United On Fire

Aston Villa 0 Manchester United 2 (Ronaldo 81, Rooney 89)

This game was rather like the classic Steve Coogan Pool Manager sketch from The Day Today. In the first twenty minutes, nothing happened. In the second twenty minutes, nothing happened. In the third twenty minutes, nothing happened. In the forth twenty minutes, nothing happened. In the last 10 minutes, Wayne Rooney happened.

This was an object lesson in how two teams can cancel each other out and yet one key player can change the game decisively. Alex Ferguson likened Rooney to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as an impact substitution, probably in jest as only a fool would keep Wayne Rooney on the bench. Watching England manager, Fabio Capello would certainly have seen enough to know who to build his team around, and it isn’t the scouser playing in Liverpool.

In fact, Rooney wasn’t actually involved in the first goal, but moments earlier, his pace had unsettled the Villa defence with a powerful run and move which ended with Rooney clipping the ball narrowly over. Minutes later, it was 1-0 as Anderson played a 1-2 with Giggs who put in a perfect low cross and that man Ronaldo (quiet throughout the match) beat his defender to the ball and put it into the net.

The second was pure Rooney. Ronaldo took down a long pass perfectly, such control, cut inside but his shot hit a defender. As the ball fell, Rooney arrived at the perfect moment and put the ball, with perfect pace and power into the corner of the net. He had hit the ball so early that the keeper got nowhere near it, despite being close to the post it went into and diving the correct way.

Next round is either Tottenham or Reading at Old Trafford. My dream final (United v Tottenham; with United winning 3-2) is denied for another season.

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