Manchester United 1 – Chelsea 1

It’s the final whistle after a 3 minutes added time, and two giants, Manchester United and Chelsea, shared a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. United led through a brilliant goal from Saha, although Ronaldo could’ve sealed the victory early in the second half, only to snatch at it. The miss along with another half-chance from Heinze’s cross on the left apparently came to haunt United when Ricardo Carvalho headed an equalizer on the 70th minute. United clearly dictated the play from the width of the field throughout the first half although Chelsea clearly taken the initiatives from the midfield throughout the second half.

A couple of notes from the game :

+ I would’ve hoped that Ferguson made a substitution midway through the 2nd half when Chelsea clearly were controlling the midfield while United is up 1-0. Putting Fletcher for Saha would put another body in the midfield, and Giggs could be playing in a withdrawn role, while that would give Saha a breather for the next game.

+ Did Saha somehow headed the ball into his own net? The replay TV somehow suggested that might be the case although it could’ve been just a slight touch.

As a United fan, I’m clearly disappointed that we are not leading by 6 points at the end, although as a football fan, it was an impressive game for both sides, high tempo, frenetic, full of passion and energy with an absolutely amazing atmosphere. As one football commentators indicated, at the end, the winner is football. I couldn’t agree more.

Showdown at Old Trafford

In a few hours, Manchester United will kick-off one of the most important game of their season, at home against Chelsea with 3 points advantage in the Premiership. Both teams are off from a 0-1 lost in the Champions League in midweek, although the loss had more destructing effect on United’s campaign rather than that of Chelsea. Nevertheless, Manchester United form in the league this season has been brilliant, even when things went wrong, the team still managed to find a way to score the winning goal. That is what made them a little different from the sub-par team during the last couple of years. They are more determined … and they seems to have reasons to fight.

On the other hand, Chelsea team of superstars are just doing the minimum things to get them, well winning 1-0 against West Ham last week, and a few others games which they just won it without any impressive diplay given the strength and depth of their roster. Having said that, any manager would bark back at you with that comments with that what matter is 3 points at the end of day. Point taken. Couldn’t be more true, but in the context of football mangement, and totally NOT in the context of supporters … football fanatics. You probably could ask Johan Cruyff.

Two teams with momentums given different type of mentality, and with the English Premiership title is once again up for grabs for anyone else besides Chelsea, that’s why this is one of the biggest match for the Premiership heading into a hectic festive season. If United could extend the lead to 6 points, it would be the first time since 2003 –coincidentally that’s the last year of Beckham’s playing days at Old Trafford –the Red Devils have a real shot at the league title, once again. That would also signal to the rest of the Premiership teams that Chelsea is not afterall invincible. Well, of course the story could be totally different if Chelsea came out with a stunning victory just like what Arsenal did earlier this season without Thierry Henry.

mindcubes’ prediction

Rooney, when he’s on top form, has been able to perform huge on big games, either for Manchester United or for England. This will be no different, especially watching him in the last few league games, and with Saha looking tired, Rooney would be pivotal to United, as well as for Scholes and Carrick to continue performing the type of one-two touch passing game that Eric Cantona would be so proud to see. Giggs has shown that age is not a barrier to play at the highest level in the Premierhsip, and his assists would be crucial in this game, as well as for Ronaldo to continue his much improved form this season, albeit his needs to improve on his finishing touch. At the back , van der Sar needs to be on top of his game with Vidic continually becoming one of the best defenders that United have had in the past few years along with captain Neville ensuring a fine display as a wing back. United is alive again this season, and Chelsea would be able to taste what Bolton, Portsmouth, Liverpool, and Newcastle have experienced this season, that is United is back. And back with style.

UNITED 2 – CHELSEA 0

What’s Up with AC Milan?

The 1-2 lost at home to Roma over the last weekend marked the 4th successive defeat of AC Milan in the Serie A Italian league, although not that that many people these days care too much about that league any longer ever since the blown-up bribery case that has demolited Juventus to the Serie B and severe penalty point punishment to Milan, Lazio, Fiorentina, and Reggina.

It’s rather strange to see how that would happen to Milan who has virtually unchanged team except for the high-profile move of Shevchenko to Chelsea just before the start of the World Cup. They still have Gilardino, who played pretty well last year, and the return of both Pirlo and Gattuso from their glorious World Cup, as well as Real Madrid’s ever wanted man, Kaka. And here’s more discomforting stats, they’ve lost to Atalanta and Palermo, although the latter is now sitting at the summit of Serie A table, even more suprisingly.

In the Champions’ League though Milan is almost sure to go through to the next round, after being admitted to the competittion at the 11th hour –due to UEFA’s inability to find enough evidence and precedence to suspend them from the competition due to the bribery case, and apparently they were pretty lucky to be drawn in a very weak group along AEK Athens, Anderlecht, and Lille after a hard-fought win against Crvena Zvezda in the qualifying stage. Nonetheless, Kaka’s performance has been pretty sparkling in this competition, and with their strong history, the Champions’ League seems to be the only chance for AC Milan to add to their silverware after a disappointing exit from last year’s semifinal to the eventual winner Barcelona –although note that Shevchenko’s goal during the 2nd leg is valid as Puyol just threw himself into the ground. Nonetheless, football is football. Referee is human, and only with video replay can things like this be resolved, although I don’t really understand why FIFA strongly rejects this proposal. Today is the year of 2006, the football field is that huge, and with a referee and two aged linesmen, how would it be possible that football still doesn’t leverage technology?

Back to the original story, with almost a third of the season already gone, and Milan is now at 16th on the league table, it’s probably time for Ancelotti to give more playing time to Yoann Gourcuff, who is dubbed to be the next Zidane after a sparkling performance in the French league for a couple of years. Watching some of his clips, that claim is understandable as his moves, posture, and playing style does show some reminiscent of Zidane, although I don’t think there will be anyone can replace Zidane, just as no one can ever replace Platini. It would be interesting to see how well he’ll grow at Milan, especially with the fact that Serie A these days has been lack of stars compared with the Premiership, an ever decreasing stadium attendance, and with the bribery case has just set the final damage, the Federation probably need to do something to restore their once brilliant league with necessary actions, and so does AC Milan. They need to step out of this zone to get back to their old self, winning.

Brilliant Saha maintained United’s lead

A well-struck goal by Louis Saha on the 64th minute fired Manchester United back to 3 points clear of Chelsea –who had crushed Watford 4-0 earlier– at the top of the Premiership table.  It started from a deep cross from John O’Shea on the right flank which was cut superbly by Giggs back across the goal for Saha to smash the ball back into the roof of the net.  It was a goal well deserved for United, who have controlled the majority of the match, and despite heavy rain and winds in the beginning of the match have played beautifully flowing football throughout the first half and created two clear cut chances which were wasted by Rooney.  Ferguson jumped euphorically right after the goal, and that was understandble, knowing it would be a tricky night for the visitor while referee Mike Riley hasn’t helped the cause by calling a few questionable calls, such as a non-yellow card for a reckless challenge by Tugay during the first half on Ronaldo, and a non-advantage play when Ronaldo escaped a foul to setup a beautiful one-two with Rooney, and a penalty claims when Saha was brought down just before break.

Nevertheless, United stood firm, and despite the late scare from Blackburn when van der Sar needed to be at his best to denied Benni McCarthy twice.  United were the better side, and they deserved to win, although credit to Blackburn for fighting the lives throughout the game, and they nearly came away with a point if it were not for a determined and gutsy performance by the whole United team. It was hard-fought win, and Chelsea can now even smell the instinct that United is the main force this year, and they will recognize that truly at the end of the season.  BRILLIANT and FIGHT ON UNITED!!!

mindcubes’ ratings:

van der Sar (8) : the Dutch international captain once again proves to be the difference by holding firm to the late surge by Blackburn.

Neville (7): Solid first half performance, although injury has forced him to be replaced by O’Shea.

Vidic (8): Another great performance by Vidic, who provided a number of important interceptions.

Ferdinand (6.5): Looks shaky at times, and a few misunderstanding with O’Shea towards the end of the game nearly provided Blackburn with their much-needed set-play.

Evra (6.5): Strong in the second half although a few missed tackles at the end almost proves to be disaster

Scholes (8): Brilliant touches on the ball, dictates the midfield throughout the game

Carrick (8): Solid performance, timely tackle, and was brilliant in breaking and sending in long passes

Giggs (9): Man of the Match, fought tirelessly througout the game, and his assist proves to be the only difference separating the two sides

Ronaldo (8.5): Amazing runs, take on defenders with no fear, and most of the times, beat them easily.  If he could improve on his finishing, Ronaldo will be at Old Traffford for a very very long time.

Rooney (7): Solid game, strong holding up balls and possessions, although missing a few chances might’ve cost United on another day

Saha (8.5): Strong, take on defenders, nice touches, and just in the right time at the right place to smash home Giggs’ cut.

O’Shea (7.5): Provided the much needed flair at the right flank, initiated the goal, although there were a couple of misunderstanding with Ferdinand at the back towards the end of the game

Silvestre (7): Came in with strong legs and better aerial coverage for a slowing Evra

Fletcher (6): Came in for only a couple of minutes for the limping Ronaldo

Manchester United @ Blackburn Rovers

In a little over an hour, Manchester United will be playing Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. It’s a tricky encounter for United especially with Mark Hughes’ records of never lost to his old boss, Sir Alex and the memorable double completed by the Rovers last season with a 2-1 win and 4-3 win at Old Trafford and Ewood Park respectively.

Sir Alex, still in the glory of celebrating 20 years in charge, has mentioned that he’ll be naming the same team that beat Bolton and Portsmouth convincingly in the past couple of weeks. That means we can expect to see Giggs and Ronaldo at both flanks, with Carrick and Scholes directing in midfield. Saha will continue his good run up-front with Rooney while Vidic and Ferdinand at the back started to form great partnership similar to the days of Bruce and Pallister. As usual, Gary Neville will be the captain with Evra claiming the spot on the left back and van der Sar at the goal. Expect the game to be high tempo with Brad Friedl –Rovers’ American goalie to be at his best.

mindcubes’ longtail … I don’t see United losing three times in a row to the same team, and with both Sir Alex and Scholes picking up Manager and Player of the Month Award for October respectively, it’s a perfect match for Manchester United to bounce back from the humiliating defeat during midweek to Southend. Scholes, will be the key playmaker in the midfield with Vidic producing anoter stellar performance and Carrick scores his first goal for United. ROVERS 0 – UNITED 2.

fdisk

Tonight will be the night … for me to recover my Linux partition after a disaster last week during my attempt to re-create an initrd after I recompiled my kernel for AGP support. Somehow I forgot to create the initrd, rebooted the harddisk, only later when I created the initrd I was prompted the error that the /lib/modules/… wasn’t a directory. So, here’s what I did: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=1022k count=1000 … that last part is a laughing stock!! Effectively the first GB of my hard-disk is wiped out, and I’m hoping now that with my Fedora Core Rescue CD and a surprisingly kept cylinder information on my hard-disk partition, I would be able to recover some of my data with fdisk.

Finger crossed, and I’ll post more on this later for the after-effects.

It’s All Over Steelers!

The Broncos (6-2) effectively ended Steelers’ season by sending them to a 2-6 records, piling on the misery that they have this season, not too long after the Steelers effectively ended the Broncos hope of going back to the Big One by punishing them from a number of turnovers in the AFC Championsip Game early this year.

In a game where the Steelers have 8 fumbles, yes, no kidding, 8 fumbles, the Broncos showed why they should be respected a little more than what they’ve been shown in the past couple of years. Champ Bailey had 2 picks, Javon Walker had a huge game with a little over 200 yards for both rushing and receiving, and Plummer had 3 TDs passes of which a couple went to Walker and one to the all-time favorite, Rod Smith. The AFC has been a tough division during the past few years, and with 2-6, even winning the next ten games won’t guarantee a playoff spot for the Steelers, and in today’s NFL games, winning 10 games in a row is no less equal to impossible.

Bitter Sweet Symphony

Only in a span of a few days on the celebrations of the 20 years in charge, yes, it’s no joke that in today’s age, especially in the world of football motivated by money and arguably abused by the power of the rich, Sir Alex Ferguson tasted two sides of football that were the very reason why that game is the most popular in this planet, ecstasy and despair.

Ecstasy when Manchester United played one of the best game they’ve played in a very long time, a free flowing full of beautiful passes against a Sol Campbell-less Portsmouth team, winning 3-0 in the way, in a game where United could’ve scored 6 or 7 easily. Brilliant, and with the addition of Chelsea surprisingly lost to Hotspors, United is now at the summit of the Premiership table with 3 points clear and huge goal difference.

Despair, when in a span of two days, they also made another headlines, not for a very good reason when Southend, yes, it’s Southend, the other side of the summit of the other side of the league, the Championship has thrown one of the biggest surprise this season by de-throning them from the League Cup, with Rooney, Ronaldo, Heinze, O’Shea and Silvestre –5 full-internationals all in the starting line-ups from the very first minute. What a difference a couple of days made to the dressing room and the whole 20-years thing, although having said that, Sir Alex did show his class by praising highly the spirited Southend side that landed themselves in the last eight of the competition.

Two games, two results, two sides of the world of emotions, all for nothing but one world, it’s the passion of football.

The Past Week and so …

Oh well here I am again, missing for the whole week and come back with a little recap of my life, my interests, and my thoughts for the week.  Not something that I plan to do continuously, but lately I’ve been caught up with a lot of stuff.  Anyway, I’ll post them up as a few entries now.  Enjoy !!