UNITED HIT ANOTHER DOWNTURN

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

United came into a match at home to Portsmouth needing to get their act together in time for their most crucial European night in ages, a visit to Lisbon to take on Benefica for a last chance to make the Champions League knockout stages.

The Portsmouth side of things went well enough, resulting in our biggest win of the season so far with Paul Scholes hitting the net at long last before our more traditional assasins Ruud and Rooney added in two late goals for a 3-0 win. That's the way I like my team to do business, nice bit of momentum to go into Europe with.

The less said about what actually happened in Portugal, the better. OK Scholes scrambled in an opener but then Benefica turned things round thanks to Geovanni and Beto before half time. Villareal actually did us the needed favour by beating Lille 1-0...but we couldn't even get an equaliser so are out of Europe altogether. In short, this has to be the most embarassing time for me as a United fan. Yes, I can still remember us not making the knockout stages of the Champions League, but that was back in 94/95 and with what was a very green side for that time(including names like David Beckham and Paul Scholes) due to the old four foreigner rule...but that side still beat Galatasary 4-0 on the night, it was only Gothenburg being unable to beat Barcelona that kept us out on that occassion. This time out, it's precisely the opposite, put simply, we never had any bite in Europe this year and as a result got thrown out on our backsides.

OK...so we're out of Europe, but we've still got the Premiership right? Nice smooth home game against strugglers Everton right? Well, nice smooth home games aren't supposed to start with an opposition striker(in this case James McFadden) slipping the ball past Van de Saar after his team burst through the United defence. Yes Rooney then went on to set Giggsy up for a class equaliser by lobbing the Everton defence, but once again, we could get three points out of the match. OK, so credit partly goes to Everton defenders David Weir and Phil Neville for this(Phil's experience at United certainly helping) but seriously, third in mid December(Liverpool in second) and 12 points behind Chelsea is very messy. Is Fergie going to go berfore the end of the season? Don't think so...but if we finish outside the Premiership top two, he'll be out of there, that's dead cert. Problem is, I don't have a solid idea concerning a succsessor for him.

What else have we got? Oh, the Carling Cup quarter finals just before Xmas. We're heading to Birmingham, complete with a 90s United connection of Steve Bruce and Nicky Butt. In theory that's a win if we put out a half decent side. In practice it could be anything.

In the FA Cup second round, Brentford headed up to fellow League 1 side Oldham. 0-0 at half time, Andy Liddell opened the scoring for Oldham only for Sam Sodje to equalise late on and force the Latics back to Griffin Park for a replay. If they win that then the Bees have got a visit to League Two side Stockport to deal with in the third round. Not the class tie Martin Allen's crew would have been looking for at this stage but it'll make for a smooth run into round 4. United have been given an even smoother run, they'll be visiting Conference National side Burton Albion in round 3.

North of the border, Aberdeen aren't on form having slipped to eighth thanks to a 3-1 defeat to Celtic and a goalless draw to Dunfirmline, both at home.

And to finish off, on the other side of the world, Liverpool are in Japan for the latest attempt at a World Club Championship. The idea sounds good in theory but previous attempts to set this sort of thing up(as opposed to the old Toyota Cup one-off between the European and South American champions) have fallen apart in practice, observe what happened to United in 2000. At least the format this time out is less deadheaded, FIFA have taken a leaf out of basketball's book. The McDonalds championship(Basketball's equivilent to WCC) has the smaller sides involved play a preliminary round before going up against the bigger guns. FIFA have smartly realised that this is the way to go. Already we've had Saudi Arabia's Al Itihad beat Al Ahly Cairo 1-0 and Costa Rican outfit Deportivio Saprissa beat Sydney(complete with Dwight Yorke) by the same scoreline. So now we've got Sau Paulo going up against Al Itihad and Liverpool against Deportivo Saprissa in the semis with Sydney and Al Ahly facing each other in a fifth place play off. Good luck to the Scousers, this'll be interesting to watch(hopefully not like a car crash).

Till next time

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