Poor Loss In Germany

Bayern Munich 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Bayern Munich: Ribery (76), Olic (90)
Manchester United: Rooney (1)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Scholes, Carrick (Valencia 70), Fletcher, Park (Berbatov 70), Nani (Giggs 82), Rooney

That was really a terrible showing. Had it not been for Van der Sar, the tie would have been dead and buried. And that's despite taking a super early lead. To make matter worse, Rooney was practically carried off the pitch at full time. The extend and cause of the injury is still unknown as of now.

It all started so brightly, perhaps too brightly. Rooney was once again the scorer right in the first minute from a Nani freekick. We were coming on strong and it looked like yet another European victory away from home. But the team settled and allowed Bayern come in droves. Their finishing was thankfully terrible throughout the first half.

The second half was more of the same from Bayern. This time it was Van der Sar who proved to the saviour, making save after save. We were frankly rather poor all over the pitch. We kept giving the ball away and against an opponent like Bayern, it was just a matter of time before their got their act together.

It was Neville who was the guilty party for Bayern's leveller. An incredibly stupid handball gave Bayern a dangerous freekick. Ribery's effort was heavily deflected off the wall and it wrongfooted Van der Sar.

Vidic could have restored the lead but his header smashed off the crossbar. At the other end, Van der Sar performed miracles, making an excellent save from Mario Gomez.

Once again it was a lapse in defense that was our undoing. In the dying seconds, Evra got robbed with the ball under his feet and Olic coolly scored giving Bayern a narrow first leg lead.

It was a poor poor performance all around. With the exception of Van der Sar, everyone was terrible. Our inability to hold on to the ball cost us dearly tonight. Tactically, I thought Ferguson bungled it too. It would probably have been better to keep the same lineup against AC Milan at the San Siro. Having Nani and Valencia on either wing and Park in the centre would probably been more effective.

Nevertheless, as poor as the result is, it's not insurmountable. We're only down one goal, and we have the away goal. A victory at Old Trafford in 8 days time would suffice.

Let's just hope the lads can pick themselves up from this loss going into the big game on Saturday. More importantly, let's hope Rooney is alright. The season rests on his shoulders.

That Was Quite Brilliant

Bolton 0 - Manchester United 4
Scorers
Manchester United: Samuel (og 38), Berbatov (69, 78), Gibson (82)

Team: Van der Sar, Evans, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Fletcher (Gibson 81), Scholes (Carrick 74), Nani, Valencia, Giggs (Macheda 85), Berbatov

We survived a poor first half to thump Bolton comprehensively in the second. The first half hour or so was nervy to say the least. Bolton gave us a run for our money. For a moment there, we looked lost without Rooney in the lineup. Berbatov didn't look comfortable leading the line, and his partner upfront, Giggs, was doing his Carrick impression on us.

Bolton, on the other hand, was playing some inspired football. Their set-pieces caused mayhem in the box, and some desperate cum brilliant defending from Vidic kept the scores level.

As it has been all season, without our most influential player on the pitch, our second best player delivered the goods. In the 38th minute, Giggs found himself alone on the left side of the pitch and his cross was met by Bolton defender Samuel. Instead of clearing the ball, Samuel inexplicably passed it into his own net while under no pressure. As far as our healthy collection of own goals go this season, this has to rank right up there as one of the strangest ones yet.

Through no inspiration of our own, we undeservedly went up one. And we nearly let that slip immediately. Muamba should've levelled the scores after some good ball control and his superb effort was matched by Van der Sar's magnificent save. That save probably changed the entire complexion of the game.

In the second half, United emerged an entire different monster. Right from the off, United almost doubled their lead, but Berbatov slipped at the last moment with the entire goal at his disposal after playing some eye-popping passes with Fletcher.

We controlled the game and gave Bolton little to work around. Fletcher and Scholes were the kingpins in the middle of the park, while Nani and Valencia were giving the Bolton defenders fits. The cushion of the second goal came much later in the game at the 69th minute. Jaaskelianen could only parry Fletcher's shot onto the path of Berbatov, who gleefully prodded it into the net.

10 minutes later, Berbatov added a second. Nani was absolutely fantastic, turning Ricketts inside out, before crossing/passing the ball to Berbatov. Berbatov's nonchalantly flicked the ball into the net while everyone in a Bolton shirt stood rooted to the ground, mesmerized by the trickery displayed by Nani.

Our fourth was much of the same, with Nani, once again, the tormentor of Ricketts. This time his pass found Gibson. Gibson's response was less sublime than Berbatov's, but the result was equally emphatic. Gibson's rasping shot was tipped onto the crossbar and into the net, giving us a 4-goal victory.

I have to say this result was a bit of a shock to me (in a good way). I was expecting a tough game without Rooney, and in a way it was. The first half was labored and we honestly never looked like scoring, bar that incredible own goal. But the second half was a thing of beauty. Everything came together, and we played some really impressive football, especially both our wingers.

Let's hope Rooney is fit for the midweek game against Bayern Munich. Then we have the all important game against Chelsea on Saturday, which could very well be the title decider.

United Grabs Pole Position

Manchester United 2 - Liverpool 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 12), Park (60)
Liverpool: Torres (4)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville, Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Park (Scholes 87), Nani (Giggs 79), Valencia, Rooney

There are Premiership games, there are Cup games, and then there are Liverpool games. Playing Liverpool always brings up a special atmosphere, especially when watching with the right crowd. Today I caught it with my 'special friend', Kentona and Greg O, along with 3 other buddies on the other side of the red divide.

Things didn't start off on the right foot on our side of the divide. Torres capitalized on some woeful defending and got Liverpool a shock lead at Old Trafford. It looked like deja vu as another collapse against our fierce rivals looked set for another victory.

As much as we on the good side of Red, want Benitez to remain a closet United supporter, the points were way too precious to squander in a tight race to the summit of the Premiership with Arsenal and Chelsea being too close for comfort.

Our response was swift, incisive and determined. Valencia bulldozed his way into the Liverpool penal box and was crudely brought down to earth by a clumsy Mascherano challenge. The referee had no choice but to award a penalty. Rooney's penalty was saved by superbly by Reina but he was the first to pounce on the rebound to bring United level.

Despite their recent resurgence, Liverpool was desperately poor. We kept Torres and Gerrard at bay for most of the game. In the second half, Park brought the house down with a bullet header from Fletcher's rightside cross. It was nothing more than we deserved. We had been knocking on the door and finally found a breakthru with Park's superb effort.

The rest of the game was played out professionally with neither side able to add on to the scoreline. The 3 points leapfrogged us above Arsenal and as an added bonus, Chelsea could only manage draw against Blackburn, leaving them 4 points behind us.

We hold our destiny firmly in our hands, and barring any fuckups, we could really have a better than realistic chance of doing a 4-peat. Our run-in isn't exactly a walk in the park, but if Rooney continues his fine form till the end of the season, we could just ride him to the promised land.

It's Rooney Again!

Manchester United 3 - Fulham 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (46, 84), Berbatov (90)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Fabio 87), Evra, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Valencia (Park 73), Berbatov, Rooney

I'm still suffering from a borderline headache from a little too much to drink after the game. Had a mini-boys-nightout thingy with a couple of United fans, namely Kentona and Greg O, and a couple of Liverpool fans. So with a slight pounding echoing within my skull, I'll just try to make this one short and sweet so I can catch a nap and sleep it off.

Just where would we be without Rooney? 32 goals after tonight and counting. It was an awesome show of scoring prowess and instinct, to take us back to the top of the table again, against a resolute Fulham team.

The first half drew a blank, but not from a lack of effort from our part. Fulham is an organized side and they frustrated our efforts in the first 45 minutes. The second half, however, was a different story. That man, Rooney, showed up and scored an instinctive strike right from the kickoff to give us the lead and the game. You knew once we went ahead, the game was effectively over.

Fulham had their chances but Rio and Vidic, in particular, was in sparkling form. There was one incident where Zamora was one-on-one with Van der Sar, but Vidic came from no man's land and tackled the ball away. It was just incredible work by our large Serb, showing signs he's back to his best after a long layoff.

Rooney added a second late in the game and Berbatov sealed the victory with a header. It was a well deserved victory over a stubborn team that refused to lie dead.

Off the pitch, our little nights' out produced mixed results. Kentona played a bore draw, while Greg O scored a double hattrick. I had a forgettable night, where the only highlight was that United won. Well, you win some, you lose some and the big one's next week against Liverpool. We've already planned to watch it together with some of our Liverpool loving friends and lots of beer to drown ourselves in sorrow or euphoria. Either way, next week's review/thoughts will come much later and going by this weekend's experience, it might not even come at all.

Rooney Leads Milan Route

Manchester United 4 - AC Milan 0
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (13, 46), Park (59), Fletcher (87)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Nevilla (Rafael 66), Evra, Scholes (Gibson 73), Fletcher, Park, Valencia, Nani, Rooney (Berbatov 66)

If the last result at the San Siro was epic, this one was even better. Milan needed to score two goals to overturn the deficit from the first leg and early in the game came strongly at us. Much like the first leg, we endured a fast and frantic open few minutes before calming down considerably. And much against the run of play, Neville crossed a superb ball and Rooney headed in his third header against Milan.

Milan were stunned and shocked into submission. With a mountain to climb, their early enthusiasm fizzled out and we began to control the game with Scholes and Fletcher running the show in midfield.

Any signs of Milan making a miracle comeback was completely dashed when Nani flicked an exquisite ball with the outside of the foot to the on rushing Rooney to give us a 2-goal advantage early in the second half. Milan were truely dead and buried.

Shortly after, Park added a third after Scholes had put him thru. Milan's response was a classy one. Leonardo brought Beckham on to the loud applause of the Old Trafford crowd. It provided an entertaining sideshow from the main event which was effectively over.

Sideshow Beckham almost scored a scorcher of a goal when he connected beautifully with the ball. It would have brought the roof down, but it went straight at Van der Sar. Instead it was Fletcher, the man who replaced Beckham on the right flank when he departed, that got on the score sheet instead. He dived and met Rafael's cross, making it an emphatic scoreline for the men in red.

The early goal did wonders to our confidence. Once we had established ourselves in the game, we were bossing proceedings. Milan had no answer to Rooney and Park. There were times in the second half that we looked like toying with Milan. If we wanted, we could have really made Milan look very bad. Instead, we spent most of the time murking around with Nani and Valencia wasting possession, but no blame attached to them as the game was handily won. Under such circumstances, the lads were allowed to have a bit of fun. As a fan watching the game, I was certainly entertained.

At the back, Rio and Vidic once again reminded everyone just what a good partnership and understanding they have. Together with Van der Sar, it formed a solid solid backline that could very well win us both the league title and with a considerable amount of luck, the Champions League as well.

Scholes' Century Sends United Back Top

Wolves 0 - Manchester United 1
Scorer
Manchester United: Scholes (71)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Brown (Neville 45), Evra, Carrick, Scholes, Gibson (Diouf 61), Nani (Park 74), Valencia, Berbatov

Aren't we lucky to have Scholes on our side? Our play today was simply rubbish. Ferguson opted to rest a few players and our play was affected as a result. The good thing was that the gamble paid off when Scholes kept his composure and scored at a time when the game looked like it was going to be a dull draw.

Things off the pitch didn't help matters much either. As everyone should know by now, Owen's hamstring problem has ruled him out for the season. Rooney's probably being saved for the midweek clash against the Italian giants AC Milan, despite officially ruled out with some knee problems. And the Glazers have come out with guns blazing, firmly confirming their rule over our club, and rejecting outright all overtures from unwelcome bidders. So as you can see, things don't seem that rosy afterall. At least we're top of the table albeit until Chelsea plays their game in hand.

And speaking of Chelsea, after they were hammered by our 'friendly' neighbours, Shitty, the FA decided to level the playing field by sending in their thug referee, Peter Walton. If you all recall, he was the same arse who engineered our draw against Villa some weeks back. It wasn't as blatant as that other game, but Walton somehow managed to get in the way of our players as we were countering, not once, not twice, but a whooping three times! He's positioning was simple questionable to be extremely polite.

Yet, as much as I would love to play the blame game, we're our own worst enemies for much of the game. We lacked energy and thrust, something Rooney would have provided in abundance. Recently we're been dancing to the tune of Rooney's flute and without him on the pitch, we honestly never looked like scoring. Berbatov leading the frontline alone is painful to watch. He lacks the speed when we go on the counters, and when he perceives that the players around him are not running to where he wants them to, or make the passes he requires, he openly shows his frustration and displeasure. It brings the morale of the affected player down. In short, as brilliant as he can be on occasion, he's also equally disruptive to the term harmony on the pitch. It's a little like having Ronaldo back, but at least Ronaldo is so effective that we mostly tend to overlook his little tantrums.

Additional observations:
- My word, Diouf looked terrible today. He had a couple of chances to really put the game away, but missed terribly on both occasions. It's probably still early to pass judgement on him, but it's really not looking good when he misses chances that I'd probably be able to put in.

- When we take the foot off the paddle, we REALLY take the foot off the paddle. Wolves could have and really should have punished us, not once but freaking twice in injury time. The team needs to be able to concentrate for, not only the full 90 minutes, when whatever the referee and his cronies add on. This period used to be owned by us, and today we were nearly shown our own medicine.

- Just wanna make a comment on the Red Knights, we've all be reading about in the news. Where is the money to buy out the Glazers coming from? It's a helluva lot of money. Pardon me for being skeptical, but after spending all that money, the club's coming back to us? I don't get it, I really don't. Are there people out there who are really so generous? And what's going to happen when it comes back to us, supporters? We get to vote like how they do with Barcelona and that circus of a club, Real Madrid? Wouldn't that mean a turnstile charade of managers when things don't go right? Don't get me wrong, I'm terribly cynical of Ferguson's decisions, but at the end of the day, I'm glad he's making them instead of some blogger who really knows nuts. All I know right now is that the situation is not ideal when the club being saddled in ridiculous debts, yet I'm not sure I'm inclined to like the alternative either. In short, I'm just clueless and maybe I should just shut my mouth and let the powers that be do what they do best.

United Retains The Carling Cup

Aston Villa 1 - Manchester United 3
Scorers
Aston Villa: Milner (pen 4)
Manchester United: Owen (12), Rooney (74)

Team: Kuszczak, Vidic, Evans, Rafael (Neville 66), Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Park (Gibson 86), Valencia, Berbatov, Owen (42)

Pretty good game. We conceded early again to Villa for the third time this season, but made a remarkable recovery by winning the game.

Vidic's foul in the 3rd minute on Agbonlahor resulted in a coolly taken penalty by Milner. Villa started brilliantly and were looking really up for the big cup final. Yet against the run of play, Richard Dunne make an uncharacteristic mistake and got robbed by Berbatov in a dangerous position. A desperate tackle left the ball landing at Owen's feet and he fired home the equalizer, setting up an even contest between the two finalists.

No doubts Villa started the stronger of the two teams, but as the game wore on, we slowly began to stamp our authority and the chances began to fall our way. Park could very well have given us the lead before the break, but struck the post. Owen then pulled his troublesome hamstring and had to be replaced by Rooney.

The second half began the way the first ended, with us in total control. There were chances aplenty, but we failed to capitalize. Eventually the hard running on the heavy Wembley surface took it's toil on Rafael and he too was substituted before his time.

Just as it looked like we could be going for yet another extra time and penalty shoot-out in another cup final, enter Rooney. He met Valencia's cross superbly, and his header flew beyond a backpeddling Friedel. It was quite brilliantly done by a man on a mission.

Moments later, he nearly added another to his ever growing tally of headers, but as he was reeling off to celebrate, the powerfully struck effort hit the post instead.

We spent the remainder of the time playing keep ball or trying to hit Villa on the counter. Eventually the final whistle blew and we retained the League Cup.

Just a couple of notes:
- Evra's the captain? You would think the captain of Scotland would be wearing the armband in the absence of the regulars. Kinda strange decision here, but I'm not complaining.

- Everyone ran their socks off. Everyone was simply brilliant, with the little exception of Carrick in the first half. He was terrible during that period, giving the ball away and exceptionally terrible with his freekicks and long range efforts.

- How can anyone not love Park is beyond me. All I can say is that we saw the PSV Park today. All effort, all energy.

- Even Berbatov deserves praise. One of his most hardworking games. You could tell the amount of running he put into the game today. He was bent over taking in huge gasps of air when the final whistle blew. I was kinda worried when Ferguson took out Park with our final substitute instead of Berbatov. Had the game gone into extra time by some fluke, we'd be playing handicapped.

- The Carling Cup is one fugly trophy.

- On a more sour note, it seems the Carling Cup has become our staple in recent year (see 2006, 2009 and 2010). This used to be the cup where we blood our youngsters. It isn't that we don't do it anymore, but as the team progresses, we seem to play it more seriously. It doesn't help that we fuck up on the REAL prize (the FA Cup) and have to do this gig as a makeup. To be really honest, I'm really finding it hard to get excited winning this one. Even an encore doesn't do it. There is a reason why it's called the Mickey Mouse Cup. Give me the FA Cup any day of the week.

- On a brighter note, Chelsea had one too many Bridges to cross at Stamford Bridge. Haha. We're somehow back in the race. It's still Chelsea's title to lose but at the rate they are self-destructing, both on and off the pitch, it could look like a pretty damn good season for us.