Old Boys Help United Zero in on Title (Everton 2 - Manchester United 4)

This is the stuff made for legends. 2 goals down and a thrilling comeback served up a sweet taste of toffee at Goodison Park.

Speaking of legends, there was a minute's silence to mark the passing of World Cup legend Alan Ball, which was immaculately kept before the start of the game.

Everton started both halves with early goals as United struggled to find their passing game. Despite the injuries faced during the run in and a relentless persue by Chelsea, fatigue is fast becoming our greatest enemy. Our play was sloppy and we failed to make that final pass when it mattered. The players looked like they were wearing weights on their feet for most of the first half.

On the 12th minute, Alan Stubbs thundered a freekick home, albeit with a telling deflection from the unlucky Carrick. It wasn't as if we weren't warned, as Lescott had hit the crossbar from a corner minutes earlier.

Our response was almost non-existent. Although we did dominate the first half, the final pass was always lacking. The Everton defence was sordid and did not allow an inch of space to the invaders in Red.

The second half started disasterously as Manuel Fernandes scored a stunning goal which Van der Sar could only flap at. In all honestly, the strike was so damn good, no keeper in the world could have saved it. 2-0 down and things were not looking good at all. Making matters worse was that Chelsea was leading in their own game against Bolton. Things were indeed looking glim for the men from Manchester. I'm glad I don't own a pet.

Our meek response was to take off the ineffective Evra, replacing him with Richardson in left back. Against a determined Everton side, who are fighting their own battle for a UEFA spot and trailing by 2 goals, it was perhaps better to give Richardson a run out for the midweek Champanions League game against Milan.

While the management probably had throw in the towel with a negative looking substitution, the players never hung their heads. Right on the hour, Iain Turner who has been playing in place of Tim Howard, inexplicably dropped a corner from Giggs, allowing John O'Shea to stab the ball into goal.

After playing like zombies for an hour, United were thrown a life line and my did they grab it like their lives depended on it. On came Ronaldo in place of Smith and the football was flowing. There was a sudden spring in the steps and United pushed forward for the equaliser.

And it came from the most unlikely source. Old boy and goal shy, Phil Neville somehow managed to score, perhaps his most important goal for United during a mad scramble in the penalty box. I hope his Everton teammates wouldn't be to harsh on their captain in the dressing room.

The other old boy, Rooney, completed the comeback in the 79th minute. He dragged the ball wide from the Everton defence and squeezed in the winner between Turner and the far right post.

Chris Eagles, who came on as a late substitute, put the sprinkling on the toffee, curling a superb 4th in injury time.

It was a superb victory given the circumstances and it was made sweeter by the news that Chelsea had drawn against Bolton. 5 points clear and needing 4 points from the next 3 games should see us home free. Surely we can't possibly screw this one up even if we tried...right? I certainly hope not, but we're United, and we've always made things difficult for ourselves, as this game has shown.

Another thing I just want to say here......damn we gotta be one of the most exciting teams to root for. The emotional roller coaster rides that we, United fans, go thru is incredible. And it's been going on and has gone on for quite sometime. My ticky ticker has gone thru some really tough times for almost 27 years, just by watching United play. I swear I'm going to have a heart-attack one of these days before I turn 40. I suppose the point I'm trying to say is that as much as I love the emotional spins we've gone thru the past week or so, gimme a Roma-type, non-nerve wrecking game anytime. Thrashings or boring wins once in a while is good for the heart. I'm sure some of the older fans reading this will understand where I come from.

FA Youth Cup: Kids Edged Out On Spot Kicks

Not much to say here. Our kids squandered a 2-1 first leg lead and allowed Liverpool into the second leg at Old Trafford. Since there were no away goals rule, extra time was required. The game ended 2-2 on aggregate and the more experienced Liverpool team retained their title, beating us on penalties.

I stayed up but could only get radio commentaries off the net. From what I gathered, Liverpool dominated the first half, although United threatened via the counter attacks. My comp went bonkers on me during half time, so I missed the rest of the action (if you're wondering.....yes, it was down for over 2 hours).

Here are some match reports:

Soccernet
Guardian
The Telegraph

ROOONEY!!!!!!! (Manchester United 3 - AC Milan 2)

My god, what a game! Actually it wasn't much of a game.....but what an ending! It's not over, we still have to face Milan at the San Siro, but we're going there with a slender lead.

We started off with a fluke goal by Ronaldo in the opening 5 minutes. He headed a corner right at Dida and it carromed off him upwards and subsequently into the empty net. It was a fluke goal, not that we're complaining here.

Despite going a goal up, Milan looked comfortable. They passed the ball around efficiently and did not panick, slowly building up the play. It was much like when we faced them 2 years ago. They eventually equalised with a superb goal by Kaka in the 22nd minute. He ran past Carrick and Gabby and slotted the ball past Van der Sar to score.

15 minutes later it got worse. Evra who made a 'timely' return to the team in defence, ran into Gabby and exposed Van der Sar to Kaka. Kaka didn't need a second invitation to score his second of the night. Evra has been give a free pass and sometimes generously given a couple of praises in this blog. But on this occasion, he was simply awful! I cringed everytime he got close to the ball, and cringed again when he was making passes to the Italians.

Speaking of awful, the Greek referee was awful as well. He seemed to be doing his darnest to keep United away from Athens next month. He was on a one-man mission to keep his capital safe from the marauding United fans who have been creating 'havoc' in other lands. He booked Evra for a seemingly innocent challenge ruling him out of the second leg. Given our defensive deficiencies, it should have been a great blow, but in the context of today's performance, there couldn't have been a better gift. I rather have Fletcher in defence than Evra screwing it up again. There are some things that you do not leave to chance.

United came out of half time playing like the way they did in the first half....being dictated by a very composed Milan side. To put things simply, there was no movement whenever we got the ball. We passed the ball, but we were not moving. It made defending against us very easy. Needless to say, Kaka should have gotten his hattrick. At this point in time, I had given up on the cause. Damage limitation seemed like a good thing.

Rooney and Scholesy, however, had other ideas. Right on the hour, Scholes flicked a brilliant ball which caught the Milan defence napping and Rooney was on hand to level the scores.

Suddenly the team woke up. They began passing the ball and running into spaces. On a couple of occasions, they put Milan on the backfoot. The Italians, unable to cope against wave after wave of the Red tide pounding on their defensive walls, started to give away freekicks at the edge of the penalty area. Strangely enough, some of the tackles put in were pretty cynical and yet the referee from Greece did not book anyone. Despite the number of freekicks given, Giggs and Ronaldo combined to miss all of them.

Just when all look lost, Giggs threaded a superb pass to Rooney in the box and Rooney unleashed a thunderbolt from a narrow angle into the goal in injury time. It suddenly felt like Gigg's goal against Juve that drew us level at OT in 95!

Like I mentioned, the job's not done yet. We must not let our guard down next week. If we played like anything in the first half, we're doomed. We need to take the game to Milan and let them adjust to our style.

Man of the Match : Rooney. Had he not scored that last minute goal, I would have given it to Fletcher, who was outstanding in midifeld again. He must love playing against the Italians, having done the job against Roma and for Scotland against Italy.

Ronaldo Wins the Double

On a night where Chelsea's nerves didn't hold against a resolute Newcastle team (not something you read very often....'resolute' and 'Newcastle' in the same sentence), Ronaldo scores a double, winning both PFA Player and Young Player awards.

On the injury front, Rio's out for 2 weeks. Given the number of defensive personale out injured, we're down to the bare bones in that department.

All of a sudden, the midweek game against AC does look somewhat daunting. Well, I still hope we stuff them. I have absolutely no respect for AC this season, and even less for UEFA. They are the least deserving team in left in the competition and for a team found guilty of corruption and bribery, they really shouldn't be in it in the first place.

A Red Devil is Born

22nd April at 0328 hrs (quick go buy 4D), a stork flew by Singapore and delivered baby YiBin to the Yong family. A Red Devil is born. Ly is now a proud dad of 2 Red Devils and I'm playing a peripheral role as the godfather who was never there.

Congratulations are in order.

Glory Glory Man United!

Fuckin' Late Kickoff (Manchester United 1 - Middlesbrough 1)

I can't emphasize how fucking irritated I am with our performance in late kickoffs. We were trying to be what Fergie and Giggs had said in midweek....efficient. Unfortunately it all turned out wrong as we tried to play like Chelsea. Now the cushion has almost been completely swept from under our buttocks. Chelsea now holds their own destiny in their hands. All they need to do is to win their remaining premiership games, including the one with us.

The game started brightly for us. Richardson gave us the lead after a superb pass from Scholes and some brilliant running from Rooney in the 3rd minute. Just as Chelsea has been making a habit of scoring late in games, we've been doing the same with early goals.

The difference is when you score late goals, the other hasn't a chance of hitting back. And Boro did just that at the stroke of half time. It was also partly due to Rio hurting his groin again and was practically immobile when Viduka scored the equalizer.

Our tactics after going one goal ahead early was probably to blame as the team took heed from SAR and Giggs suggestions to play 'efficiently'. We allowed Boro plenty of possession and allowed them to come at us. Although until the goal, we had been able to contain Boro somewhat comfortably. We should have gone out and tried to nick a second goal, and play the way that had worked so well for us the entire season. Of course there were other considerations like injuries and more importantly, fatigue, but we should have treated each game like it was a cup final.

SAR rang in the changes at half time bringing on Giggs as an attacking punch and Fetcher to replace the injuried Rio. Yet it was Van der Sar who was called into action, denying both Viduka and Yakubu. Perhaps our first half rhythm had set in and our attacking play just wasn't effective. We could hardly penetrate the last third of the pitch with Boro defending resolutely and hitting us on the counter, a tactic which we made almost exclusively our own throughout the season.

Ole was sent on in a desperate push forward to seek the winning goal with a quarter of the game left, which in fairness to Ole, just wasn't enough. To put things into perspective on how ineffective we were, I don't think Schwarzer was troubled to make a single save in the second half. The tension in the stadium was intense and it probably got to the United players on the pitch.

In the dying minutes, what was a already bad situation almost got worse. John O'Shea brought down a Boro player in injury time and a penalty wasn't given. It could have made a bad day turn really sour.

Despite not winning this game, things aren't dire yet. Just as Chelsea has their destiny in their hands, so do we and it always has been. The only difference is that the margin of error now is minimal. Nerves will play an important part to both teams and how they perform under that pressure will separate the men from the boys.

I don't like the situation we're in, especially after having had a 6 point cushion, but I'll take what we have considering I never gave us a lick of hope at the beginning of the season. And with all the fucking late kickoffs out of the bloody way, the only thing that worries me is facing West Ham in the last game. I believe we probably would draw Chelsea to bring the race down to the wire.

If anyone cares to remember back in 95, we faced West Ham in the last game for the title and a certain Andy Cole missed 7825 shots on goal. We drew that game as Blackburn edged us to the title. Had we won then, the title would have been ours.

More on Late Kickoffs

Alright, we're facing Boro tomorrow in yet another late kickoff. I know our record in late kickoffs hasn't been stellar, well...to put things into perspective, it's been abysmal.

However we've not totally without any sucesses in late kickoffs as slated in my previous post on the subject. Here are the ones which we have won. Not alot, but enough to give hope for tomorrow's game.

1-0 Victory over Spurs on 9th Sept (Sat) 1715 kickoff
1-0 Victory over Blackburn on 11th Nov (Sat) 1715 kickoff
4-0 Victory over Spurs on 4th Feb (Sun) 1600 kickoff

Tomorrow's the last hurdle we have to clear for premiership games with a late kickoff. Let's hope we pass this one with flying colours. I'm personally hoping for yet another penalty to settle this one....just to rub it for all the whining in past fixtures.

Comfortable (Manchester United 2 - Sheffield United 0)

Two early goals, one in each half settled the game. We never really gotten our engine started when Carrick took on a beautiful pass from Ronaldo and lifted it deftly past Kenny in the 3rd minute of the game.

Rob Styles, as usual, was ridiculously inconsistant with his yellow card decisions. For most parts of the first half, he let Sheffied United get away with murder. The tackle on Evra which resulted in his substitution was horrendous. It could have broken a leg, yet Styles let the perpetrator off with a warning.

Smith too got a huge kick in the buttocks and his perpetrator got off with a warning. His shorts was almost ripped off in that tackle. Yet almost comically, Ronaldo's marker Geary was booked for a foul that looked really innocent. I never understand Rob Styles when he referees.

Anyway, early in the second half, Giggs made a sublime pass to Rooney and he swept it into the goal. Sheffield United, quite truthfully, never really looked like threatening our goal. They looked like they spent the entire game in a damage limitation exercise.

After going two goals up, we were also conserving our energy passing the ball around. It wasn't much of a spectacle, just a convincing win. Both sides knew there were more important games to expand their strength in the coming weeks.

Oh, and Rob Styles probably stole the show again in the second half when he denied a penalty to Sheffield United. Their chief striker, Luton Shelton, was blatantly brought down by Heinze, but Styles swallowed his whistle. Shelton's really impressed me. He gave our make-shift central defenders, Heinze and Brown a torrid time whenever he had the ball. Thankfully there weren't many opportunities for him to get the ball.

We've put the pressure back on Chelsea who faces relegation threatened West Ham tomorrow. Let's hope West Ham are desperate enough to make a fight out of it. It would be really sweet if they could do what they did to us to Chelsea.

And in the weekend, we face Boro in another late kickoff. Let's hope we fare better this time round.

FA Youth Cup
We beat Liverpool at Anfield 2-1. Couldn't catch the game yesterday. No torrents available either, so it kinda sucks all round.

PFA Awards
Ronaldo, Giggs and Scholes are in contention for the main award and Rooney and Ronaldo are in for the young player award. Quite frankly this year's awards are farcical at best.

I can't freaking believe Gerrard and Fabregas were even nominated. Gerrard isn't even the best player for Liverpool this season, and Fabregas was much better last season. Not to mention it's a travesty that Michael Essien isn't even nominated. And I haven't even mentioned players like Berbatov or Carragher, who have been outstanding for their respective clubs.

And don't even get me started on the young player award. Kevin Doyle!?!?!??! I would expect someone nominated in this category to be at least 21 or younger at the start of the season. I just don't get it.

FWIW, Ronaldo should sweep both awards. It's not a given, although the voting is done by fellow professionals, and they ain't exactly rocket scientists either. But I'm not expecting any surprises here.

We're Going To Wembley! (Manchester United 4 - Watford 1)

On paper it was David vs Goliath and the scoreline suggested so, but in truth for 67 minutes, Watford gave us a harder time than we had expected. What they lacked in quality, they made up with endeavor and determination.

Rooney belted in a stunner in the 6th minute and it looked like United would run away with the game. We were comfortably in control and threatening to score more while not even getting into second gear. Then Edwin Van der Sar probably broke his nose again, and after a lengthy treatment, Watford took advantage of our confusion and equalised thru Hamuer Bouazza's beautiful bicycle kick.

But their joy was shortlived when Ronaldo celebrated his new contract by popping up to put United back in the lead in the 28th minute. Parity was broken only 2 minutes after it was achieved. However brave Watford did not hang their heads down. They came at United with vigor and perseverance. An injury to Rio resulting in us reshuffling our backline, gave them more hope.

Cream has a way of rising to the top and on the 66th minute, Rooney scored his second of the night to effectively put an end to Watford's night. Up to this point, it was a tough fought game, and we had a hard time controlling the game, only relying on swift counter attacks.

With the cup tie firmly in our grasp, the rest of the night was spent by the players trying to get Rooney his hattrick. Richardson did eventually add to the scoreline in the 82nd minute with a delightful goal. It probably could and should have been more if Ole and Smith didn't only have eyes for Rooney.

In any case, the scoreline reflected the gulf in quality between the sides. We're going to Wembley for our third FA Cup finals in four years, quite an achievement.

Couple of things to note in the game:
1. Evra started in right back and was later slotted back to his usual left back. He looked terribly uncomfortable in right back.
2. Heinze started in left back and was moved to central defence to pair up with Wes Brown after Rio left injuried.
3. Fletcher came on as a substitute and played in right back. He had a pretty credible game there. Let's hope Fergie doesn't get any weird ideas playing him there long term.
4. Alan Smith was awesome today. He's probably my personal man of the match today. Some of his passes was pretty darn good.
5. Carrick is beginning to grow on me. He started off as Mr Invisible, then progressed to Neil Webb status, and now he's pretty much no longer my whipping boy here. That's quite an achievement in less than one season.
6. Off the ball movement was pretty awesome. If we can keep this up, we're going to out-score alot of the teams we're going to play in the next couple of weeks.
7. Injuries are hitting us hard and fast. As much as I dislike Rio, I hope his injury isn't too serious. Ditto Van der Sar. The squad is thin enough as it is.

Time to Put Ronaldo Rumours to Rest

Official word from ManUtd.com is that Ronaldo has agreed to the new terms of his contract. It's time to stop with all the Ronaldo to Real Madrid rumours, which quite frankly has been getting really really anal for sometime now.

It's AC Milan in the Semis

We're facing AC Milan in the semi finals of the Champions League. They just beat Bayern Munich 2-0.

Just a couple of comments:

Owen Hargreaves
I used to be unsure about Owen Hargreaves, but now I'm dead sure I don't want him in Red. Except for a couple of good appearances for England (not hard considering the crap that plays for them), I see absolutely nothing special. At least for Carrick, he's a good player, it's the price tag that makes you cringe. There isn't anything in particular about Hargreaves that makes him special, and there sure isn't anything about him that would make him worth anything over a couple million pounds. Can't pass, can't tackle, can't shoot. I can't believe I actually stayed up and watched both legs, hoping to see something worth raving about.

If anything, Mark Van Bommel looked like a star in the Bayern midfield. And he's got the fire in the belly.

The Game
1. Bayern couldn't buy a break. Every decision seemed to go against the home team.
2. AC players just couldn't get booked. No matter what they did, the referee simply wouldn't book them. Disgusting!
3. Obscene time wasting by the Italians. What's new?
4. Ferguson was at the game scouting our opponents. I hope he was taking notes about Hargreaves too.
5. The Italian defence is ancient. We should be able to unleash Ronaldo and Rooney on them.

Match Reports

Here are the match reports from the professionals:

Guardian - Seven wonders of sublime United dazzle and destroy helpless Roma
Independent - Carrick conducts unforgettable night at the Theatre of Dreams
The Times - Giggs provides inspiration for United to reach seventh heaven
Telegraph - Seventh heaven in Theatre of Dreams
The Sun - NOW that was Ultra, Ultra special!
The Mirror - MAN UTD 7- 1 ROMA

The Semis
Let's calm down and put some things into perspective. If we win the semis, we better fucking win the cup, no excuses. The reason being, the other finalist will either be Chelsea or Liverpool. I probably can't stomach losing a finals to either side, especially the grannystabbers.

So if the football gods have already decided that we wouldn't be winning, then I want to go out in the semis and play 'what if' all day long. Ideally, winning it all would be best and I should not be harbouring this loser's mentality.....but take some time off, sit down and imagine the humiliation of the scousers beating us in the finals. I don't know about the rest of you, but kopi sessions with the guys ain't going to be the same for the next 5 years. I can't imagine anyone who has lived thru the 80s supporting United would disagree.

Magnificent Seven (Manchester United 7 - Roma 1)

If you are seeing the scoreline here for the first time...yes it's SEVEN, and your eyes are not deceiving you. I'm personally finding it hard to believe the scoreline myself. I spent much of the half time break pinching myself.

After a dismal week and in danger of it getting worse, United cooked up a feast for the fans. My word, what a game. Words can't really discribe what a magnificent performance it was, they really can't. I'm glad I got to watch it with Kentona over the handphone, staring at our respective computers (btw, Kentona, I'm sending you my hp bill to you next month).

I wouldn't even try to put into words the game, it wouldn't do the performance any justice. If you haven't caught the game, go learn how to use bittorrent and torrent it at mininova.

All I can say is that every single one of the players on the pitch was brilliant. And every one of the goals scored was spectacular, each one better than it's predecessor, including the sole consolation by Roma. Once the floodgates opened in the 11th minute, the goals just kept on flowing.

By half time we were 4-0 up and the scoring continued in the second half. By the hour mark, the referee should have spared Roma the cruelty of playing out the game. United were utterly utterly awesome in every department and could've been in double digits by then.

I'd just keep it simple and post the scorers here:
Michael Carrick (11)
Alan Smith (17)
Wayne Rooney (19)
Cristiano Ronaldo (44)
Cristiano Ronaldo (49)
Michael Carrick (60)
Patrice Evra (81)

Most notably amongst the 14 men who took the pitch, one stood out as the Man of the Match....Darren Fletcher. He was outstanding beside Carrick, stopping every Roma attack at it's root. Carrick (my favourite whipping boy) was superb as well, scoring 2 incredible goals.

I'm still in a daze over what I just saw. This is probably the most dominant I've seen United play in Europe. Probably not the most exciting, but by far the most dominant. Bring on AC Milan/Bayern Munich.

Curse of Late Kickoffs (Portsmouth 2 - Manchester United 1)

The cushion which we've been sitting so comfortably on has just gotten significantly harder. Chelsea beating Spurs (seriously, who couldn't see that coming!) and us losing to Portsmouth has cut our lead in the table to just 3 points with 6 games to go. It's still a commanding lead, especially when you factor in our superior goal difference.

It's just a minor road bump on our journey to wrestle the title from Chelsea. As long as there are no major road blocks in the form of late kickoffs, we should do fine. If at the start of the season, given the option to be in this position, I would gladly grab it with both hands. That's how far we've come, and I doubt neither the players, the management team nor the fans will willingly let this one go, especially not since we've worked so hard to come this far.

As for the game, all I can say is that Portsmouth played well, we looked tired and were undone by individual errors. None more glaring than from our stand-in captain Rio and our keeper Van der Sar.

The game was played at a franatical pace right at kickoff and neither side really got a hold of the game in the first half. This, of course, didn't help our cause since we never got into our rhythm. Both teams were guilty of giving away possession under pressure from the opposite side, but Portsmouth made theirs count. On the half hour, Richardson conceded possession and Benjani took a pot shot at goal. Van der Sar parried the ball straight in front of him and Matthew Taylor, my favourite Portsmouth player, got in front of Rio and knocked in the rebound.

Kinda hard to find fault when 3 of our players were involved in the boo-boo. They were:
1. Richardson for gaving away possession in a dangerous area.
2. VDS for parrying the ball in front of him. I'm sure in goalkeeping 101, you're taught to parry the ball to the side if you can't hold it.
3. Rio for standing rooted to the ground and allowing Taylor to get in front of him to score.

We were poor and rattled by the goal. In the second half, we were significantly better and piled up the pressure on the Portsmouth goal. Unfortunately, the final ball was always found wanting. When we did get it right, David James was in outstanding form. A couple of saves he made were simply marvelous, leaving Kentona and I rooted to our seats wondering in amazement how he kept them out.

With 2 minutes left to go in regulation time, our stand-in captain decided to make our task doubly difficult. In a moment of sheer madness and lack of communication between defender and keeper, Rio and EVS somehow made a goal out of a seemingly innoculous backpass. It was an epic comedy of errors, which no United fan could find joy in. It was horrible defending and equally horrible goalkeeping. I couldn't believe how Rio could make a backpass like that without even looking up to see where his keeper was. I was equally shocked at EVS for coming off his line when there was absolutely no reason to.

Credit to the lads, they never once held their heads down and carried on plugging away. Although time was running down, they did manage to pull one back, albeit too little too late. Ole's shot was spilled by James and O'Shea was on hand to poke in the rebound.

As Kentona noted to me, Rooney was particularly disappointing. In the run up to our injury time goal, Rooney ran up to the referee to complain about something when he should be focusing on the game. It's a part of his game he must get rid off. The constant whining when decision do not go his way must stop. Ronaldo has learnt it, and now Rooney must learn it if he's going to be of any use, especially when the chips are down. If he cannot concentrate for the good of the team, then he's useless to us in such circumstances, no matter what a brilliant player he is.

Oh, and last but not least, PLEASE NO MORE CAPTAIN'S ARMBAND FOR RIO EVER!!!!!

Why Late Kickoffs Scare Me

As for tonight's game, I don't really have a good feeling about it. I've just checked the achives and all the games which we've dropped points have come from late kickoffs.

1-0 Loss to Arsenal on 17th Sept (Sun) 1600 kickoff
1-1 Draw to Reading on 23rd Sept (Sat) 1715 kickoff
1-1 Draw to Chelsea on 26th Nov (Sun) 1600 kickoff
1-0 Loss to West Ham on 17th Dec (Sun) 1600 kickoff
2-2 Draw to Newcastle on 1st Jan (Mon) 1715 kickoff (New Years Day)
2-1 Loss to Arsenal on 21st Jan (Sun) 1600 kickoff

As you can see, every single one of those 6 games which we have dropped points this season has come from late kickoffs. I'm sure there are exceptions to the rule, since I didn't check the time of every single fixture. We could've pulled off some wins from late kickoffs, but given the damning statistics, I'm not too sure about tonight's games. FWIW, I'm keeping my fingers crossed tonight when I'm at Cow's place watching the game.

Roma Aftermath II

So many reports out there in the past 2 days. I'm only going to put up those that are interesting to me.

Times - United Left in State of Shock by Praise for Rome Police
Times - United Fans Pay in Blood for Italy's 'Loose Dogs'
SportingLife - UEFA Expected to Take Toughline
Mirror - Ex-Liverpool Sta's Take on Violence in Rome
Telegraph - Police Exposed as Guilty Party
Telegraph - UEFA Plans 'Sports Police'

Meanwhile in the EPL:

Fergie Rages over Chelsea's Early kickoff - I'm kinda surprised Spurs get so little time off, but I'm not surprised by the decision. Wasn't it just last week that Moanrinho complained about playing catch up to United cause they always played catch up after United has played? Looks like the FA not only gave in to his request, but added a little something by presenting a tired Spurs side.

Battle of Rome Aftermath

News Reports:

Soccernet - United Fans Hospitalised
Soccernet - Frisk Report
Telegraph - Fans Clash with Riot Police
The Sun - 'Brute' Cops Beat Man U Fans
MEN - Fans Account
Guardian - UEFA Launches Probe
Guardian - United Condemns Police 'Over-reaction'
Football365 - Fans Group Fears Fatality

It's a shame it all comes down to this. The scenes I saw on TV were shameful and frankly doesn't bold well for all parties involved. The beatings were brute and seemed rather excessive. While the incident is being investigated, I'm sure UEFA will have to come down hard on both sides, especially since our fans were also involved in a similar incident in France in the last round. As the saying goes, 'there's no smoke without fire'. Twice in as many rounds kinda throws the innocent plea out of the window.

South Park: The Best Season Yet!

I swear on the 'cross' that this is the best season of South Park yet! Serious guys, you guys gotta find some way to download this show.

This week didn't feature Cartman much but they brought Jesus back....afterall what a better time to resurrect Jesus than the Easter period? Trey and Matt....you guys are pure geniuses!

Thank god for the long weekend, I'd be watching this season all over again.

Scholes' Moment of Madness Costs United (Roma 2 - Manchester United 1)

The bad news is that we lost the game, and lost Scholes for the second leg. The good news is that we're still in with a shout. Given the circumstances, we were lucky to come away from this fixture with an away goal and only one goal down.

Roma were by far the better team right from the go get. They were inventive and vibrant, often catching our make-shift defence off guard. Even with 11 men on the pitch, it was just a matter of time before Roma scored. They were that much hungrier.

Of course the turning point happened when Scholes was booked a second time in the 33th minute, and was sent off. Already playing badly, it just made things so much worst for United. To be fair, Scholes was utterly horrendous in his tackles today. Hard the referee been much stricter, he should have gone for an earlier shower. His timing today was just so off that it was painful to watch.

Roma scored right at the break, making their man advantage count. To be honest, given the way Roma approached the game, they deserved it. It didn't matter if we had the full complement on the pitch. They simply outplayed us in every department.

Th second half was more of the same. Then right on the hour mark, Ronaldo took the ball from our half, dribbled past a couple of Roma players and fed the ball to Ole on the right edge of the Roma penalty area. A peek up, and a delightful cross found Rooney on the other side of the area. And all that was left to do was to shoot the ball past the keeper which Rooney did with both power and precision. It was a magificient goal. Counter-attack at it's best.

Much has been said about Rooney's and Ronaldo's lack of goals in Europe. While Rooney has answered his critics somewhat, I don't really give a shit what they say about Ronaldo. He has learnt to create for his teammates. There's absolutely no doubts in my mind that he's the best player on the planet, bar none.

Our equaliser stunned the Rome crowd into silence, but the parity was shortlived. 7 minutes later, Roma edged into the lead again. Again, nothing more than they deserved. A long goal-bound shot was parried weakly by Van der Sar into the path of Roma substitute Vucinic, who shot home the rebound. It wasn't an easy shot, but he did it with such class.

For the rest of the game, we were constantly under seige but somehow managed to keep the scoreline manageable for the second leg. At least we managed to dig deep after the piss poor showing in the first half to make a game out of it in the second.

We need to win the second leg and keep a clean sheet at OT. If we play anything like we did today, you can be sure we're going to make our exit from the Champions League.....which quite frankly isn't such a bad thing. Given the fixture congestion and the fact we're been piss poor in Europe anyway, it could very well be a good kick up our collective backsides.

The best teams in Europe impose their will and style in the games they play. We're obviously not anything near there yet. Our performances in Europe have been tame so far, and there's a clear sign from the management team that they do not trust the players to play the way we do in the EPL. How many times have we seen a tactical change in our style of play when we play European games in the past few years? Until we do stick with our style of play, it's going to take a momentous effort to lift the trophy again. Personally I'm hoping it would be this season given the route we've been shown, but hope and reality are poles apart here. That being said, I've my ketchup and chilli sauces on standby to eat some serious crow.

Talking Points:

• Crowd trouble at half time. There were some horrible scene of the Italian police using batons on United fans. Not too sure what exactly happened, except the unsavoury scenes happened right after Roma scored their first goal. My guesss is that there was a clash between the fans that got out of hand.
• Offical protest by United against the first Roma goal. Apparently when the corner was taken, prior to the goal, there was another ball on the pitch. Having seen the replay, it was really much ado over nothing. A weak protest at best.
• Hero at the weekend, zero today. Scholes really needs to stop thinking he's Keano. Some of the challeges out there were obscene. I'm glad the referee took him out. He was giving away freekicks at the edge of the area, and it would have been a matter of time before Roma actually made one count, having come close.
  

Youth In Finals

As mentioned in my typo-ridden last post (didn't have time to proof read), we fought back and made it to the FA Youth Cup finals. Here's a couple of match reports:

United Beats Arsenal
Comeback Kids in Final

In other news:

Reds Warn Ronaldo Suitors - I'm going to have to agree with Bobby Charlton on this. It's getting abit outta hand, and very tedious to live with. Everytime one of the Spanish giants has an election, the same shit gets splattered around. I'm sure the Arsenal fans are sick of it as well, having Henry linked with all the crap last season. I'm sure a large part of it has to do with the xenophobic English media as well.

McCarthys Plea - If he's willing to take a backseat I'd be glad to welcome him with open arms. I've always loved having players who bleed Red. Reminds me of guys like Djemba Djemba and Quinton Fortune, who were boyhood United fans. That being said, Djemba Djemba was actually pretty crap whenever he donned a United jersery, but I always tended to give him a free pass. Love and passion for the club is something that cannot be bought.

Just to add on to this article, Gary Bailey (ex-United keeper in the early 80s) probably played a large part in the huge following of United in South Africa....well actually the EPL to be exact.

Villa Dreams of Final With United - He's being linked heavily to Chelsea and I'm sure he's not winning over many fans by saying the things he said. Strangely enough I was talking to Ly last Monday, and he mentioned catching a Champions League review and David Villa was being featured. In the interview he was gushing over United's level of play this season. Sounds like someone who knows what he's talking about....ahem....;o)

Beat Roma

I have no love for Italian soccer even though their national team happens to be one of my favourites, along with the Dutch and Argentina. Then again, I usually bore no insane hatred towards their style of soccer in their domestic league, even though it usually bores my socks off. However this article in the Sun happens to rub me the wrong way. I'm sure it's creative journalism from a well known tabloid, and should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt, but nonetheless, I hope we stick it to Totti anyway. Beat Roma!

In other news:

Vidic Has Broken Collarbone - Nothing new here, just a confirmation he broke his collarbone and out for 4-5 weeks.

Saha Aims to 'Finish the Job' - Good to know Saha's returning to fitness. I like Saha, I really do, but given the fact he's always been injury-prone, I think we should really be shopping for a strike in the summer....ahem Carlos Tevez anyone?

Just for Laughs:

Title At Shitty? - A case of counting our chickens, but if we do indeed win it at the City of Manchester Stadium, wouldn't that just be great? Somehow City of Manchester Stadium doesn't resonate as well as Maine Road.

Blatter Get's Third Term - Yes, we're in for another rough ride with silly comments from the top honcho of world football.

FA Youth Cup
Last but not least, we beat Arsenal in the youth cup semis. Arsenal were by far the better team, but our team showed plenty of grit and determination to claw our way back to level the score and bring the game into extra time. And with penalties looming, we beat a much superior Arsenal team to face Liverpool in the finals. I can't say I'm more than pleasently surprised, having given up on them based on what I've seen of them this season.