UNITED RIP HOLES IN CITY

 

(Image taken from BBC)

 

OK, it's City. At Old Trafford. Nothing else needs to be said really, three points in the bank right? Well, maybe not, United failed to beat the Blues last time round and the last time we did so was back in February '05 when we beat the Blues 2-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium. Weirdly, you have to go back to December '03 for the last United derby win at Old Trafford, with the Ruud boy amongst the scorers that day. Then again, on current form, this game looked to be as straightforward as it's supposed to be. Heinze at left back, let's pick up three points.

What's the easiest way for United to opening the scoring? A 6th minute cross from Ronaldo to Rooney. 1-0. City's best idea of defending against United may have been to hack Ronaldo constantly but credit where credit's due, their attack certainly looked useful and United had to constantly defend against the possibility of an equaliser. Then again, City had to defend against our counter-attacking and just before half time Heinze took advantage of a messed up City clearance to cross to Saha for 2-0.

United battered the City goal in the second half, though the Blues did enough to keep the Reds defence awake in the meantime. Fergie's attitude soon became "what-we-have-we-hold" and switched to a 4-1-4-1. Fair enough, that should be enough to keep City at bay and kill off the match. Or rather it wasn't, Hatem Trabelsi was given enough space in the 73rd minute to pull one back. Not an ideal situation to be in with 4-1-4-1 and the United players knew it. It wasn't just batten-down-the-hatches though as Rooney returned Ronaldo's early favour in the 84th minute and that was the end of Stuart Pearce's unbeaten run against United. Fergie may have said we weren't going to be 100% energy due to the early kick off. We didn't need to be.

The biggest Premiership match of the weekend though was Chelsea vs Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. It took a while before either side got a decent shot in but after that the match certainly proved fiery even if it was still goalless by half time. The second half continued in a similar fashion until Mathieu Flamini opened the scoring for Arsenal. Michael Essien equalised for Chelsea with a scorcher of a shot but losing points and home leaves the Blue eight points behind United at the top of the Premiership but with a game in hand.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Falkirk at Pittodrie in the SPL! The Dons started on the front foot and opened the scoring through Darren Mackie. Falkirk had their chances in the first half but the Dons got their second before half time when Chris Clark blasted a shot in. Falkirk ran the show in the second half though and Alan Gow pulled one back for the visitors but the Dons still hung on for three points even if it may have been their luckiest win of the season.

Elsewhere, Rangers beat Hibs 3-0 at Ibrox to keep themselves level on points though the Pittodrie crew though the Dons remain in third place in the SPL due to their -3 goal difference deficit to the Gers. Still, they are five points ahead of Hibs to stay in the UEFA Cup positions. Celtic beat Dunfirmline 2-1 at East End Park though, allowing them to maintain their sixteen point lead at the top in Scotland with the race for second place still where the action is.

Question: Which international football(or 'soccer) tournament doesn't feature teams from either the US or UK, is being screened on US TV but not UK TV? Yes, it's the 2006 Club World Championship. Barcelona are representing Europe this year but they've been given a bye to the semi finals. In the meantime, in the quarter finals Al Ahly beat Auckland City 2-0 in the Toyota Stadium and will face Brazilian side Nacional in the semi finals in the Tokyo National Stadium where, in the other quarter final, Mexican side America beat Korean team Jeonbuk Motors 1-0. America face Barca in the International Stadium semi. Jeonbuk Motors face Auckland City in a fifth place playoff in the Tokyo National Stadium.

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