UNITED OPEN SEASON WITH COMMUNITY SHIELD

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Well as preseason continuted, Fergie fielded a young side including Owen Hargreves for a match against Peterborough at London Road. A team that was officially a "United XI" still did the business against the L1 side managed by Darren, Fergie junior with defender Adam Eckersley opening the scoring before Rene Howe equalised for the home side. Richie Jones re-established United's lead in the second half before Dong scorched the opposition Ronaldo style to finish them off.

The last time United were in the Community Shield was back in '04 and I only heard about the result after my best mate texted me while I was in Romania to gloat! His Arsenal side had just beaten United 3-1 at the Millenium Stadium. That was merely payback for what went down in '03, a 1-1 draw at the Millenium stadium followed by a 4-3 United win on penalties with Tim Howard making his mark with the only save in the shootout on his first serious game for the club.

This time round we were up against Chelsea with United looking for payback after last season's FA Cup final. The last time we faced the Blues in this fixture was back in 2000 when it was known as the Charity Shield and the pre-Abramovitch side had the last laugh on that occassion, winning 2-0 at the old Wembley. We did beat the Blues back in '97 though, again at the old Wembley, a 1-1 draw setting up a win in the penalty shootout to retain the shield.

On this occassion, well both sides know what was at stake at Wembley, it was a rumble between the two likely title contenders of the coming season. United went 4-4-1-1 and despite the new signings it was a pretty familiar looking lineup. Evra at left back, Carrick and O'Shea centre mid, Silvestre left mid with Giggsy supporting Rooney up front. Of our new signings, only Nani was even able to get as far as the bench. A surprise but a reliable enough lineup anyway.

Well United certainly came in with more attacking intentions though Chelsea's injuries probably didn't do the Blues any favours. Still, other than the odd scary moment early on it looked like United's game to lose and if you give the ball away to Ronaldo that's what's likely to happen. The Portuguese genius crossed to Giggsy in the 35th minute and it was 1-0 United. Chelsea didn't look like coming back but in the 45th minute when Florent Malouda surged past Rio to hit an equaliser, well against the run of play.

United also opened the second half on the attack but it came to nothing and the half descended into dullsville with shots on target proving rare. Chelsea were trying to cruise their way through the game but Fergie had other ideas and introduced Nani, of whom the first impressions are, decent passer but not awesome. What fire there was in the half did belong to United though but not enough to break the deadlock and in the Shield, there's no extra time, it was straight to penalties.

Claudio Pizzaro was first up for Chelsea...and he missed. Rio made no mistake though, advantage United. Frank Lampard was next up for Chelsea...and he also missed! Carrick didn't though and Chelsea were left on the edge. Van de Saar proved invincible by saving Shaun Wright Phillips kick and that just left Wayne to win us the Charity Shield. You do not get a more perfect shootout than that and that gave us the best possible start to the season.

After that though, we still had two remaining friendlies and for some looney reason they kicked off similtaneously. Carlos Queiroz took one squad to The Oval(no, not the cricket ground) to face Glentoran and his guys won 3-0. Coach Mike Phelam then took another, stronger looking squad north of the border to beat Dunfirmline 4-0 with Fergie not involved in either match as he was apparantly moving house. Not quite a perfect preseason but the fact that we got away with this stunt says something about our strength in depth.

North of the border and the SPL season was rolling and Aberdeen opened the season against Dundee United at Tannadice. The first half was red hot with the Tangerines giving the Dons a headache for most of the half though when the home side went down to 10 men the Dons must have sniffed a chance. The Reds did have the edge in the second half but slack defending was always likely to be a liability and that's exactly how they lost the match, David Robertson hitting a late winner for the Dundee side.

The SPL's other opening results were: Rangers beating Inverness CT 3-0 at the Caledonian Stadium, Falkirk beating Gretna 4-0 at Raydale Park, Motherwell beating St Mirren 1-0 at St Mirren Park, Celtic drew 0-0 with Kilmarnock at Celtic Park while Hibs beat Hearts 1-0 at Tynecastle. That leaves the Dons in a three-way tie for 8th place in the SPL, one point behind joint sixth place 6th place Celtic and Kilmarnock and the top half of the table and level on points with only a +3 goal difference advantage over bottom side Gretna and relegation. Early days though.

Rangers were also having to take care of Champions League business, namely finishing off their 2nd preliminary round tie vs Zeta at Pod Goricom. The Gers basic idea was to cruise their way through and let the home side come at them but Montenegrens seemed to be in no such mood so the first half produced only the odd scare. More of the same in the second half with Zeta attempting a penalty claim late on but it came to nothing and DaMarcus Beasley hit the winner for the Gers on the night to see them through.

So the third preliminary round looks like this from a UK perspective. Liverpool enter the picture to face Toulouse(first leg at the Stadium Municipal), Scousers should win that one. Arsenal do likewise and face Sparta Prague (first leg at the Letna Stadium), a tie that by my thinking is too close to call. Celtic also join the party and face Spartak Moscow(first leg at the Luzhniki Stadium) and should make it through while survivors Rangers face Red Star Belgrade(first leg at Ibrox) and the Gers are the most likely to go out at this stage.

All hail, the Premiership is coming!

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