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.