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| photo by doviende | via PhotoRee |
Admittedly, not my best work, but then last night wasn't Manchester United's, either:
o Last night's 2-1 home loss to Ajax, which saw the Reds advance into the final 16 of the Europa League tournament, was shown on GOL TV in the US. I wish GolTV's main football analysts, Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen, had the opportunity to call more games involving teams from the BPL. With Schoen playing the straight man to Hudson's lyrical mixture of melody, comedy and know-how, the two men combine to offer an insightful and entertaining brand of football commentary -- easy on the ears and informative, as well.
o I will say, though, that I disagreed with Hudson's assessment that Dimitar Berbatov was "missing in action" and "pretty woeful" last night. To the contrary, I thought The Berb was one of the most creative players on the pitch last night.
o Chicharito appears to be rounding back into form. The Little Pea may have begun the year slowly -- whether due to injury, weariness, or a combination of both -- but the Mexican striker was handed a rare start last night and found the net within the game's first six minutes. If last night was a sign of things to come, the rest of the Premier League better start worrying right now: the kid's got an uncanny nose for goal.
o How do they allocate seats at old Trafford? Who thought to put Harry Redknapp and Stuart Pearce virtually right next to each other, with Roberto Mancini on Redknapp's other shoulder? I would have paid good money to hear the conversation in that section....
o Dimitar Berbatov is a sublime passer of the ball. He's also fairly unselfish for a proven goal scorer. I was mesmerized by some of the silky early through balls that Berbatov played for Chicharito to run onto.
o Some of United's early ball movement was phenomenal, and at times in the first half they looked much more like the team they were in the first couple games of the season than they did during the drab and dreary run of 1-nil wins that collected points in the table but earned the club no style points.
o I guess Sir Alex was less impressed, though, as he and Ryan Giggs looked slightly bored watching the first half from the sideline. If you'd told me they were watching paint dry I might have protested, and suggested they were watching grass grow, instead.
