The Legendary Derby - Man United 4 : 3 Man City

Micheal Owen you beauty! One strike and he turned the whole world upside down! United clinched the most entertaining tie I have seen them playing all my life. Easily the best Manchester derby I have watched, ever!

It was an absolute humdinger of a match. And the the build-up was no less sensational. It had to be - after their new owners splashed loads of money and helped City build a "strong" side, it was not going to be a low profile derby anymore. With them making a perfect start to the season so far add to that, the controversies such as the one about Tevez's switch and the one involving Adebayor last weekend, there were all the ingredients for a perfect derby build up.

And did it start by living up to the billing! Wayne Rooney scored quite a brilliant goal in just the 2nd minute of the game and it seemed as if United had decided to kill the tie in the first half. But City reacted well to their credit. After the first few minutes of the United "storm", City obtained more possession and seemed to get a good grip over the game. They gradually improved their possession and were actually were rewarded with a goal, a gift from James Foster, who through an inexplicable mistake helped Tevez create a beautiful chance for Barry to capitalize on. That soft goal seemed to send the United players' spirits spiralling down as they seemed to lose control of the game and City actually began to dominate the second half. They almost doubled their score before the half time break but Tevez only ended up hitting the post in what actually was a easy chance.

Second half was a repeat of the first half as far as United were concerned. Just a few minutes into it, United scored through a Fletcher header. But City responded in no time. Craig Bellamy came up with the goal of the match, a brilliant strike onto the corner of the net and it looked like we had a great match on our cards. Conceding the second goal didn't really make too much of difference to United's game. In fact, they only seemed flourish. United created a heap of chances as the second half progressed. They could have scored at least 3-4 goals in no time but for the City shot stopper Shay Given who seemed totally invincible for a short period. In particular, it was Berbatov who was at the receiving end of that show by Given and was a tad unlucky not to score.Yet it was increasingly looking like United would score and they didn't disappoint - Ryan Giggs, who was having a great match, beat a couple of defenders with some vintage trickery and found Fletcher to perfection and Fletcher didn't disappoint. United had about 10 minutes left on the clock and looked set to defend the game out for an easy victory from then on. But a silly mistake from Ferdinand saw Bellamy clear with the ball. Bellamy was too quick for Ferdinand to redeem and he came up with an great finish to beat an off-colour Foster with a clinical finish. That goal which came as a shocker for United came at the completion of 90 minutes and it just looked as if City were destined to leave with a point.
United didnt really get too close to scoring in the allotted 4 minute added time and everybody was expecting the referee to blow his whistle. But the injury time dragged on into the 6th minute and that's when we got to see some magic, Ryan Giggs found a loitering Micheal Owen in the City penalty box to perfection. Owen controlled the ball brilliantly, foxed Given and put the ball into the far net! And that was it, it was game over, in the most dramatic fashion.

Mark Hughes was visibly upset at seeing United score during a prolonged injury time.
There has been a lot of controversy around why the injury time was dragged beyond the stipulated 4 minute mark. But it was later explained that the Craig Bellamy goal was celebrated for almost a minute by his city teammates because of which a minute's time was added on by the referee. And along with that there was half a minute added to account for the substitution made by United. So, it should appear that the officials strictly followed the rule book on this occasion!

This is by far the best game I have seen United play and win. They looked a touch wary in the first half after the ill-conceded goal but were all over their neighbours in the second. But I would say that the mistakes made by the defense made the game as interesting as it was. Ryan Giggs was my man of the match and he looked a good 10 years younger in this game. Fletcher scored a brace which was heartening to see for he deserved both the goals for the hard work he put up in the mid field.
City have actually announced, through this game, that they are definitely a top-4 material. With their improved strength, we can certainly look forward more interesting derbys. The down-side would be that United stand the risk of losing points to their neighbours!

Season 09-10 Match 5 : Tottenham 1 - 3 Man United

It's been a lazy start to the new season as far as this blog diary is concerned!
This is my first post for the season and already 5 games have been played! Evidently there is so much to write about not just about what has happened in these 5 games that have gone by, but also the build up.

This season was the most anticipated as far as I was concerned. There were a couple of reasons for that - Firstly, the loss of our most prolific player by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Ever since it was declared that United had agreed to sell Ronaldo for a record-shattering sum (80 million Pounds), it was more than a million dollar question as to how United would cope without him. Just the fact that Ronaldo was our best player for the last 3 seasons during which we won all the League titles including a Champions' Trophy was enough evidence to suggest that question was on everyone's mind. And the second reason was the result of the last match of the last season - A humiliating defeat to Barcelona in Rome in our quest to retain the Champions' trophy. You didn't have to see Sir Alex Ferguson's face after that defeat at Rome to understand what he felt about that. And for millions of United fans like me, it was a result that just couldn't be digested easily and it's not easy when you are left reeling for an entire off-season because of one bitter night. Without going too much into the Ronaldo saga, all I would like to say is that we all knew he was going to go someday. And that day just arrived this summer. But knowing what happened at Rome, I felt Sir Alex would definitely buy a strong replacement - somebody like Silva or Ribery. But then nothing of that sort happened which for me was difficult to fathom given the money we had. And yeah, the transfer market had gone absolutely bonkers in terms of valuation which I'm sure contributed immensely to that outcome.

With just Micheal Owen, who could go down as one of the most shocking of our buys ever and Antonio Valencia being the most notable of our acquisitions, I wasn't too convinced United would be the same force in England and Europe. That being the feeling, I was happy to know that we were playing the new boys, Birmingham and Burnley first up. The match against Birmingham wasn't very convincing as far as United were concerned. But we still ended up winning that game. With United yet to settle down, they went to Burnley and we were beaten by a very spirited team playing in top flight after more than 30 years in front of their home crowd. United, it seemed, were just following their regular ritual (something they've been doing last few seasons) of having false starts to their new seasons. Match 3, they go to Wigan and by half time are trailing by a goal at half time. And that's when United decided to show their true colours - the ability to fight adversity. In about 25 minutes United settled scores with all detractors by scoring 5 goals!
But wait a minute, the real test of the season had yet to arrive for we still had Arsenal to play at home in game 4. Again, it was a case of United struggling. Andre Arshavin put a thunder bolt into United's net and United have an uphill task again. United came out and showed a bit of class in the second half. Rooney won a penalty and converted it (and giving us some good news on the penalty taker's situation) and Diaby gifted an own goal that sealed the tie in United's favour.

But believe me Game 5 was the real acid test yet. Tottenham had a perfect start to their season till then and playing them Away with some of their players flying really high on confidence was not an easy task. We needed to be at our best to avoid dropping points for the second time so early in the season. And the way the game started, it seemed it would be more than an acid test for United - Jermaine Defoe scored spectacularly off their first move and United were a goal down inside 50 seconds. The Hotspurs looked to be in a hurry to finish off United and they could have scored a couple more inside the starting 10 minutes. But that's that. United didn't hold back too much. The open attacking style of Tottenham meant United found the kind of space they love playing with. The midfield combination of Anderson and Scholes along with Fletcher and Giggs on the wings started to control the proceedings. Anderson and Fletcher looked particularly impressive with some quick incisive passing. Berbatov and Rooney too seemed to find their rhythm upfront. That spawned the opportunity for the equalizer the Red Devils were looking for - Berbatov was brought down, a free-kick was awarded, in-steps Ryan Giggs and the years are rolled back! Giggs brilliant curling kick opens the scoring for United!

United didn’t stop there. They pressed on and with Tottenham showing no restraint, the game was virtually played end to end. On one side, United’s strong defence (with the combination of Vidic and Ferdinand back again) saw out most of the threats, United looked to be getting closer and closer at the other end. Ultimately they did take the lead and it was Anderson who scored his first goal for United and he did that in some style, putting the ball past Cudicini from outside the Tottenham box. So United went into the break with a well-deserved lead.

Come the Second half, United seemed happy to carry on still on the lookout for goals. Rooney and Berbatov who hadn’t yet scored looked to press on the pressure pedal. But there was a twist to the story, Paul Scholes went into a rash tackle and was given the marching orders with a second yellow. Replays actually suggested that Scholes was trying to pull off the challenge in the end. Nevertheless that meant United had to protect the one goal lead for about 30 minutes which lead to Berbatov getting sacrificed. But that’s where United showed their true character during this match. At no point during the whole of the remaining second half did United look like a 10 men team. Fletcher, Anderson, Evra and Rooney in particular seemed to almost double their work rate. Tottenham didn’t seem like they could make use of the sending off. To add to that, Rooney came up with a brilliant individual goal wrestling through two defenders and nonchalantly scoring between the keeper’s legs to put the tie to an undeniable rest.

This was definitely United’s best performance of the season so far. A team that seemed to be hit hard by Ronaldo’s departure finally put all doubts about their abilities to rest and proved they are good enough to retain the title. Almost everybody looked top-class – Giggs, Anderson, Fletcher, Evra, Berbatov, Rooney - the whole pack. My man of the match was Anderson. He looked a very busy player always willing to run from defence to the attack. Considering doubts were cast on his abilities since the Barcelona debacle, this was a refreshing performance from the Brazilian youngster. The Berba-Rooney combine seemed to come off in this game. Fletcher obviously is turning into a mid-field maestro! And Evra is undeniably and still the best left-back in England.

So all in all, an utterly brilliant game for us and that made my weekend. Glory Glory United!