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.
3 comments:
Hi Spectre,
Nice blog u got here... I constantly check em out for updates. In fact, yours is one of my RSSed sites.
I share your feeling abt the defeat in the League cup as it has been bandied around that our current youths are as good as the Becks' generation. However when the time came for them to show the world what they are made of, they failed big time.
Anyway, to think of it, we cant fairly compare our youths with those from Arse as it has totally different setup. Arse's youths are pitched (or is it stolen) from all over the world, meaning that they are already the creme-de-la-creme in their respective countries. Whereas our youths are mostly made up by those who are either locals or kids within the UK isle.
Well that's my view on the youths issue but eveyone is entitled to their own opinion right?
Hi Eddie,
Pleased to have you around and your opinions are definitely more than welcomed. That's what this space is for....to share our opinions.
I agree that it's not a fair comparision between the Arse set up and ours. The underlying philosophy is different. While the Arse goes about with the carpet bombing approach by getting talent from around the world, we're more content to build a backbone of British players.
But that's not to say that we've not tried getting talent from overseas. Since the 90s, we've tried unsuccessfully to bring in and nuture good young talent from the continent and beyond into our youth setup but for some reason they have failed. Players like Jovan Kirovski, Bojan Djodic, Erik Nevland...and more recently Pique, Dong and Rossi, have all graced our academy. So far none have been able to break into the first team on a regular basis.
Maybe there is something wrong with the system. Or maybe our scouting is all haywired. Hell, it could even be the Glazers (cheap shot). But whatever the case is, I think the management needs to dig deep and assess the situation, coz as it stands, the system just isn't producing.
Should there be a Salary Cap in Football?
Personally I think there should be! It’s just getting to be stupid money in football at the top of the premiership!
It’s always the same teams at the top proving that football success is based purely on money which ruins the idea of it being a sport! They’ve done it in rugby, basketball, hockey and American football and it makes the sports more competitive and better to watch!
I do a little Sports Spread Betting from time to time and most matches don’t hold much surprise who is going to win, its boring! I want to see a team at the bottom pulling off an amazing season beating last seasons winners in a close fought battle!
Make things fair! It shouldn’t be about money!
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