Manchester United's 2000th victory sounds the charge, Grant meets the boss and is again paralyzed with fear

by budfu39q on 2009-12-07 12:15:34

By reporter Wang Kangning & nbsp; There could be nothing more appropriate: the first formal encounter between Manchester United manager Ferguson and Israeli Grant since the Champions League penalty shootout in Moscow in May 2008 featured as many as three penalties (actually, there could have been more), and once again, the Red Devils defeated their opponents dressed in blue jerseys.

Father Rooney Scores Three Times

Compared to Manchester United's recent intimidating momentum in the league, what probably worries the London duo even more is the impressive form of English prodigy Wayne Rooney. This was Rooney's first goal since the birth of his son earlier this month, and he scored three times: creating a penalty in the middle of the first half and scoring it himself, then receiving a clever pass from Giggs at the start of the second half to push the ball into the net and help his team regain the lead. By the 54th minute, he converted another penalty created by Giggs, reserving the match ball for himself.

"You always hope forwards will score as much as possible," said Sir Alex after the game praising Rooney specifically, "and he took away the match ball, which was simply brilliant." This was the little fatty's first hat-trick of the new season, and his third in his career - the previous two were during his Manchester United debut against Fenerbahce in 2004, and in an away league game against Bolton in the 2006/07 season. Considering that he has scored 108 goals in 255 matches across all competitions for Manchester United, his "hat-trick efficiency" still needs improvement.

However, overall, Wayne Rooney's efficiency in front of the goal this new season has improved qualitatively: even if you don't count the one goal he scored for the national team, the total number of goals he has scored this season has already reached 11, but the season is only one-third over. Remember, Rooney's best single-season tally was 23 goals in the 2006/07 season, no wonder he is confident about breaking records: "Completing a hat-trick feels amazing. Now the coach has assigned me to take the penalties, my total goal count will definitely increase."

Including the three goals last Saturday, Wayne Rooney's Premier League goal count for the new season has also reached 10, temporarily tying him with Liverpool's top scorer Torres. But there are still those who believe that the little fatty isn't as natural a finisher as the Spaniard. In response, Andy Cole, Manchester United's former top scorer, countered: "Wayne Rooney is absolutely an excellent forward, he can play as a center-forward, on the right or left wing, he possesses all the qualities a forward needs. When Manchester United looks for new players, they hope the player will have six or seven key qualities, if they have six they might sign them. I heard that when they first saw Rooney's performance at Everton, they privately admitted that this kid had everything."

The fact is, with C・Ronaldo leaving Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney, whose efficiency in front of the goal has been increasing, has become an increasingly indispensable figurehead for the team, so much so that despite having more than two years left on his contract with the club, Manchester United is already planning to offer him a pay raise and extend his contract. According to recent disclosures by 'World News', Manchester United plans to offer Rooney a record-breaking weekly salary of £170,000 (including £45,000 for image rights), pending negotiations to begin once Rooney's agent Schechter's FIFA ban ends in January next year.

Grant Gets Weak-Kneed When He Meets Sir Alex

In this game, Ferguson watched from the VIP stand, this being the first match of his two-match suspension for criticizing referee Wiley. Although the final result was satisfactory, the process was far from easy. Since Portsmouth ascended to the Premier League in 2003, Manchester United had only won twice out of six away games at Fratton Park. The first half of Saturday's game was similarly without advantage, and they were levelled by a penalty while leading. Fortunately, after halftime, the Red Devils launched a lightning attack and scored twice quickly, thus securing the final victory.

It is worth noting that the penalty awarded to Portsmouth was rather questionable. After the game, the boss risked further punishment by criticizing the linesman who pressured the referee to award the penalty: "The linesman put too much pressure on the main referee, but he himself was at least 50 yards away from the incident. The key is, every weekend you can see many such incidents on the field (referring to Vidic pulling the opponent's shirt during defensive free kicks), how could you possibly give a penalty for each one?"

Interestingly, former Chelsea coach Grant, who just replaced predecessor Hart as Portsmouth manager midweek, was also dissatisfied with the result: "This was a strange game. If you only look at the scoreline, people would think we played terribly, but in reality, we were very good. I remember we created countless chances, our goalkeeper barely touched the ball a few times, while the opposing goalkeeper made at least three world-class saves, yet we ended up losing 1-4."

In fact, Grant's connection with Manchester United goes deeper than this - when he initially served as technical advisor at Chelsea replacing Mourinho as interim coach, his first game was an away league game against Manchester United, where he lost 0-2. By the end of that season, Grant led Chelsea all the way to the Champions League final, but lost dramatically in the penalty shootout. Unexpectedly, this was also his last game as Chelsea's head coach.

However, despite this, Ferguson, who maintains a good private relationship with Grant, still believes the Israeli can create a relegation miracle with Portsmouth, currently at the bottom of the table. "Changes in club ownership often lead to turmoil. I've seen their game footage, they shouldn't be in their current position," said the boss, "We've known Grant since he coached Chelsea, he has rich experience, I'm sure he can get the right response from the players." Fortunately, Portsmouth's next league game is at home against newly promoted Burnley, and opponents like Manchester United won't appear frequently.