Wigan 0 - 2 The Champions
We are a superstitious bunch football fans. The game is so intellectualised and anaylysed nowadays that people seem to have lost sight of the importance of lucky socks, or standing in the right place in the pub, or more simply just seeing the game with your mates. It is the prevalence of omens in football, more than any of the above, that keep our superstitious juices flowing. What is more, there are simply too many to ignore their significance, the year is lucky for Spurs when it ends in one, England will always lose in a penalty shootout, and any team that was lucky enough to have Stanley Matthews in it will not win a trophy again, ever.
So it is wistfully that I cast my eye over the delicious list of omens we have stacked up in the last 24 hours.
-The last time the title was up for grabs, and involving United, on the last day was 99. We went on to win the European cup.
-The last time two teams went into the final day of the season on equal points was 68. We went on to win the European Cup.
-The last time United won away 2-0 on the last day of the season (03/04 vs Aston Villa). We went on to win the cup final we were playing in.
Other than that, it would be rude not to join in the all United love in that last days of the season have started to become. Giggs scoring was a nice touch and although he has come in for a bit of stick for his recent performances his form at the start of the season, lest we forget, was very strong. He was also magnificent all of last season.
And yes they did make us suffer again, the goal line clearance and Ferdinand’s givage of a penalty made us look a little bit lucky. The best part of the day was the Moonraker-clad Ferguson talking about how much more hunger he has to win trophies, fantastic. In the meantime I’ll be looking for my lucky socks.
May 14th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
It is going to be very interesting to see who Fergie picks for Moscow. All 11 who started against Wigan have a shout (even without “sentiment” creeping in) but there must be room for Anderson and Nani in the 16 - neither was even on the bench on Sunday though Nani wasn’t there for being a silly boy in the West Ham game. Fletcher and O’Shea, anybody?
It’s the midfield 4 where he’s going to have the problem - they’re all fit, all (I assume!) as keen as mustard and all with a role to play.
Re Giggs, Judge Crinkley said “oh no not Giggs” when he came on. A fine judge he is too!
Back to Moscow. My guess is we start with Giggs, Scholes, Carrick and Ronnie as the midfield 4, with Hargreaves and Anderson on the bench but very likely to play the final half hour. Hargreaves deserves a chance against Ballack. They have played aginst each other in Germany and Owen is a good penalty taker too - all that Germanic training won’t have rubbed off yet!
Thoughts on selection please.