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Article by Mark Graham, Editor, Record Keeper & Official
Reporter @ MUFCINFO.COM
A frustrating evening finally ended in delight for
Manchester United on Saturday and despite the cash heavily
invested in a fine array of attacking talent, it took a
United centre half to make a breakthrough and take all three
points at Old Trafford.
United's Serbian Centre half Nemanja Vidic playing as a
forward such was the ineptness of Sunderland's attack, broke
the deadlock scoring a poachers goal that any United striker
of history would have been proud of.
SAF settled for
the same team which beat Man City leaving out Carlos Tevez
despite his 4 goal heroics in the Carling Cup opting for
again Rooney & Berbatov, whilst giving starts to Fletcher,
Park & Rafael.
The siege of
Sunderland's goal came early as Ronaldo cleverly flicked a
ball to Berbatov who controlled & turned, lashing a shot
goal bound resulting in Sunderland 2nd choice keeper Fulop
saving with his feet.
Rooney would be
next as United showed a creative set piece for a change as
after Ronaldo was fouled, he chose to square a ball to
Rooney who's shot was saved by the Sunderland keeper, & with
Berbatov hovering for any spillage, Collins cleared for the
visitors.
Ronaldo then saw
himself in a great position after a corner took the whole
Sunderland defence (and Ronaldo) buy surprise, as Ronaldo
failed to connect with any power which would have inevitably
saw the United take the lead.
Wayne Rooney then
missed a volley & Ex Red Dwight Yorke almost gifted United a
goal after he had gathered possession before the Trinidad &
Tobago former International was dispossessed by the always
hard working JSP, Park slid a shot toward goal only for
Hungarian keeper
Fulop
again to pull off a save.
Sunderland
entirely camped in their own half with just the outlet of
Cisse to chase any sort of punted long ball, Vidic &
Ferdinand played the entire game pushed up standing in the
centre circle as United continued to attack in the form of a
Darren Fletcher chance going wide.
Another Rooney
chance, a low & hard shot from Carrick & stacks of
possession continued in the second half for United, but no
telling breakthrough goal, and with a in form striker
sitting on the bench itching to score, Tevez was unleashed
by SAF at the expense of JSP.
With Sunderland happy to bunch as many players into their
own box as possible & force United to break down their
resilient shield, a Carlos Tevez type with his tireless
movement was what United needed to stretch Sunderland's
congested penalty box, making gaps & holes for others to
exploit.
United suddenly
looked sharper & stepped up their urgency as Ronaldo was set
up in the box by Berbatov, but United's No7's high shot
landed in the Stretford End before he hit the floor after
being clattered by Andy Reid, your reporter included then
cursed Ronaldo for being "a big cissy" but the United
forward had caught a painful knock to the hip as Wayne
Rooney did last season, and he would soon leave the field.
In somewhat outlandish circumstance, Ronaldo clearly in pain
& discomfort substituted himself when whilst United were on
the attack he kicked the ball out of play, gesturing a
turn around of substitution immediately as he walked toward
the tunnel.
SAF took this
opportunity to inject a little pace, presence & creativity
into United as Giggs & Anderson were introduced for Ronaldo
& Fletcher.
Brazilian youngster Rafael soon found Substitute Giggs with
a cross from the right but he wasted a glorious effort when
he should have done much better, Giggs could even on
reflection had time to control the ball & play a pass into
the penalty area.
The White Pele
who in this game couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo,
again squandered a chance as time began to tick away leaving
the 75K + crowd agitated due to the earlier scores of pace
setters Liverpool & Chelsea.
Wasting chances
has became a United specialty of late & the next culprit was
Berbatov who was gifted a header from a Ryan Giggs cross,
the Bulgarian headed straight at the Hungarian who continued
to annoy the Scotsman in the stands.
Nemanja Vidic headed again at Fulop when any other angle
would have broken the deadlock & still searching for his 1st
goal for United, Anderson was foiled by a world class block
from Teemu Tainio after brilliant work from the ever
increasing influence of Ryan Giggs's creativity.
With only three minutes of injury time left & 75 thousand
uptight United fans cursing what could be a monumental slip
up at home due to the form of the opposition & woeful wasted
finishing, United finally sent the Old Trafford crowd into
hysteria.
Michael Carrick
who had contributed massively to United's dominance tried a
speculative shot on goal & after a deflection off Carlos
Edwards and a fortunate striking onto a post, up popped the
Serbian poacher in the Sunderland penalty area to convert
the rebound into gold, gold in the form of a priceless,
Stretford End net bulging goal, thus keeping the Reds on
course for a New Year duke out with Liverpool, Chelsea,
Arsenal & outsiders Aston Villa for the title.
A BIG UP........
goes to My Wife Stacy for whom we celebrated the Weekend in
Manchester for our 1 year Wedding Anniversary.
Mr
Ron
Snellen the Chairman of the Dutch Mancunians for the
fabulous company.
Allan from Allan's Taxi's who saved our skins when our
Satellite Navigation decided to stop working.
and finally Jimmy Choo, the millionaire shoe designer for
making my wife's weekend and enabling her to purchase two
pair of his wonderful shoes for £1.500+ in the Trafford
Centre.
What's your
opinion on the Match?.....HAVE YOU'RE SAY BELOW |
Vidic (90 mins)
