That’s Why We’re Champions!

Holding a 1-0 victory away to City with 10 men; scoring a 92nd minute winner to take a justified 3 points. It’s not pretty, but these are the results of champions.

The stats against the Black Cats are thoroughly lopsided: 31 total shots, 8 shots on target, 10 corners to 1, and 72% possession. The game felt like once United scored, the damn would burst, and yet, once the game reached that odd tipping-point in the second half, when the defenders gain confidence and the attackers get an edgy, self-fulfilling frustration, the game-winner seemed like the goal-too-far. This became especially true after Ronaldo went off injured in the 68th minute and took our main width-threat, outside of Rafael, with him.

That’s why Vidic’s winner is so important.

When you look back at Premier League titles, certain games will stand out as critical, season-defining results – O’Shea nicking a result at Anfield immediately comes to mind. Last week against City and today against Sunderland stand out precisely because we persevered. We held defensive composure short-handed against City. We held our belief and prevailed against eleven-behind-the-ball-dumb-luck and ourselves, our own frustrations today.

When you look ahead at our schedule, it’s absolutely imperative that our point-gap doesn’t grow before heading to the FIFA Club World Cup. Regardless of games in-hand, larger point gaps do, I firmly believe, apply more psychological pressure on the club making up ground, especially if the chased don’t readily drop points.

Again, that’s why today mattered sooooo much.

Next up we look forward to the annually-entertaining trip to White Hart Lane, where 5-3 victories and away supporters chanting “You’ll never beat O’Shea!” (after Johnny tackled Spurs break-away attempt while filling in for the injured Van Der Sar during a 4-0 victory) spring to mind. Lovely, lovely memories indeed.

One final comment about watching today’s match at the usual haunt, The Local.

Several Liverpool supporters stayed around the bar after their less-than-convincing victory over Blackburn to watch United versus Sunderland. You always had the feeling the Scousers would head home, or another bar, immediately after United scored, knowing the inevitable result would go against their wishes. They stayed around however to full-time to jeer United at another TV within earshot of us, growing louder and louder as the game progressed. Needless to say that Vidic’s goal provided a double-benefit today: a cathartic-release and a sense of entitled schadenfreude.

Ah, the delight. Right back at you Merseysiders: Campiones! Campiones! Ole! Ole! Ole!

Word of the Day: Tight

Amongst the numerous definitions of "tight" on Dictionary.com, such as “closely constrained or constricted”; “affording little or no extra room; fittingly closely, especially too closely”, the obvious-choice today is “closely contested; a tight match” as in United 0 - Villa 0.

Maybe I could have chosen “wasteful” as the word, but “tight” best describes both the game and the United supporters’ tension yearning for a goal that wouldn’t come.

I don’t know why, but for some reason, the game’s flow caught me off-guard. Somewhere in my brain I suspected Villa might open up and attack United with full force, especially after last weekend’s comprehensive victory over Arsenal. There were hidden expectations for breathtaking back-and-forth action in the football compartment of my mind.

But in retrospect, Martin O’Neill’s disciplined, counter-attacking football shouldn’t surprise us, given the flashbacks from Nam he must relive when conjuring up tactics for United, especially after a 14-match loosing stretch. Give full credit to Villa for keeping shape and fully earning their point today.

Looking back now, there are two primary observations about this match for United moving forward.

First, United sorely miss Berbatov, as Rooney and Tevez lacked form and understanding today. Both players need to check their natural tendencies to always retreat for the ball and ensure that somebody pushes forward. Today, their temptation to come back too far, too often was exacerbated by inconsistent ball-winning and creativity from central midfield. United didn’t have a consistent presence pressing Villa’s center-halves today, which made defending everything else much easier.

Second, the Ferdinand-and-Vidic-wall returned from exodus this week. Hallelujah, brother! Both were brilliant - they didn’t have a single, solitary misstep the entire match against the speedy Young and Agbonlahor. It’s an absolute delight watching them make a demanding position look relatively easy. Hopefully, this trend continues.

Looking to next weekend now, let’s hope United saved the word “champions” for City, where Rooney takes his golden chance late and the away supporters get to sing “That’s why we’re champions!”

Ah, what a lovely vision indeed, and besides, no blue moons are forecast anyway. Here's to beating the Middle Eastlanders. Cheers!

Stoke Match: Viva Ronaldo

"Running down the wing" perhaps should be "Line up the set piece king, hear United sing 'Viva Ronaldo'". Oh the joy in a comfortable, dominating performance.

Granted, Stoke are brutal, which only confirms the fall from grace (top 4) for Wenger-worshipers. At our pub, each time Villa scored a group or United supporters ran down to the other TV screen and confirmed the Gooner-misery - an added benefit in a very easy Saturday morning stateside.

My only disappointment now is not having much time for commentary here. I'll simply do my job with echos of Viva Ronaldo playing in my mind for days to come. Can't wait for the Villa match. Cheers Ronnie! Congrats on 101.

Arsenal Match: Always Look on the Bright Side of Life

Not even memories from Monty Python improve the mood here. What an utterly frustrating performance, and from blogging perspective, I’m peeved that the title “Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda” got used up last week because it’s more apt today. This one is so disappointing on so many levels – let me count the ways.

First, we won’t even worry about the missed opportunities, as they shouldn’t concern the truly discerning United fan the least right know – we know that this worm will turn, especially for Rooney when he relaxes after finally netting his 100th for the club.

Second, the midfield spine has gone missing. With our wide midfield so far up the pitch, it places a tremendous burden on the two central midfielders. Carrick, Fletcher, and Anderson haven’t been up to the challenge lately – not enough bite, shape, and composure in our half of the pitch. Too many times you saw midfielders backing off a dribbling Gunner. You must close them down, and if they get by, foul if absolutely necessary. Space came way too cheaply today, as you need to make Arsenal at least think you’ll pinch them from time to time.

Third, we witnessed more keystone cops from our back line, and now, Van Der Saar decided to get into the act, appearing nervous and tentative. Did anyone else wonder if he was Fulham in disguise today?! What a useless punch straight to the penalty spot. And, did anyone else feel a curse descend upon Rio after being tagged with “best in the world” by pundits? Arrrggggghhhh...

Last and most gut-wrenching, both United and Mr. Captain-extraordinaire must realize that Gary-the-Red can’t keep pace with top-half Premiership football, let alone critical Champions League matches. It’s bittersweet watching Rafael blossom into our future right-back while feeling that the Gary Neville testimonial may be coming all too soon - he's not the same player anymore by leaps and bounds.

Even with these frustrations and concerns this game could have easily been a draw, 3-2 or even 4-2. Our attaching football should strike fear into any club in the world, and on a given day, we can score in droves. And we can take solace from the reflection that we’ve got our away matches out of the way against Liverpool, Chelsea, and Arsenal. We relish the rematches at Old Trafford. We trust in SAF’s ability to take us on our customary run of form yet this campaign.

Remember: always look on the bright side of life.

Hull Match: Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda

United throttle Hull by six or seven goals on a different day, but with the current form of both squads, a 4-3 result makes some strange sense. Give Hull full credit for playing their tails off and making things nervy, but it should never-ever come down to a one-goal margin.

This is getting repetitive and irritating: we feel the joy from tremendous attacking football mixed-in with troublesome defensive gaffes, and now, abject-poor tracking back during the final 20 minutes. This blog entry could easily been named “Tale of Two Halves, Part 3” (see the previous two posts). Frustration is setting in here.

Looking back a day later, I’m actually quite pleased that Hull came back. Fergie now has abundant ammo to galvanize and sharpen the lads’ concentration and defensive form. You can almost hear Fergie demanding, “You must shut-up shop AND take your chances, boys. We can’t afford these lapses. If you won’t track back, we’ll find someone else who can.” The Hull performance could “shock” us into a serious run in form here.

We’ll take the 3 points and sit in the delightful afterglow of Liverpool’s gut-retching defeat to Spurs. You can just feel a tight, three-team race – sorry Arsenal – to the finish this year. Should make for a wonderful ride.

West Ham Match: Tale of Two Halves, Part 2

What a tremendous display, albeit for 45 minutes.

Again, there’s good movement on and off the ball, with Ronaldo and Nani giving width and speed while striking fear into wide defenders. Tevez and Berbatov – oh, the sublime Berbatov – providing menace up the middle, overlapping, and occasionally swinging wide – a sheer joy to watch.

Again, there’s a let-down in the second half, albeit much less stark this time around.

You can definitely forgive United for letting up on the accelerator for this mid-week encounter, to some degree, but the two significant defensive gaffes – poor off-side trap that allows Boa Morte in alone on Kuszczak, for example – seem troubling. Mind you, the fact that any real defensive lapse seems out-of-character points to the solid partnership across the back-four for much of the past two plus seasons. But this season, these sudden and extreme miscues may become more costly, as you can begin to suspect that it will take 90+ points for the Premiership title. Obviously, we’ll see in the days ahead - these are still early days.

Instead of focusing on “possible” issues, I much prefer to play some of the games more delightful moments over and over again in my head… Tevez’ Gazza-like flick over a defender… Ronaldo and Anderson playfully interchanging back-heel moves… and yes, THAT move by Berbatov to set-up the second.

As Fergie said “I'm going to have to see it again to understand how he [Berbatov] did it," the United manager said. "You'd pay double the money to watch that - fantastic imagination, control and balance." [Daniel Taylor’s Berbatov dazzles for United to help Ronaldo strike back, The Guardian, October 30, 2008]

Thank God this Second Edition has a much happier ending and bea-u-ti-ful weather to match. Wonder what the weather will be like for the Hull match? I truly hate three-quells.

Everton Match Report: Tale of Two Halves

6:07 AM. Damn-it, I’m late.

Thankfully, Ms. Reilly, our fox terrier with a psychic connection to Rooney, as confirmed yet again this week, wakes me after over-sleeping kickoff. Apparently, our hound only wakes me annually for Rooney’s Return to Goodison, as she’d never wake me up for another Premiership match. Good dog, I’ve got an extra Milk Bone for you. Now, the coffee pot is on. Game selected on TiVo. Ah, I’m only a few minutes behind a real-time feed and can catch-up at half. Game on.

8:01 AM. Game over. United 1, Everton 1.

What a wasted opportunity. Now I’m wired, frustrated, and feel a certain aimlessness that comes from watching United loose or draw too early and alone in the morning. I don’t feel like doing anything now. Anything. Activities that’d normally seem appealing on a weekend morning, such as reading the paper, are somehow rendered pointless. My day has gone as gray as the fall weather.

Looking historically, you can’t feel hard-done by a draw away to Everton, but the first-half red-domination seemed ever-so-easy, an absolute delight to watch. Passes pinging around the pitch that created lovely scoring opportunities, constant singing from the United away-supporters and nothing beyond the predictable complaints for Alan Wiley’s refereeing from the Stanely Park blues. The Everton back line looking confused, their paper-thin confidence nearing rupture, and the only question that begged asking is “how many?” not if we will win.

What the hell happened?

My only explanation for this match is that some pagan priestess put a hex on the team defending the Gwladys Street End. That must be it. Every single United backline defender gaffed spectacularly in 45 minutes of play – well, maybe Evra’s clearance-header up the right-attacking-channel was in the first half, but the point’s still made. Well after the match, I’m still gob smacked by Rio’s criminally-slow back-pass pick-off by Yakubu, by Vidic out-jumped for a header-goal, and by Wes Brown getting picked clean on the outside edge after attempting a turn in no-man’s land. A different side on a different day sends us home without any points. Happily Everton’s attack hasn’t jelled yet this season. We’ll take the point and move on, thank you very little.

It’s not the best of times, nor the worst of times – simply the grayest for quite awhile.