Posts Tagged ‘English Football’

For any soccer fan, a visit to the new Wembley Stadium is a must. Not only is it one of the world’s most outstanding modern stadiums, but is host to the best of English football and features a veritable ‘footie-fest’ of the nation’s leading cup finals and Football League play-offs every season. The Football Association – the sport’s governing body – is planning a £12million move of its administrative headquarters from Soho Square to the new Stadium during July 2009. As Wembley is also the home venue for all of England’s international fixtures – including the qualifying games for the 2010 World Cup Finals – the move will firmly establish the stadium as the ‘home of English football’. As the English football season progresses towards its climax in May, Wembley hosts a number of prestigious finals including the traditional finale to the football season – the FA Cup Final. But, before that the cup final season begins in either late February or early March with the staging of the Carling Cup Final. This show piece cup competition of the Football League will celebrate its 50th anniversary at Wembley in 2010. Next up is the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final played at Wembley in early April. This competition is exclusively for clubs that compete in League One and League Two of the Football League. The 2009 final was an absolute thriller with Luton beating Scunthorpe 3-2 after extra time in front of a substantial lower league football crowd of 53,378. In May the games come thick and fast at the Stadium, starting with the FA Trophy Final and FA Vase Final, played on successive days on the second weekend of the month. Next, and still in May, the Football League hosts the Play-off finals when the last promotion spots for The Championship, League One and League Two are decided. Indeed, The Football League Championship play-off final – normally played on late May Bank Holiday Monday – is billed as football’s most lucrative ‘one-off’ game. The winners will be promoted to the Barclays Premier League and with that comes access to lucrative TV money. Finally, the last weekend in May sees the traditional season finale; the FA Cup final. This is one of the few ‘protected’ games to be televised live on terrestrial channels and is the daddy of all football competition finals. As you can see, May is also the month when the owners of London hotels – particularly those situated around Wembley – rub their hands in glee at the glut of ‘no vacancies’ signs, as they accommodate the thousands of football fans travelling to the capital to watch their teams in action. But, fans of football that can’t get a ticket to a game at Wembley needn’t despair. They can still access the stadium and sample its marvellous features at first-hand by buying a Stadium tour ticket.

Amid the financial insanity taking place on the east side of Manchester (have you seen the wages these people are getting?), a 29 year-old signed for Manchester United on July 3rd. A 29 year-old Englishman…

A 29 year-old Englishman called Michael Owen.

Did you see that one coming? I definitely didn’t. 8 years ago, as he single-handedly robbed Arsenal of FA Cup glory and helped Liverpool to a cup treble, the thought of him ever joining his Northwest rivals seemed as likely as Prince Harry serving you in McDonalds. Yet, here we are in pre-season and Owen has scored on his debut wearing the number 7 of Manchester United. I’m going to try and delve into the thinking of Sir Alex Ferguson and look at the potential for the ‘Boy Wonder’ in the current United set-up.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s sale £80m sale to Real Madrid should have automatically put United onto the frontline in the summer transfer war – especially when you consider that the money was paid in one lump sum up front. However, United seem to be playing a different game this summer, possibly bitten by the poor form of Berbatov after his £30M move last august. Ferguson knows better than anyone that big money doesn’t guarantee success (Is it too cruel to mention Juan Sebastian Veron? Oh dear, too late….) and also knows the benefit of purchasing elder statesman (Cantona, Sheringham, and Larsson). But ‘injury prone’ Michael Owen? Surely a team of United’s stature should be looking above and beyond this type of capture. Surely Owen was destined to join Hull City or perhaps Everton. Surely United would swoop to capture Ribery or Benzema. Evidently not. Scratch at the surface though and it this bizarre piece of business has the potential to be a masterstroke…

It’s no secret that United have built their entire side around Ronaldo for the past three seasons and incredibly for a winger-cum-striker he was never injured. As a result, the rest of the team lived to serve him. His responsibility was huge; Penalties and free kicks were all under his control and he was the ‘go to’ man whenever United needed a winner. Its success was huge, Ronaldo scored 66 league goals as United were crowned Premier League champions 3 seasons running. Away from Ronaldo though, goals were not as plentiful as the Old Trafford faithful have come to expect and a lot of their success was down to their defensive strength and the emergence of Vidic as one of the best centre-backs in the world. However, it was always a case of when, not if, Ronaldo would up-sticks and make the move to Madrid.

Ferguson knows that it is now time for other players to shoulder the responsibility relinquished by Ronaldo and for Owen to benefit from the end product. The fluid formation used to get the best from Ronaldo (it can be argued that Man Utd have played without a striker for at least 2 years) would need to be discarded. Avid Spurs fans will tell you that Berbatov was in his element dropping deep and looking for runners ahead of him. The problem at United last season was that when he dropped deep, he often had the company of his team mates around or behind him – not ahead. The mere presence of Owen on the field suddenly makes Berbatov a more dangerous proposition and gives Owen the type of service he craved at Newcastle United.

Ronaldo’s departure also gives Wayne Rooney the opportunity to step up too. Ronaldo’s stellar form has undoubtedly pushed the great talent of English football to the periphery of the newspaper headlines in the past couple of years, yet seasoned viewers at Old Trafford will tell you of a player who has matured but yet still has that incredibly aggressive spark and a huge talent for the game. It seems Ferguson’s lack of transfer activity could be because he believes he already has the replacements bedded in at Old Trafford and that Michael Owen is there to apply the finishing touch.

So will Owen be a success? Only time will tell, but as a piece of business it looks risk-free and Ferguson knows that at the very least he has players around him desperate to prove themselves good enough. I’m predicting goals galore at Old Trafford this season and fully expect them to be the league’s top scorers in May 2010.

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Once again Manchester United stands out on the English football. After surpass a bad patch of constant losses that were starting to be detrimental, made all their experience and 17 FA Premier League titles worthy by defeating Stoke City in an astounding game that finished 5-0. With this triumph the Red Devils move forward in the position table of the Premier League 2008/09.

On this occasion the power of Manchester United showed off along the game, Stoke City that tried on and on to stop the beating they were getting couldn’t reached in the right way the net of their rivals, who by the beginning of the second half were lighting the scoreboard with their third goal. Keeping their authority in the field, Manchester arrived at Stoke’s box to finish their 5-goal-massacre. The coup left Manchester with 24 points that allowed them to evict the Arsenal from the third spot to the fourth, in spite of it their still away from Chelsea and Liverpool who are the top with 32 points.

The player of the game was without a doubt the Portuguese idol Cristiano Ronaldo, author of two goals, with which exceeded the 100 goals with Manchester. This accomplishment has made Ronaldo declare publicly his satisfaction and desire for attaining FIFA’s Best Player of the Year title again and the Ballon d’Or as well; although he is aware that there are other great players, who could also be creditable for the titles as Kaká, Lionel Messi or Fernando Torres. Cristiano doesn’t seem to be pleased with just having won the Champions League and being struggling to defend the Premier League title, instead he has called himself the best football player of the world.

Currently Cristiano Ronaldo has a millionaire contract with the Red Devils for another 3 more years and a half, which could be renovated with no problems attached, since both Ronaldo and the club give the impression to have no disagreements that could make them split. Nevertheless, before this season began Ronaldo was tempted by the Real Madrid with a huge sum of money to join their line, but the star decided to stay with Manchester in the end. Currently there have been some rumors about “The Meringues” not desisting from the idea of including the Portuguese in their squad. Naturally part of the reasons for Cristiano to stay with the English team is the payment, but it as well the fact that his experience with them has been comforting.

The euphoria for the victory added to the celebration for the 50th anniversary of Sir Alex Ferguson United’s coach debut in professional football world. Era during which has achieved the biggest amount of titles in England’s football. Of those 5 decades, Ferguson has been on charge of Manchester for the last 22 years and has lead more than 1000 encounters with the Londoners. Ferguson took control over the team in November 1986, after they said goodbye to Ron Atkinson.

When Sir Ferguson incorporated he found himself with a group falling to the bottom of the league’s chart in danger of being relegated. Then it would be the Scottish, the one to take the responsibility of pushing the squad up to the top positions. Thanks to his effort the Red Devils have managed to conquest an amazing amount of honors, as well as national tournaments as international ones, among which are UEFA Champions League titles, several cups and competitions from England, an Intercontinental Cup, besides the old European Cups. What’s more they are the only club that has won the FA Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League in the same season (1998/1999).

With the victory of the last Champions League edition, the constancy of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Sir Alex Ferguson guidance and the recent ascend of the Premier League, is glimpsing a promising future for Manchester United, whom indubitably will remain in the triumph path with their characteristic winning style.