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by Philipina A. Marcelo
And Wembley roared again!!
The battle for the FA Community Shield between The Red Devils and The Citizens didn't disappoint. It was an exciting match that thrilled more than 77,000 screaming fans in Wembley... and several millions more around the globe! Happy days are here again! Hurray for footie!
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Manchester United FC - the 2011 EPL champs, and Manchester City FC - the 2011 FA Cup winners, went up against each other on the pitch of Wembley to battle for the Community Shield - the season opener. Fresh from their 2-1 win over (the mostly second team of) FC Barcelona in their Stateside friendly match, the nicely revived ManU squad asserted their dominance of English football by lifting the silverware - for the 15th time - via a 3-2 come-from-behind win over the Citizens. And what a win, too!
While ManU dominated ball possession and attack in the first-half, all their attempts for goal were unsuccessful. The strong Citizens squad tightened their defense line, patiently waited for their own opportunities and slowly mounted their own aggression, too... their patience paid off. All of a sudden, the Red Devils had a steep mountain
Manchester City taking the early first-half lead, 2-0.to climb when the second-half opened, having been buried with a 2-0 City lead at the end of the first-half - to the sheer delight of the Citizenry in Wembley. The first City goal came on the 38th minute, through a crack in the ManU defense that was taken advantage of by Joleon Lescott via a follow-through header of David Silva's free kick. The second goal was a lucky try from Edin Dzeko, testing the new 20-year-old ManU goalkeeper, David de Gea, with a nothing-to-lose kick from several yards away, which didn't look unstoppable. De Gea had plenty of time to position himself for a clean save, but opted to keep his footing and went for a stretch. He caught the ball with the tip of his fingers, but only managed to slow it down as it went into his goal. Yep, I have to admit, I missed Edwin van der Sar right there and then... a feeling I'm quite sure Sir Alex Ferguson shared at that moment. :) De Gea hang his head as he walked to their dressing room on half-time. Aw, the poor thing!
ManU returned on the pitch looking unperturbed by the huge task in front of them in the second-half. They resumed their inspired
ManU's attacking crew, Ashley Young,
Wayne Rooney and Nani. aggression, stepping on the gas more forcefully, while City seemed to have cooled and slowed down their campaign. With the youthful aggression of Tom Cleverley, who came on from the bench for Michael Carrick, taking the rythmn up a notch with fast and decisive reactions, the Red Devil attackers were relentless. And, at 52nd minute, Chris Smalling finished Ashley Young's free kick with a flick to the goal, taking the score to 2-1. Wembley roared mightily as a wave of red in the stands rose and bounced! That rejuvenated the Red Devils, and they displayed brilliant partnerships on the pitch to create more chances, scattering the City defense. Nani then finished a nice play with a lift of the ball over City's goal keeper, Joe Hart, for an exciting equalizer! Wembley went berserk, of course! Patches of Red and patches of blue bounced crazily in the stands... and quite understandably, too!
And then, on injury time, de Gea channeled his "inner van der Sar" to stop an Adam Johnson aggressive attempt with a decisive punch. A-ha, our kiddo amigo has got "it" in him, after all! :) Wembley went crazy... and loudly, too! There was a stampede in front of de Gea's goal as 20 men scampered for the ball he just punched. Wayne Rooney caught it, and gave it a strong kick towards the sprinting Nani, who received beautifully and never looked back. City's stand-in captain, Vincent Kompany, gave Nani a spirited chase... the field in
Nani, the Portugese Red Devil - Man of the Match.front of Joe Hart was practically empty. I can almost hear Roberto Mancini's heart beating loudly in his own ears as he and his men watched helplessly the on-fire Nani sped towards Hart's goal with only about a minute to go. After seeing that Kompany, who was a step behind Nani, had no hope of overtaking the speeding Red Devil, Hart decided to try and foil Nani's approach with a block-of-passage advance - and positioned himself for an intercepting kick. But the Portugese Red Devil kept his composure... he avoided Hart with a fake and a quick side step to swerve to his left, losing Kompany behind him in the process, too, and then tapped the ball behind the goal keeper - the second in a brace of goals that scored ManU their winning goal! And that was how the Portugese winger became the Man of the Match, too. :) Whew!
While they were completely outclassed in all fronts and buried to definite defeat by the extraordinarily brilliant FC Barcelona in their UEFA Champions League fixture last May, also in Wembley, ManU seemed to have moved on from that humiliation. Granted that the itching-to-leave City's captain, Carlos Tevez, and the newly acquired Argentine striker, Sergio Aguero, did not
The Red Devils - victorious!participate in City's Shield campaign, hey, ManU was missing the retired van der Sar and Paul Scholes, and the sidelined Ryan Giggs as well. Therefore, it was as even a match-up as one could get out there on the Wembley pitch. And, if that ManU performance against City was an indication of things to come for the 2011 English Premier League champs next season, then it's going to be fantastic for the EPL! Add to that the possible arrival of Inter Milan's and Oranje's fast-and-furious and prolific striker, Wesley Sneijder, at Old Trafford, and you've got a problematic situation for Mancini, Arsene Wenger, and the new "pretty boy" of the EPL managers circle, Andre Villas-Boas. Ah, there you go... something to chase the economic blues away! :)
The new EPL season begins next weekend. Here we go, adrenalin pump! Can't wait! :)
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Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROGER FEDERER!!! :)
Photo credits: All photos were grabbed from the Zimbio website - thanks.
