Dimitar Berbatov has been a near-tragic failure since he moved to Manchester United from Spurs in the summer of 2008. The player who came in for over 30 million pounds has only scored four goals in 18 games this season, and apart from the one wondergoal against Sunderland(?), he hasn’t wow-ed me at all.
But he [...]
Arsene Wenger had promised a magnificent performance from his side ahead of the second leg Champions League semifinal tie at home against Manchester United. Instead the Gunners received a master class in counter-attacking football from the Red Devils, especially Cristiano Ronaldo.
Video highlights will follow.
Of the three goals United scored tonight, my favorite is the third [...]
El clásico, the Real Madrid – Barcelona derby turned out to be a total humiliation for Real Madrid today, as the hosts were blanked out 6 – 2 by a rampaging Barcelona side that moved ever closer to regaining the Primera Liga. To be honest, I think I’ve used the word rampaging incorrectly, because it [...]
Manchester United beat Arsenal 1-0 at home tonight in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal courtesy of a strike from John O’Shea (who would have guessed!). But this isn’t about this year’s Champions League semifinals. It is about an event of event greater signifiance that happened 365 days ago. It was the night [...]
There were many great moments in the Premier League this season. But the one image that to me will define this season is that of Cristiano Ronaldo throwing his shirt in the air out of sheer joy, nay, an animal passion, like a hound baying for blood, after he headed home a cross from Wayne [...]
It has been four years and four weeks since I last let out a sore-throat-inducing “Wow” when watching a goal. The previous occasion was when Ronaldinho scored that “foot of God” goal at Stamford Bridge. Just a few minutes ago today, a hitherto unheard of Italian teenager turned around in front of the Stretford End, [...]
You might sneer at me when I call the result inconsequential, because I am from Mancunia. But here is my most important takeaway from today’s game: “Nemanja Vidic is human.”
Good read from The Times: How Shankly helped the rise of United.
Whichever lesser mortal coined the term “Mozart of Madras” to refer to A.R. Rahman did, in three short words, a great disservice to Mozart and Rahman both. So he / she would do well to step forward, accept his / her mistake and take it back.
Carlos Queiroz, former assistant manager at Manchester United had this [...]
A rough measure one can use to compare clubs playing in the same league is to see how many points separate two clubs. If the points difference between two clubs that have played the same number of games is six points or more, one can claim that the two clubs are involved in different mini-leagues. [...]
Wow, what a magical goal from Giggs against West Ham!
Update:
The goal from Giggs reminds me of some from the George Best collection, where he twists, turns, swerves and bamboozles defenders. Sir Alex Ferguson in an interview last week thought that Giggs deserves a knighthood solely for his longevity – almost 20 years in the starting [...]
Have you tried Gmail offline? It is quite good. What I don’t like though is that it downloads attachments automatically to your local drive. I wish they had an option to disable it.
Manchester United have been swashbuckling ever since I wrote a draft entitled “WTF is wrong at United?” It is still unpublished, and I [...]
Did you watch the FA Cup match between Manchester United and Tottenham today? If not, you have missed the start of a possible revolution – the one of many that constantly occur at Old Trafford.
Rafael Da Silva, the young Brazilian right-back, has already been one of the finds of the season for United, so much [...]
Though already a UEFA Cup winner, Jose Mourinho came to be taken seriously across Europe after his FC Porto side knocked Manchester United out of the 2003-04 Champions League. We know the rest of the story. Porto won the Champions League, Mourinho went to Chelsea, won two consecutive league titles and had a solid record [...]
When Harry Redknapp took over the reins at Tottenham Hotspur from Portsmouth a week ago, the jury was unsure about the effectiveness of the move. In their first 8 games this season, Spurs, under Juande Ramos, could muster only 2 points. Spurs were in free fall, and below Bolton and even Newcastle (!) in the [...]
United to win by two goals to one, what say?
The Super Kings beat the Deccan Chargers to extend their run to 4 games! Rock on, Chennai!
Lefties & T20
Selva has an interesting observation about whether left-handed batsmen have an advantage in Twenty20 cricket. One possible explanation, if this hypothesis were found true, is that most bowlers are naturally suited to bowl to right handers. In [...]
In cricket, so often we see a shot played when the ball races to the fence, and no one needs to move – not the batsmen, nor the fielders. Often we hear commentators say, “Ah, a stand and deliver shot! No one moved.”
In football, one hardly comes across such moments. The game is always in [...]
Continue reading about A free-kick, frozen in time and space
Rafael Benitez, the Liverpool manager, said earlier this week that Javier Mascherano was the new Roy Keane. In attempting to live up to his manager’s expectations, the Argentinian failed rather badly, by evoking only the bad side of the former United captain. Mascherano got himself sent off in the first half.
Liverpool fans would have you [...]
Last week, I had ended a post looking forward to the Champions League draws by predicting that United could draw Roma again in the quarterfinals of the Champions League this year. And that this would settle all doubts about whether the draws are doctored. Surely now, this confirms everything.
The pick of the draw though is [...]
The pain of enduring Portsmouth knock United out of the FA Cup was allayed by watching Barnsley dump Chelsea out of the competition a few hours later. But it was joy unbounded today as Wigan held Arsenal to a draw, so United retake the League by battering the Rams next weekend!
Portsmouth can now be called [...]
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