Posts Tagged ‘manchester united’

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United almost there… (but its not quite over)

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

United beat Portsmouth today 2-0. (It really should have been a lot more with all the chances). United are now 3 points clear with a game in hand. There were some real good performances from the likes of Rooney, Anderson and Giggs. Fletcher was excellent. One worry is the injuries with Neville going off and his replacing O’Shea also going off injured.

The midweek results made it all better for United with Chelsea drawing tonight and Liverpool drawing 4-4 against Arsenal in an amazing game. In that game Arshavin played brilliantly scoring 4 goals (from 4 shots). Hes looking a really good player!

Anyway, United have it to lose but I dont think its all quite over yet. Just one lost would change things and there are some potential slip ups coming up with teams to play such as Spurs, Arsenal and City. Also, we tend not play that well against Boro and Wigan could be a problem with former United player as a manager (Steve Bruce).

Here are United’s remaining fixtures:

Saturday, 25 April 2009 – Man Utd v Tottenham, 17:30
Saturday, 02 May 2009 – Middlesbrough v Man Utd, 12:45
Sunday, 10 May 2009 – Man Utd v Man City, 13:30
Wednesday, 13 May 2009 – Wigan v Man Utd, 20:00
Saturday, 16 May 2009 – Man Utd v Arsenal, 12:45
Sunday, 24 May 2009 – Hull v Man Utd, 16:00

I used the BBC Sport Premier League predictor and it came out with United winning:

1. Manchester United 88Pt Goal Difference (GD) = 41
2. Liverpool 86Pt GD = 47
3. Manchester United 81Pt GD = 43
4. Manchester United 73Pt GD = 34

Teams to be relegated:

18. Hull 35Pt GD = -26
19. Boro 33Pt GD = -28
18. West Brom 25Pt GD = -40

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Please sell Berbatov!

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Well maybe that was abit harsh. Its not just the penalty in the shootout that was very (very) poor. Its just that he doesnt seem interested in playing most of the time – I know its his style! Hopefully next season he can step it up. Vidic and Evra didnt play too well in their first season and look at them now!

Back to the games … It was the FA Cup semi-final at the weekend with Arsenal playing Chelsea and United played Everton. Both games were played at Wembley which was different to normal. I didnt watch the Chelsea Arsenal game but Chelsea won. I wanted Arsenal to win – if you know me you will know I am not a fan of Chelsea.

The United v Everton game was on Sunday and Everton won. It was abit of a sport day for me after playing football earlier on, watching the Chinese Grand Prix and then the FA Cup Semi-final. The game was rather boring to be honest and ended 0-0 after extra time. United really should have had a penalty but it was not given. Even Moyes thought it was a penalty. Anyway, we didnt really play particularly well. Stand out performance – as he has been most of this season – was Vidic.

Anyway, it ended up going to penalties. Cahill missed the 1st one and United were in the driving seat. Berbatov was next and as I mentioned earlier, took a really poor penalty – the worst ever?? (see below). So lazy, so weak. It was as if he was kicking the ball back to the keeper!

Everton scored there next one and United’s 2nd was taken by Ferdinand. He also had his penalty saved but it was a better effort. Everyone else scored the penalties including Vidic and Anderson but the 2 missed United penalties meant Everton won. Everton now play Chelsea in the final and I hope they win! For a few different reason that include Everton have a top manager I like and also a few former United players in the squad.

There has been a lot of talk and comments online on various web sites and forums about Berbatov and his shocking penalty. People are also commenting on his lazy, slow style of play. Hes a talented footballer but just not a Manchester United player. United play with pace with players like Ronaldo and Rooney and Berbatov is just not like that. He gets the ball and it all slows down. He must be in the running for worst player of the year (considering his £30m price tag). Scored handful of goals and in some way has (possibly) forced Tevez out of United – who United fans love.

That means the quintuple dream is over and we can now “only” win 4. With Liverpool and Arsenal drawing tonight (in another 4-4 draw and from what I read an amazing game – I saw the last 15 minutes) it means United are level on points with Liverpool with 2 games in hand. Liverpool have 5 more games to play in the league so its moving more and more towards United. Its not over yet though – it could all change very quickly. Come on United!!

Here is that Berbatov penalty:

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United through!!

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

United played Porto tonight and won 1-0 on the night, 3-2 on aggregate. United are the 1st English team to beat Porto on their on ground. The performance was miles better than last week. It wasnt difficult!!

We played a lot better than recently, still not brilliantly but very solid. Ronaldo played really well and scored a cracking goal (have a look below), Rooney played really well too. It was also great to have Vidic and Rio back together! Evra had a poor game. Hes had a good season but maybe getting tired???

(Here is Ronaldo’s 40 yard “screamer”:)

Towards the end of the game, Nani came on for Berbatov. Mainly to get some fresh legs on and to “waste time”. However he didnt really do that much. He gave the ball away a few times, trying to take people on when he could have kept possession. He had at least one chance to put a cross in but decided to dribble the ball and take players on.

Anyway, United now play Arsenal in the semi-final which should be a great. 4 teams left in the Champions League with 3 of them English. All the teams left are attacking and play entertaining football!!

Bring on Arsenal!!

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Macheda!! Macheda!! Macheda!!

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Wow!! Amazing!! United played Villa yesterday and for the 3rd game in a row with playing very poorly. We scored first but Villa were 2-1 up with about 10 minutes to go. Then Ronaldo, who had a poor game, scored an equaliser and it was all set for a great end to the game.

Federico “Kiko” Macheda, who had come on for Nani, had been lively with some nice touches. However, 3 minutes into the 5 minutes of injury team he got the ball from Giggs, turned brilliantly and curled the ball in the far corner!

With the angle of the TV cameras you could see perfectly the path of the ball curling in. Brilliant!! This was his first 1st team apparence and hes only made a few reserve team apparences. I read an article about him in mid-week being very good and may get a chance yesterday with all the injuries/suspensions we have. (He scored a hat-trick in midweek).

If we lost (or drew) yesterday I think with Liverpool’s momentum they would have been favourites for the title. Its still going to be tight I think and we are still playing poorly but hopefully this will be a springboard to some better performances.

Heres the goal (and celebrations):

Heres a post match interview (along with Gary Neville)

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Football – its rubbish!!

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

I wasnt going to blog about this but what the hell.

Recently United have been playing terrible and its just getting worse and worse. First there was the humiliation of losing 4-1 to Liverpool. Then last weekend we lost 2-0 to Fulham. However, it was more the performance than the result which really hurt. Dont get me wrong, I dont like at all losing 2-0 to Fulham but we played really really bad. Properly the worse I have ever seen United play. The first half we just kept giving the ball away. I was worried when we started with just Berbatov (and Ronaldo) upfront. Berbatov is not the type of player to chase upfront etc.

Pretty much everyone was terrible. The only players who have slight positives (only slightly) were Van Der Sar and properly Park. If the result wasnt bad enough we had 2 players sent off. The 1st red card was for Scholes who handled the ball in the penalty box. It was a good saved actually but I think it was just an automatic reaction but he had to go. The 2nd one was more controversial. It happened right at the end of the game and Rooney threw the ball “towards” the ref. I think (but not sure) that Rooney grabbed the ball and threw it fast and hard towards Johnny Evans back towards the half way line (from the penalty area) to quickly get the game restarted. However it did go close to the ref and I think the ref thought Rooney was aiming for him (although the ball did go straight to Evans feet). When Rooney was given the ref he was shocked but then did his usual Rooney rant and stump etc. On the way off the pitch he punched the corner flag.

Check it out yourself your and see what you think.

Either way United at the moment are playing really bad. Ronaldo has gone back to his 1st season performance (but worse) by falling over all the time, pleading at the ref. He has been caught a few times but because hes moaning all the time the refs are not giving him anything.

The last 2 games have resulted in: 3 red cards, 1 goal scored, 6 goals conceded, 0 points! (We are still a point and a game ahead of Liverpool).

It is not the international break – which may be a good thing?? Gives the players rest, time to think and re-group. However they may want to get the play Premierleague game ASAP (against Villa) and get the terrible performances out of their head. It was also slow down the momentum for Liverpool who have had a great couple of weeks.

Just showed how important some players are. Gerrard has played really well recently and so have Liverpool. Ronaldo has been poor and so have United.

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