Another weekend of football has passed and, as always, there are some interesting talking points.
1. Sir Alex Ferguson continues to maximize his resources.
An eagerly awaited contest between Manchester United and Liverpool was on this cards this past weekend, and in a 2-1 victory, Sir once again demonstrated tactical mastery.
He used Park Ji-Sung as a striker with Wayne Rooney. Or at least it appeared that way.
It looked somewhat as more of a support striker, with Nani and Antonio Valencia occupying the flanks. Park has flourished in many important matches in a wider role, but this time he was asked to play in a central attacking position, with the purpose of pulling the Liverpool defense apart and taking the pressure off of Wayne Rooney. This was an experiment that looked like it wasn't going to work. In fact, a friend of mine and I were discussing (through Facebook comments) that Berbatov should come on to provide the target play and let Rooney run loose. Well, again, ol' Fergie knows what the rest of us don't, and his decision to keep his faith in Park led to the Korean scoring the go-ahead goal on the hour, finding room in the penalty area to head home. Park would come off after 86 minutes, but for Scholes so the three points would be preserved.
2. As for Liverpool..........
Get used to life in the Europa league, if your mission is to go and just keep United from playing, you already lost. Sitting in 6th with just 7 games remaining, and the teams around you have at least 1 match in hand (City and Villa have 2), doesn't bode well. Either clean house or get a viable striker to pair with Torres.
3. The latest cry for goal line technology.
Either Rafael van der Vaart was doing his best Thierry Henry impression, was caught up in March Madness (which I'm sure he's never heard of), or both. He clearly handled the ball in the penalty area to set up the equalizer for Real Madrid in their come from behind victory over Sporting Gijon 3-1. Yes, Real dominated the match but they were behind. The tying goal from van der Vaart came in the 2nd half, and clearly it got to the psychee of the Sporting side who would have worked toward trying to preserve the 1-0 or at least settle for a draw at the Bernabeu. As a result, Real Madrid are top of La Liga instead of being 2 or 3 points behind Barcelona at this stage. If they win the league, look back on this moment.
4. Massimo Oddo? Really?
As a Milan fan, I'm disgusted. They entered their match with Napoli yesterday with a chance to go top of Serie A, thanks to Inter's draw at Palermo on Saturday. I see the team news, and Oddo gets a start. I support the Rossoneri through and through, but when I saw "44-Oddo" lined up on the right, I had a feeling that we wouldn't win. Sure enough in the first 15 minutes, Oddo leaves the whole city of Naples onside, then tries to go in and defend the cross across the penalty area. Collides with the goalkeeper Abbiati in the process, and leaves an empty net for Napoli to score. I know Milan is getting paper thin due to injuries, but that's no excuse to have a player on the pitch who is clearly past it. Especially when late in the match, Leonardo brought on Luca Antonini to play left back, and move Zambrotta to the right to bring Oddo off. Too little, too late. If you are going to rush Pato back into the team, then Antonini should be out there from the beginning as well. It ends 1-1, and Milan still sit 1 point behind Inter, each with 9 matches to play. I'll look at this game with disgust if the season ends as the teams are positioned now.
5. Chelsea. R.I.P.
I might be very harsh on them, but it seems like Jose Mourinho returned home and sucked the life out of this team. I didn't see the Blackburn match, but if Chelsea want to win the Premier League, 1-1 at Ewood doesn't do it. Further, 1 goal on a back up goalkeeper who only saw his first Premier League action for Blackburn last week, doesn't do it. I think we saw the wheels fall off when Samuel Eto'o scored that memorable goal at midweek.
6. Remember me? I was World Player of the Year in 2009.
Much of the attention has been on Wayne Rooney and how he has practically carried Manchester United this season. To the point where everyone is already anointing him 2010's World Player of the Year. May I introduce to you Mr. Lionel Messi. A little guy who plays for Barcelona and led them to the 2009 Champions League. Since 2010 started, Messi has scored 18 goals. That is ahead of his mark of 10 at this time last year and ahead of Rooney's 16 this year (again from Jan 1, 2010). Okay, Rooney has less to work with. I'll further argue. Messi has been without the services of Xavi, and 10 of those 18 goals have come in the last 16 days (4 games; 2 hat-tricks and 2 braces). With the Champions League Draw set up for a Barcelona- Man United rematch, it could come down to the winner of that getting the World POY for 2010. Of course there's also a small matter of who will excel in the World Cup too.
6 shots from distance. That's a lot for a 35-year old so I'm off to go ice my quad, hamsting, and calf. Unitl my next rant...........
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