How Barcelona were beaten

 Football  No Responses »
Apr 292009
 

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 when a team of superstars — Messi, Eto’o, Deco, Iniesta, Xavi, Henry, Rijkaard* — were left reeling as if they knew not what hit them. Well, here is what hit them.

A year ago, this same day, slightly before 8 PM in Manchester, Paul Scholes unleashed a trademark powerful drive from his right foot from about 25 yards out towards the East Stand goal at Old Trafford. This fantabulous strike past a despairing Victor Valdes and into the top right corner was that one moment of magic that the champions of England needed to propel them one step closer to (eventual) European glory – a place in the final at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow.

I have watched the video of this goal many hundred times, and each time, Paul Scholes climbs a notch higher in my estimation. The commentary was very good, and probably as a consequence of having watched this so many times, I’ve almost internalized it. Here are those “golden” words, describing that once-in-a-lifetime moment:

“Carrick… Ferdinand… first touch a little heavy… it will run though to Cristiano Ronaldo, and he will run at Barcelona… steps past Toure, but not past Zambrotta (and here, as Zambrotta’s half-clearance is being closed in upon by a galloping Paul Scholes, you can hear Old Trafford buzz increasingly in anticipation as Scholes readies to connect)… given straight to Paul SchOLESSSSSSSSSS! (here, the crowd crescendoes) WHAT ABOUT THAT! W-H-A-T ABOUT THAT! Fourteen minutes gone… breakthrough for Manchester United… an U-N-S-T-O-P-P-A-B-L-E shot from P-A-U-L Scholes!”

Here is the video. A great night. A great player.

* It is a measure of how desperate Rijkaard and Barcelona were to win / score that night that all three of Barcelona’s substitutions were strikers — Thierry Henry, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Bojan Krkic.

 Posted by Vijay Narayanan at 9:09 pm  Tagged with: , , ,

Cometh the hour… cometh Man United!

 Football  No Responses »
Apr 292008
 

In 1999, when Manchester United were playing the second leg of their semi-final tie versus Juventus away at the Stadio Delle Alpi, it required their captain Roy Keane to produce arguably the best performance ever by a player wearing United’s colours to propel them into the final at the Nou Camp. Keane has moved on. So many others from that fabled team of treble winners have. Paul Scholes remains.

And though he did not have to produced the same kind of “as if he had the Devil on him” performance, the quiet laddie let his boots do the talking, scoring the only goal – a marvelous one albeit – of a fiercely competed semi-final to push the Red Devils past a Barcelona team, who, though they might be on the wane, gave it their everything. Here is the goal.

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For United to have accomplished this without the services of Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vidic was commendable. Such was the tempo of the game earlier today that those of us watching on TV would have felt quite exhausted just watching the spectacle. United’s work-rate was of a different order in the game compared to their dodgy outing at Stamford Bridge just a couple of days ago. (I personally felt that Park Ji-Sung outshone everyone else tonight – he was both leonine and workhorse-like.)

Chelsea host Liverpool tomorrow, and the Blues have an away goal advantage. Should be a good game. Considering United have beaten Liverpool on multiple occasions this year, maybe the Scousers would make a good final for us.

 Posted by Vijay Narayanan at 7:54 pm  Tagged with:
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