Norwegian Wood

united beat blackburn by 5-3 to advance into the semifinal of carling cup.

2008-12-03 Wednesday
@Old Traffold

United 5, Blackburn 3

United: Foster; Rafael, Neville, Evans, O’Shea (Evra 66); Nani, Gibson, Possebon (Scholes 66), Anderson; Giggs (Manucho 71), Tevez.
Scorers: Tevez (36, pen 51, 54, 90), Nani (40)

Blackburn: Robinson; Olsson, Nelsen, Ooijer, Warnock; Treacy, Kerimoglu (Pedersen 70), Mokoena, Emerton (McCarthy 46); Derbyshire, Roque Santa Cruz (Fowler 76).
Scorers: McCarthy (48, 90), Derbyshire (84)

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congrats to cristiano ronaldo, for winning the Ball d’Or (european footballer of the year).

it’s kind of hard to believe that ronaldo is the first united player to win this prestige award under saf. the three former red devil players to take the gong were Denis Law (1964), Bobby Charlton (1966) and George Best (1968).

and he’s only 23. man, i hope he stays at old traffold after this season…

even we hold up two huge trophies last season, but the two defeats by the city still tasted bad. united kind of had to win this derby in order to keep the premier champion hope alive, and they did exactly this.

rooney finally scored, and it’s also his 100th goal. carrick’s shot was deflected by hart on rooney’s way, and he couldn’t miss such an opportunity to put united ahead in the first half. unfortunately ronaldo was send off by a strange hand-ball in the second half, but united still managed to hold the lead.

2008-11-30 Sunday
@City of Manchester Stadium

United 1, Man City 0

UNITED: Van der Sar; Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Carrick, Fletcher, Park (O’Shea 90); Berbatov (Giggs 84), Rooney
Scorer: Rooney (43)

MAN CITY: Hart; Richards(Sturridge 76), Kompany, Dunne, Garrido; Hamann (Elano 45), Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Vassell (Zabaleta 45); Benjani, Robinho

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champions league group stage, game five. i’m really worried about the status of tevez now…

2008-11-25 Tuesday
@Estadio El Madrigal

United 0, Villarreal 0

Villarreal: Lopez; Venta, Rodriguez, Fuentes, Capdevila; Santi Cazorla, Senna (Bruno, 46), Eguren, Pires (Fernandez, 65); Ibagaza, Rossi (Franco, 79).
Sent off: Capdevila.

United: Kuszczak; O’Shea, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra; Ronaldo, Fletcher (Gibson, 80), Anderson, Carrick (Tevez, 86), Nani (Park, 84); Rooney.

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while both liverpool and chelsea can only managed a draw, united still couldn’t close the gap in a disappointed draw at villa park. berbatov was injured during the middle-week international friendly. rooney and tevez can’t repeat their forms of last season…

2008-11-22 Saturday
@Villa Park

United 0, Aston Villa 0

ASTON VILLA: Friedel, Reo-Coker, Laursen, Davies, L. Young, Barry, Sidwell (Carew 81), Petrov, Milner, Agbonlahor, A.Young.

MANCHESTER UNITED: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo (Anderson 82), Carrick, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Tevez (Nani 71).

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today marks the 50 years of football for Sir Alex Ferguson. what’s a better gift than a 5-0 win over stoke. fittingly, saf handed three united youngster their debut for united: gibson, welbeck and manucho. the last two strikers combined to score the 4th for united.

but the star of the game is still ronaldo, who send two free-kicks into visitors’ net and setup for carrick’s goal. more impressively the two goals are his 100th and 101st for united. he conquered the century mark in 253 games, which is unbelievable for a right winger.

btw, all five goals are fabulous. watch the video…

2008-11-15 Saturday
@Old Traffold

United 5, Stock 0

United: Van der Sar; O’Shea, Vidic, Evans, Evra; Ronaldo, Fletcher (Gibson 63), Carrick, Park (Welbeck 63); Tevez (Manucho 75), Berbatov.
Scorers: Ronaldo (3,89), Carrick (45), Berbatov (49), Welbeck (84)

Stoke: Sorensen; Griffin (Wilkinson 78), Shawcross Ab.Faye, Higgingbothom; Olofinjana (Cresswell 32), Diao, Am.Faye, Delap; Sidibe, Fuller (Kitson 69).

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score video

it’s amazing to see possebon start after he suffered the horrible tackle in the last carling cup game. bad news for hargreaves before the game: he had a knee surgery which will keep him out of this season. whether he will be his old self after recovering is another question. saf may need to look into buying another defensive mf.

update: united will play blackburn at home in carling cup quarterfinal.

2008-11-11 Tuesday
@Old Traffold

United 1, QPR 0

Manchester United: Kuszczak; Rafael, Evans, Neville (Vidic 90), O’Shea; Gibson, Anderson, Possebon (Welbeck 72); Nani, Park, Tevez.
Scorer: Tevez (pen 75)

Queens Park Rangers: Cerny; Stewart, Connolly, Hall, Ramage Mahon; Parejo (Ledesma 46), Buzsaky (Agyemang 33), Rowlands, Cook (Di Carmine 78); Blackstock.

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united have a lot of ground to make up after losing to arsenal this weekend. it’s kind of sad to see that three matches between the big four, united only managed one point. someone may argue that all three matches we played are away, but this shouldn’t be an excuse as we are aiming for the magic 1999.

one thing i don’t understand is why saf kept select gary neville over wes brown for the right back position. brown has earned the starting position from last season’s play, but right now he is ranked as third option after neville and youngster rafael. another thing is if saf insisted on using only two shooters from berbatov, rooney and tevez, why not choose based on the form? right now rooney’s form definitely isn’t worth a starting.

chelsea and liverpool have 8 points advantage now, as united have one more game to play. let’s hope we can get to catching distance before the christmas.

2008-11-08 Saturday
@Emirates

United 1, Arsenal 2

ARSENAL: Almunia (Fabianski 78); Sagna, Gallas, Silvestre, Clichy; Walcott (Song 78), Denilson, Diaby (Toure 86), Fabregas, Nasri; Bendtner.
Scorer: Nasri (21,48)

MANCHESTER UNITED: Van der Sar; Neville (Rafael 63), Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson (Giggs 72), Park; Berbatov, Rooney (Tevez 77).
Scorer: Rafael (90)

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score video

2008-11-05 Wednesday
@Celtic Park

United 1, Celtic 1

Manchester United: Foster; Rafael (Evra 66), Ferdinand, Vidic, O’Shea; Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick, Nani (Berbatov 46); Giggs, Tevez (Rooney 71)
Scorer: Giggs (85)

Celtic: Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, McManus, Wilson; Brown, Hartley, Robson, Maloney (O’Dea 76); McDonald (Hutchinson 82), Sheridan (Donati 64)
Scorer: McDonald (13)

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watched the replay last night. saf really need to figure out how to arrange the forward lineup. berbatov is good, but rooney’s performance isn’t worth a start, and tevez is kind of short of match sharpness.

2008-11-01 Saturday
@Old Traffold

United 4, Hull City 3

United: Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Carrick (Giggs 72), Anderson (O’Shea 88), Nani (Tevez 64); Rooney, Berbatov
Scorers: Ronaldo (3,44), Carrick (29), Vidic (57)

Hull City: Myhill; McShane, Turner, Zayatte, Dawson; Marney, Boateng, Hughes (Mendy 59), Geovanni; Cousin, King (Halmosi 63)
Scorers: Cousin (23), Mendy (69), Geovanni (pen 82)

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