Monday, September 21, 2009

Probably the Greatest derby of all time!...Alex Ferguson

This match was shown "live" on Sunday two nights ago. It was a much-anticipated, much -awaited clash between the richest club in the world and the club with one of the largest fan base on the planet...yes, Manchester United at home to their noisy and arrogant ( Alex Ferguson calls them ) neighbours, Manchester City.
What a whopper of a match it turned out to be!
Photo: From BBC sport ...showing the packed stadium at Old Trafford before kick off.

Man Utd won the match 4 -3 in the very last minute of injury time through a Michael Owens' goal.
Photo: From Daily Mirror.Rooney mobbed by his team after scoring the 1st goal in the 2nd minute.

Ferguson said at the end," it's probably the greatest derby of all time but if you ask me to choose between having the greatest derby and winning by a scoreline of 6-0, I'll choose 6-0 anytime".
I suspect many United supporters out there would agree with him especially those who have got weak hearts. It was that kind of match. Rooney gave them the perfect start inside 2 minutes through an Evra pass. He dribbled past 2 defenders and slotted home. But when an innocuous long ball was rolling towards Man Utd keeper Ben Foster, all the defenders left it to him to deal with it. He took his own sweet time sensing no danger around. But Carlos Tevez ( former M U striker) stormed towards him. Instead of kicking the ball away, anywhere would do..Foster chose the wrong option and tried to sidefoot away from Tevez, then dived to grab the ball which he soon lost. Tevez fed Gareth Barry who scored unchallenged.
Horrendous schoolboy error! I have been watching Foster and comparing him to many other of United's former Gks. I think he will not last long as he commits too many rudimentary goalkeeping
errors. He appears indecisive at times and his positioning was way off when Bellamy scored the 3rd MC goal ( that goal would have been saved by Van Der Sar, who is sitting out with an injury ).
If he continues in this fashion at this rate, I doubt he'll be around for the next season.
Fortunately, it was unlikely hero Fletcher who outjumped everyone to head United into a 2-1 lead...from a Gigg's cross.

Photo: BBC Sports.
Fletcher with a stylish header.

But MC responded in grand style when Bellamy sent a rocket that dipped into the corner... 2-2.
From another exquisite Giggs' cross, Fletcher repeated his specialty for the day...a beautiful header for Man U to lead 3-2.

United were only a minute or so from winning the match when Rio Ferdinand had the ball. He pushed it up a little, stopped and then tried to chip over Petrov but failed. Petrov sent a through ball for Bellamy to chase, with an out of breath Rio dying to catch up to no avail. Bellamy cooly slotted home... 3-3!

Mark Hughes was dancing while Ferguson looked like he was about to collapse with a heart attack.
Photo: BBC Sports...Owens in jubilation.
The sign showed added time was 5 minutes but MC took their own sweet time to slow the game down.
Michael Owen had been sent on as the final substitute about 15 minutes. The clock ticking away the precious seconds with the referee looking at his watch. Ryan Giggs had the ball in his own half. He looked up once, spotted Owens to the far left and sent a precise long ball for him to control, dribble and shoot ....GOAL ! GOAL! GOAL! The stadium erupted.
Mark Hughes was livid.
Ferguson was dancing and prancing around.
Shay Given in MC's goal was shell-shocked.
Ben Foster was leaping as he had been given a new lease of life.
As for me...I am mighty glad I saw this unbelievable game which Ferguson aptly described as
" the Greatest derby of all time".



2 comments:

someonespecial said...

Man U is lucky enough. The referee was on their site.

Anyway, you got a great blog. :D

Interesting entries and very informative.

Thank you for sharing your life with us Netizens

Unk Dicko said...

Thanks for the compliments and for visiting. Your point about sharing my life is moot,,,thanks. I can only share when I'm still kicking and my faculties are ok.
Everyone has more than a story or two to tell. So, as I've said to many seniors, why not share it and benefit others.
About football, not only Man Utd, regularly most football bettors and punters LOSE MONEY on the matches they bet. That's because you can NEVER be 100 % certain about whether the Referee or his assistants are 100 % NEUTRAL...to the last second.
So, you may be right here.