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Posted Apr 12th 2007, 3:09pm
by Ashley Shaw
Praise Be
A bit late... but what a result and what a performance.
This might sound biased (well in truth it is) but I've never seen football like it.
After ten minutes I was getting a bit fidgety. Roma were dominating the ball, Totti was running the show and I feared we might go into our shell. Previous exits at the hands of Milan and Porto had seen plenty of passion in the stands in inverse proportion to the gumption on the pitch.
Suddenly Ronaldo breaks down the left, tries a few stepovers, is closed down but finds Carrick. The Geordie midfielder appears to stumble at this point, losing the ball under his feet but regains his balance sufficiently to guide a shot towards goal. An easy save one would think. Fortunately, Roma's Doni seemed to expect anything but a shot as the ball sails passed his left shoulder before effortlessly riffling the net - and like that United are on fire.
The second was a one-touch move made in heaven - Heinze to Giggs to Smith, back of the net. The third: Ronnie wins it in the area gives it to O'Shea who releases an out of position Giggs. A slide-rule cross touched home by Wayne Rooney. Nine minutes, three goals - Europe stunned.
The rest of the half was spent hoping we wouldn't throw the lead away (remember Roma were only two down at this point) before Ronny inevitably got a run at Panucci and beat three defenders and the hapless Doni from the edge of the box - cue the gushing praise of ITV's pundits.
In truth the second half was little more than gilding the lily. The 9 minutes United produced were simply stunning, unmatchable by any current team except perhaps perhaps an on song Barcelona.
So they can go all the way. But will they? Call me a pessimist but defeat at the hands of a parsimonious AC Milan side now seems inevitable. Should we get past the ageing Italians, I don't think we have the midfield to outmuscle either Liverpool or Chelsea's tightly packed, heavily marked defensive tactics. But ultimately I don't think it matters. A performance that good deserves to sit in the pantheon alongside Brazil beating Italy 4-1 in 1970, the reds own 5-1 victory in Benfica in '66, England's 5-1 win in Munich and Argentina's 6-1 destruction of Serbia.
Those performances have lived longer in the memory than the rollcall of victors in the respective competitions.
As far as I'm concerned, whoever triumphs in Athens in May will forever be in the shadow of those 9 magic, manic minutes at Old Trafford when we watched footballing perfection.
Posted Apr 10th 2007, 4:06pm by Ashley Shaw
Squeaky Bum Time
With two defeats in two games and a nation barely containing it's delight at the impending Old Trafford implosion, this hasn't been the greatest week in the club's history.
The squad suddenly look knackered, key players (Neville, Vidic) are dropping like flies, our experienced keeper is making the same mistakes that saw us go three keepers in as many seasons and Chelsea show no sign of slowing their relentless pursuit of glory on all fronts.
And, yet reds wouldn't swap this season for anything. The past 8 months have been about as close to footballing perfection as any United fan could wish for.
Few would have dreamt that we would still be in the hunt for the two big prizes. In particular few would have grumbled with a three point lead at the top of the league having scored 75 goals in just 32 fixtures.
Should it go the way of all flesh, few fans would quibble with the statement that United have been the team of the season, playing an exciting brand of football seemingly at odds with modern coaching methods. Where Messrs Benitez and Mourinho have sought Defensive midfielders and security, Ferguson has pegged his faith on a pair of world class attackers and Michael Carrick. In an age when footballers over the age of 28 are thought to be over the hill, so Fergie has entrusted the winning of an improabable treble to Messrs Neville, Scholes, Giggs and Van der Sar who average 34 years between them. Then again Fergie, a perennial putter-offer of retirement, has always lived by the adage, 'If you're good enough...".
And yet the brio with which have taken this season by storm contrasted heavily with their labours on Satruday evening. Finally a sense of forbodeing overtook the team - fear, heightened by Chelsea's equally laboured victory over an even more knackered Spurs team earlier that lunchtime and defensive cock-ups the like of which most had assumed had disappeared with the sale of Roy Carroll, came to the fore as a committed Portsmouth side took full advantage of favourable conditions and a blind referee extract three points.
So should we panic? Is this the time for squeaky bums to parp up and down the land.
Well, for the Premiership's sake, I wouldn't mind us getting knocked out to Roma in a few hours time. Then we have the semi against Watford, again not a testing fixture before what should be a home banker against Sheffield United.
The real test will come with the Middlesbrough game in two Saturday's time.
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Posted Mar 26th 2007, 12:27pm by Jamie Murphy
England - What a load of Muppets – the fans I mean!
England’s nil nil draw away to Israel proved another reminder of something that is consistent at England internationals – that England fans know nothing about football.
How galling it must have been for the England players to look up at their travelling support of overweight, beer swilling fans who have probably never kicked a ball in a competitive match telling them they were a load of rubbish, after they had totally dominated play in a difficult away tie and were genuinely unlucky to only draw. England fans are muppets, but then so are the majority of armchair pundits whose biased views are published in the press.
“We can’t score a goal, put him on the dole”, says the Sun “Give Mac the Knife”, said the News of the World, well hang draw and quarter McClaren because a newly formed strike partnership failed to score. OK AJ and Rooney, two of the most promising strikers in the country failed to produce a goal, but no strike partnership ever produces instantaneous results. The Israelis to their credit defended in numbers and defended well and their ‘keeper rode his luck.
Before we blame McClaren for fielding this new pairing, ask yourselves this - who else would have started up front? Indeed the manager’s first 11 would be the first picked by most armchair pundits, even the surprise of Lennon on the left proved vindicated with the wingers man of the match performance.
The press and the public have long thought that England have a God given right to win all their games, especially against the so-called minnows. This huge weight of expectation simply doesn’t add up to the facts that England have a collection of supremely talented players but that doesn’t mean they have a supremely talented team – and this is something that no manager can equate in the current win win win climate.
Lets be sensible and rational about this. England haven’t had a solid strike partnership since Shearer and Sheringham, they have no-one who they can rely on to play on the left side of midfield and they have two of the best midfielders in Europe who go together like oil and water and whichever the manager drops he will receive a tsunami of flak.
Sack McClaren and the new manager, whether its Scolari, Allardyce or Venables will face the same problem – greed. As well as the public’s greed for constant wins and entertainment,(because we pay good money etc etc), the England manager has to deal with a system that sees more teams in the top flight than most other countries, meaning more club fixtures and no time for international training. Will that change – no.
The manager also has to deal with a perpetually hostile press because of greed. Rational comment and placating headlines don’t sell newspapers, calls for the sack do – will that change, will we see ‘positive signs despite results’, ‘England’s poor luck produces draw’? No.
So what we have going into the Andorra game is the increased pressure of the press and the fans getting on the players’ backs instead of getting behind the team. You may say they only have themselves to blame and yes they do, but they know that – the so-called fans should think likewise.
England are still in the running, but should they fail to qualify its more than the team that should take a look at themselves – then again in England its always preferable to scapegoat the manager.
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Posted Feb 22nd 2007, 7:34pm by Tom Fordham
Lille v Man Utd
It's still all kicking off.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6386583.stm
Second leg should be feisty! Big old blame thing going on, but the fact remains the French police must have realised that United fans weren't climbing over the fences for their own benefit.
Must have been truly harrowing in that away end.
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Posted Feb 19th 2007, 4:04pm by Reiss Malone
Manu v B Munich Heaven!
The most amazing night ever! Never will i go thru all those emotions ever again!
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Posted Feb 19th 2007, 11:20am by Reiss Malone
The last and the best FA Cup Replay goal ever
Giggsy takes it past all the arsenal defenders as Manu take another step towards the treble.
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Andy Crompton
Stockport 2 - 7 Rochdale (24.3.2007)