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.....

Boston Celtics : The Fellowship of the Ring

Wow! After reaching the depths of despair last season, the upcoming one is possibly going to be an amazing one.

We lost Red (RIP), DJ (RIP), came in second last in the standings and missed out on Oden and Durant in the lottery. Things, to put simply, just weren't look very bright. Somehow Danny Ainge pulled a rabbit out of the hat and acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to partner Paul Pierce.

I spent the last 72hrs sitting in front of the computer reading the news feeds and message boards, even watching the live telecast of the press conference over the internet....and I have to say it was all worth it. The above trio were just tickled pink at the prospect of playing with each other. After a 20 year wait, the Boston Celtics might just be in the running for banner 17.

Kudos to Danny Ainge for putting this together.

Kudos to Wyc and the owners for putting their money where their mouths are.

These are exciting times.

PS. Pok, the picture above is just for you!

Summer Sale : Rossi Sold To Villarreal

All I have to say is.....what the fuck!

The fee is not disclosed at this point in time. It had better be larger than what Parma offered.

With Ole injured and Saha unfit (what's new?), it could possibly be Rooney and Smith upfront against Reading on the opening day. And that's not even a given, since there is a chance that Smith could very well be gone by then.

Anderson might get a larger role if things go his way. I seriously hope Anderson is worth the price we paid for him. From what little I've seen of Anderson, and what I already know of Rossi, I have a sinking feeling that Rossi's the better player now and in the future.

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Latest Update:
United has Rossi option - I'm feeling slightly better after reading this. Hate to see Rossi go without ever given a real chance. Maybe it is all about the money afterall....