WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!

Oh yeah!! Manchester United is the 2006/2007 Barclays English Premier League Champions!!! With Chelsea drawing 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium, United’s lead at 7 points with 2 games remaining has confirmed the end of Chelsea’s bid for a three peat. It’s the astonishing record 9th Premiership crown for Sir Alex Ferguson’s team in the last 15 years he’s taking charge at the club. No none is even near this record, and with United crowned the king again after a 4 years absence –the last Premiership title was in 2003 when they completed the three peats– signals the beginning of another golden era for Ferguson’s team with the likes of Rooney, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Vidic, Ferdinand, Carrick, O’Shea and the influential old guards as Giggsy, Scholesy, and Neville, along with van der Sar providing the vital experience for blending with the exuberance of youth. This is one of the best ever runs for the Premiership and every bit of the game that I’ve supported this season worth it. It was a magnificent season, and we truly deserve it. Congratulations to Sir Alex, every member of the Manchester United teams, to everyone associated with Manchester United, and to every fellow supporters!!! We’ve done it!!!

MAN CITY 0 – MAN UTD 1

VAN DER SAR!!!!!

No doubt it might go down as the league clinching penalty –although if you look at the replay it was never a penalty!! I guess the referee awarded it as a result of pressure from the fans and some comments on United’s penalty “rule”. The good thing though is that is there’s any sign that Mourinho will eat his own words, this will be the season. Yes, United finally was given a penalty against, but oh Mr. Jose, it still doesn’t work. We just don’t accept punishment that we don’t deserve.

The game was a typical English game, lots of tackles, and Michael Ball should be praying thanks to God for not being sent off on his cheap stamping on Ronaldo’s body early in the game. I just don’t understand why he’s shaking his head on the penalty given against him, it was an OBVIOUS ill-timed tackle on Ronaldo. Thumbs up for Ronaldo on converting the penalty flawlessly for his 50th goal for United, sending the goalie to the wrong corner and convincingly smashing the ball to the low corner.

At the end, United deserves to win, they dominated possessions, they took a lead, hang on to it, and City was never able to create any penetration thanks to a solid performance from the returning Vidic-Ferdinand partnership. We are getting so close now, and by tomorrow’s night, United might be back to where they belong if Chelsea didn’t came out of the Emirates Stadium with anything other than a win against Arsene Wenger’s team.

OH YEAH!!!

A Team with Great Belief in Themselves

The title was part of the commentator’s tribute to Manchester United’s shortly after their third goal against the Blackburn Rovers, after going down 1-0 at halftime and losing their key defender for the season early in the first half. I couldn’t agree more with him, this is a team worthy of champions, a team that’s hungry for success, and a team whose togetherness has brought them pretty far this season. Character is one of the key point on this team, so ready to de-throne Chelsea from their arrogance that has lasted for nearly 3 years.

The man of the match could go either Scholes or Carrick, although if I were to pick, Scholes would be my pick. His equalizer is the key to the game, especially with the way he danced through almost 4 defenders before putting the ball into the net with great composure. His goal, and the timing of the goal gave plenty of time for United to keep pressuring Rovers’ defence while at the same time getting rid of their frustration as chances built-up have been denied by either poor finishing or Fridel’s brilliance –as he showed twice denying Rooney from point blanks.

It was a great result for United, the second successive 4-1 (after last week’s result against Bolton). The way United pressed, passed, and controlled the game during the second half is virtually second to none, not even Barcelona matched that performance. Ronaldo, again proved to be the flair and the creative genius on the wings coupled with composure off Scholes and Carrick in the middle, and the tireless Park supporting and fighting the ball everywhere.

Game Analysis (Premiership, Old Trafford, MANCHESTER UTD 4 – BLACKBURN ROVERS 1)

• Blackburn’s 1st goal: Panic, simply the result of panic after Vidic was injured and United’s hurriedly trying to get their first goal
• United’s 1st goal: absolutely brilliant, one of Scholes’ best goal of all time
• United’s 2nd goal: amazing composure from Carrick, the goal is crowded, but the shot selection is just perfect
• United’s 3rd goal: Park again showed positioning is important, slotting in the rebound into the opposite corner
• United’s 4th goal: Ole, Ole, Ole!!! This is an amazing guy, his confidence and minutes to goals ratio this season is unbelievable (when you think of his age and him being out for nearly 2 seasons)

Brilliant game, excellent result, although Vidic’s broken collarbone will sideline him for the rest of the season. It’s a blow for United considering his contribution on defense (and attacks) this season, although looking at the bright side, this is an opportunity for Brown to get good run of matches in the central defence (and probably make his cases with England), and with Gary Neville out of three weeks, O’Shea will prove to be an important of this squad, now plying his trade at right-back position. Alan Smith is showing nice touches as well, and I just thought Sir Alex might just be right on his confidence and trust on this squad.

Fight on, lads!! Next, Roma!!

Manchester United vs Bolton Wanderers

United need to win tonight to keep the 6 points advantage over Chelsea before a visit to Stamford Bridge at the end of this month. That, is a fact that everyone aware of, although with Saha, Solskjaer out due to injury, and Larsson no longer with United, Rooney will be the lone striker tonight, unless Ferguson opt to get Alan Smith his first start in more than one year in Premiership. That I thought, would not be too wise.

It’ll be interesting to see how United players react to this situation, given Scholes is also out due to suspension. The team though this year has shown some character and togetherness, that even Eric Cantona has given praise to this generation of United. It’ll be a long day if Bolton managed to pressure United to make mistakes in the first 15 minutes to concede a goal, although I doubt it’ll happen. Playing at Old Trafford, with Ronaldo at top form, I’ll give a depleted United side an edge over Allerdyce’s Bolton team. It won’t be pretty but the boys will get it done. UNITED 2 – BOLTON 1

MAN UTD vs. WATFORD

In a few hours time, United will kick-off their Premiership match against Watford, looking to maintain their 6 points over Chelsea, with Liverpool lurking 2 point behind Chelsea after their win at Upton Park yesterday.  Watford will be without Danny Shittu and Foster, the United on-loan goalie.  I’m pretty glad that Premiership prohibit players on load to play against their parent club as the memory of Morientes torturing his own club, Real Madrid during his loan time at Monaco in the Champions League is still vivid.  His career was never been the same after he returned to Madrid from that pretty successful Monaco spell.

Back to the game, United, on the other, will be on full-squad with Ronaldo and van der Sar back into the games after being rested at the FA Cup win against Portsmouth at home.  Playing at home, expected United to play high tempo early in the game, and trying to settle into an early lead. The key would be on Scholes and Carrick controlling the midfield and breaking plays to give a few steps advantage for Ronaldo and Giggs on the flanks to split the defense.  Larsson will partner Rooney up front as Saha is still not coming back 100%.

If United were able to take an early lead, it’ll be United all over, however, if Watford managed to hold it until the hour mark, they might have a chance to snatch something memorable, much like what Sunderland did to United last year.  So, United to be on a high alert especially Watford is on high spirit following a 2 match winning run and a dog-fight all the way into the end of season for relegation battle.

mindcubes’ longtail: After the slip at Arsenal, I think United players got the idea.  Converting chances and an alert defense is the key to winning championships.  United, with a fresh Ronaldo running at defense, should be able to get the first of 12 wins that Sir Alex mentioned needed to win back the EPL crown this season.  UNITED 4 – WATFORD 1

What’s Wrong with Manchester United?

The last three away form has been pretty bad for United, losing 0-1 at Upton Park to West Ham, throwing up two leads at St.James’ Park for a 2-2 draw, and the latest classics, losing 1-2 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on the last minute of the injury time, courtesy of who else other than Thierry Henry.  3 of the 4 opponent’s goals came in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Do they get tired?  Or they simply trying to protect their lead and forget how to play the Manchester United way of football?  My 2 cents is that defense won a game, and the defense are just under too much pressure to still go forwards event though after they’ve taken a lead, and it’s obvious when looking at how often Gary Neville and Evra needs to running back and forth for the whole game.  Then it came to realize, how come Sir Alex doesn’t want to utilize both Heinze and Wes Brown on the last quarter of the match?  Brown has shown some sharpness lately, and Heinze’s fighting spirit would be awesome for the team, although Evra produced much more flair and tricks compared with Heinze.  But we’re now talking about holding on to a lead when United is taking control of the match.

If United has managed to just taken 3 draws out of the 3 games, they would’ve been 10 instead of 6 points above Chelsea.  Buying Hargreaves might give United a superb advantage on the middle as Hargreaves played in the frame of a battling Gattuso while Carrick is more like Andrea Pirlo, although that is given Hargreaves will play as good as before he got this injury.

As a lifelong United fan, I’m worried, but rather in a positive term, concerned about not being able to capitalize on many opportunity to really send a warning signal to Chelsea before some of their big players gained confidence, namely Shevchenko, the coming back Terry, and the brave Cech.  The title race is still wide open, and United can only count on themselves not making the same mistake over and over again if they were to be crowned the Premiership title for the first time in 3 years –something that’s not too common at Old Trafford.

Manchester United – Aston Villa (Round 2)

It’s round two of United vs. Villa at Old Trafford after last week United’s 2-1 victorious over Martin O’Neill’s team. Expect Larsson to start alongside Rooney at the front again, with van der Sar, Scholes, Gary Neville, Giggs and Vidic back into the first eleven. It’ll be another tight game for United with the key lies in midfield. If Scholes and Carrick can control the tempo and United could get an early lead, it’ll be over by the time United score the second goal. However, if the defense slipped and Villa scored a shocking goal, it’ll be a long day for United.

I believe though United with Larsson in sparkling form and Vidic coming back to partner Ferdinand at the center of the defense would be able to get a full 3 points after slipping-up at St. James’ Park a couple weeks ago.

mindcubes’ longtail: UNITED 2 – VILLA 0 (Ronaldo, Larsson)

Disappointing United Held by Magpies

It was a game where United could’ve scored 5 goals on another day. Two goal-line clearances, a couple of crossbar strikes, a number of saves, a few other misses, and United ended up with only a point from a 2-2 draw at St.James’ Park. As disappointing as it was, that day belonged to the 19 years old Edgar who played at the left back, shutting down Ronaldo, before he switched flanks with Giggs, and what to cap a home debut other than scoring an equalizer against a mammoth team like United.

I agree though with Ferguson that it’s all credit to the Toon’s troops who played with high spirits closing down every movement of each of United player. The only thing I thought Ferguson should’ve done is bringing on Carrick at the hour after the tempo was slowing down and United players started letting Newcastle dictated the tempo, albeit the 12th man in the Magpies crowd was magnificent throughout the night. It was also questionable why Solskjaer who is in terrific form lately and is a clinical finisher, was not on the bench, leaving United with Rooney as the only striker with Saha injured midway through the first half.

2 points dropped, United need to be careful of their own defensive unit as once the transfer market opens in January, expect Chelsea to shore up their leaky defense with some big names, such as Sol Campbell. It’s a 7 points advantage now, and it’s all up to the United squad to show their characters fighting for the title that seems closer within reach this year than anytime in the last 3 years.

Manchester United @ Newcastle United

In a little over an hour, Manchester United will be playing Newcastle United at St.James’ Park for their first campaign in 2007, having been 6 points clear of Chelsea at the summit of the Premiership. Throughout the year, United has shown the type of resiliency and persistence that has been lacked of in recent years. The emergence of Vidic at the back along with the maturing Ferdinand added a composed United back-line along with the always reliable Gary Neville and the emergence of Evra competing with Heinze at the left back.

The return of Scholes at the midfield adds the type of vision and the ability to change the course of the game with a tackle or a long pass along with the arrival of Carrick who has been playing pretty well at the anchor position, breaking tackles and sending in long balls.

With Ronaldo playing at his best form of his life, he makes a good case for Player of the Year, and along with Saha, who has been able to fill-in the shoes of the departed van Nistelrooy, United attack hasn’t looked so orchestrated in so many years, with Giggs playing one of the best year of his career.

van der Sar at the back has been the answer to Ferguson to the long tem problem after Schmeichel left, and the 36-years old Dutchman look as composed as ever, albeit he is a totally different personality with that of Peter Schmeichel.

That all above, with the exception of Neville who was out of injured, would probably the first 11 that Ferguson will name for this tricky encounter with the Magpies. Expect tough battle in midfield with possibly 4-5-1 formation, United needs to be at their best controlling the tempo and taking an early lead to settle into the game.

mindubes’ long tail: NEWCASTLE UTD 0 – MANCHESTER UTD 2

UNITED – READING Preview

Reading will travel to Old Trafford today knowing they’ve come up big at Stamford Bridge with a point against Chelsea, as well as holding United to a 1-1 draw at their first meeting at the Madejski stadium earlier in the season.

Manchester United coming into the game having a 4-points lead at the summit of the Premiership table, knowing another win would ensure they keep riding high. Especially with Chelsea not performing well (although their mouth is still performing well), another win and a New Year present from Chelsea would give United a 7 points lead going into 2007.

With Scholes and Vidic missing out the game due to suspension, expect Giggs and Ronaldo to start on both wings, and Fletcher and O’Shea in the middle. Brown again will again start at the defense for Vidic alongside Ferdinand, who was rested at the game against Wigan. Expect Rooney and Saha to start from the beginning at attack. Gary Neville will be back captaining the side alongside Evra –who’s performing good lately– at full-backs.

It will be a typical English games with high balls and crosses, and with Ronaldo at the top form of his game, expect United to take an early lead and settle into the game. Reading, although showing great resilience and spirits during their first campaign in the Premiership, might be putting pressure on themselves expecting another front-page storyline, but I believe this year’s United squad has the necessary characters and discipline to come out on top of their game.

mindcubes’ long tail: UNITED 4 – READING 0