ManUtd 3-0 Wolves: Plastic Wolves

The recession has hit Sangam, our meeting place, which has closed one of its restaurants, effectively halving its size.  But its interior was warm, its Tandoori Chicken pieces generous, its Cobra much needed, the company most welcome.  Outside it winter was descending, the temperature falling, the sleet sweeping the streets.  Wolves were in town.  The warm breath in the cold night was rising in clouds, the ground was full, the Stretford End was doing its best to invoke Christmas cheer with The Five Days of Cantona and Feed the Scousers lustily sung upon a dank and miserable Manchester evening; indeed, until the football started it seemed unequivocally good to be at the Theatre of Expensive Bovril.

Read more

ManUtd 0-0 Portsmouth (Community Shield): Nothing Was Delivered

Paul James

We all know the season does not really start until next week but for nearly half a century now the official curtain raiser to it has been what used to be known as the FA Charity Shield and is now the FA Community Shield. They didn’t even buy a new trophy when they changed it.

Read more

ManUtd 1-0 Espanyol (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Testimonial): Clean Cut Kid

Paul James

It felt like an honour to be at Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s testimonial on Saturday; one of the few occasions when it seemed right to be forking out of our pockets to pay tribute to a rich young man who has just landed a remunerative and rewarding post-retirement job.

It was not just that he scored a goal the memory of which tens of thousands of people will carry with them to their graves, nor that he refused to leave the club for greater stardom and wealth, nor that he worked so hard against all the odds to recover from a series of potentially crippling injuries, nor that he scored 126 goals in 216 starts and 150 substitutions, nor that he was the only player who acted as if he was a fan when the Glazers took over, nor that the money we paid to honour him would be going to charity, much of it to Angolan schools.

Occasionally there are players whose contribution outstrips the statistics. It is no coincidence that one of the best terrace chants and two of the best terrace songs to emerge in the last twelve years have been inspired by the quiet Norwegian, nor that they are so readily taken up by one and all, young and old, when they are begun.

The match was never going to do justice to the occasion. There is no history, no warmth, no special understanding between United and Espanyol; it is the first time the clubs have met. Neither are Espanyol especially good. Their only claim to fame is that they come from Barcelona. It was as if they were the only ones available when the testimonial committee got round to telephoning.

In terms of honouring Ole their behaviour was exemplary; they joined in the public appreciation sportingly and gave him a memento, they applauded Ole on to the pitch during the game, they responded to his good nature while he was on the field and went up to him at the end and warmly congratulated him.

There was nevertheless something a touch unfriendly about the match itself; though it might have been good for our players’ fitness that Espanyol played as if it was the away leg of a vital European tie.
Francisco Chica in particular put himself about like Joey Barton in a nightclub but, despite a serious and sustained challenge by Paul Scholes, Daniel Jarque won the bad tackle competition with his late and violent assault on Carlos Tevez just before half time.

Both sides ended with three yellow cards and the Espanyol approach led to a loss of United effectiveness. Where have we seen such tactics before? One could extrapolate from the clues in the programme. Espanyol are the other club in a second city. Their fans resent the fact that Barcelona are universally regarded as the Catalan club. Their club has a Catalan spelling and more Catalan players. They have their own history of trophies, including two Copas del Rey and a UEFA Cup final. Their fondest recent achievement was the day they scored twice at the Camp Nou to deny Barcelona a la Liga title.

The article did not actually use the words “bitter” or “massive” but you got the drift and they played as if improving on Barcelona’s result at Old Trafford would make their season before it started.

Van der Sar was back in goal with Ferdinand and Vidic in the centre of defence and Simpson and Evra at fullback. Gibson, Fletcher and Scholes were in the middle of the field and Nani, Giggs and Tevez up front. Nani looked fit and sharp. Everything United did went through Scholes. Tevez had a belter of a first half. It ought also to be recorded that Danny Simpson had a pretty good match too, because within two days of it he was loaned out for the season to Blackburn.

The Catalans looked good on the ball and were not without speed and guile. They began with a flourish, won a few corners and had this trick, taking it short for Albert Riera, who knows a thing or two about playing with massive clubs jealous in the shadow of true greatness, to drive in a low, hard, diagonal cross-shot. One of these went quite close.

Once we had adjusted to the rhythm of an attritional local derby, however, the meaningful attacks in the first half were all towards the Scoreboard End goal, behind which Tom and I were handily placed to witness United’s inability to put anything in the net until Ole himself came on.

Nani sent a free kick high and wide, Scholes produced a lovely chip which hit the left hand post; Nani provided Fletcher the opportunity to miss by a mile from the middle of the area, then floated in a clever cross which the defence did well to clear from the line.

Tevez produced a great run, a one-two with Simpson, before shooting narrowly over and then an even better dribble, surviving a kamikaze challenge, just staying on his feet, dribbling into the heart of the defence, releasing Nani on the right only to see Nani’s splendid little ball into the six yard box toe-poked by Scholes and rebound to safety off the unwitting Chica.

Giggs took his turn to curl a free kick wide of the goal and on the cusp of half time whilst Tevez and Jarque were wrestling over the latter’s nasty challenge, Paul Scholes blasted another one over.

At half time Kuszczak came on for Van der Sar. He has always been a good shot stopper but seems to have learned to catch the ball. Silvestre came on for Evra and did well; Brown came on for Rio and was coolness itself; is he at last fulfilling his potential? Campbell came on for Nani.

Vidic missed a clear header from a Giggs corner and we had a couple of good moves, but the supply to Campbell dried up, the visitors imposed themselves, Tevez and Scholes were forced deep and into unwise tackling and the crowd went quiet. It was as if Espanyol had softened us up and then brought better players on to finish the job. O’Shea came on for Gibson, and the excellent Evans for Vidic but United attacks became rare.

Then, in the 68th minute, on came the great man himself. It took him a few minutes to get to the pace of the game and he tired, but in between we were treated to our last few minutes of vintage Ole. Campbell retrieved a free kick leaving the defender a heap by the left corner flag and centred perfectly for Ole to take the short pass and curl one in which goalkeeper Alvarez touched at full stretch around the post.

From the corner Scholes’ drive was blocked and Ole showed the trickery of his quick feet in the area and put in a stinger of a low drive from around the same place. Alvarez fumbled it and Giggs was just too slow to snap up the rebound.

One of their attacks down our right broke with the ball ricocheting off Scholes. Fletcher gave it to Giggs in the middle of his own half, and he produced a dummy so extravagant that his challenger was left on his backside to a great cheer. Up the middle he went, releasing a weighted pass up the inside left channel. Fraizer Campbell judged his run superbly, clearly onside and then accelerating and cutting in. He had little space but controlled it with one foot and then lifted it coolly over the oncoming goalkeeper with the other; as the ball gently bounced into the net the rain stopped and the sun came out; 82 minutes 1-0.

That, by and large, was that. They had the ball drifting across our goal, Giggs hopelessly misfired from close range and we were into the hand shakes.

We had a short speech from Ole and a lap of honour with his three children, his elder boy lapping it up, the baby cradled in his arms like a glass trophy more precious than all the baubles he has won, and his happy little girl skipping and dancing around the pitch in a replica of her dad’s kit, in her own little world, utterly oblivious to the fact that 68,868 people were standing and honouring her father.

It seemed appropriate, really; sanity and reality amid the adulation. It was as if he never did really know what the fuss was all about.

Copyright © Paul James

ManUtd 2-1 Portsmouth (Pre-season Friendly): In the Summertime

Paul James

Why not get fit by flying to tropical Africa in the summertime, playing ninety minutes of football at sea level in overbearing humidity and flying out again before you get to bed?

Another day, another country. The United party flew in to Abuja from South Africa overnight and within twenty seven hours of exhausting themselves lifting the Vodacom trophy an eleven was lining up to play the English Cup holders Portsmouth, who also played the previous day, beating the Nigerian Champions in Abuja by five goals to nil.

As United moved from a country with 40 million supporters (source; MUTV) to one with 14 million (Alex Ferguson), or maybe 20 million (MUTV again), back in Blighty the MUTV team said goodbye to Mickey Thomas, thank goodness, and brought in Lou Macari. To prevent me getting too happy about this, the camera work for the match was utterly appalling; thank goodness for Sky Plus and Do-it-Yourself replays.

Two fat ladies featured in the warm up for this friendly in what I believe is a part of the Tenaka Soccer Festival. I got a shock when I saw what I thought was the Portsmouth substitutes because they seemed to be fielding a woman. She was a pretty beefy girl, too, fully capable of enthusiastic tackling, but she turned out to be the fourth official. They gave her the job of holding up the numbers and she got it right nearly every time.

Then a much fatter lady took the ceremonial kick-off. She made worse contact with the ball than Denis Wise and her shoe came flying off. Jermain Defoe’s face was a picture. They decided to put the ball down and start again, with blokes.

This should have been a match trickier than those in South Africa and equally violent (Portsmouth are hardly well known for their soft shoe shuffle) but turned out to be open, entertaining and further indication that United have a good team at the moment and that our fitness preparation seems to be yielding the results.

Portsmouth had a full first team out and were parading their new strike partnership of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch. For United, Kuszczak started in goal, behind Neville, Vidic, Evans and Silvestre. Gibson, Carrick and Scholes were in the middle of the field, with Eagles, Tevez and Campbell up front.

Of these only Neville and Silvestre had not featured the previous day, though Tevez had come on pretty late. Apparently in South Africa he scored a goal in training so good that his fellow professionals stood and applauded.

Silvestre looked good, Vidic and Evans were solid. Tevez played well but very deep, while Eagles and Campbell both did good things and showed their speed, though they were spendthrift with chances. Carrick broke up play well and Gibson played an effective part.

Both Alex Ferguson and Joe Jordan beforehand said it was all about fitness and though they would like to win, the only game which really mattered was the league game in a few weeks’ time. United were by far the stronger and better side in Abuja, but this might have been down to an edge on fitness.

Early exchanges had hardly started when Campbell used his pace to break through on goal. David James came out but Campbell went around him only to get bundled over by Glen Johnson. Tevez slipped a perfectly good penalty low and wide to James’ left while the goalkeeper went right. Four minutes gone and United ahead already!

Hold your horses. The referee ordered a retake. Few people had any idea why; the commentary team said it was because the ball was not on the spot, but Tevez put it in exactly the same place for the retake. In fact there was significant encroachment. Chris Eagles was the main offender, though not the only one. Tevez, of course, smashed his retake against the face of the bar.

Evans and Vidic had to defend decisively once or twice in the first half, and the Defoe-Crouch partnership fashioned a good shot for Defoe which Kuszczak saved before it was flagged offside. The main flow of action was towards the Porstmouth goal and United continued to make and squander chances.

After twenty five minutes Chris Eagles cashed in on slow defending and got himself completely clear with only James to beat; he chipped tamely wide of the goal. Six minutes later United conjured a wonderful end-to end move which ended with an extravagant cutback from Silvestre on the left and a drive by Eagles too close to James and photogenically saved.

A couple of minutes after that Jonny Evans performed a vital and timely clearance which Tevez flicked on to Campbell. He took it half the length of the field, his speed taking him clear, and then gave James the chance to save it. You don’t even have to consider the free kick which Scholes belted over the bar on the stroke of half time and United should have been at least three goals to the good by the interval.

For a while after the break the game looked more even, but once Kuszczak had saved Defoe’s sharp drive Paul Scholes took mastery of the middle of the park again and United looked comfortable. Scholes’ demonstration was a master class; the ball was attracted to him, he seemed to be filling every hole and then accurately and quickly distributing it this way and that.

The breakthrough came when he found Gibson on the right. Gibson put in a low cross which got through to Campbell and Primus in the middle of the goals. Neither the United striker nor the Portsmouth defender was able to get the pesky thing under control and it broke to Eagles who made up for negating the penalty and missing the sitter by cracking it into the net with no ceremony; 50 minutes 1-0.

That set everybody free. With a constant stream of perfect ball available from the Ginger Prince, Tevez had moved his operation forward. Five minutes after the goal he took a ball from Scholes and shot sufficiently hard for James to fumble it seriously but from sufficient distance that nobody could follow up.

Five minutes later Scholes gave him the ball well outside the area, posing no apparent threat, but he ran at the back four, veering right, dropped his shoulder to dummy and then smashed it low and very hard inside James’ near post; 62 minutes 2-0.

Immediately the United substitutions started; Giggs came on for Tevez, O’Shea for Carrick and Cathcart for Evans. Cathcart’s first touch was an important tackle and then Vidic was booked for a mysterious foul as Portsmouth took advantage of the changes. Johnson proved as adept at smashing the free kick miles over the bar as had Defoe just after half time.

Substitutions came now at regular intervals; Possebon for Gibson, then Amos for Kuszczak. James saved Scholes’ low 25 yard drive and then Cleverley came on for Eagles. Despite the changes, United were tiring now and Portsmouth had more of the ball, but Vidic seemed to have complete control of Crouch and the main danger was through Defoe.

As normal time wound down Giggs provided a peach of a pass for Campbell, who was hustled out of the chance and then Defoe cut inside Cathcart, left him for dead, and drove home hard and accurately before Vidic could get across to cover; Amos got a hand to it but it was 89 minutes 2-1 and the fat lady was not singing, but holding up the board with four minutes of added time and there was just a chance that Portsmouth could fluke an unlikely draw.

Giggs did his best to seal it with a brilliant run and an astonishing cut back, but Scholes’ volley was inches wide. With three minutes of added time gone Vidic got away with a handball just outside the area.

This time there was no oversize trophy, just time for hand shakes, see you in a fortnight, where’s the airport?

Copyright © Paul James

ManUtd 4-0 Kaizer Chiefs (Vodacom Challenge Final): Going, Going, Gone

Paul James

My son Thomas is in pre-season training for a team in one of the Sheffield Sunday leagues. Their coach has a “fat club” for those who need hard work after the summer. On Saturday the match at the Loftus Versfield Stadium in Pretoria was refereed by a fully fledged member of such a club, a spherical little fellow who is probably happy at home among the lovely people living free upon the beach of sunny Madagascar whence he comes.

The trouble was that Floriant Raolimanana’s amiable and sunny disposition was out of place on a South African pitch with the levels of violence displayed in this tournament. It nearly ended in disaster, but Rooney’s absence from the team the following day was nothing worse than a dead leg.

It would be churlish to dwell too much since at the eighth time of asking in a country which includes an alleged 40 million of our fans, United at last played like United. We may have been helped by Kaizer Chiefs’ weariness after their demolition of Orlando Pirates on Thursday, but fair’s fair, we had only been a few hours off the plane when we met the Chiefs last week.

United’s display in this final was, in the end, assured and pleasing on the eye and I trust that all those South African United fans thought they had at last got their money’s worth.

What was especially pleasing to someone like me (who would like to send nearly all the glory seeking overpaid mercenaries to disappear up their own backsides on foreign beaches) was that a bevy of United’s reserves and youngsters got their chances and took them.

Kuszczak was back in goal. The back four at the start was Simpson, Vidic, Cathcart and O’Shea. Fletcher, Carrick and Possebon started in a middle three and Rooney up front was flanked by Giggs and Martin.

Of the debutants, Rodrigo Possebon was assured and confident on the ball, especially when given it under pressure; Craig Cathcart was generally solid and effective; he erred on the side of caution, which is no bad thing in a debutant centre half, but nearly allowed Marco Mthembu through for an opening goal.

Of the others, Danny Simpson was my man of the match and Lee Martin looked like a youngster who should be given the opportunity to play when points are at stake during the absence of the Bronzed Narcissus.

Any United problems in the first half were down to the almost complete failure of Carrick’s passing radar and a slightly clumsy and gangly performance from Fletcher. This made Possebon’s performance in midfield even more impressive and overall we were much more open in style and approach than has previously been the case in South Africa.

Four minutes had gone when Giggs headed on O’Shea’s ball and Rooney tried a trademark chip which just cleared the bar. Three minutes later a brilliant Rooney angled ball destroyed the defence and fell to Giggs begging to be volleyed into the net. He laid it off for Fletcher not to reach. On the quarter hour Rooney was quick to rob the hesitant defender but his clever shot across the goalkeeper was well saved by Itumelung Khune.

An attractive, flowing game reached its decision points after the half hour. First Khune averted danger from Martin on the United left by hoofing the ball the length of the field.

“Never let it bounce” they used to say to defenders at school, but Cathcart did just that and Mthembu was in at the edge of the area; he steered the ball past the flailing Kuszczak towards the empty net and went flying in the resulting collision but he got neither the penalty for which he was looking nor a goal; as the ball rolled toward the goal Vidic got back and Simpson had the sound sense to stand aside and allow the more senior player to clear.

Within minutes Tshabalala put wide a free kick which should never have been awarded and moments later Martin harassed at an apparently harmless throw-in not far from their corner flag, and as a result the clearance was picked up by Rooney on the left touchline.

Martin’s run was a superb example of the craft of an old-fashioned winger, using his speed and skills to leave his fullback for dead, cut along the bye line and float in the cross. It was for Fletcher, who stretched but failed, and it fell to Giggs eight yards out from the far post. Ryan let it bounce and cracked it in the net the way he should have dealt with his earlier chance; 39 minutes 1-0. United were now in command.

After half time Chris Eagles came on for Martin and 18 year old Tom Cleverley came on for Possebon and had a splendid half a game, though he had the advantage of playing in a confident, attacking midfield with much improved Carrick and Fletcher.

The first action of the second period was Rooney motoring past Jonathan Quartey at full pace and being taken out by a nasty and cynical backheel, studs on knee cap. It should have been a red card. The good thing was that instead of getting peeved as he had in the first half when chopped from behind, once he had stopped limping Rooney tried to take his revenge with the ball.

Indeed, United were flowing now, Khune just saving Giggs’ drive and Rooney unable to bury the rebound, breathtaking control from Rooney for a Fletcher through ball, a great move between Cleverley and Giggs up the left, a beautiful cross from Rooney which Cathcart headed wide.

Then Simpson, whose attacking up the right was nearly as good as his tackling, produced a peach of a ball forward and Rooney was turning and away from his man, so enormously onside that even this flag-happy linesman had to let it go. Rooney took it to the edge of the area and then slotted it between Khune’s legs; 56 minutes 2-0.

A prolonged piece of United interpassing turned into something meaningful when Cleverley picked up the pace, gave it to Giggs and moved forward. Giggs raked a long ball right to Simpson who put in a high cross to the far post. There Rooney nodded it down and back into the area and Cleverley swept it into the net between goalkeeper and post; 61 minutes 3-0; a grand team goal.

On came Evans for Vidic, and Scholes and Gibson for Fletcher and Carrick, and Scholes proceeded to give a flawless exhibition of how to find any United player with the ball from anywhere on the pitch. With twenty five minutes to go Tevez came on for Giggs and Campbell for Rooney. United had used up all their agreed substitutions and were denied the right to bring Ben Amos on for Kuszczak.

There looked to be more goals in the game. Eagles was too gentle with a chance from Simpson’s cross, Campbell was blatantly shoved over in the area, nothing given, Campbell ran on to a through ball, was clipped by the goalkeeper but got off his feet only to see Jimmy Tau clear his shot off the line.

Then Gibson and O’Shea worked the ball through to Eagles who was onside and moved through the last line of the defence. He made a good effort to control it but it ran loose to Campbell, who cracked it into the corner of the net from fifteen yards; 85 minutes 4-0.

We had a save from Kuszczak, a brilliant run by Tevez, a lobbed header which Scholes ensured went into the net by bundling the goalkeeper (disallowed) and at the final moment of the four minutes of added time, a suicidal challenge at the edge of the area on Gert Schalkwyk which won no penalty but which ran to Thabang Lebese, who curled a lovely shot against Kuszczak’s far post.

The award ceremony went on for ever but at last Ryan Giggs got to collect a trophy two thirds his own size and the United party could do a runner for the airport with their newly acquired booty and with barely time to shower, hurriedly closin’ the book on their latest South African tour.

Copyright © Paul James

Next Page »