Hero of the night Foster lifts the Carling Cup with his jubilant matesMan Utd and Tottenham locked horns at Wembley to battle it out in the first of this year's domestic competition cup final. Tottenham had been the previous winner of the Carling Cup last year and they start the game as defending champions. Meanwhile, Fergie has promised his young guns that they would be able to play in the cup final following their impressive displays during the earlier stages and run-ins of the competition. Foster, Evans, Gibson and Welbeck were all drafted into the first eleven.
A couple of incidents stood out in the goalless 90 minutes. Ronaldo was booked for what was perceive to be a dive by the referee and both Fergie and the player ain't feeling too pleased about that. John O Shea was also walking dangerously on thin line with some poor tackles when he had a yellow card to his name already. Ronaldo could have been the hero of the night when he twist and turn in the dying moments of the regular 90 minutes to squeeze in a shot. It was on target but the ball hit the post and bounced away. Patrice Evra was another potential hero of the night during the extra time period but his shot went over the bar. Finally, it had to be decided on penalties and United themselves were on new ground with Ben Foster tendering the post instead of the usual van der Sar. Both could be seen engaging in deep conversations before the shootout for some tactical discussions. Giggs started the ball rolling by scoring the first. O Hara was the first taker for Spurs but his shot was superbly saved by Foster! Tevez, Corluka and Ronaldo hit on target. And then it was Bentley face to face with Foster and he missed with the shot wide off goal! What an embarassment..the worst thing a penalty taker do is to have a shot not on target. Considering that Bentley had a reputation in goalscoring, it was double embarassment. Anderson sealed the shootout victory for Man Utd with his final shot.
It was evident that like Portsmouth in the Community Shield, Spurs didn't do their homework in practicing their penalty shoot-outs. On the other hand, Fergie and some old guards like Giggs had seen it all with their experiences and they were unfazed with dealing with shootout pressures. It's another trophy added to the Manchester cabinet but it has to be said that this final belonged to the young guns because of the run-ins that they had done leading to the final. Foster looks increasingly impressive and even Fergie had tipped him that he had the potential to be the number one in the future after van der Sar's retirement. Ahhh..a second-string United team had beaten the first-team of Spurs..haha.
On the Premier League front, it was wonderful news for United too after they found out that the Scousers had miserably lost 0-2 away in Middlesbrough. The latest lost had set Liverpool back all the way to 3rd behind Chelsea although their points were the same. This meant that with a game in hand, United could possibly stretch their lead to a massive 10 points. That's as good as one hand in the Premier League trophy already. All the hype from the 1-0 win over Real Madrid didn't help at all..haha. Looks like Rafa's still an European master but can't seem to get the domestic games right. Chelsea looks doomed another time when Wigan scored an equaliser but they were definitely relieved with Lampard scoring a last-minute winner to prevent themselves from drifting further away from Utd. The Gooners were as usual..useless as they have a 4th consecutive draw with three consecutive 0-0 scorelines. What happened, Arshavin?..haha. I'm getting pretty annoyed with them coz I kept losing my banker bonus in the Premier League score guessing game for relying on them. I should have banked on Everton instead! Anyways, United's next match will be at St. James Park and it would be tricky although Newcastle is pretty much in the dumps.
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