FA Community Shield 2008

Back-in-action Captain Gary lifts the Community Shield for Man Utd

The new competitive season for English top division clubs kicks off with the community shield between Premier League champions Manchester United and FA Cup Winners Portsmouth. Man Utd are without terror duo Rooney and Ronaldo. Saha is out injured (once again) and so, the only striker up front is Carlos Tevez. I'm kinda pleased with Man Utd's general control of the game. The defence is kept tight nicely and the passing and game reading was kinda good. The dominant style which United used during the game had been running onto space and getting the short burst of speeds upfront when needed.

Ryan Giggs operates as the ghost striker and occassionally switches the role with Nani. So, on the left wing, they are 3 lanes in operation - Giggs, Nani and Evra. This kinda makes the left wing quite congested..lol. Nani played superbly well, a big improvement when he first started out last season. His dribbling skills and ball control were well done and he links up nicely with Giggs. He literally danced around the Portsmouth box and there's a couple of times when he made Glen Johnson tangled and slip on his own foot..lol. Tevez looks sharp on the ball and he made a few good runs past the defences. Tevez did everything right as a supporting striker but I can't help feeling that Man Utd desperately needs a striker who is a marksman that is specialised in sniping balls into the net. Berbatov or Huntelaar would fit in the role nicely. Other than that, it's nice to see Captain Gary Neville back into the squad. The fans truly missed his presence in the squad and his dynamism on the field. The defence looks very assuring now and it's pleasant to watch Neville running down the right flank to support attacking play or challenge the attackers.

The match ended 0-0 and had to have a penalty shootout to decide the outcome. Lol, TG guessed it correctly that it would go to penalties while I actually predicted a 1-0 win for United.Portsmouth would have conceded a couple of time if not for some Lady Luck on their side. Funnily, Fletcher nearly become a double-goal hero. He had one clear chance to whack it into an open goal but he chose to pass it coz he thought he was offside. The other time was that his volley juz bounced off the crossbar. Anyways, David James is totally wicked in front of the goal. Time after time, he make excellent saves and denied United the chance to score. However, Portsmouth really ain't helping themselves in the penalty shootout. They are ultimate noobs in penalties! They had 2 people MISSING from the spot and not even testing the keeper. And 1 of them got saved brilliantly by van der Sar. Man Utd converted all their chances and even David James is powerless to stop penalties.

It's a wonderful start for Man Utd to get their first silverware of the season. Haha, there's a weird rumour circulating around the news that Fergie may be thinking of buying Thierry Henry. That'll be the shock of the century if that does happen. But in football, you'll never know...haha. Afterall, the Man Utd no. 14 shirt is still vacant and empty. =p