United’s August in Review
Well, August hasn’t been the best month for Manchester United and their fans, but a win at the end of the month meant that it was much better than it could have been.
We started the month welcoming new players in Hargreaves and Tevez and saying goodbye to striker Guiseppe Rossi. Little did I realise at the time that we would really, really miss the little Italian.
United’s first game of the season was the Community Shield win over Chelsea on penalties. Looking back at it now, it seems to set the tone for the first couple of games as United didn’t create many chances despite playing well. Edwin van der Saar saved all of Chelsea’s penalties to win the game for us.
United’s first game was a 0-0 draw at home to Reading. The major disappointment apart from the result was that Wayne Rooney broken his foot. I’d noted
It was slightly worrying that United failed to break them down, but not all teams will be as good defensively as Reading were
but with hindsight it wasn’t so much that Reading were good defensively but that United were clearly off form. The 2nd game against Portsmouth was a mirror of the first, United drew 1-1 and we lost Ronaldo for 3 games after he got sent off. However, Paul Scholes scored an excellent goal, made in part by Tevez and I was still optimistic that things would quickly turn round in the Manchester derby.
Unfortunately, I was wrong. It got a whole lot worse as we lost 1-0 to Sven’s City despite having a massive amount of possession. Tevez missed a late chance to equalise and we were in something of a mini crisis. To take our minds of such matters we managed to sell Judas Heinze to Madrid and managed to really annoy Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez as a bonus.
By the time we kicked off against Tottenham in our last game of the month, we were 2nd from bottom and the jokers we out in full force (”Tevez to help in another relegation battle”) and we really needed a win at whatever cost. Thankfully, it came. A narrow 1-0 win with a wonder goal from new signing Nani.
We ended the month by saying goodbye to a legend in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and draw Roma, Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League draw.
A very mixed month all in all and we all hope that September will be better.
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September 7th, 2007 at 12:07 am
I think that sums it up. Better than the krap i write. Why did they sell Rossi and Smith? There is now no one on the bench to change to game - O’Shea, Silvestre? Oh well here’s hoping it can only get better..
September 7th, 2007 at 9:57 am
Grat blog Paul! how could i contact you for link/co op tip? you can mail me at the submitted address.
cheers
Per
September 7th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
lorenzo: I like your blog. I get a great fan’s eye view from your writing. I love the videos; especially the one of the FC United cup game from Altrincham which is where I am originally from.