Roma 0-2 ManUtd: A victory for Socialism?
April 4, 2008
It is dangerous when commentators describe our draw as easy; first because of the English Sporting Press’ penchant for underestimating foreigners and second because players who read the papers might start believing it. Roma have not faltered in any home fixture since we took a point off them before Christmas; their only defeat in the champions League was 0-1 to us. The first target for United was to score, and the second to avoid an irredeemable defeat.
With Van der Sar thankfully fit again Ferguson started with the full defence. He played with three central midfielders, the Scholes Carrick combination which many (including me) used to say could not play together well, backed by Anderson and, it seemed, with Park and Ronaldo on the flanks and Rooney as a lone striker. In fact, Rooney played wide left with Ronaldo much more central.
Roma are unlike other Italian sides; they operate a fluid attack of the kind which McLaren thinks we have copied and improved upon, and they can be exciting in the English style. I have admiration for their football but it is difficult to like their fans much. It was a relief that the scenes which accompanied the last two United visits were not repeated; there was, apparently, some missile-throwing, but there were no baton charges in the ground or in the streets, and as far as I know no further cases of potential miscarriage of justice.
The full build-up in the stadium (which was not covered on ITV but was on MUTV, who took the ITV pictures and avoided advertisements) looked impressive. Romans do not, it seems, do group stage matches since the crowd was over 50,000 bigger than for the December game. When they turn up, they can be impressive, and though it is stereotypical and un-PC to suggest that the Roman anthem with the smoke and the flags had overtones of a fascist rally, it did (though no more than your average visit to Elland Road).
ManUtd 4-0 Aston Villa: Poetry in the time of the Flood
April 2, 2008
I nearly drove with the roof down on Saturday because it was a lovely sunny spring day when I left after breakfast. By the time I had reached Stafford the first spots of rain were falling. By the time I parked in Rusholme for lunch there was a good old fashioned Manchester drizzle.
By the time I parked at Trafford Bar it was throwing it down; cold and grey and miserable, the puddles in the waste ground turning into ponds, the tyres of the passing buses throwing great waves of oily water. At least Arsenal were losing. By the time I got to the ground I was wet through my coat and my jumper and my tee shirt, and Arsenal had won. I wrung the sleeves of my coat and the water spilt from it as if I had put it in to soak.
How would it be possible to play football on such a day? Villa should have won at Stamford Bridge and The Emirates, surely the prospect of Rome on Tuesday would distract United and the weather would do the rest. And Kuszczak in goal! Oh dear. At least we were starting with Tevez and Rooney back together up front.
Mark Lawrenson and Lou Macari said that what followed was a one-sided lesson in football mastery but what do they know about football? The Sunday Times had it as “a romp past hapless Villa” but it did not look that way to me, especially at the start. Perhaps the tension of the run-in is warping my judgement.
Aston Villa looked a far better team than Liverpool. Fast, skilful on the ball, not a hint of the rough house about them, they set off to play football, gained territory and possession and looked likely to cause us difficulty; three or four early Scholes passes were charged down, Kuszczak looked jittery.
Giggs started brilliantly up the left and Tevez had one of his tiger days; all over the pitch, closing down every Villa player, hunting, harassing, tackling, the back of his shirt after half an hour looking as if he had been playing Rugby League in the days that was a winter sport.
ManUtd 3-0 Liverpool: Vital for the Title
March 27, 2008
For the first time in United’s history we had a match on Easter Sunday. I do not approve; Easter Day is for other things. The scaremongering weather forecast and the fact that Tom still had my ticket from Wednesday night did little for my peaceful sleep. I had to be up at 5.30 and out into the sub-zero morning to make Easter Mass at Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Just in case I was tempted not to take the trouble, the only time I have ever missed Mass because of a football match we lost 0-1 at home to Liverpool.
My plans went well. The roads are not teeming with activity at six thirty on a freezing Easter morning, there was some fairly serious snow around Oxfordshire and Warwickshire but up the West of the country the sun was shining, there was a beautiful covering of snow on the Pennines, I made breakfast with John at Sandbach and Tom turned up with my ticket with minutes to spare and I was in my seat for kick off.
The atmosphere inside the ground was what you would expect from one of the bitterest rivalries in European football with both clubs in the last eight of the Champions League and on impressive winning runs, and despite the inhospitable timing of the fixture the ground was packed. 76,000, they said. What’s that? Have we stopped bothering to count properly now?
I was relieved the defence was back together again but I am always disappointed to see Tevez on the bench. Nevertheless the decision to play three central midfielders was a sound one and Scholes, Carrick and Anderson were the right choices. Ronaldo and Giggs were on the flanks and Rooney on his own up front. Liverpool also played it with caution, like a big away European match, Torres, lately in devastating form, their lone striker.
Ferguson had picked the First XI, and they blew Liverpool away. We were not hindered by referee Steve Bennett’s decision to send off their most aggressive player after 44 minutes but by then the pattern of the match was clear, and at the end Liverpool were grateful to get off the pitch only three goals down.
5 star United hammer poor Newcastle again
February 23, 2008
Manchester United cut Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League to just three points after they hammered Newcastle 5-1 at St James’ Park.
Reds duo Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were again the stars of the show as they both grabbed a brace to seal a second emphatic win over the Magpies this season after the last month’s 6-0 drubbing at Old Trafford.
The home side started brightly and didn’t allow United to settle into their pace with Nicky Butt in particular biting into a number of crunching tackles.
It was left to a moment of brilliance from Ronaldo to open up Newcastle as the winger curled in a beautiful ball into the box and Rooney stole a march on Charles N’Zogbia to smash the ball in.
In the absence of Paul Scholes and Anderson, it was left to Michael Carrick to pull the strings for United and it was the midfielder’s through ball which Ronaldo latched onto and slid passed Shay Given to double his side’s lead.
United all but secured the points at the start of the second-half when a misplaced pass from Abdoulaye Faye fell to Ronaldo who again used his pace to drive at the Newcastle goal and score pass replacement keeper Steve Harper.
In the lead up to the match, Newcastle fans talked about the famous 5-0 win they had over United under Kevin Keegan in 1996, but they created very little in this match and though they did get a goal through Faye – it was United who scored five today.
Rooney added his second of the match with a delightful curling effort from the edge of the box. The England man then setup sub Louis Saha to add the fifth goal.
Arsenal gunned down at Old Trafford!
February 16, 2008
Manchester United 4-0 Arsenal
Manchester United absolutely trounced Arsenal to advance to the FA Cup quarter-finals in style. Darren Fletcher bagged a brace.
What was billed as a clash of the titans turned into one of the most one-sided clashes witnessed in years as Manchester United walked all over a desperate Arsenal at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils dominated from start to finish, taking the lead on 15 minutes through Wayne Rooney and going two up through Darren Fletcher.
Lehmann apart, Arsenal were egregious all over the pitch and slipped further behind on 38 minutes as Nani struck. Eboué was dismissed after the break and Fletcher nodded home a fourth while Arsenal failed to register a single effort on target all game.
It finished 4-0: it could and should have been more. Rooney, Nani, Fletcher and Anderson were among the standout performers.
First Half
Both teams fielded strong sides, but by no means their strongest – it was clear despite all the pre-game talk that each manager had an eye on the Champions League. Ronaldo was a notable absentee, with Scholes, Tevez, Adebayor and Flamini all on the subs benches.
