All entries for Sunday 24 April 2005
April 24, 2005
Lovely…
Are you alright? I've full faith in your abilities to handle it and I believe you can come back to normal very soon.Still, I'm always here to share with you when you need somebody to talk to.
Remarkable
At 17:00, I was thinking: 'Why do I spend 50 pounds to come here and watch 11 individual players who played as if they were alone? And who was the training coach responsible for field passing? Please, fire him!'Being at Old Trafford once again is exciting, especially on my own. It took me 6 hours in total to travel between Manchester and Warwick. It's exhasting and boring, though I'd Chris Patten's book to keep me occupied.
I wasn't sure about United's chances to win this match, especially without Scholes and Gary Neville. Everybody was disappointed after the first half, after witnessing our once-again below par offence and Tim Howard's latest blunder. There was a big contrast between United and Magpies' supporters' reactions after Ambrose took the greatest advantage of our keeper's mistake – silence in stands other than the visitors' in the stadium after the goal.
Yet, the true story came after the interval. 30 seconds after the break, we've had a header from Giggs. The whole team seemed to have changed completely, with obviously more confidence in passing the ball and moving it forward. Although it was clear that we need somebody else to help ease the pressure of Ronaldo, who had been the spark of the second half; otherwise it would be too easy for Managers of slightly higher calibre than Graeme Souness to spot our weakness – once Ronaldo is 'frozen', we've no support for our strikers at all.
And Wayne Rooney, once again proved that he played better as a striker and without Ruud Van Nistelrooy, made a spectacular strike to pull us level with Newcastle. That goal, which is described by the press as 'contender for goal of the season', was one of the sweetest and accurate volley I've seen from all in red shirts. He is the one – our saviour; I believe he has the potential to succeed Roy Keane to be our captain ( but not his position, we still need a replacement, or possibly replacements, in the midfield if we are to contend for the Premiership Champion next season), and nobody will have much doubt about this.
Wes Brown's winning goal was long expected after the equaliser, the interesting thing being it was from our decent centre back.
Watching such a match with a crowd of 67,500 in a beautiful day is already a treasure for a student from Hong Kong. Witnessing the true magic of football and two of the most talented youngsters playing on the ground made me feel ashame of the so-called football I watched in-person at my home city on one hand and proud of being a Man Utd supporter on the other.
Of course, we still demand more from the team. Please, don't let us down again.
Who will be our next leader?
Robson, Cantona, Keane, who's next?We've had a great tradition of having ultra-influential leaders, that's why we were so successful in the 90s. They are all players who will fight with determination and passion till the very last second in a match, bad-tempered but can be relied on by their team-mates. People have been tipping Ferdinand will success Keane as our new leader. He's no more than a persistent world-class defender, but not a born-leader. Reason? He's too rational.
Now, Sir Alex Ferguson, at the age of 63, who do you think will be able to bring the Red Devils out of this slip and prove to others that we are not another Liverpool?
Tell us, please.