Outdone, Outplayed and Out

They were outwitted, outplayed, outperformed and are now out of the UEFA Euro 2008 Championships to be hosted jointly by Austria and Switzerland.

Atrocious display of football saw them crash out 3-2 to Croatia @ Wembley after levelling from going down 2-0. All three Croat goals were fantastic, especially the second one for which Eduardo and Olic teamed up beautifully with Olic beating the offside trap with sublime fluidity, beating Scott Carson the England goalie effortlessly and nudging the ball into the goal. Once he'd caressed the ball on its way to goal, he din even bother turning to see where it went, simply ran to the touchline in celebration. Such was the confidence shown by Croatia. They were compact in defence and the nature of their game was like a sling being fired. They drew the English attack deep into their territory, held it there to win possession and bang, unleashed their strike force into the counter-attack. The English defense and midfield was left scattered like frightened cattle.

I wont blame Steve Mclaren for team selection or Scott Carson for the fumble that cost them the first goal. I will blame the entire team for not finishing the business earlier in the qualifying stages when they could have, for not capitalising on the lead they got against Russia in Moscow three weeks back and for not playing as a cohesive unit. Like a typical English nature to find a scapegoat, this time it will be poor Scott Carson and Steve Mclaren. I feel sorry for both of them. Another dark and dismal day in English football. Well there have been so many now, there's nothing new about it. Its been going on for 41 years now after the solitary World Cup win in 1966 @ Wembley.

Goal Traffo(u)rd As Manchester United Go Through

4-0 for United against a better disciplined Dinamo Kyiv....but United got 4 goals coz they were even more disciplined...The game had a dull start. Kyiv packed the defence tight and defended very very deep, and drew the United defenders forward. They put this to good effect when they went on counter-attack, on more than one occassion. United on the other hand retained close to 80% of the possession, tryin to create chances from left(Nani) right(Ronnie) and center(Carrick) but the ball would not find its way to Rooney or Tevez, so tight was Kyiv's defending. Frustration eventually crept in and Rooney made the mistake of going back to retrieve the ball and got booked. However the first goal was inevitable and no prizes for guessing that United with so much of the possession would score first. The unpredicted part is the manner in which the goal came. A Ronaldo set piece was headed in by Gerard Pique for his first United goal and United's opening goal of the night after just over half an hour of play.

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, the link play between Rooney and Tevez soon bore its dividends and United were 2-0 up eight minutes after the first goal. The power of Tevez's shot caught my attention, for with virtually no swing of the leg he blasted the ball past the goal keeper into the back of the net. 2-0, nerves calmed...expectations rising, but all we got was the half-time whistle.

All along the first half United and Kyiv played a scrappy game and United would suddenly wake up and find a moment of inspiration, a touch of brilliance, only to be buried by the Kyiv defense. Second half was a little more lively with Kyiv getting down and dirty, Kuzcszak had to parry a well hit shot early on. Well Van Der Sar's injury meant that he had to be replaced by the young and promising Polish international and he showed his class on more than one occassion.

This half though proved to be end-to-end and then suddenly Nani broke free on the right wing and found Rooney on the cross for an easy Bread-and-Butter goal, United's 3rd and Rooney's first of the night. This game was turning out to be a collector's item with Ronaldo failing to score despite numerous attempts on goal. Frustration crept in and then again... it was Nani who unleashed Ronaldo with a through-ball, this time on the Left wing and Ronaldo had to dip and weave past 2 defenders, before he shot the ball and registered his name on the score-sheet.4-0 to United and it stayed that way till the final whistle.

The most promising performance today for United came from its relatively inexperienced defense. right-back Danny Simpson, Centre backs Vidic and Pique, Left back Patrice Evra, having never played as a single unit for the full 90 minutes before played the game of their lives. Pique even got a goal for himself. It was very promising to see the strikers score for United.

For me, an eternal United fan, this was an awesome result, despite the early frustrations.