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2 Points Lost at Goodison Park

The often overused cliche of "A game of two halves" wouldn't be more applicable to this game. Manchester United paid the price for not making the domination count in the first half and killing the game off. And when things resumed at the restart, they were faced by an entirely different Everton team that truly took the game to the Champions. With Rio and Wes having rare moments that'd make Titus Bramble seem reliable, in the end a draw was not all that bad a result.

This season, the signs aren't great. We aren't as solid at the back - that was the single-most significant factor in our success last season. And when you leak goals in almost every game, you have to be firing on all cylinders up front. I am still not convinced about Berbatov. Does he fit the system? Is Fergie taking a gamble by keeping Tevez out of the team? Does Berbatov have what it takes to make the difference in scrappy away games like this? Questions that Fergie must find the answers to pretty soon.

So, another two points dropped, and with that a chance to cut the lead at the top. A draw at Stamford bridge tomorrow will probably neutralize this result, a win for Chelski and it's going to be a tough ask catching up.

All eyes on Super Sunday

So it all gets decided on Sunday. It's a tougher fixture than Chelski's but we have our destiny in our own hands.We need to keep it simple. Stick to the basics, play the way we've done all season and we will walk out as worthy champions. Any unusual or special tactics for this game will make it tricky. Wigan has some decent quality in a few areas - a testament to that been that both Palacios and Valencia have been rumored with a moved to United. Up front they have the bulky Heskey and Darren Bent and they could cause a few surprises from set pieces or long balls.

On the injury front, seems like Vidic will be fit for the game, but rumors about Rooney's injury being worse than initially suspected are worrying. He still needs to pass a medical to be deemed available to play. No one can compensate for his work rate and although we can do well without him on Sunday, but in Moscow, his absence will be a big blow. I hope that's not the case and he can play at 100% in both games.

Well, anything but a title win on Sunday will result in a feeling of injustice. It won't be easy to swallow. But one thing is for certain, the team has done all the fans proud. To be so close to two major championships and doing it the right way is no mean feat. This has been a fantastic season all round with the right signs for the future. Some young ones coming through like Anderson and the ones bought in for experience doing their jobs like Hargreaves. It just needs the well deserved icing in the form of the premiership title. That will be superb! It's going to be a heart stopping 90 minutes of action on Sunday!

West Ham Preview

This one can get us a game away from the title. A win will result in a huge amount of pressure on Chelski to win away on Monday. Anything less than a win and the title is over. We've lost the last three games against the Hammers so this is not an easy fixture by any means. Our ability to take chances early in front of the goal will be the key. If this is 0-0 in the 70th minute, we are bound to be more desperate and prone to trying different things and in general panicking. The mantra is to kill the game early - don't flirt with chances - no foreplay - just penetrate - goals goals goals - as early as we can.

Rooney and Vida are not fit to play. That means we will see Hargreaves at right back again. My pick would be Anderson,Fletcher and Carrick in the middle and Giggs and Ronaldo on the wing. There are no other options up front than to play Park and Tevez. Scholes deserves a rest. I expect it to be a physical game and they will do their best to make it disruptive. I do think though that Tuesday's game would have lifted the team and they'll go all out for a win tomorrow and get it.

There's a lot of transfer speculation going around - but with a game like this in the horizon and the title at stake, I don't want to spend any time discussing that. That's what summer's for. 3 points tomorrow will make my weekend, anything less will destroy a season. 4:30 PM PST kickoff means another sleepless night.

Good News, Bad News and a small matter of a CL Semi Final

Not that it is a surprise, but Cristiano Ronaldo is PFA's Player of the year for 2nd year running. The guy has been miles ahead of everyone else and long may it continue. As he himself said though, it will be worthwhile only if we have anything to show for his form at the end of the season. This week will tell us a lot about that. So that was the good news and its out of the way.
It was also good to see Rio and Vidic as central defenders of choice for the team of the year - they really pick themselves up for those spots and this is really a world class partnership in the making. Our mean defense this season is really the reason we are top of the table right now - just ahead of Chelski on GD.

Now for the bad news. Contrary to Fergie's firm statement post Chelsea game that both Rio and Vidic will play on Tuesday, reports today suggest the haven't shrugged off their injuries yet. They didn't train with the squad and that really not good news. Both are very vital for us and in a game of this stature, we will definitely feel their absence. This injury bug has really hit us at the wrong time. I just hope Fergie's gamble of leaving it this late and not clinching the advantage early doesn't cost us the season.

All eyes will be at Old Trafford on Tuesday and both gaffers have come out stating their teams will go out and "attack attack attack". Well Fergie said that before the first leg and we didn't see that happening. This time though, I don't think we have any other options. An early goal for them is what I dread - I hope we don't concede all night. This is the kind of game the squad should be up for - the mathematics is simple - win it and you go to Moscow - lose it and you've let a great great opportunity to lift the European cup go by again - a chance that may not come back soon. It promises to be a cracker and contrary to the events at Nou Camp, I actually do think it will be a more open game with both sides showing intent to play. Team selection for us will be vital again and I hope its a balanced selection - not like the one we saw at the weekend. Alright then, tomorrow we will know if we are going to a European final for the first time this decade - it'll be sweet to do it in the 50th anniversary of Munich - but there is work to do yet.

Fergie strikes again

What can I say? Once again, we've left it to the end by taking an approach that is mind baffling to say the least. Not only did we rest Ronaldo and Tevez today, we started with Fletcher and Nani which made it a rather strange combination in the middle. Fergie clearly set out the team to not to lose, rather than go for the win to clinch the title today. You may argue the game on Tuesday made the selection justified, but this was a bigger game, there is no point fucking up the title after failing to gain advantage over Barcelona. I for one can never understand what's going through Fergie's mind at the moment. We have clearly given away the advantage and given our record against West Ham, Chelsea must be favorites to win it from here. There is no evidence that we won't drop points again whereas Chelsea are just grilling out results at the moment.

Having said that, I thought we had a good second half. Nani was very wasteful, think Ronaldo circa 2005 and multiply the wastefulness by 10. He had no clue when to release the ball and was generally poor. Giggs didn't have much impact either, which has been a regular feature this season. Alan Wiley was the villain for me - he gave too many bad decisions against us and the penalty wasn't decisive and in such a big game, it shouldn't have been given.

With news of a brawl with Chelsea ground staff after the game, this has really not been a good day all around. We don't want to be bottlers like Ars*nal. We don't want to come across as sore losers. Lets get it together for Tuesday - and I am looking at you Fergie. More than the referee, you'll have a lot of answering to do on your decisions of this past week come the end of the season.

Now its Barca on Tuesday, a game that we've left a  of hopes on. The kind of game we've lost in the past. Fergie has taken a huge risk and lets see now how his plan unfolds. I for one, am prepared for the worst. We've let this season slip from our hands in the past week and now I know how it feels to be an Ars*nal fan.

Anti-Climactic Damp Squib!

Yesterday was probably the most disappointed me and most fans have been coming out of an undefeated game. I was aware this was not going to be all that classic as everyone expected, but what was on show was so pathetically dire, it belied belief. Once again, Ferguson didn’t walk his talk. Once again, he played players out of position. Once again in European away games, we didn’t play to our strengths. What resulted was an utter bore fest, with us chasing shadows for most of the game. Rooney was frustrated on the wing. Ronaldo was the only outlet who the team could hardly get the ball to. Scholes and Carrick huffed and puffed and chased all game without threatening to play forward. Barcelona as expected saw all of the ball, but didn’t really penetrate that much. If anything positive came off it was the fact that we didn’t concede even after they kept the ball for almost all of the game.

Now once again, Fergie and players have come out and spun this performance as a "highly tactical" one and there are noises of “mission accomplished” coming out of the camp. Expectedly. It’s all B.S. Players and Fergie have come out and said “Now we will attack at OT”. Now being the operative word. We’ve left it late once again and I am afraid and prepared for the worst on Tuesday. It’s happened before and it’s very likely to happen again on Tuesday. Fergie risked a whole lot yesterday. He should be prepared to pay the cost.

The penalty came too early and not many players are mentally up for it in the 2^nd minute  You could see Ronaldo was also not too sure – the stutter was missing and he missed it. We can only guess how the game would have unfolded should he have scored. A lot of experts have come out and criticized Ronaldo once again and have made direct comparisons between Ronaldo and Messi. How can you judge Ronaldo in a game where his team had 20 odd % of possession? When everyone else played behind the ball for almost the entire game? When the likes of Rooney and Park and Tevez were wasted and hardly knew their roles? It was all down to Ferguson’s selection and tactics yesterday.  I can’t fault the players for that.  And given all of that, Ronaldo had a penalty, was denied at least one more clear shout and Messi didn’t trouble EVDS even once. I think Messi is a great talent, I saw Barcelona play at Nou Camp November of last year and he clearly stood out as the best player on the pitch then; but these comparisons based on one game aren’t valid as judgments on players.

Overall, this was a huge huge disappointment. How big a cost we’ll have to pay for this? Well we’ll know in 6 days. Meanwhile, it’s a trip to Stamford Bridge on Saturday, a win will clinch us the title – so as games go this is the biggest league game of the season. It seems like we’ll have to do it without Vidic. I am positive about our chances, and only a defeat will hurt our title chances. More on that coming soon.

Advantage Manchester United

AS Roma 0 2 Manchester United
Stadio Olimpico, 04.01.2008

The performance wasn't breathtaking. It wasn't fluent. It was effective. It was functional. And it gives United the vital edge going into the return leg at Old Trafford.
You can always bet that Fergie's team selection will spring a surprise on you - but even then you wouldn't have expected to see Park to start on that team sheet. A true "WTF" moment before the start. No Tevez either confirming my suspicion that it's going to be another very cautious performance - nothing like the 4-0 demolition of Villa just a few days back. And so it was - United happy to play at walking pace. We started well with keeping possession without really threatening them. But as it often happens, the home team settled soon and started to shade possession. For a while there things were quite dire. United happy to chase shadows while Roma not really doing anything of note. We had the likes of Rooney behind the ball every time they had possession. I don't agree with it, but it did deliver today.

It was Ronaldo's amazing courage that gave us the lead. Scholes' perfect floated ball saw Ronaldo leap up ahead of the defender and head it in - a jump that would have made Michael Jordan proud! He did hurt himself in the process and for a second the entire red world held a collective breath wondering if it was too early to celebrate that goal. It was to everyone's relief then seeing him back on his feet. That goal really rattled Roma and their fans. They started brightly in the second half but couldn't really make any of the chances count with EVDS making a couple of brilliant saves to keep us ahead. Rooney's goal off a fumble made it easy and from then on Roma had no belief of getting anything out of the game. Ronaldo, Carrick and Rooney all missed easy chances to make it three and virtually seal the tie. But 2-0 is a great away result - although to some level the scoreline does flatter the performance we put out there today. Some may say this was a perfect away European display or that it was a tactical masterpiece from Fergie. I am not entire sold on that yet. Will it work with a more attack minded side (uh, like Barcelona?)?

Vidic's injury around the 30 minute mark was something that spoilt the victory today. This team has some interchangeable parts - but Rio and Vidic are not one of those. We need them both fit for every game we play from now on. But its likely now that Vidic will miss games - it's just a matter of how many. I don't think we can cope without him for the rest of the season. O'shea came in today and did the job but it will be another thing to try and fit in the role for the remaining games - both in the league and in the CL. I am eagerly waiting the news on Vidic's scan.

The boss did admit that we got the breaks today:

It was a marvellous result for us. We showed discipline and composure on the ball.Ronaldo's goal changed the game for us. It was a fantastic header. His spring and courage to go in front of the defender surprised the Roma player.It was a centre-forward's header - it reminded me of myself. I thought Roma had some good chances the first 15 minutes of the second half. But there are breaks in a football match and I think they were with us today.

 

 

Man of the Match : Tough one between Ronaldo and EVDS. Ronaldo shades it just.

Moment of the Match: EVDS's early second half save from a header at 1-0 that kept the lead intact.

Moan of the Match: Undoubtedly the injury suffered by Vidic.This could cost us the title and the CL. Such cruel similarity with the happenings of last season. [ Anderson's performance today was the runner up]

Focus is back on the bread and butter league this weekend. Thoughts on that when I get a chance to catch my breath.