Did any Man Utd or City fans miss this game? If you did, oh well, go watch it again even though you already know the score line! Fantastic game. Arguably one of the most exciting matches I've watched. It certainly ranks up there together with 3-2 Juventus game and the 2-1 Bayern Munich Champions League Final.
Well, the defenses of both sides were horrible! But I guess thats what it takes to have a 7 goal derby thriller eh... Actually watched the highlights over and over again and man, what a great match it was and I have so much to comment about each of the individual players.
Tevez? Whose Tevez? Well, no doubt he was a pest to Ben Foster, but if Van Der Sar was the one between the sticks, wouldn't that mean that Tevez's contribution was rather menial? His a Striker, and a striker needs to score. Given that beautiful chance of hitting the net, he hit the post instead! I guess that is why Fergusan hesitated to sign Tevez. When you are about to sell someone like Ronaldo, you need a goal scorer, someone who finishes. Tevez clearly does not have a very good finishing, all he has is stamina and energy to run around, in which we already have in Park Ji Sung and Rooney. Anyway, it was great to see the Man Utd fans booing at Tevez because he deserved it. His just a hypocrite.
Rooney is certainly in fine goalscoring form and if he keeps playing and scoring like that, he can easily cover up for the missing goals by Ronaldo. Rooney is my favourite Man Utd striker after Cantona and I always say, Rooney gives me the excitement as much as Cantona did whenever he had the ball, I always knew something great was gonna happen.
Berbatov.. arh.... You know, I'm actually an admirer of Dimitar Berbatov's skill. His one touch, hold up play and team work is great. His ability to hold the ball and pass it to another team mate is great as well. He has the skills, he has the legs, but you know what I think he lacks? Luck... He scored against Wigan... yeah.. when will he score against a big side? If he scores rarely this season, I'll say, lets give Macheda the chance. =)
From this match, I can deduce 1 thing about Ben Foster... He may be a good goalkeeper, but he is nowhere near on replacing Van Der Sar. In all the matches he has played this season, he perfomed well again Wigan, Birmingham, Tottenham... but in matches against Chelsea and Man City, he sucked. What can I say? Unlike Fletcher, Ben Foster isn't the player who savour the big games. Fergie should start looking for Van Der Sar's replacement and probably hold on the Kucszak in the mean time!
Fletcher reminds me of the Paul Scholes of young. Low profile, not anytime the fan's favourite but always showing up in the big games and scoring the kind of goals I call "ghosting" goals. Like Paul Scholes, he will stay out of the box and pop into the box to guide in a header into the net whenever a cross comes in. In this occasion, he scored 2, courtesy of 2 Giggs cross. Fletcher may lack the skills of the killer pass of Scholes, but he certainly can tackle better, if not, at least tackle without being caught! HA! =P
It was nice to see Man Utd passing the ball around neatly in the final third, but after letting in 2 goals, the pass from Rio Ferdinand was horrible in the last minute! For a moment, I was trying to deceive myself into believe that it wasn't Rio, it was Anton Ferdinand. But reality is such. We haven seen Rio Ferdinand made many mistakes, but this one was mistake which could have been a nightmare if not for Owen.
And oh boy, I was about to stand up and leave for the gents when extra time when into 95th minute. I thought it was over until there was a free kick and I thought, why not just sit down for awhile more and see what happens. Free Kick taken, wasted, ball thrown back into the box and somehow fell to Giggs in the middle of the pitch and tadah! A defense splitting through ball to Owen who gladfully took this perfect opportunity to finish the game and become Man Utd's new hero! (Try learning that Tevez!). Our new no. 7 may not be in the starting line up, but with his scoring touches like this, he may well be our next baby face assassin! Owen may not have been doing very well at Newcastle, but with players like Giggs around him, he'll certainly be smiling more often than he used to and very soon, he'll be on his way to South Africa with England!
My favourite player of the game? Ryan Giggs... Did anyone mention that he is now 35 years of age? I actually dont' believe that is is 35. I think he is deceiving the whole world, he is actually 25. What does he eat for meals? Energizer batteries? This veteran never seem to die out of energy. People who don't really know Giggs might think he is a goalkeeper. Being a midfielder requires a whole lot of stamina and physique and Giggs even though at 35, has it all. Only Goalkeepers remain at the top of their game at ages like 35 but for Giggs, he doesn't seem to care. With 2 excellent crosses for both Fletcher's goal as well as an excellent pass to Owen, one you'll see from the likes of Scholes, can anyone name me someone else more fitting of the Man of the Match award? My personal MoM is Giggsy!
Oh yeah, my thumbs up for Bellamy, who took advantage of Sloppy defending from the devils and finishing with 2 beautiful goals. If not for Owen scoring to help the team in Red win, I wouldn't have taken the time to erm hm.... admire your goals (not your character though!).
And just for anyone who wondered what was the significance of Sir Alex Ferguson's substitution in the 93'rd minute? Well, if anyone would like to call it other stuffs, personally, I call it a saint's judgement. It was a soothsayer's substition. One which bought Ferguson 30 seconds in addition to 1 min from Bellamy's celebraton, and the 30 seconds in which Owen scored the goal in the last of it. It was as though he visionalized Owen scoring in the last second and used his final card to buy that 30 seconds for Owen to win the game for United.
To win the Premier League, you need luck! And from this Match, Man Utd had plenty of skills plus luck. City? They had some luck, but ran out of it. =P
This will be a very interesting season!
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