Norwegian Wood

finally we see a ronaldo’s brace. the second goal was from berbatov’s assist. he had a brilliant play near the touchline; you have to watch the video…

also in the video (also in the picture above), you can see some chinese tire advertising boards, at old traffold. strange…

and i’m glad to see carrick is back.

2008-10-29 Wednesday
@Old Traffold

United 2, West Ham 0

Manchester United: Kuszczak; Rafael (Neville 82), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Fletcher (Carrick 68), Anderson, Nani (Rooney 68); Tevez, Berbatov.
Scorer: Ronaldo (14,30)

West Ham: Green; Faubert, Upson, Collins, Ilunga; Bowyer (Sears 68), Mullins, Behrami (Boa Morte 45), Etherington (Collison 46); Bellamy, Di Michele.

united official
espn soccernet
score video

i don’t have too much expectation for the new season.
just want to watch some good basketball games.

oct 19th:
long run, 14k, rail trail, 1.5h

oct 21st:
frisbee, 1h, final game.

oct 23rd:
normal run, 7k, rail trail, 1h

one article describing the game has a title “everton out-muscled champions”. this is exactly the point i was trying to make in my last post: this team is a bit soft. the team with keane in the middle not only can out-technique opponents, but also out-muscle them. rooney’s scoring streaking is broken, so was the record of not conceiving goals.

curiously, this season united have dropped points in games used to be walking-in-the-park, ie. newcastle, liverpool and now everton…

update:  liverpool beat chelsea at stamford bridge, which ended chelsea’s 86-game unbeaten home record. somehow this is a rather good news. i think liverpool isn’t that strong to hold the top position near the end of this season; they always seems to drop points on average opponents, and they rely on gerrand and torres too much. to me chelsea is a way more dangerous team. 5 points between chelsea and united isn’t uncatchable and they played one more game already.

2008-10-25 Saturday
@Goodison Park

United 1, Everton 1

Everton: Howard; P Neville, Jagielka, Yobo, Lescott; Arteta, Fellaini, Osman, Pienaar; Saha (Anichebe 90), Yakubu (Vaughan 88).
Scorer: Fellaini (64)

Manchester United: Van der Sar; Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Fletcher (Tevez 77), Giggs, Park (Anderson 66); Berbatov, Rooney (Nani 69).
Scorer: Fletcher (21)

manutd official
espn soccernet
score video

berbatov got another brace in the champions league. all his five goals so far are all inside the penalty box. he seems to always be in the right place at the right time, at least three of his goals i remember were that the ball came to him with a reflection and he was quick to adjust his foot to the right position to tap the ball in. with rooney in his best form in a united uniform, the forward line looks very good.

one thing makes me a bit worry is the middle field. celtics are not strong so we can comfortably control the middle, but with difficult opponents, i doubt this middle lineup will hold up. really hope carrick can recover soon. fletcher is good, but i think the best option is for carrick and hargreaves to share the holding middle position. ronaldo seems to a little bit off his best, but you can’t expect him to be like last season again (seriously, a winger scored 42 times a year, that’s just pure ridiculous). maybe he just need some rest.

(update:  sometime you can’t find the right words to describe your feelings. luckily, there always are some other brilliant writers out there. this article is about the history, and from reading it, i think the thing missing from this united middle-lineup is toughness. i miss keane.)

another thing is how saf gonna do with tevez. it’s such a waste to put him on the bench, maybe saf should rotate his lineup a little bit. the defense is solid recently. even with ferdinand and evra rested minor injuries on the sideline, evans and o’shea stood up in their replacement, not that they need to do much. we haven’t conceived a goal for five matches now, let’s keep this streak going.

2008-10-21 Tuesday
@Old Traffold

United 3, Celtics 0

MANCHESTER UNITED: Van der Sar; Neville (Brown 60), Vidic, Evans, O’Shea; Ronaldo (Park 82), Anderson, Fletcher, Nani; Berbatov (Tevez 60), Rooney.
Scorers: Berbatov (30,51), Rooney (76)

CELTIC: Boruc; Wilson, Loovens, Caldwell, McManus, Naylor; Nakamura (Hartley 62), S Brown, Robson (Maloney 62), McGeady; McDonald (Sheridan 76).

united official
espn soccernet

oct 12th:
long run, 12k, north shore trail -> waterfront, 1.5h

oct 15th:
pulse, shoulders & back, 1h

oct 17th:
pulse, chest & arms, 1h
normal run, 5k, rail trail, 30min

five consecutive games with a goal, rooney is on fire right now. one goal and two assists, man of the match performance. let’s pray he doesn’t get injury…

2008-10-18 Saturday

United 4, West Brom 0
@Old Traffold

MANCHESTER UNITED: Van der Sar; Rafael (Neville 65), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra (O’Shea 36); Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs, Park (Nani 70); Berbatov, Rooney.
Scorers: Rooney (56), Ronaldo (69), Berbatov (72), Nani(90)

WEST BROMWICH ALBION: Carson; Zuiverloon, Donk, Olsson, Robinson; Morrison, Valero, Greening, Koren (Moore 72), Brunt; Bednar (Miller 53).

united official
espn soccernet
score video

man, isn’t the new macbook beautiful?

上周跑了两次机场. 一次去接同屋, 结果在427的dixie那个出口没下来, 在接着的出口下来, 然后就找不到路了. 晚上看不太清楚, GPS告诉我一个地方能再上高速, 路却被封住了. 都能看到头上飞机降落, 就是找不到路去机场, 郁闷致死. 折腾了一个小时才找到路. 还一次是白天, 天气好得一塌糊涂, 路上也顺利. 看来路还是要记一下的才行.

周六cssa组织了3vs3的篮球赛, 被叫去玩了会儿. 上次cssa组织篮球比赛还是2004年的时候了, 还是全场, 研究生组织了一个队, 最后决赛的时候对liangda们, 还打了两个加时. 第一次加时我们领先3分, 最后我犯规了maji的三分. 其实我感觉没犯规, 但裁判吹了. maji也很nb, 三个罚球都进了, 进入第二次加时. 嘿嘿, 记得最后我不知道怎么就丢进个3分球, 最后我们赢了, 还领了一套餐具, 现在还用着…

这次规模蛮大的, 两个组竟然有15只队. 开头热身打着好玩, 4vs4, 对手有个3分巨准, 后来一问竟然是我们一个队的, 心安啊. 轮到比赛时一看, 原来刚才4vs4的都是队友, 再加上后来的, 组两个队都没问题. 第一场对手比较弱, 上去跑了跑, 最近手感很差, 没丢进一个球. 第二场对手很强, 一开始0-6落后, 然后我方那个3分巨准的开始发威, 生生扳了回来(记分是两分球算1分, 三分球算2分). 好久没打比赛了, 还是很有趣的…

oct 5th:
basketball, 2h

oct 6th:
pulse, shoulders & back, 1h

oct 7th:
frisbee, 1h

oct 9th:
frisbee, 1h

oct 10th:
pulse, chest, 1h
basketball, 1h

oct 11th:
basketball, 4h

need to run more…