Football (Soccer)

[admin]

Just watched the game. We played pretty well until we scored from a (somewhat dubious) penalty. After we get to 1-0, we seem to stop playing and just try and settle for the narrow win. Mind you, that was only the 30th minute, so it's no surprise we drew, and could have very well (and probably should have) lost.

It's all psychological...

I wonder what teams we'll be playing in the UEFA cup

[Oriphus]

Gilberto is a big loss for Arsenal. Arsenal looked good for the first 1/3 of the match. The penalty was extremely dubious, but things like that happen. It was put away fantastically by Theiry Henry and Arsenal looked comfortable.

However, within minutes, Arsenal seemed to change. The seem to give the ball away more, not have the same composure, especially at the back, and looked a lot less comfortable. The penalty awarded against Arsenal was a clear example of this. Poor defending in my book.

After the penalty was missed (God knows what he was thinking of after missing 3 years ago in the same ground at the same end) i thought that Arsenal would go on to finsih them up. There was some excellent individual play by Arsenal, at certain times for short periods, but they never looked comfortable.

You cant blame Cygan for the own goal. He did try and get a head to it, though it was a weak effort. I personally feel the blame should lie with Pires. Why is the widest left-winger on the pitch, right smack-bang in the middle when defending? Who did he think was going to be on the wing? I think thats why you see him really making an effort to try and close him down, too late of course.

Arsenal couldve been 2-1 down by that stage. But then again, they could have been 2-2 or even 2-1 up themselves. When Reyes came on he looked good. His first shot was amazing and his folow up was extremely well hit. My opinion - very very unlucky. He shouldve scored no doubt about it.

It seems that Arsenal, with their fancy footwork and individual playing skills, cannot seem to adjust to the Champions League. At the same time, it seems that United have adjusted quite well to it, at times, but at the minute cant get their head around the Premiership. Maybe both our teams will start to perform in both, we certainly have the players.

Im looking forward to tonight. im expecting a win, with RvN to score first.

[admin]

It gets from bad to worse. First Arsenal draw a winnable game, then Bush wins and now a big victory for United. If you need me, I'll be holed up in my bunker...

[Oriphus]

lol - it does look bad from your perspective. I couldnt believe that Bush won either, but i guess look at his opponent, not the best of people either - looks like a twat if you ask me.

United's win was fabulous. At times we looked like we could struggle, but over all it was an excellent performance. Who is it that ever says RvN doesnt perform sometimes. Thats 7 goals in the last 4 games i believe. He could have had more than four today as well. Really good result for us. A couple of great saves stopped us going even further ahead, especailly Ronaldo's.

If i think about it, though its silly to think on these terms, but....If Heinze's goal went in, RvN scored his potential 5, and Rooneys shot hadnt been saved. We couldve been looking at a 7-1 scoreline. But, 4-1 is still excellent.

[admin]

There was a story yesterday at one of Kerry's rallies, a 16 year old kid went up to him and told him that he had donated $1,000 to Kerry even though he wasn't old enough to vote yet. Kerry responded that he wanted to give the kid something back, so he took off his expensive silk tie and gave it to the kid. I think that says a lot about what kind of President Kerry would have made.

4 more wars it is then ... hope the UK doesn't get dragged along into them, although Ashley Cole and Jermaine Pennant would probably make fine soldiers

[Oriphus]

Haha - they probably would - take along Phil Neville as well, and add in RvN for some behind the scenes action lol. Yeah, Kerry just isnt a man i couldve warmed too. Bush has more character to him, but is still not someone i like. The Americans really need to elect a genuine president one of these days. Someone like the John F Kennedys of today.

On another point, my Real Betis are struggling a bit at the minute. We only managed a draw at the weekend there. We need a victory over Albecete to try and get us from 15th place (11 points) up into the top 10. A team like Betis should really be playing UEFA Cup football. If we finish less than 6th this year, ill be disappointed. Also, River Plate are in 3rd, one point behind Boca Juniors in 2nd at the min. Only 14 games played, but im really hoping we can go on a winning streak. The last match was against Boca, which was 2-2 draw - decent result for both sides.

[admin]

It's certainly Nasty Novemberâ„¢ again. Oh well, we could always try and win the FA Cup when it starts in January

[Oriphus]

A poor result today for United. However, we played through the park really well. We deserved something from it as we really completely outplayed City for long periods of time. In saying that, they did defend exceptionally well, better than i thought they would. A couple of penalty shouts in the first half and one in the second. I think one of them was probably a penalty, but in fairness, the referee did well.

Its a pity Smith got sent off though - he really was very commited through-out, thats why he eventually went,

Arsenal have slipped up again now - Crystal Palace - oh dear. Well, although Chelsea are not top and clear, i still think that the premiership title is no where near decided. Its only a third through the season - we are 9 points behind Arsenal and 11 or so behind Chelsea i think. 4 or 5 draws for Chelsea and Arsenal, and a lot of performances like we had today, except this time with goals and ill be a happy fella.

[admin]

I think we played well against Palace, probably should have won, but we weren't as good as we could be. Our midfield hasn't been clicking lately, in particular Vieira. Pires doesn't look like the same player he was last season either. I hope van Persie can get more game time, since he was great when he came on and nearly scored.

[Oriphus]

I heard a comment from a United fan saying that Roy Keane is no longer the player he was and in fact, because he isnt getting up and down the pitch like he used to, he isnt as influential. I was wondering your opinion on this. I personally think that Roy adds another dimension to the game. Ok, if you look at a lot of his passing, he tends to slow things down at times and play a game of keep ball. Then, other times he would feed in amazing balls that should end up leading to goals. He is amazing as a defensive midfielder and susually stops any advance coming his way. I think that he is still the key player in our team. His control of the ball i think is absolutely amazing at times.

I think Arsenal are going through a difficult stage at the minute. All teams do it. Look at us. We completely hammered Man City of the pitch, yet we couldnt score. True champions would have scored maybe 3 or 4 goals out of the chances we had. I was disappointed with Saha. He was off-side in so many situations when there was no need, especially with his pace. He also missed two great opportunites, one right at the end. Ronaldo was fairly ineffective, mainly because when he had beaten a player, he seemed to stop, & try and beat them again. If he had just gotten in a few more earlier crosses we would have been fine. I was also disappointed with Ryan Giggs' miss, not with his performance. He did everything right in my mind, he just try to be too particular in placing the ball in that bottom left corner as we look at it & it ended up as side netting.

We have played 12 games each, exactly one third of the way through the season. We can still win the premiership, even with an 11 point deficit at the minute. We need the other teams in the premiership to be up for all of their games, the same way they always seem to be really up for games against the big two, Arsenal and Man Utd. I dont think teams play as well against Chelsea as the want to against us, though that could be changing with their current position.

By Christmas time, id be happy to be within 6 points of the top, even happier to have it around 3 points. We will come back, maybe not win it, but we will be top 3 again. I hope that we continue to gel in the Champions League - if we could win it, it would make the premiership struggle less of a problem...

[admin]

What a performance by our under-21 team, against a full strength, on form, Everton first team. By all accounts, Everton played well, but there is just no stopping Quincy and Lupoli. Lupoli (from the same Parma setup as Man United's Rossi, both bought to England at the same time) has scored 12 goals in 10 reserve games, 3 in 2 under-17 games and now 2 in 2 Carling Cup games. He scored something like 40 goals in 20 games back in Italy. And his only 17!! This guy knows how to score goals, that's for sure. I think this shows what having no psychological pressure can do for a team - I think our first team would have lost today.

And Quincy is just special - one of the best young Dutch talents available.

[Oriphus]

United v Arsenal RA Cup next round sounds like it could be fun lol.

Also, looks like Glazer wont be taking over UNited. JP Morgan who were backing him financially, have pulled out of the deal because he vetoed the opportunity to vote back in Maurice Watkins as a Director, along with 2 others.

[admin]

It's been a surprisingly hard league cup campaign for us this season - all top half prem teams. Should be a good match.

[Oriphus]

What a good game that 9 goal Arsenal winner was. It shows the Arsenal defence up quite a bit, as well as the Spurs one, but it was very enjoyable to watch.

Pity Arsenal won it though

[admin]

I missed the first half because I got the time wrong (stupid time zones and day light savings), but it appears I still managed to catch all the action. I think the defences of both teams weren't as bad as the scoreline suggests, I doubt we will let in 4 goals frequently, and neither will Spurs with 5 (remember this is the same team that denied Chelsea a goal away from home). Ledley King had horrible game yesterday, almost comical at times, but I don't think he is a bad player. The same with Toure. It's probably just a crazy derby game, like when Man City beat you 4-1 and 3-1 last season.

But even though we won't concede 4 goals normally, we still do concede the 1 or 2, and in the last few league and CL games, this has meant draws. The problem is that it's hard to see who is at fault, because there is not a single person you can blame (maybe Vieira, in the last few games where we conceded, he was sort of at fault for the goals), and this is pretty much the same defence that was best in the league last season. Perhaps Cesc is a bit light in the defensive department, and that's why Vieira is failing to carry all the defensive responsibility. I would like to see Flamini get a run, since he is much better defensively, and older as well.

Still, this is the first time we've won at White Hart Lane in quite a few seasons, and even last season, with our amazing defensive record, we only managed 2-2 after going 2-0 ahead (still won the league there though). A good win IMO.