If you believe in pre-destination, or that events have been pre-decided then this is the game for you. With 31 shots (20 on goal) Manchester United could not break through, while a rare goalkeeping blunder gives West Ham the win with only 4 shots on goal.


Starting Lineups:

Manchester U   West Ham
Edwin Van der Sar (G)   Robert Green (G)
Wes Brown (D)   James Collins (D)
Patrice Evra (D)   Anton Ferdinand (D)
Gabriel Heinze (D)   George McCartney (D)
John O’Shea (D)   Lucas Neill (D)
Michael Carrick (M)   Yossi Benayoun (M)
Darren Fletcher (M)   Mark Noble (M)
Kieran Richardson (M)   Nigel Reo-Coker (M)
Wayne Rooney (S)   Luis Boa Morte (S)
Alan Smith (S)   Carlos Tevez (S)
Ole Gunnar Solksjaer (S)   Bobby Zamora (S)
 

Despite promising to field his first team, Sir Alex Ferguson’s starting lineup did not include Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nemanja Vidic, and most notably Cristiano Ronaldo. All easily considered Fergie’s “first team”. I’m sure he did it with an eye toward the FA Cup final and resting some of his stars, but it is tough to argue that West Ham was given the strongest opposition possible. One could also argue that it would have been better to go into such a big game winning your last match.

After a bit of a slow start, the makeshift Manchester team did take the fight to the Hammers. At about the 5 minute mark, Rooney was fouled 30 yards from the goal. He sent in a beautiful strike, but it went just wide. At about 31′, Michael Carrick curled in a corner to the waiting Alan Smith. Smith’s shot was on target, but Yossi Benayoun cleared it off the goal line with a decisive header (or was it actually across the line?). United missed chance after chance in the first half and it seemed West Ham was leading a charmed existence on the pitch.

In stoppage time at the end of the first half, it became apparent to me that it was just not going to be Manchester’s day. Carlos Tevez and Bobby Zamora combined on a pass that was blocked by Wes Brown. The ball (as well as Tevez) slipped past Brown and Tevez ran it down. Van der Sar was caught in a slight moment of indecision, and Tevez easily slipped the ball under him to score.

The second half saw Ryan Giggs (57′), Paul Scholes (58′), and Cristiano Ronaldo (58′) inserted into the line-up. But instead of creating a stronger side, that more resembled the normal starting 11, Sir Alex replaced Patrice Evra, Michael Carrick, and Alan Smith respectively. This switch provided more of the same in terms of almost scoring with the best chance coming in the 75′ minute. A beatiful corner came in directly to Ronaldo who headed it down into the mouth of the goal, where West Ham’s Green got it caught up in his feet – and eventually cleared.

When time expired, the Manchester United fan was left feeling like the game was stolen from them – by coaching. This writer feels that going into a championship game, United would have been better served phsychologically by coming out of this game with a win. The champions, losing to a team that would have been relegated with a loss just does not sit well.

Random Thoughts:
Since having his nose broken Van der Sar is looking less and less comfortable in goal. He seems indecisive instead of letting his natural instincts control his actions. He’s more keen to punch the ball away (and have it rammed back into his net) than he is to wrap it up. Granted the weather for today’s game made handling the ball tougher, but in general Edwin does not look comfortable catching a ball cleanly.

Wes Brown looked very comfortable playing in the center and made some VERY nice defensive stops.

Kieran Richardson is not a starter. While he can give you some energetic minutes at the end of a game, letting him play the entire 90 minutes does not help the team.