It’s the day after beating Roma, and boy doesn’t it feel nice. Today will see another pair of Champions’ League games with three other English teams on duty; Liverpool take on Arsenal and Chelsea play Fenerbahce.
The reaction from the media has been positive, although some have gone overboard in their praise. Paul Doyle in particular declares that Fergie has finally found the answer to winning European games away. Now I find such effusive over-the-top praise as a little unnecessary. Fergie got things right yesterday, the team played well. End of. But that does not necessarily mean that he’s found a cure for everything in the world. If unfair criticism can infuriate, over the top praise is on the other extreme end of the spectrum — and is no less annoying.
Trust the Guardian bloggers to barrack Fergie the next time he manages a tame away draw in Europe — these people excel in Orwellian doublespeak.
Continue reading “Featured Video: Manchester United Reserves v Newcastle and Citeh”
Manchester United won 2-0 at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to goals before and after the break by Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney. The Red Devils take a vital 2-goal lead into the 2nd leg, to be played on Wednesday, 9th April 2008 at Old Trafford. The semi-final beckons, and with it another crack at history.
Highlights (You can read the play-by-play match report here on ManUtd.com):
Cristiano Ronaldo scoring an away goal in a crucial game for Manchester United - showing a resolve that seemed missing in seasons gone past.
Wayne Rooney’s all-round performance, easily the man of the match for his work-rate, creativity and commitment. Ronaldo stole the show with his goal but the rest of the game was more about Rooney.
Vidic’s injury - a knee strain as he landed awkwardly after jumping for a header - will be a cause of concern but hopefully it’s not a long-term injury like last season.
Roma’s wastefulness in front of goal - granted, by the end of the game both teams had their fair share of chances but there were periods of time before both goals that Roma had clear-cut chances to score, and they bottled it. For United to grab those crucial away goals in difficult games - at Lyon and now here at Rome - is a good sign of maturity from their players.
Continue reading “Rooney and Ronaldo punish wasteful Roma to give United 2-0 away win”
Four things spring to mind when we talk about a clash with Roma: Foremost in every United fan (and every Roma fan as well, albeit with a hint of dread) would be the 7-1 win at Old Trafford; the second would be the shit United fans had to put up with every time they went to Rome; the third, although to a lesser extent, would be Francesco Totti; and the fourth, especially when we got to hear the draw would have been, ‘Oh no, not again!’
So there we go, in yet another edition of a Roma-United clash; the word ‘clash’, we’d hope is not literal, and something our fans don’t face today.
But before diving into the excitement, let’s get a little United related news out of the way first. It’ll be quick, I assure you.
Continue reading “Roma v Man Utd: Preview”
We still have a day to go before the Champions’ League tie against Roma. News is filtering through that Totti may be doubtful for the clash, which is good to hear. However, we do have some injury concerns of our own, although there is a good chance that most of the injury-afflicted players would be back for Tuesday. We should be able to have some idea as the day wears on. But more on Roma tomorrow, when we preview the game.
Meanwhile, we will talk a little about some other United stories.
Continue reading “A Tale of Full Backs and Some Idle Speculation”
As much as it’s tempting to say that it is United’s title to lose, a nagging feeling of attempting to tempt fate, in the process, stops one just short. Arsenal’s come from behind against Bolton keeps them within touching distance and Chelsea today could cut our lead to five. But nothing, or no one, could argue against us being thoroughly deserving of retaining the title at this stage.
Aston Villa are having a torrid time playing us, it would seem, from recent history, and yesterday was no different. Another four-goal rout this season against Villa is sure to set Martin O’Neill counting the number of people he may have wronged in life.
Continue reading “Man Utd 4-0 Aston Villa: Just Six Games to Glory?”
After the disappointment at the international stage (some might call it a Newcastle-like tendency to expect too much) we return to Premier League action as United take on Villa at Old Trafford and with Arsenal and Chelsea facing relatively easier opponents (Bolton (away) and Boro (home)), the pressure is on the champions to win this game ahead of their CL quarterfinal away leg against Roma.
Aston Villa have taken something of a stumble, losing two games on the trot. On the other hand, Manchester United have been in title-winning form over the last few games, winning the last 5 and not conceding for 300 minutes. I could quote you more stats (we’ve never lost at home to Villa in the Prem) but the long and short of it is - United are on form and at home, Villa are out of form and away from home, and from only that I would point to a 2-1 or 3-1 win tomorrow evening.
But if only it were that easy!
Continue reading “Manchester United v Aston Villa Preview - Tougher than it looks”
Since Peter Schmeichel left Manchester United after that game, it always seemed that we had a weakness to find good goalkeepers and bring them to the club. Sir Alex tried everything: Mark Bosnich, Tim Howard, Roy Carroll, Fabien Barthez. Nothing seemed to work. It looked like Schmeichel left a ghost behind to haunt everybody who tried to replace him successfully.
But then, after becoming utterly frustrated and bored of experimenting with goalkeepers, he went for the sure choice: Edwin van der Saar. The Dutchman nearly joined United in 1999 before he opted to move to Juventus, but he then moved on to Premier League side Fulham and Manchester United had no problem snatching him from the Premier League strugglers. Suddenly, Schmeichel’s ghost vanished.
Continue reading “On Kuszczak and Foster”
The distraction that was the international break is over and, hopefully, there aren’t any injury worries. I must apologise for not giving you your daily fix of United news yesterday, thanks to my laptop’s AC adapter conking out. This post is from a borrowed computer, so I can’t be long. Hence today will be more of a link post. The good part though, will be that I will try to update this post through the day, as and when I gain access to a system for even few minutes.
My brand new AC adapter should be in tomorrow to give a new lease of life to my currently comatose laptop. So regular service should resume by then. So here we go with interesting links for the day:
- Old news, but Anderson is, indeed, loving life at United — in case people were wondering. I couldn’t find links to his performance (for Brazil) yesterday. Anyone who could post something would be greatly commended for their efforts.Update: Some words of praise from Dunga, for Anderson and Pato.
- Rooney remained isolated up top, while Fabio Capello was happy despite defeat to France. Is it a realization that little could be done with a side shorn of anything resembling creativity? Actually, anything other than lumping hopeful balls to players who aren’t known for their heading ability.
- ‘Wounded’ Terry wants armband back — and they say it’s a team game. Update: And as an aside, here’s a good rant on Terry.
- Skipper Neville, in typical Neville style, gives his forthright thoughts on his chances of making it back to the side this season — here’s a hint, it’s not very good.
- Michael Barnes out on month’s loan. [via Ahmed]
- Mikel’s documents found to be forged. How does it concern us, you ask? Well, it could force us to pay back some of the £ 12 million back to Chelsea
That’s it for now, I think. Hopefully when I find the time, and a computer, I will add to these links.
Keep checking back and, of course, ranting.
Yes, I know, Manchester United > England and all that. But it’s still United, dammit, and Rio deserves it as much as anyone else in the England squad. Plus I love a good captaincy debate (Terry v Ferdinand, if you’re wondering).
FA statement:
“Fabio Capello has confirmed that Rio Ferdinand will captain England against France in Paris. Capello has confirmed this continues his policy of rotating the captaincy between players in the friendly matches before confirming a permanent captain for the World Cup qualifying games.”
So Ferdinand will be captaining a side that includes Terry, Gerrard, as well as possibly Beckham and Owen. All four have led England at one time or the other ahead of Ferdinand, and it is a matter of pride to see the captaincy return to Manchester United, even if it is only for one game (no other United player in the squad - not even Rooney - would be in with a shot at captaincy come summer time).
Continue reading “Future Manchester United captain Rio Ferdinand named England skipper”
The weekend euphoria must have well and truly subsided to some extent. Mondays can do that even to the merriest of the lot. We also discussed pretty much everything that needed to be discussed. Some people decided to murder Rooney for his poor goal returns, others decided to murder those who decided to murder Rooney. Some were worried that Ronaldo was scoring more goals than providing assists, others dismissed that as mere selfishness. Some discussed about Ben Foster, others were preoccupied with solving the conundrum of how best to fill the two holes in central midfield that could pulverize one and all. Some wanted the team to demolish all opposition, others were happy just winning.
A casual observer was meanwhile found scratching his head — a glance at the league table showed him that Manchester United were on top and five points ahead. Little did he understand the true nature of fandom. There can be no end to bitching, regardless of your team’s position — and Red Rants certainly does have a nice place to do said bitching. Enough of the self-aggrandizement, though, on to some news of note.
Continue reading “Lull After the Storm”
