Saturday, January 24, 2009

Man United 2 Spurs 1: Two Minutes Of Madness Sink Spurs

JUDAS,JUDAS, JUDAS












An entertaining match from the fourth round of the FA Cup saw the home side overcome an early deficit with two quick goals toward the end of the first half that saw them defeat Spurs today.


Roman Pavlyuchenko deftly headed home a neat pass from Tom Huddlestone in the fifth minute to give Spurs the lead, much to the shock of the crowd at Old Trafford, and it took a bit of time for the Red Devils to get their offensive game on track. (Both teams, plagued by injuries, fielded teams that featured a number of reserve players).


That attack started around the 18th minute, with a couple of shots from Carlos Tevez testing reserve Spurs goalie Ben Alwick. The first barely hit the fingertips of the goalie before tipping over the goal bar, the second one, in the 22nd minute, produced an excellent save that had all Spurs fan breathing deep sighs of relief.


The news for Spurs went bad in the 35th minute when a couple of ex-Spurs combined on two different plays for the difference in the match, with Michael Carrick the central figure in both of them. While the Spurs were doing a fine job defending Man United early on, Carrick delivered a pass that Paul Scholes drilled toward the goal from outside the box which glanced off of Huddlestone into the net, with Alwick having no chance to stop the blast.


Mere seconds later, Carrick linked up with Dimitar "Judas 2" Berbatov on a long pass, with the Bulgarian quickly leaving the Spurs defense in an awkward position with some fancy footwork, leaving him with an inviting look at goal that he confidently cashed in, much to the displeasure of Spurs fans everywhere.


In the GUARDIAN MATCH REPORT , Sir Alex Ferguson was quoted as saying the reception given to Berbatov from Spurs fans was "a social disease...we must be the only club to actually welcome back our former players". SAF, I can safely say that it's how players leave one club to another that is the basis for the nature of that reception, and given how nasty (and lengthy) the departure of Berbatov from Spurs was, I find it hard to believe that SAF would have an issue with that.



At any rate, that's it for Spurs in the FA Cup this year, up next is a crucial EPL fixture with Stoke that is crucial for the two teams, both of them hovering dangerously near the relegation zone. Come on you Spurs!!!



ESPN SOCCERNET

No comments: