A Return to the United of Old! / Cyprus Weekend

I sat down, albeit with an unusually heightened sense of aprehension, on Saturday afternoon to watch United take on Fulham at Craven Cottage. Now, normally, I should be sans worry when a Manchester United team take on a struggling Fulham side in the premiership. But as recent posts have detailed, United's strict adherence to a disastrously negative 4-5-1 formation is grounds for grave concern.

Imagine, the communal sigh of relief accross the global village when immediately after kick off, it was glaringly obvious that we had switched back to the attacking winged 4-4-2 formation that every United fan had been campaigning for since the season's start in August. Then Fulham went and scored in the second minute!

What sort of God of Sport is mocking me! This was the very point Alex Ferguson had been consistently making. That 4-5-1 protects the defensive unit. He seemed, almost immediately to have been justified. However, I was determined to stay true to my beliefs, and, exercise what few United fans had been exercising in the last few months, belief. Belief in the proven system of yore.

It wasn't long before dividends were reaped. The game was so much more entertaining. Giggs and the Korean Park, had given us the width that was missing, whilst Rooney tormented a defense that admittedly was struggling from the time they went ahead. After 25 minutes we were level. Park was upended in the box and Van Nistelrooy cooly stroked the penalty home. Two minutes later Wayne 'Golden Boy' Rooney, put us ahead afetr a sublime build up of one touch football on the edge of the area. Hands were now placed firmly behind the head, legs were crossed and a smug 'I told you so' demeanour must have been evident on every United fan in Christendom.

Then Rio Ferdinand reminded us why he will never live up to his 30 million price tag by 'forgetting' to clear a simple free kick. Level again. But we were still great to watch. A draw against Fulham would not do, but we were better, we afforded the opposition more space, granted, but we exploited more space behind them. I'd watch this anyday, and it got better.

Rooney picked out Park's run down the right hand side with a pass that split the defense, he squared to Van Nistelrooy who put us ahead again. This is what football should be like. This is the way the Ajax team of the 70's played. This was how it should be played.

The second half brought more chances and the game could've ended up 8-7. It ended up 3-2 in United's favour, and it wasn't just the result that counted, it was, how my father used to say, how you played the game. Saturday was good.

Sometime contributer, and Totenham Hotspur fan, Timothy Bracy, could also be excited with the way Spurs went about their business against second place Charlton. Coming from 2-0 down to win 3-2, with Irish substitute Robbie Keane grabbing a late winner, definitely made for the match of the weekend, and Spurs are looking at their best season in a dogs age, and could very easily oust a particularly mediocre Liverpool team for a Champions League spot next year.

A break from the premiership now for 2 weeks, with Internationals taking centre stage and Ireland in need of two wins from Cyprus on Saturday and Switzerland the following Wednesday. The ramifications of non qualification would mean we slip down the FIFA seedings and would be hard pushed to qualify as 3rd seeds for the next European Championships and World Cup. The days of wine and roses may well be behind us...