A magnificent goal from Scholes midway through the second half ensured United a victory at Villa Park, before a late second goal from Cristiano Ronaldo (his brace) kept United at the summit of the Premiership with a 3-0 win against a spirited Aston Villa. Scholes’ goal could go down as the goal of the season. It was a Gigg’s corner head-cleared by Villa’s defense before it fell to Scholes on 30 yards out, which was volleyed home magnificently by the midfielder.
It was not, however, the prettiest performance by United, especially in the first half where Park Ji-Sung is pretty much not effective, considered his lengthy lay-off due to injury and a surprise start at the right wing, in place of Ronaldo, who was shifted to the left, of which Giggs was playing up-front in place of Rooney., who was given a breather by Ferguson. United, though were lucky to escape the early break where Villa could’be been 1-0 up had it not for the crossbar to denied the header, and for van der Sar to make a great save off the line from the following effort.
The second half though is a different story, especially after another magnificent goal from United, this time it was the Man-of-the-Match Ronaldo who danced from the halfway line against no less than 5 defenders before a sublime effort blocked by Villa’s defender at the edge of the penalty box, though it fell back to Ronaldo who smashed home a thunder to the left corner of Kiraly’s goal. That goal, changed the course of the game, and United were in full control afterwards.
The third goal is classic United. It started all the way in the left of the defense sending through beautiful passes involving Ronaldo, Giggs, Neville, and finished coolly by Ronaldo, who was denied earlier with an offside from a similar play. Three goals up, and United were not to be denied this season going into the festive’ season leading the Premiership for the first time in three years with 2 points advantage over Chelsea.
mindcubes’ prediction
Oh, well you’ll find out!!
By far, Manchester United 4-0 performance against Bolton away at Reebok stadium last Saturday is the best team performance this season, led by the tenacious birthday boy Rooney’s brilliant hat-trick. Everyone is involved in the game, from van der Sar, who made an important save just before half-time to keep the score 2-0 to Carrick who showed why he is worth over 19 million pounds. Two assists including a magnificent inch perfect long pass to Saha who setup the third goal for Cristiano Ronaldo. The scoreline might’ve been a little unfair to Bolton who showed their resiliency midway through the first half and showed some promises in the beginning of the second half, although at the end of the day Manchester United fully deserved to win, and not only winning, but winning with style, a flowing football style that was the characteristic of the Cantona-led team during the 90s that ignited the English football. Brilliant!!
It’s a disappointing loss, especially when it happened at home, breaking up a streak, but losing this game early on is much better than rollin’ high only to lost like this in the playoff. I’m speaking with the assumption that the Broncos will make it to the playoff, and I do believe they will, although competition is now tight with both Chargers and your truly Broncos sitting altogether at the summit of AFC West at 5-2.
