Recent Matches and Preview to Champions League

Well, Its been a long time since anything was posted. Let me tell the jist of whats been happening with United.

Clash with Liverpool at OT:

I dint watch the match, but saw highlights. Not the usual nerve cracking game between these two but  the winner was fabulous. Great decieving run by neville, superb cross by fletcher and an amazing header by Park. Liverpool were the bogey team for couple of years now and the jinx is gone, at a crucial time! Nice to put one over your most hated rivals and one step closer to the record breaking title.

Clash with Bolton at reebok:

Saw the match. Never a doubt that united would win it and so they did. Convincing performance w/o rooney and rio, and to score 4, actually 3, one was OG, shows that united have goal scorers throughout the squad and we are not a one man team. Good to see berba score a brace, good for his confidence. He played really well in this game and we need that in the absence of rooney. Another game down and the countdown to the title reduces. Next up in PL, Chelsea at OT.

Preview to game with Bayern at Munich:

When the draw was made and we get bayern in quarters and a french team in semis, and with the way we are playing right now, every united fan has the feeling that its an easy path to the final at Madrid. I hope its an easy path. No qualms against bayern or lyon/bordeaux, I just feel United have too much quality in them to get through to the finals.

Bayern have a great team. Klose, schwiensteiger, robben, ribery, van bommel, all quality players. They are quite an attacking side and can score goals as they showed against florentina. But what they also showed is their weakness, defense. They let florentina score 4 and got through on away goals rule.

If we are solid at the back and not allow robben and ribery to create chances, then no doubt that united will score in munich and come with an away win probably. An away goal is very crucial in champions league and as we did against Milan, if we win away then we are 90% through to semis and the game at OT is a formality :)

Thinking of clashes  with bayern, the first one which comes to every United fan is the memorable and dramatic  champions league final at Nou Camp in 1999. I cherish watching this video time and time again and wonder, will there be a dramatic final than this ever?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWelmqZkrGE

Man United Vs AC Milan March 10th 2010

Never really thought Milan will score 2 goals at OT with no response from Rooney and co. And, that never happened. Its unfair to say that it was a one-sided game seeing a 4-0 scoreline for the Reds. Milan were good at times and they had lot of chances to atleast score one. An interesting fair challenge over the two legs, but the aggregate of 7-2 for the Reds will never say the same.

United totally romped Milan over two legs, both at san siro and at OT. Its fair to say Milan are not the defensive powerhouse they used to be 2 years ago. Aged defense and midfield can't win you a place in a quarters against the young and energetic strike force of United.

United played 4-5-1 as a caution, but any formation doesn't matter when you have Mr. Rooney in your side. Man, he is unstoppable. What a cross from neville and what a powerful header! That goal killed any hopes Milan had about coming back into the tie and then on, it was all about seeing out the time. But, not for united though. Right after the restart, wonderful pass from nani, saw rooney go one on one with Abbiati and a easy tap-in by rooney standards. By the way, that was the only good contribution by nani in the game. I was so frustrated by nani during the match for his lazy plays. I think SAF would have replaced him if we were chasing the game. He needs to get a goal to get his confidence back on track.

The man of the match for me was Park. What a performance! He has been serving well for the side whenever he has played. Never lets the team down. All others had quite a good game and defense was solid with rio and vida back at the center.

An otherwise dull match after goals from united was lit up when one and only David Beckham came on. What a reception he got from the fans! Amazing. Never seen a opposition player get such a reception at OT. Mainly to do with what he has done for this club for 10 years or so. Wish he was still at united. Maybe we would have won few more trophies with him. And as a banner said in OT, "Thanks for Everything Becks".

Also, watched Lyon vs Madrid. Poor madrid should have put the game to bed in the first half with the amount of chances they had, but they paid the price for not taking their chances. Lyon scored an away goal and with it the place in quarters.

I thought United will draw Madrid in quarters and there will be another reunion with ronaldo, but not to be. Should wait another year for that. Eagerly waiting for the quarters/semis draw on 19th march. With this kind of form and rooney in such incredible goal scoring touch, we shouldn't care much, should we?

Wolverhampton Wanderers vs Manchester United: (0 - 1) 6th March, 2010

Lucky to come away with 3 points. Could easily have been 0, let alone 1. Good that it happened though. Would have been a final killing move to our hopes of the title.

Liked the fact that the team played without Rooney. Yes, they lacked the cutting edge, but that was more because of the wonderful pressure Wolves played with. Berbatov, although he did carry Tottenham on his shoulders, does not seem to be able to deliver when alone. He is fantastic when playing with someone else. His deft flicks and touches almost always result in scoring opportunities. However, he seems to have lost the confidence to be alone up front. However, I do believe his confidence will come back. He just needs to play often.

Nani should have done a little better. He was good, but was not very effective with his final acts sometimes. I am sure he will catch up, given that he too gets continuous play time on the pitch.

Very happy for Scholes. Although he does not command the game as much as he used to say 6-8 years ago, but does have an impact on the game. Valencia did well, everyone did well in fact. Wolves really deserve credit for having kept ManUtd at bay for so long.

Eagerly await the second leg of the Champions League encounter. Hope Becks has a great time at OT - Good enough so that he goes back home with fond memories, not so good that he goes back victorious. It is said that Rooney is doubtful for the game, I am not really bothered. I am sure United can play without him. Diouf was just unlucky today. He is sure to come good.

Aston Villa vs Manchester United; Feb 28 2010 (Carling Cup Final)

Even though I got the same birthday gift last year, I am as happy as I was last year. A warning to all Manchester United players. You have raised my expectations w.r.t. birthday presents, so you will have to maintain the same level forever.

Forgive me for the megalomaniacal first para. I just could not help it. I am delighted to see ManUtd win. Though I watched only parts of it, I must say the passing and the movement is getting better and better. And this is what ManUtd are best at.

However, one thing peeves me no end! Why is all the attention going to Rooney? Yes, it was a good header. However, lines like "Rooney inspires ManUtd to Carling Cup Victory" or "Rooney comes off the bench to guide ..." give a totally wrong impression. Rooney is truly world class and has always been, the only difference nowadays is that he is scoring more goals and that is good for him as well as the team. However dubbing ManUtd as a one man team is ridiculous.

I will go ahead and make a strong claim. Rooney is probably the most effective player in ManUtd today. However, I feel Berbatov is classier. And in fact, the star and the man of yesterday's match was Berbatov. Both goals were offsprings of heavenly passes from him. And though as usual he looked his usual bored and lax self (which I just think is his style, not his true picture), he made the best passes in the game. He is a true master and a class act. Going by how rarely he plays, there is a good chance he might go the Veron way. I sincerely hope that does not happen with him.

Over the past few days, Rooney is being credited with everything good ManUtd does. I am extremely happy for him, but it does not do justice to the team. The media has a tendency to make an individual either a complete hero or a complete villain. That is just not fair to anybody. Same was the case with Nani. He performed well quite a few times this season. In spite of that, he was always blamed. And with the arsenal game, in which he made just one great move, they dubbed it his performance every in a United shirt. I think he has had far better games than that. Of course the result was big, but there have been games where he did more than just one brilliant thing.

Rooney is doing great and I could not be happier. I have felt that he has been the best player at ManUtd, not just this season, but for quite a while now. However giving him all the attention will be harmful to both him as well as the team.

Coming back to more pleasurable things - hope we continue the form and rock everyone. Good that Chelsea lost to Man City. We now have a chance to get ahead of them. However we have to play City too; apart from them, we have Chelsea + Liverpool. Hope all goes well.