Originally posted by conan at 29-5-2009 12:40
tapi kalo tingok gol messi itu.. cemaner la si katik itu bulih kalahkan si pedinang dan van busar yg tinggi menggalah itu
setakat VDS tu, ko pon buleh skor against him. Mediocre at best punya keeper low class.
In the cold light of day, Manchester United will look back on this season as a hugely satisfying one.
A third successive Premier League title has taken them level with Liverpool's record of 18 in total and they also won the League Cup and the World Club Championship.
But the season will always be tinged with the disappointment that they came up short in the biggest game of all.Ferguson: are changes needed?
It's hard to explain why so many good players did not play well in the Champions League final. We are all human; I played in plenty of big finals and before each one I said a little prayer and hoped I would have one of my better games.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always happen. It's rare that all 22 footballers will play well in any football match, never mind a Champions League final, but the last thing you want as a player is to end a big final knowing you didn't perform. That is what Manchester United's players must learn to cope with in the coming weeks.
Deflated
The saddest aspect of that night in Rome is that for the first 10 minutes Manchester United were vibrant, confident and dangerous, while their opponents were anything but.
However, once Barcelona scored with their first attack, every Manchester United player looked like they had been punctured. They were totally deflated.
That was a surprise to me because it wasn't the 80th minute when Barcelona scored, it was the 10th. United had a lot of time to get back into the game, but it seemed they never believed that they could do it.
It was strange and it was unpredictable. Why were Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic so nervous and unstable for 90 minutes? Why could Michael Carrick not use the ball as well as he usually can? Why did Wayne Rooney have such a frustrating evening playing in so many different positions? Why was Ryan Giggs unable to produce on the biggest stage of all?
And then you had Cristiano Ronaldo trying to prove single-handedly that he was the best player in the world - and forgetting about his own team-mates at times. Everything just seemed to fall apart after the 10th minute.
Having said that, the statistics do support Manchester United. The possession was almost 50-50, United had more shots on goal and many of the figures suggest that the two teams were very close.
However, Barcelona were superior at both ends of the pitch. Yes, Xavi and Andres Iniesta were stunning in the middle but more importantly Barcelona were defensively better than United (and I didn't think I'd be saying that the day after the match) and at the top end of the pitch they had more creativity when it really mattered. That was the difference between the two sides.
I don't think you can say Barcelona are the best team. All you can say is that on Wednesday night, Barcelona were the better team.
Take stock
I think Sir Alex Ferguson will walk away from Rome with food for thought. It was one of those nights that will force him to take stock and wonder where he needs to go next.
When it comes to the Premier League he does not need to strengthen his team too much because they've won three titles back-to-back. The squad he has should be good enough to go very close to winning it again next year.
However, having watched the game in Rome, he may decide that those players are not good enough to win the Champions League - and I think he might be right.
Apart from Ronaldo and Carrick I have always thought the United midfield was a little short at the very highest level.
The use of Rooney has not been in the player's best interests at times, while Dimitar Berbatov's lack of commitment and performance hasn't helped things. Along with Carlos Tevez, those three forwards are probably worth
Stoke City target Manchester United legend Paul Scholes in new player-coach role
Paul Scholes must decide if the Champions League Final is to be his last game for Manchester United and accept an offer from ambitious Stoke.
Stoke, having enjoyed a thrilling opening season in the Barclays Premier League, have Scholes a route into coaching.
Manager Tony Pulis sees the Manchester United midfielder's vast experience as a key ingredient for extending their stay and is ready to hand him a playing contract with the promise of a coaching role on top.
Sportsmail understands Stoke are prepared to pay a nominal fee for Scholes' services and are expecting an answer from the 34-year old former England playmaker in the next few days.
Though Scholes has always been reluctant to uproot from his Manchester home, Pulis believes the Britannia Ground may be close enough to tempt him into starting afresh after two decades at Old Trafford.
Pulis, who enjoys a good relationship with United counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson, made his bold bid after being alerted to an admission from Scholes that he feels he has another year left in him in the Premier League and wants to go into management after that.
Booked in for a series of coaching courses this summer, Scholes, who went on as a late substitute in Wednesday's Champions' League final defeat by Barcelona, made it clear he had reached a crossroads in his United career by saying: 'Not playing every week is an adjustment you don't like making. You train all week, and you want to play games.
'I think there comes a time when you have to accept you won't play every week, especially with the quality of midfielders we have.
I will have to see how I am next season, but if I feel I can go again, I will. I would have thought next season will be my last one, though. After that, I would not rule out management.
'Let's see how the coaching goes first, but I would like to be a manager one day. I think I could put up with the demands it brings.'
A one-club man since making his United debut 15 years ago, Scholes recently admitted he would consider moving on to extend his playing days.
After defying the odds by keeping Stoke in the Premier League, following their promotion last May, Pulis is putting that to the test by inviting him to add his know-how to their midfield and learn the ropes as a coach.
aku benci cara barca main......one sided...seb bola....posession one sided....
team lawan takleh ambik bola....beautiful football boleh blah!!!!!!!!! itu sep (safe) football namanya.....aku benci shortpass sahaja...takde variety....at least man you main variety......
ni shortpass sampai team die je pegang bola sampai habes........
Is Edwin van der Sar as accomplished as he would have us believe?
Manchester United's goalkeeper is a doyen of his profession but the fact remains he is not a great shot-stopper
Edwin van der Sar was beaten twice in Rome and allowed the first through at his near post. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport
It was, as Rio Ferdinand acknowledged, a night when not one of Manchester United's players could feel they played at the point of maximum expression. It happens, and it would be unwarranted to be hyper-critical on the back of another season in which Mr. Ferguson's team have greedily stockpiled another three major trophies.
There are, however, a number of issues that will be weighing heavily on Ferguson's mind when he and Cathy head off for their three weeks on the French Riviera and one of the questions that might be turning over in his mind is this: is Edwin van der Sar as accomplished in the art of goalkeeping as his large and devoted fan-club clearly believes?
For many, singling out Van der Sar will inevitably provoke allegations of kneejerk and excessive scapegoating on the back of what was, in short, a peacock-like spreading of Barcelona's feathers. The Dutchman's sympathisers have plenty of evidence for their argument, too. They will cite his record-breaking run of 14 successive clean sheets earlier this season as irrefutable verification that it would be remiss to consider him, just a few months short of his 39th birthday, as a player on the wane. They will point to a gleaming curriculum vitae and a bloated collection of medals, trophies and Dutch international caps and ask what more he possibly has to do.
But does he make great saves? How many times in a season does he bring a crowd to its feet by getting some part of his anatomy to the ball through the speed of his reflexes and agility?
It is not often that Ferguson criticises his team in public but the United manager spoke tersely of conceding "shoddy goals" in the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday and Van der Sar, though not the only culprit, cannot be absolved of his part. They could not be classified as obvious mistakes but his attempts to keep out the ball were hardly convincing either
Is Edwin van der Sar as accomplished as he would have us believe?
Manchester United' ...
fantastic article. this is exactly my point all along. all the "good points" of him mcm distribution laa calmness laa semua tu patutnya bonus je, shot stopping shud be the main strength.
and just because he saved a few penalties against chelsea in the charity shield and CL final last year doesn't make him a master.
fantastic article. this is exactly my point all along. all the "good points" of him mcm distribution laa calmness laa semua tu patutnya bonus je, shot stopping shud be the main strength.
Manchester United抯 chastening 2-0 defeat by Barcelona in the European Cup final in Rome last night can be put down to a combination of a few key factors: one team playing well below their capabilities, another playing to them, and Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, getting his tactics horribly wrong.
As such, there may be no major surgery at Old Trafford during the summer. However, one or two familiar faces may be shown the door, others will return from injury to strengthen the side, while departures may also present opportunities for a number of the club's young players to continue their development. Whatever happens, Ferguson will have much to reflect on in the weeks ahead.
Goalkeeper
Edwin van der Sar
Van der Sar has been a fantastic servant to United since his
WHAT FERGIE TOLD PLAYERS IN DRESSING ROOM *AFTER BARCA GAME*
The Manchester United players' hangovers, after a long night of trying to drown their sorrows, will start to ease, but the pain of their manager will last considerably longer.
When I met with Sir Alex Ferguson beside a pool on the roof of his hotel the day before the final, he said: "I celebrate victory as well as anybody and take defeat just as badly as anybody". Events in Rome are likely to support that admission.
Late on Wednesday I spoke to someone who was in the beaten finalists' dressing room when the Scot delivered what was described to me as a measured address to his players.
"I'm not going to get angry with you now because you have been magnificent all season, but I want you to go home and take a long hard look at yourselves because that was nowhere near good enough." Chilling words, indeed.
The manager will know that for those players who are both honest and care deeply his thoughts will probably ruin their summer. If there are any who do not possess both qualities he will identify and dispatch them expediently.
Ferguson has always said you learn more in defeat than you do in victory and his own post mortem probably began even before the final whistle sounded.
Defeat will have wounded him, for sure, but the manner of defeat will have caused even greater pain. I suspect he will be feeling like Arsene Wenger after the semi final second leg, as though he has lost a fight without really throwing a punch.
"We just didn't turn up" admitted a rueful Ryan Giggs to me afterwards.
Magic Messi
My own personal abiding memory of the night was witnessing at close quarters the brilliance of Lionel Messi. I was sat just two yards from the touchline when right in front of me the little Argentine moved menacingly with the ball toward the United penalty area.
Carrick, Ferdinand and Vidic, all three tried to dispossess him at once. No matter their physical advantage or greater number, he evaded them effortlessly. They appeared to be tackling a ghost.
It wasn't just miraculous that he retained the ball, but incredulous that his pursuers didn't even touch it. They had as much chance of relieving him of his bootlaces as they did the ball.
The Premier League champions of England will take scant consolation from being beaten by the greatest Barcelona team of all time.
They say 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do,' which in times gone by would have meant to fight for your life to the very end. Manchester United's tame demise in The Eternal City will sadly last forever in the memory.