May 22nd, 2008
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Watch a goals (Man United: Cristiano Ronaldo Chelsea: Frank Lampard) and highlights video of the UEFA Champions League final: Chelsea versus Man U played at Moscow.
Highlights include the high-action penalties, goals scored by both teams, Didier Drogba’s send off for the Vidic slap, missed opportunities for both teams and some of the post match victory celebrations by Manchester United.
More UEFA Champions League Matches
Written by ListenUp on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Today in Toulon (actually Hyeres), two teams kept up their winning ways in Group A and guaranteed passage to the semifinals. Those two may be a bit of a surprise.
France 1-2 Japan
If one thing can be taken away from Japan's first two matches, it is that this is a team that knows how to finish its limited chances. That would be is stark contrast to France which sprayed shots everywhere except at the goal for the first hour of the match. Japan went up within 20 minutes on a powerful wide-open header by Tsukasa Umesaki. France came out after the break determined to even the scoreline, but were consistently stymied by the play of keeper Shusaka Nishikawa. Japan doubled up in the 60th minute. At that point, France had given up 6 goals in 94 minutes since Faty's red card in their first game. France finally broke through in the 71st, but Nishikawa produced a couple of more wonder saves down the stretch to preserve the win.
Chile 2-0 Netherlands
Chile started out fast and ran the Netherlands off the field in today's second match. José Pedro Fuenzalida started the scoring in the 19th minute, dancing through the Dutch back line and finishing with ease. The second half saw two Dutch players shown red. In the 75th, Leroy George was adjudged to have spit on a Chilean defender. While Milano Koenders was sent off in the 88th for throwing an elbow. In between, Chile scored a PK after Fabian Orellana was taken down in the box. Orellana summarily converted the penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way.
Chile and Japan sit jointly on top of Group A at 6 points, with Chile having a two-goal advantage on Japan. France and Netherlands are eliminated from moving on.
Tomorrow's matches:
Ivory Coast (0 points)-USA (0)1230 EDT
Italy (3)-Turkey (3) 1430 EDT
Today's links after the jump.
Manchester United meet with Real Madrid. Definitely not talking about C. Ronaldo. [Sky Sports]
Manchester City beaten by virtual pick-up squad in Hong Kong [Soccerway]
Robin van Persie, injured? No way. [Soccerway]
Jack Warner does his best to get another payday. May cause cancellation of Trinidad & Tobago-England friendly [Soccernet]
In related news, T&T players finally get bonuses for WC2006 [Sporting Life]
Written by Darkvader on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Backpasses and Toulon Tournament and ü75.
Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea (United win 6-5 on penalties)That was awesome. It had a little something for everyone: good football, bad football, great shots, great saves, near misses, injuries, diving, whining, handbags, a red card, tears, drama, controversy, penalties... and in the end, the right team won.
I think the two teams were pretty well matched over the 120 minutes. Normally I hate penalty shootouts (and my stomach was tied up in knots watching this one), but they could have played for another three days and still not had a winner. This wasn't a case of one team desperately hanging on through extra team and hoping for some good luck; both sides were really going for it.
United definitely had the better of the first half, although it was even at 1-1 by halftime. Sir Alex surprised just about everybody by starting with an old-school 4-4-2, with Owen Hargreaves on the right of midfield (I was yelling at the TV, convinced that ESPN had fucked up their graphics once again). It turned out to be a good decision, as Hargreaves was involved in most of United's best chances, and I think Ashley Cole may have underestimated him and was giving him too much space. On the other wing, Cristiano Ronaldo was terrorizing Michael Essien and demonstrating that he's not really supposed to be a defender. And it was Ronaldo who scored the opening goal, after good work from Paul Scholes and a pinpoint cross from Wes Brown, with a solid header that left Essien flat-footd.
Chelsea almost equalized a few minutes later, with some equally bad defending from United as Rio Ferdinand was bullied by Michael Ballack and almost headed the ball into his own net only for Edwin van der Sar to tip it over. But United were generally dominating the play, and they had another great chance to score, Wayne Rooney winning the ball after a Chelsea corner and sending a cross-field pass to Ronaldo, who picked out Carlos Tevez in the box. Petr Cech made a great save from Tevez's header, and another immediately after on a hard shot from Michael Carrick, who'd picked up the rebound. Tevez missed another chance shortly after, sliding in and just failing to connect with Rooney's cross. (Maybe next year Fergie will buy a striker who's more than 5'6".)
United were hoping to go into halftime with their lead intact (and, in fact, should have been up by two or three goals), but couldn't hold out. Chelsea came close with a free kick from Ballack, after Ferdinand had fouled Frank Lampard right on the edge of the box. And then they equalized just before the break, as Essien picked up the ball about 30 yards out; his shot deflected off a couple players and fell right to Frank Lampard, with van der Sar slipping on the shitty turf and Ferdinand scrambling to make up group. Damn it.
You'd think the goal would've made the Chelsea players a bit happier, but they followed up the goal with a terrible tackle on Ronaldo by Ricardo Carvalho -- and then half the team bitching about it when he was rightly booked. Claude Makelele was still arguing with the referee as they left the field, which was particularly stupid since he'd already been booked for a clash with Paul Scholes earlier in the first half. They're a charming bunch of players, really. I suppose their captain leads by example.
With the boost from their goal, Chelsea took more control in the second half. The game got increasingly niggly, with lots of fouls from both teams, and whining about just about every call (mostly from Chelsea, and especially from Joe Cole, who didn't make any other notable contributions to the match). Chelsea's fullbacks were pushing forward more, neutralizing United's tactics from the first half, and I think Ferguson should've reacted more quickly to change things up. Scholes was dropping deeper and seemed to be fading a bit (possibly because he still had a bloody nose from colliding with Makelele in the first half), and players were going down with cramp all over the place. But it wasn't until the 85th minute that United made their first substitution, replacing Scholes with Ryan Giggs for his record 759th appearance.
Anyway, into extra time we go, with Salomon Kalou coming on for Florent Malouda. (You notice how I haven't mentioned Malouda yet? Yeah. That's because he was kind of mediocre, Tommy Smyth's idiotic commentary on ESPN to the contrary.) Both teams had chances to win it in the first half of extra-time: First Lampard's shot careened off the crossbar, and Joe Cole fired over from the rebound. Then Giggs had a great chance for United, as Patrice Evra squirmed through the defence and set him up perfectly only for John Terry to head the shot clear. Nicolas Anelka came on for big sucky baby Joe Cole (and, it turns out, outdid him in being petulant), while Nani replaced a not-very-happy-about-it Wayne Rooney.
In the second half of extra time, the main incident, aside from still more players collapsing with cramp thanks to playing almost two hours of football on a pitch that kept shifting around on them, was a ridiculous bout of handbags between just about every player from both teams. It all started when Carlos Tevez -- who worked his tail off all game but to very little ultimate effect -- didn't play the ball back to Petr Cech after it had been put out of play for an injury. (This was, I think, when Ashley Cole was sitting on the ground flapping his thighs like some kind of demented butterfly.) It ended with Tevez and Ballack booked, Drogba red-carded for smacking Vidic in the face, and John Terry possibly spitting on Tevez as the rumble broke up. For the record, I don't think Terry spit on Tevez, I do think he's an asshole, but Drogba is an even bigger one for losing it, being sent off, and leaving his team in the lurch in a massive game. (Zinedine Zidane is a role model in many ways, but this is not one of them.)
There were only a few minutes left at that point, and United weren't able to take advantage of their extra man to score, so penalties it was. I was too afraid to make an official prediction before the game, just in case I jinxed it, but if I had, it would've been this: 1-1 after extra time, United to win on penalties. I probably wouldn't have predicted the way the penalties went, though. After all the penalties Ronaldo's scored this season, you wouldn't have expected him to miss, would you? I mean, yeah, there was that one against Barcelona, but he couldn't be stupid enough to do that twice, could he? Oh. See, THIS is why you don't mess around with the way you take penalties. Get Hargreaves to show you sometime; those Germans taught him properly. Ronaldo looked wrecked after Cech saved his shot -- and so he should have; waiting for the keeper to dive one way is useless work when the keeper knows you do that and won't move. Just hit it hard and put it in the corner.
All the other players had scored theirs, so Ronaldo's miss meant that John Terry could win the whole shebang when he stepped up to take the fifth penalty. (Apparently, if Drogba had still been on the field, he was supposed to take it, but I wonder if Terry would've taken one anyway, instead of, say Ashley Cole.) So here he is: Mr. Chelsea, England's Brave John Terry, scores a lot for a defender, blah blah blah, and he...misses. Doesn't get his foot planted properly, slips over on his arse and sends the ball wide. And I laughed. Oh, how I laughed. I did feel a teensy bit bad for him later on, seeing how devastated he was, but at the time, seeing him blubbering like a little baby, it was all schadenfreude.
After that you just knew that United were going to win it. And indeed, van der Sar saved Anelka's shot -- not particularly well struck; you could almost tell that he didn't really care -- and United were champions of Europe. Meaning, incidentally, that Ryan Giggs had scored the winning penalty. It was almost poetic.
I still can't believe they really did it. But they did, and I think they deserved it, too. Not just for the memories of 1958, or 1968 -- although that just makes it even better -- but for the way they played all season. Fearlessly dominant when they were on their game, and stubbornly determined when they weren't, they have been the class of the field. Glory, glory Man United.
Written by Jen on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Written by ListenUp on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Sir Alex Ferguson believes his Champions League winning team has the makings of his best ever Manchester United side following their victory over Chelsea in Moscow.
The Red Devils held their nerve to win a sudden death penalty shoot-out after a tight 120 minutes of final action had ended 1-1 at the Luzhniki Stadium.
Chelsea had led in the shoot-out after Cristiano Ronaldo missed his spot-kick, but John Terry fired wide before Edwin van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka's effort.
Afterwards Ferguson hailed his current crop of players after they emulated the class of 1999 in winning the Champions League and secured a third European crown for the Old trafford club.
"I think this has got the makings of our best ever team," claimed Ferguson.
"I think we deserved to win the game. In the first half we were fantastic and we should have been 3-0 up, but they scored right on half time, they got a lucky break there, and I thought Chelsea were the better side in the second half.
"But in extra time we got better and I'm just delighted for all the people here and my players. I'm very proud of my team."
Meanwhile, Ferguson felt the final success was written in the stars as it came 50 years after the Munich air disaster and 40 years after the club's first European Cup win at Wembley in 1968.
"We started the British sojourn into Europe in 1955 and we deserved to get the trophy tonight. I am delighted for the fans and the players," he continued.
"It was also my first penalty shoot-out win in a big game. I've won Charity Shields, European Cups, Scottish Cups, but this is the first one in a big game."
Written by eugeniu on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Chelsea manager Avram Grant praised John Terry's bravery after he missed a crucial penalty in the Champions League Final defeat to Manchester United.
The Blues skipper had the chance to clinch the trophy with the fifth penalty in a dramatic shoot-out, but slipped at the point of contact and saw his spot-kick crash against the post.
United went on to win a game that had finished 1-1 after extra-time in sudden death penalties and afterwards a crestfallen Terry was inconsolable.
"JT is the main reason we are here. We had a difficult time and he is part of the team," said Grant.
"Terry was great all season, in the semi-final and this game. He is the reason they didn't create any chances. I feel sorry for him and the team.
"What can I say? Except in the beginning, we dominated the game, we hit the post two times and then we lost on penalties. The team played excellently and I am very proud."
Meanwhile, Grant believes Chelsea will be back challenging for Europe's major honours in the coming seasons.
"It's not the last time you will see Chelsea in the final," he promised. "You will see us back and we will win the final."
Written by eugeniu on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Manchester United won the Champions League for the third time after a dramatic penalty shoot-out success against Chelsea.
Chelsea had led in the shoot-out after Cristiano Ronaldo missed his spot-kick, but John Terry fired wide before Edwin van der Sar saved Nicolas Anelka's effort.
It was an amazing end to a scintillating game that had ended 1-1 after extra-time as Moscow hosted the first all-English Champions League Final between the two teams that have dominated the Premier League in the last four years.
In a cagey opening Chelsea created the first opening in the fourth minute when Florent Malouda did well to whip in a dangerous cross that Nemanja Vidic was forced to head clear.
Owen Hargreaves' mis-hit cross then almost caught Petr Cech out only for the keeper to recover his composure and make the save.
In the 17th minute Ronaldo beat Michael Essien easily, raced to the byline and fired in a cross that was just too high for Hargreaves.
United took a deserved lead in the 26th minute. Paul Scholes and Wes Brown combined well with the latter sending over a pin-point cross for the unmarked Ronaldo to plant a header past the stranded Petr Cech - the 42nd goal of an amazing season for the Portugal international.
It was excellent play by Brown and Ronaldo, but Essien was badly at fault with his positioning.
The goal immediately led to the game opening up and, in the 34th minute, Chelsea almost equalised when Frank Lampard found Didier Drogba who headed the ball into the danger area where Edwin van der Sar was forced to make a smart save to deny Michael Ballack.
United then launched a devastating counter-attack with Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo breaking at pace. Cech did superbly to keep Carlos Tevez's close-range effort out and then produced an outstanding save to stop Michael Carrick's follow-up shot.
United should have doubled their lead when Rooney sent a low cross into the penalty area that Claude Makelele missed but the surprised Tevez could not turn the ball into the net.
It proved to be a costly miss as, on the stroke of half-time, Essien's speculative long-range effort took two deflections before finding Lampard who rifled the ball past van der Sar who slipped at the vital moment.
The second half was dominated by Chelsea although, in the 54th minute, Ronaldo did superbly to find some space for Patrice Evra but the Frenchman over-hit his cross and a good chance was wasted.
When Chelsea hit back, Essien did the hard work by creating a shooting opportunity for himself, only to then fire his shot over the bar.
With 12 minutes of normal time left, out of nothing, Drogba tried his luck with a curling 25-yard effort that beat van der Sar only to come back into play off a post.
Four minutes into extra-time, Chelsea were denied by the woodwork again as Lampard hit the post after being set up by Ballack.
United almost grabbed the winner when Evra pulled the ball back for Ryan Giggs who seemed certain to score only for Terry to head the veteran Welshman's mis-hit shot away for a corner.
In a feisty finale Drogba was sent off for stupidly flicking his hand in to Vidic's face but Chelsea hung on to force the shoot-out, only to eventually lose in unbelievable fashion.
Written by eugeniu on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has dismissed reports suggesting Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo is set to leave Old trafford and move to Real Madrid this summer.
Speaking on the eve of the Champions League final against Chelsea, the veteran Scot, when asked about whether Ronaldo would be staying with the Premier League winners, said: "If you want to put a bet on it I'll put a big bet on it."
Ferguson is confident his side can win European football's premier competition for the first time since 1999, adding: "Since we've won the championship we've had ten days good preparation.
"It's been a long hard season but I think we're in our best shape and hopefully good enough to win this trophy.
"There's a weakness in the amount of European trophies we've won and I hope we can go some way to making that better tomorrow night.
"We'll not have control for the whole of the game but we know enough about Chelsea's strengths and weaknesses to go into the game on an equal footing, and I trust my players.
"Chelsea are a stronger team than most and they base their game on that, but we don't need to match that. We need to play to our strengths - movement, passing and the ability to create openings in a game.
"So I don't want us to change that much, although we have to pay attention to players like (Didier) Drogba, (Michael) Ballack and (Frank) Lampard."
Written by eugeniu on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Uefa CL Final - 21 May 2008 - Man U 1-1 Chelsea
Pre
Makelele’s Tackle on Ashley Cole During Training
Download zShare
Match
C Ronaldo 1-0
Lampard 1-1
Extras
CR7 nice Skill on Essien 15′
by Matthierry08
————————————————————————————–
Chelsea 1-1 Manchester United
1-0 Ronaldo
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1-1 Lampard
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Penalties
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Celebrations
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Credit to Tiggz
by paumlhp
Vs.
HQ | Xvid | 720×544
29 min | 183 mb
Higlights
Home made with Polish LIVE commentary
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by Velo’
Drogba’s bitchslap to Vidic
Cole PK
Ballack’s sombrero
by ingvar2
http://www.zshare.net/video/12379002008709e6/
by Benit
Written by Darkvader on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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Alex Hleb has betrayed Arsenal.
He is just as bad as that little shite cAshley Cole and I hope that I never see him in an Arsenal shirt again.
He is a master of deviousness. One moment announcing how happy he was at Arsenal, the next trying to engineer a move away behind our backs.
On one hand, I like to see him sold to the highest bidder to get this mercenary out of my sight. One the other though, I would prefer to see him rot in the reserves and not get any first team bonuses.
He has been offered an improved deal at Arsenal of £60,000 a week, peanuts compared to the offers from Real Madrid and Inter.
Real "tap up kings" Madrid have offered £100,000 a week as have Inter "all the frozen yogart you want" Milan. Although Inter have thrown an added bonus that Hleb may find hard to refuse.
By all accounts Inter have written into Hlebs contract that for every time he runs into a shooting position and passes instead of shooting, he will get a scoop of his favourite ice cream.
An offer he has found hard to refuse.
It's a shame that it's come to this. Hleb has begun to show why he is dubbed "the white Ronaldinho" and I love him as a player.
It's a shame he has proved to be a different person to what I thought he was.
So the more he hoar's himself around Europe's elite, the more I despise him, and the more I despise him, the more I hope he doesn't run out in a Arsenal shirt again. Ever.
So if I was Wenger, I let him rot in with the stiffs until his contract ends because if he gets his wish and leaves, then he has won.
Keep it Goonerish........
Written by Wrighty7 on May 22nd, 2008 with no comments.
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