Fortune Favors the Bold as Manchester United Stumble
Manchester United entered last Tuesday’s clash with Bayern Munich confident both form and finicky fate were swinging solidly in the direction of the Red Devils after a beautiful finish from Jlloyd Samuel into his own net started a 4-0 rout of Bolton in the previous Premier League fixture. A week later, Sir Alex has more than enough reason to believe Lady Luck is a fickle mistress.
The then league leaders headed to their quarterfinal tie in Bavaria on the back of a campaign littered with own goals and deflections, however justly deserved. Wayne Rooney must certainly have felt things were coming up roses yet again when he smashed his club ahead early with a wide-open touch into the German’s net after a masked Martín Demichelis took a seat on the pitch. Another time, another place, and United would take the tie by the throat after an all important away goal, but surprisingly Sir Alex Ferguson remained content to let his side stature themselves distinctly defensively rather than push on.
The game was remarkably open for a clash of this magnitude, a stark contrast to the typical hard-fought affair Champions League spectators have come to expect from teams not named Barcelona. While the Devils confidently sat back, soaking up Bayern’s pressure and counter-attacking in a style reminiscent of their clashes against the artistic champions of previous years, the reins of the game were lashed firmly by the creative boots of Hamit Altintop and Franck Ribery.
With just under fifteen minutes remaining, United’s luck buckled. Their talismanic striker deflected a 77th minute Ribery freekick, wrong-footing a surprised Edwin van der Sar and leaving the Dutch keeper only to stare as the ball found net. Lady Luck was in no mood to be kinder when the Devils were stunned again in stoppage time by an Ivica Olic winner; to add injury to insult, Rooney picked up a knock for his defensive efforts during the build-up.
The next fixture on Manchester United’s list was Saturday’s early Premier League battle between the top two clubs. United, sans Rooney, settled deeper into their territory than expected and looked less threatening than their opponents. Chelsea bossed possession for large portions of the game and earned a lead despite their powerful Ivorian surprisingly starting the match rooted to the bench. When the dominant presence of Didier Drogba entered the pitch and promptly put the Blues up 2-0 while somehow evading the linesman’s flag, it became apparent that fortune was no longer smiling on United’s glory hopes.
Any team with the prestige of United would certainly lay claim to creating their own fortune through industry and determination, but the displays against Bayern Munich and Chelsea showed similar plots and did little to inspire the cards to fall their way.
Rarely is Sir Alex made to seem timid in a crucial tilt, but his characteristic fieriness was nonexistent as United tamely stumbled to their second defeat in as many games. Rather than cursing the gods or sacrificing sheep, perhaps Sir Alex can take comfort in the performances of Louis van Gaal and Carlo Ancelotti. As they would surely attest, sometimes a bit of boldness and bravery from the manager can nudge Lady Luck back in your favor.
Will their luck turn tonight?
(pic courtesy of Green&Gold_LUHG on Flickr)
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About Eric Fultz
A Chelsea fan with a soft spot for Michael Essien and the joyous hustlers everywhere who always play the beautiful game with a smile on their face.
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The bad luck continues, how on earth was Rafael sent off for 2 soft challenges while Bayern (and Van Buyten and Van Bommel in particular) got away with foul after foul after foul?
Bayern were cynical in their play and tried to take Rooney out of the game (which succeeded) with some horrible fouling.
This streak of bad luck goes back to both Chelsea games which were decided by the referee
George – Have a bit of dignity & sportsmanship. Man Utd went one goal up in the first leg & were cruising. But instead of attacking and killing the tie off with another away goal, they sat defensively and were punished for it. The second leg you lead 3-0! Then a defensive error by Carrick gave Bayern a goal back and cancelled out the away goals. It wouldn’t have cancelled it out if they had been more attacking in the first leg.
The two yellow cards were deserved for Rafael. He was petulant, cynical in his tackles & he was attempting to stop Ribery playing. O.k the players crowding roung the ref may have persuaded him, but Man Utd would hve done the same if the boot was on the the other foot.
Manchester United played poorly on both legs, were second best to Bayern & couldn’t cope with only 10 men, when they had 5 defenders and the goalkeeper. Couldn’t cope without Rooney & Berbatov is really poor. You paid the second highest amount in Premier league history for him & he’s worse then Robinho!
Man Utd fans are becoming a real joke just like Ferguson. Pathetic. WELL DONE BAYERN!!!
Graceless United fan…your all becoming mini versions of your manager. Show some class please!
Its not the fact that you played poorly in both games, or the fact that you have a promising right back that was a little niave in getting booked twice (Not soft challenges at all). And dont get me started on how poor Carrick has become and the empty promise of Berbatov!
With 11 men there’s no way United lose that game. Having said that Ferguson’s tactics once they went down to 10 men were not the best, waiting ages to bring on a figurehead striker and switching Nani upfront and Gibson left, leaving Carrick and Fletcher way too exposed.
He should have kept Nani left to prevent Lahm having room to press forward and gone 4-4-1 with Berbatov on for Carrick/Gibson.
The lack of trust in Berbatov was an interesting side plot to yesterday’s game.
Having said that, Rafael’s red was for 2 petty, nothing fouls was harsh – Bayern’s fouling was far more cynical (Van Buyten on Rooney was a straight up hatchet job) while Van Bommel should also arguably have seen red.
The ref, younger than even Van der Sar, was quite naive I thought.
Man Utd had 11 men when OLic should have scored for Bayern & when he did score thanks to an error by Carrick. In my opinion Rafael should have gone but so should Van Bommel, (who is now banned from the semi against Inter to be fair). Overall though the ref was very good. He made it clear he wasn’t going to give anything for theatrical diving but he also allowed himself to be bullied by the Bayern players, but can anyone say Man Utd wouldn’t have done the same had their player been fouled. Bringing on Berbatov at the end was the end of the game for Man Utd.
On a seperate note Jonathan, what about Liverpool in the Europa League, having beaten Benfica, this could be Liverpool’s cup. I sure hope so.