FA CUP
MANCHESTER UNITED vs. PORTSMOUTH
3-8-08

Manchester United started very strong, with both Rooney and Tevez up top. The only player I did not agree with was Hargreaves. I think Anderson would have been much more effective, because of his chemistry with Ronaldo, Nani, and Tevez. In the back United was solid with Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown, and Evra.

No surprise there, 4 minutes in Diarra fouls Ronaldo. That was the first of many fouls.

In the 7th Minute Ronaldo was clearly fouled in the box! Distin came running across the box with no intention to play the ball. He rammed Ronaldo and it’s a foul. A penalty kick is a foul in the box, it doesn’t matter what minute your in, it doesn’t matter how severe the foul is. That should have been awarded because it was a foul.

It was about time the referee cautioned someone, when Diop was given a yellow for another foul against Ronaldo.

Portsmouth didn’t have a decent effort until 17 minutes in, when Kranjcar tried one from outside. Yet another team that cant seem to penetrate Uniteds defense resorts to shots from 25 yards out.

Like I’ve said before Rooney is a good forward but not a great forward, In the 19th minute United had a great break with Tevez and Rooney on the attack, Tevez did great by carrying the ball wide and drawing the defender away from Rooney, and then passing off to Rooney to give him a great 1v1 against James. But Rooney (being Rooney) is dispossessed as he tries to get around James, he approached that play like he had all the time in the world. The ball was then rebounded back to Tevez, who takes a shot with no keeper, but was denied by Johnson who was on the goal line.

Immediately following his miss, Rooney takes out his frustration on Kranjcar. And was lucky to only be given a yellow card.

Tevez does exceptionally well in the 31st minute. He is on the far left flank, and beats one man, then two as makes his run to the center of the eighteen. Then when he creates just enough space to crack a shot he does. But James made a great save.

Another Portsmouth player is booked this time its Diarra for another collision with Ronaldo.

Scoreless at half.  But that certainly does not justify Manchester Uniteds efforts. United clearly had more possession, more shots, and more opportunities to score.

At the start of the second half United received a devastating blow, as Van der Sar was unable to continue due to a groin injury.

In the 57th minute Brown won a corner for United.
From the corner Nani gets a head on it but only to be deflected by Tevez’s thigh, Then it was a scramble in the 6 yard box. Nani had another chance at it, but it was poked out by Portsmouth  to Ronaldo who did brilliantly to create enough space to take the shot but it was wide

Still it was all United.

Another great play by united as Rooney lays off Evra who put a great ball back across the face of goal, but Tevez was running a little to fast and stretched but missed the ball.  But was quickly put back in to Ronaldo for a header but he put it over the bar, Ronaldo could have done better!

By this time Sir Alex had enough and finally made the change I was so eagerly awaiting. But made a mistake on which player to come off. Tevez came off for Anderson, and  Hargreaves came off for Carrick.
A better change would have been Hargreaves and Scholes for Anderson and Carrick.

Not even a full minute had gone by before Carrick almost changed the final outcome of this game. Portsmouth was very sloppy in the back and Carrick was fed a phenomenal through ball. Carrick gets past James and if it weren’t for Distin who scrambled back behind James to clear yet another ball off the line for Portsmouth, United would have been up 1-0.
Looking at the replay its just hard to watch this chance, because Carrick was inches from scoring, and he swung once and missed, swung twice and missed and by the third swing Distin had cleared the ball.

It was at that point I thought to myself “Its just not going to go in”. In any other game under any other circumstances United would be up at least 2-0 by this time.

And if that weren’t enough, 3 minutes later Evra had a thunderous left footed volley from outside the 18 and was denied by the woodwork!

Now as a coach, I understand Sir Alex’s attempt to increase his odds of scoring from a set piece by sending his bigger guys into the mix. But I think he should have kept at least one true defender back. Because when James caught that ball off a poorly taken free kick he quickly punted it up to his forwards knowing only Anderson and Rooney were left back to defend.
So now 2 United strikers are left trying to defend against to Portsmouth strikers, and lets not forget United has their 2nd string goalie out there. So in a very classic mistake we have to players rush the player with the ball, leaving the other man completely unmarked, and if you didn’t know by this time that something bad was going to happen, then you haven’t seen enough soccer games.
Kuszcazk makes a terrible mistake by franticly rushing Baros, who simply puts the ball out in front of him and waits for Kuszcazk to make contact with him ,and presto, Portsmouth is awarded a PK and Kuszcazk is shown a red card.
Ferdinand had to put on the gloves. He guessed the right way but had no luck. In the 78th minute United was down 1-0 after a PK taken by Muntari.

United only came close one more time and it was Anderson who hit a hit the side netting from a very tough angle.

Unfortunately for United, this loss marks the end of any Treble dreams, that supports, players and staff had .

This match just proved how cruel the sport of football could be.