Owen Seals Manchester Derby

Quite ironic if you ask me...Man City spend over $100 million on new strikers yet Michael Owen, who was signed on a free transfer by United was the one to score the winning goal in the Manchester Derby! The game finished 4-3, with Owen scoring the winning goal in the 95th minute. This Derby will go down as one of the greatest Derby games of all time, and it will come as no surprise that this game was full of controversy! One of the talking points was the fact that Owen's goal came in the 95th minute, when the 4th official had signalled there would only be 4 minutes added! After the game City coach Mark Hughes was fuming! Alex Ferguson on the other hand, played off the win by saying it was not about beating Man City but rather finishing top at the end of the season!

Speaking of Michael Owen, I have been impressed with how Sir Alex Ferguson has been handling the ex-Liverpool man. One of Owen's big downfalls has been the fact that he seems to consistently pick up injuries. But right now, Owen looks like a man on fire, and finally injuries are on the back foot. Ferguson has not used Owen in all games this season. In fact, Owen has only started one Premier League game! With that, Owen has been influential when brought of the bench, and so was the outcome of Sundays Manchester Derby! England Coach Fabio Capello has continued to leave Owen out of his squads because of Owen's injuries, but if he continues to play how he is right now, I think Capello will have to call him into some squads. And that would suit Owen as we head towards a World Cup year!

Champions League Final Recap (with pictures)

A day after the Champions League Final, I thought it would be the right time to recap just what happened in Rome. Barcelona are the new European Champions! On a night when Manchester United could have created history by winning back to back European titles, Barcelona came out victorious.
On reading all the online reviews it seems that one thing is evident - Manchester United lost the game rather than Barcelona winning it. Everybody is talking about how Man United underperformed rather than how Barcelona dominated. And that is how it went! On the big stage, three players shone - Xavi, Pique and man of the match Iniesta. Notice there are no Man United players included. After only 8 minutes of the game Man United looked extrodinary, a team that could not lose. At that stage they had 5 shots on the Barcelona goal. But one minute later, and one Barcelona attack later they were down 1-0. It seemed that the wind was taken right out of the Man utd sales and the ship never recovered. Barcelona took the game by the scruff of the neck and shut United down all over the park. Eto was ordinary, Henry was ordinary and apart from his goal Messi was pretty ordinary! Never-the-less, it was Barcelona turned up, worked hard and went home with the Champions League title!

Macheda Lifts united to Victory

A lot of people will be asking "Who is Federico Macheda?" after Manchester United beat Aston Villa 3-2 in a crunch Sunday afternoon Premier League encounter. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all had wins on Saturday, with Liverpool's win taking them above United to top of the league. United took an early lead through Cristiano Ronaldo before John Carew and Gabby Agbonlahor put Aston Villa in the lead. United, missing Rooney, Berbatov, Scholes, Ferdinand, Vidic and Anderson(just to name a few), struggled to create chances. It was Cristiano Ronaldo who scored his second and put the game level with 15 minutes left.

Then Macheda made his name legendary in the stands of Old Trafford.......

Macheda joined United from Lazio's Youth system in September 2007. After signing professional papers this past August of 2008, Macheda has become a regular in the United Reserves. Born in Rome on August 22nd 1991, making his debut for United, Macheda is described as an extremely strong player, who has great positional sense in the box and clinical finishing. His nickname at United is 'Kiko'. Turning twice at the top of the box in the 92nd minute of the game, Kiko placed the ball high and to the far corner, leaving no chance for Friedel to save. The celebrations after the goal resulted in Macheda receiving a yellow card, well deserved! The win took Manchester United back to the top of the Premier League.