The Messi-cre

Football~

Yes yes, some people would say I am a little bit too late but things like this, its NEVER too late! what am i talking about? 27th May 2009. Ring a bell? Haha! Okay, next clue Stadium Olimpico in Rome, Italy. Okay, lets get to the point. That was the night when millions and millions of fans in this country cried as they asked questions like "But but, we were the best!", "How could we be beaten by some team from Spain?" and "Why aren't my team scoring any goals?".

I am rather happy with how it all went down cause if Manchester United really did went on to win, oh there would be so much smug around that I would probably die in it. So what happened? Manchester United finally crumbled and superstar Cristiano Ronaldo had one of his worst nights ever. If you ask me, he took the Ronaldo v Messi thing a little too much and opted to play a individual game. He knew he had a title to defend, the World Player of the Year. Messi finished 2nd last year and this year it was all up for grabs again and Ronaldo was very determined to retain it. It was quite clear that night what happened. Messi was a team player and Ronaldo wasn't.
Lets move away from the Portuguese winger and talk defense. The English defense crumbled when the Catalans had their first attack. Vidic slipped when Eto'o cut in from the right wing and scored from outside his foot, an absolute class I would say. Man United back line was almost perfect except for John O' Shea at right back and Barca had Sylvinho at the back line with Yaya Toure playing as a make shift defender. To be honest, people that know football knew that Barca had a much more vulnerable defense. Yes, many would say that Man Utd played a total of 60 over games this season but I think Barca played the same amoun too, since they won the La Liga and the Copa del Rey too. So no reason why either teams can't perform at the same level.

But it things got bad to worse when Lionel Messi scored Barca's 2nd of the night with a looping header. He was unmarked and had all the time in the world to pick a spot. Sadly for the English, Sir Alex was clearly punching the panic button when he brought in Carlos Tevez, Dimitar Berbatov and Paul Scholes in the second half. The only wrong thing Barcelona did in the game was when Pique got booked on the 16th minute and if that is the only wrong they did in a football game, it says a lot. If one yellow card is a bad thing, how about 3? So anyways, Manchester United was brought back down to earth. They were a team with big aspirations, a team with ambitions and the team with the most weight on their shoulders. Everyone expected something from them and really, 5 titles in one season? A little too much don't you think?

A reminder to Man United fans. I am not sure if you are aware of this but I think you should know after all. Before the Champions League finals, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo was already linked away from the club. Yes, there are rumors. To Liverpool and to Real Madrid. And yes there are also rumors that both of them are staying, do read the papers but that was before the finals, what about now. Here is a negative way of seeing the situation. Lets start with Cristiano Ronaldo. He was already linked with Madrid a year ago and he chose to stay back then. He won 3 titles this season and could have won 5 if it wasn't for Everton and Barcelona. So 3 titles, Barcelona had 3 titles too so whats the point of staying? Oh, Ronaldo was also left out from the Hull game in the final game of the season because he was to be rested for the Finals and that also saw Nicolas Anelka finally outscoring him in the goal tally, bye bye Golden Boot. In a way, he is frustrated, no? well ask the United towel guy.

The question is, who is staying?

Next on, Carlos Tevez. Nothing much on him, he is going to leave anyways. Sooner or later. Its all over the news and if u put Tevez and Alex Ferguson in a room, not a pretty sight. I for one would hope Tevez to not move to Liverpool, I am sure United fans would agree. But anyways, if both Tevez and Ronaldo leaves, you guys are in serious sh*t but good news is, Rooney will be back on form and Nani can play more!(er..not really a good thing but I think he'll do.). And if they leave, theres news Karim Benzema will be coming in.

So lets go back to the Finals. Before the game I had discussions with lotsa friends, all United fans(Not surprised). Discussions bout the battle between Messi and Ronaldo of course. They all claimed that Barcelona depends solely on Messi while Ronaldo plays the team game. I said Barcelona need not depend on Messi cuz they had the likes of Iniesta and Xavi in the middle pulling the strings. So in the finals thats what they did and Barca won. I said it earlier, Ronaldo did not want to lose out to Messi so he took more chances and held the ball longer while Messi was all pass pass pass. I had to admit, Ronaldo is a top class player but that night, he was a whole different player and giving Messi space to pass and make runs is a mistake. If only Manchester United had played like Chelsea, they would have knew how to block probing runs from both Iniesta and Messi. Okay, conclusion. Last year Cristiano Ronaldo was the Fifa World Player of the Year. This year....guess who?

All Hail, The Messiah!