispronouced or mispelt his name at that point. The only thing that mattered was that this kid is special. It wasn't until years later that we knew how special he is.

2. Against Newcastle (possibly 98) - I can't remember which year it was, but I vividly remember that we were chasing the leaders in the Premiership (possibly Arsenal) and were drawing against Newcastle in a must-win game. We had poured players forward to find the elusive winner and were subject to a Newcastle counter. I can't really recall if Smikes had gone up, but I knew for certain that Newcastle would have scored in that break away. Up stepped Ole to make a professional foul on Rob Lee to preserve the status quo. Without even turning to look at the referee, Ole walked off the pitch knowing that he would surely have received the marching orders. I don't know about you guys, but at that point in time, Ole was my favourite player. He always put the team above himself.

3. Turning Spurs down - Once again I cannot remember the year, but I remember clearly that the board had agreed on a five million pound fee to sell Ole to Spurs. Fergie himself had sanctioned the deal, only for Ole to declare that he wanted to stay at OT. He had grown to love the club, and even if first team opportunities were few and far between, he was willing to stay and fight for his place. To make this even more amazing, Ole was a Liverpool support as a kid. I'm sorry Liverpool, he's all ours. Our own Norwegian legend.

4. 4 Goals against Forest - We were leading Nottingham Forest by 4 goals to 1 when Ole was sent on in the last ten minutes for a run out and he scored 4 goals in that 10 minutes. What made this feat even more astounding was the fact that Ole looked so embarassed by the time the third one went in. You could tell from his expression that he geniunely felt sorry for the Forest players when he scored his fourth. His teammates took the cue and didn't really celebrate, trying not to rub it into the Forest players. Ole was not only a great scorer, but a person of the highest moral standards.

5. Nou Camp May 26th 99 - That one you all know about.

Those were my favourite Ole moments, in no particular order. Wonder what yours are?

Nani Magic Downs Spurs (Manchester United 1 - Tottenham 0)

We were awful, uninspired and for a good portion of the game, you felt this was going to be one of those days. Today's performance was by far the worst we've played since the season began. Yet thru the sheer individual brilliance of Nani, we chalked up our first win. Undeserved? Probably, but luck has a way of evening itself up.

There's really nothing much to say about today's game. With the exception of Evra, the entire defense was caught napping far too many times for my liking. Rio, Vidic, Van der Sar and Brown were all guilty of crimes of giving the ball away cheaply and not marking their men. This is probably in poor taste if you're of Jewish decent, but they all need to be sent to concentration camp.

Carrick was disastrous. Maybe he was trying too hard against his old team, but it certainly was no excuse for a piss poor performance. I don't expect him to shed the Invisible Man tag and suddenly turn into Superman, but today he was Dr Doom. He's passes were off and his tackles were half-hearted. Thankfully Fergie took him off at the hour mark before he caused some real problems.

While this was a dull performance, we could still take away the fact that Nani and Hargreaves are awesome. Both displayed a high workrate (even by our standards), chasing every loose ball and staying in front of their man. The reason why Spurs couldn't really get a foothold on the game was because Hargreaves was literally in their face everytime their midfield got the ball. And more importantly, he was there whenever Carrick lost the ball.

Nani's just plain impressive for someone who's only played 4 games for us. He's not Ronaldo-impressive yet, but you can already tell the difference between the two. Nani just works so much harder. He's going to be a crowd favourite. And today we needed a Nani wonder strike to win a game which we never looked like winning.

Despite a poor display, we finally won a game. Let's hope it gives us the much needed confidence from here on in. Next week we face Keano's black pussies. Given the way they were convincingly dominated by Pool, I'm expecting nothing less than a win.

Want-Away Heinze Signs for Real Madrid

Not going to say much since my thoughts have been expressed here time and time again, so no sense in me drumming in the same 'o same 'o.

Here's the link.....and good riddence to a piece of human thrash. And what a great piece of business too at £8m!

Heinze agrees move to Real Madrid

Heinze's Liverpool Move Falls Apart

The 3 man panel from the Premier League has ruled that the letter signed by David Gill was not a legal undertaking, hence Heinze has to see out his 2 year contract.

Honestly, I'd rather see Heinze gone. The sooner the better and to who, it doesn't really matter. The last thing we need is someone who's not happy to create trouble in the locker room. Already tension should be quite high after our recent results and any potential disharmony is not welcomed. Ideally, Heinze doesn't ever report for training with the first team and rots in the reserves for the next 2 years. I seriously doubt anything he does from this moment on is going to endear himself to the fans. I know for certain that he's a permanent fixture in my blackbook.

United Aids Shitty to Top With Another No Goal (Manchester City 1 - Manchester United 0)

A week into the new season of our title defence, and we're already staring up the table, a massive 7 points behind local rivals, Shitty. This is an almost unthinkable position given the fact we've spent massively after winning the title last season in one of the most stylish manners possible.

The inability to score is really hurting us this season. Again in this game we've looked the more likely team to score but again in this game, we didn't.....or more aptly put, we couldn't. I'm sure even the most optimistic of fans will find concern in our inability to find the net.

I take everything I said about Owen Hargreaves in the off season back. He was awesome. He was literally everywhere on the pitch, making the important challenges, winning the ball and pushing the play forward. There were times I actually thought Keano had returned. Yes, he was that good. It'd probably be a few more games before I'd even come close to annointing him as the next Keano, but today he certainly earned his stripes. The only think lacking from him today was willing the team to victory. To be fair to everyone else who played, they were all pretty damn good today.

We started this game with a swagger, looking to decimate Shitty with our passing and approach play. For a good 30 minutes, there was only one team playing football, and another watching in total admiration. We played like the Champions of last season and totally dominated the Shitty midfield. Shitty didn't even get a sniff of the ball let alone string any passes.

Then the unthinkable happened. Totally against the run of play, Giovanni, our tormentor from Benfica, popped up outside our penalty box and scored with the aid of a deflection. Van der Sar didn't have a chance in hell to save it. It was as if the Gods of Football were mocking us. After all we had done in the past 30 minutes, we were rewarded by going one goal down. The lads in red looked stunned while the other set of players in blue grew in confidence and started making cheeky forays into our half.

Try as we might in the second half, the equalizer simply wouldn't materialize. At this point in time my brain and heart both switched off and quite frankly, I really can't recall what happened. Maybe subconsciously my brain is saving me from a huge headache fathoming just how quickly things have changed. All that I knew was the final result and our unbeaten run had been stopped! <---tongue firmly in cheek.

While the Blue side of Manchester celebrates their ascend to the peak, we're left to ponder over how costly losing Rossi or Smith is and wonder how cruel fate is to rob us of Rooney.

Yet in the doom and gloom of it all, there were some good things to take away today.
1. Shitty is shit. It's just a matter of time before they come back down to earth.
2. Things can't possibly get any worse. When you're right at the bottom, the only way is up......except for losing to Spurs next week.
3. Hargreaves was awesome, so was Tevez.
4. Nani is almost the exact carbon copy of Ronaldo. Which means in 3 years time, he'd be a great player.
5. Rob Style royally screwed Liverpool. Yup, I just had to take a dig at both Styles and the grannystabbers.

Is There Cause for Concern?

Well, that really depends on which side of the fence you're sitting on. As Paul so eloquently chronicled in his blog, we've really been thru this before and have come out smelling like roses.

However sitting on the other side of the fence, we are going thru a period where goals just aren't flowing in anymore.

2nd May 07 Champions League AC Milan L 0-3
5th May 07 Premiership Man City W 1-0
7th May 07 Premiership Chelsea D 0-0
13th May 07 Premiership West Ham United L 0-1
19th May 07 FA Cup Chelsea L 1-0

12th Aug 07 Premiership Reading D 0-0
15th Aug 07 Premiership Portsmouth D 1-1

In our last 7 competitive games, we've only scored one goal from open play and that's from Scholesy against Pompey yesterday. The other goal scored in the Man City derby was by Ronaldo from the penalty spot. I struggle to find a point in our recent history where goals were so difficult to come by.

To make matters worse, we'd be without our mercurial Portuguese talent, Ronaldo, who is suspended for the next 3 games. Not to mention, we'd be without Rooney until at least October.

Concentrating on the next 3 games, we'd be facing surprise front runners Man City away this Sunday. I have no idea how this new City team looks or plays, but if we continue our goal slump, we could be looking at yet another draw. It doesn't help that we're also in the process of bedding in new players to the team. Hopefully the lads are up for the challenge.

A week later, we'd be facing surprise bottom feeders Spurs in a late kickoff. The mention of late kickoffs has already sent shivers down my spine. Spurs are better than the position they current occupy. Any team with the kind of defensive injuries would struggle in the league. We barely made it thru our own defensive mayhem at the end of last season.

To round off the trio of difficult games, we face Sunderland at home in yet another late kick off on the 1st of Sept. I foresee a team managed by Keano would be giving us trouble. If we haven't picked up the scoring slack by then, we'd be picking up another draw.

After the international weekend, we face both Everton and Chelsea, but that's another post for another time. In short, we'd be without our most consistant players in Ronaldo and Rooney, while giving time to both Nani and Tevez, and maybe even Hargeaves, on top of trying to find the net from open play again. I don't know about you guys, but it's giving me a huge headache.

That being said, United could just come out firing on all cylinders against City this Sunday to put all my fears to rest. I, for one, certainly hope they start finding their scoring boots soon.

United Stumble Again (Portsmouth 1 - Manchester United 1)

I missed the entire first half and a good portion of the second half as well due to 'technical' problems. Suffice to say, if I had known that a 1-1 draw was on the cards, I would have given up trying to watch the game and gone to sleep.

I caught bits and pieces of the second half and quite frankly, the only guy who impressed me in a red shirt was Nani. From my sketchy picture, the midfield was non-existent. Scholes and Carrick didn't seem able to control the midfield. Anything good coming from us were from our Portuguese wingers, Nani and Ronaldo.

Giggs and Tevez were pretty much non-existent as well. By the time I actually saw them in the game, both look winded and a step slow.

The defense was in sixes and sevens whenever Portsmouth came forward. Benjani, in particular, single-handedly seem to tear our flimsy looking back four to shreds.

To compound matters, we were reduced to 10 men when Ronaldo was sent off in the 85th minute. Portsmouth had earlier had a man sent off but like the weekend, we couldn't make our advantage count. Then again, it wasn't very much of an advantage since Ronaldo was sent off only a couple of minutes from the Portsmouth sending off.

Overall I felt that this was a pretty poor performance. Maybe the first half was a better affair. The second half was just littered with poor shots, missed chances and desperate defending at times.

We now have to go into the weekend facing Shitty, who have full points from 2 games!?!?! Well, at least, looking on the bright side.....we're still undefeated!

Oh F***

Rooney fractured his foot against Reading. Although it a hairline fracture, it's still looks like he's going to face a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Just a week into the new season and we're already facing a mini-crisis upfront. We still have a host of striking options, but seem thin in placing someone in that central striker's role. Looks like my binky, Tevez, will have to shoulder the scoring responsibilities during Rooney's absence.

10 Men Reading Holds Champions (Manchester United 0 - Reading 0)

I had a strange feeling this was going to happen and privately expressed my fears to Kentona but held my tongue/keyboard here instead of jinxing the team.

We did everything and batted relentlessly at the Reading goal but it simply refused to give. Maybe it was the late kick off that screwed us again (a running theme on this blog last season), or that Rooney was injured and we didn't have a recognised striker to take his place. Or even the fact that prior to our game, the only other draw game was Derby vs Portsmouth. The law of averages some how evened out the draw statistics, especially after both Chelsea and Arsenal won their games earlier.

We were heads and shoulders the better side today, spending a huge portion of the game literally camped inside Reading's half. We pelted their goal with shots but that big American, Hahnemann was equal to the task. Carrick, Ronaldo and Rooney all played brilliantly. Carrick in particular was exceptional with his passing.

It was a blow to us when Rooney was taken off at the half, presumably for an injury to his foot sustained in the first period. Let's hope it's nothing serious. Despite our attacking prowess on paper, we're actually paper thin when it comes to planting that important target man up front. If Rooney's injury is a long term one, we could rue losing both Smith and Rossi this summer, since Tevez would be the only fit one left standing.

Nani did well coming on to replace Rooney and I expect him to be a crowd favourite with his unselfishness and work rate. For that same reason, I'm sure Tevez will win the hearts of the Old Trafford faithful.

Reading was reduced to 10 men in the 72 minute, when substitute Dave Kitson lunged at Evra with his studs showing. It was a dangerous challenge and could have seriously hurt Evra. While I thought it might have been harsh to send him off at first glance, the replays had me agreeing with referee, Rob Styles....something that doesn't happen very often. And if anyone is wondering, I still think he's a crap referee.

And that statement was perfectly justified in the dying seconds of injury time when he firstly gave Reading a corner instead of a goalkick to us...and when he harshly gave a freekick to us right at the edge of the Reading penalty area. Both were piss poor decisions, but in the end they cancelled themselves out.

The draw's a disappointing result, given the way we had approached this game. And it's even more disappointing considering our perceived main rivals all scrapped to victory on the opening day. Well, as they say, the Premiership title is a marathon and not a sprint, let's just make that we recover well from this stumble off the blocks.

The Tevez Wait is Over

The wait's been long so I'd keep this simple.

Carlos Tevez finally completes his move to United. He'd be wearing the no.32 jersey and is eligible for this Sunday's opener against Reading. However, according to Fergie, he's unlikely to feature in that game.

Argentine Aggravation

Argentine Aggravation 1:

Looks like Heinze is detemined to move to Liverpool despite Fergie's and the board's protestations. An arbitration panel by the Premier League looks set to decide the validity of Heinze's proposed move.

This is not news to most of us who have been following the latest on goings of our want-away Argentine left back. What smacks us in the face is his insistence on moving to hated rivals Liverpool, especially after most fans had loyally stood behind and supported him during the past two injury ravaged seasons. Judas!

Argentine Aggravation 2:

Not exactly in the same mold as the whole hate-inducing Heinze-gate, but according to Skysports, the Premier League maybe dragging their feet in mud with regards to Tevez's registrations. Latest speculation notes that Tevez may not even be registered in time for the weekend opener against Reading, let alone the friendly he was scheduled to make his debut against Dunfermline in 24hrs.

Once the Premier League get their act together and remove their collective heads out of their collective arses, I'm sure the Tevez deal will go thru. However, when that will happen is another question altogether. The saga has dragged on for long enough (ie, we're all rapidly getting bored by it all) and hopefully it will go thru sooner rather than later, so we can get on with the title defence proper. As mentioned in previous entries, we currently only have Rooney as the only recognised frontman and I would hate to see Giggs pushed forward as Fergie so loves to do time and time again.

Van der Sar Heroics Standout In Pentalty Shootout (Chelsea 1 - United 1) *United wins 3-0 on Penalties

Thanks to Van der Sar's three saves, United won 3-0 on penalties to take the Charity Shield.

The game itself was a vast improvement from the dull FA Cup finals at the same venue just a couple of months or so back. At least there was more action and, more importantly, there were goals.

Evra was surprisingly a delight to watch when he was fielded at left wing. He constantly got behind the Chelsea backline and was instrumental in providing Giggs with the opening goal. He's got plenty of attack instincts and put them to good use whenever he's played on the left wing. Unfortunately when Silves was replaced by Nani in the second half, he reverted back to the bumbling fool in left back and was constantly beaten by Wright-Phllips. To be fair, Silves didn't fair too well against the same opponent either. Yup, we still need a left back.

The lead given to us by Giggs didn't last the half when Malouda powered past both Brown and Rio from the right wing and shot a beautiful ball into the goal right at half time.

United started off the second half in strong fashion but failed to capitalize on their chances. As the game got on, Chelsea gradually grew in strength and defensive discipline, cancelling out United's superior fire power. Goalmouth action was at a premier and the game fittingly ended in a draw.

Van der Sar steped up and saved 3 consecutive penalties in the shootout, winning us our first silverware of the season. Although it's an inconsequential result but the win is all about getting the psychological edge over our opponents in the 9 months ahead and putting the right foot forward in a long journey.

Youth Beat Doncaster (Doncaster 0 - Manchester United 2)

With less than 48hrs to the season curtain raiser, Fergie opted to field a team largely made up from the reserves and the youth team. Well, actually the reserve team has been mainly made up of under 21s from what I've been seeing on MUTV for the past season.

This game would probably be noted as Anderson's debut and he really didn't do too badly. He certainly did much much better in the red of United than the yellow of Brazil for the Copa. Coming with a somewhat big reputation and a larger price tag, he was marked tightly throughout the time he was on the pitch. At times he was hounded by two doncaster players. Despite the ultra tight marking job, he still managed to spray some telling passes and literally worked his ass off in winning the ball. While he wasn't really effective as a tackler, you could tell his intent desire to impress. As I've said time and again, he possesses the natural ability to make the big leap into a really good player, but as of right now, he's incredibly raw. Perhaps it would help if he played with the first team. At least the bulk of attention would be on the other players.

The other lads performed credibly. There's nothing much to praise or complain about. Johhny Evans and Gerald Pique were formidable as the central defensive pairing. Absolutely nothing got past them in the first half. Both were taken off in the second half. Johhny Evan in particular was outstanding. He certainly looked comfortable with the ball and his positioning was impeccable.

Perhaps the only downside to yesterday's game was the fact that I had to use the same dodgy Thai stream that had failed so miserably during the Inter game. This time the stream lasted a good 70 minutes, when it dropped. The timing was seriously unreal. The goals were scored on the 70th and 90th minutes and I missed them both.

In any case I'm glad to have caught our youngsters in action. I'm going out on a limb and saying that Johnny Evans looks every bit like a future star in the making. It's no wonder Roy Keane is so high on this youngster.

Summer Sale: Smith Sold to Newcastle for £6 Million

We must be really confident of getting Tevez by this weekend. Just a day after letting Rossi leave, we've lost Smith as well. While I'm not overly heartbroken over this latest departure, it still leaves our front line really thin. As of right now, we have Rooney as the only recognised and healthy forward. Ole is out till a much later date and Saha's perpetually unreliable.

The word out there is that Tevez has finally been released, but until he holds up a United jersey flanked by Fergie wrapping his arms around him in a press conference, I'm not jumping the gun. Even if Tevez signs before the weekend, we're still only two strong in the striker's department. I'm frankly not sure he'd be ready for the Charity Shield against Chelsea.

That means we'd possibly be fielding Ronaldo or Giggs along side Rooney. And touch wood nothing happens to of them in the next few friendlies. I'm really not comfortable with the current situation.

Here's a side note that I found rather amusing:
Villareal bought Rossi to replace Forlan,
Atletico Madrid bought Forlan to replace Torres,
Liverpool bought Torres to replace Bellamy,
West Ham bought Bellamy to replace Tevez,
No prizes for guessing who started the musical chairs.

We Need a Left Back.....Badly (Manchester United 2 - Inter Milan 3)

All I can say is that, thankfully, this one's a friendly. Things got off to an ominous start when I had all sorts of trouble finding a reliable feed to watch this game on. In the end I settled for some really crappy Thai feed. It was already bad enough trying to make out the Thai commentary, but things got compounded when the entire feed was lost at half time. Hence I'm only able to review what I saw in the first half.

In front of what looked like a very packed and very vocal Old Trafford crowd, we faced some real competition since the FA Cup finals. Facing Inter was an entirely different prospect from the sub-par opponents we've been playing in Asia in the past month. And it showed.

Our defense was completely and utterly out-played by the Inter forwards. To put it mildly, it was embarassing that this was the best the Premiership had to offer. Rio and Brown were ok, but Vidic and Evra, in particular, were terrible. You would think given the whole Heinze-gate row, Evra would be grabbing the opportunity to seal his position in the left-back spot, instead he totally bungled it.

He was responsible for all three Inter goals (they all happened in the first half when I was watching). For the first goal, Evra failed to cleanly head the ball out of the penalty area allowing Inter to score. His timing to meet the header was horrible, and for a black guy, he didn't seem to get enough lift. In short it was embarassing to see Evra completely botch the defensive header.

For the second goal, Evra was caught in possession which subsequently resulted in the goal.

The third Inter goal was a trademark Evra defensive mistake. He went so far up the opponent's half that he entirely neglected his defensive duties. When Inter attacked, he was literally nowhere to be found. It was easy for Inter to find the open man when the numbers were in their favour.

While Evra was possibly the goat, the entire defense had to take the blame. Brown and Rio were time and time again caught out by Inter's fluid passing. Vidic was a mess, and it didn't help that he had to cover the left back position as well. The guys in front of them, O'Shea and Carrick were rubbish.

The silverlining in all this is that this is still preseason. They can make all the mistakes, but they had better have their heads screwed on the right way in less than a fortnight's time.

Just as our defense is leaky, we're always going to score goals when Ronaldo and Rooney are playing. Along side Giggs and Eagles, we played some amazing one-touch football. The Inter defense worked over-time prevent us from scoring.

Hopefully this game provides a wake up call that we're not going to canter to the finish line this upcoming season. And we need a REAL left back in the worst possible way. I wonder if there is anyway to tempt Denis Irwin out of retirement.....