San Siro ’s White Magic
I have just witnessed a catastrophic ChampionsLeague Semi Finale match between Manchester United and AC Milan. That was a match to remember for the italian giants as they performed one of their classical play to hunt down the likely-winner of this year competition, The Red Devil.
The Rooseneri has been master-class and their players have been great from the first second till the final whistle was blown by the referee. On the other hand, The red devils have lost their devilist ability to torment opposition defenses, and also could not find a way to regain their instinct in protective their goal-mouth, which eventually awarded 3 superb goals to their counterpart.
San Siro certainly has the ability to cast spell on the visitors and this match is another strong proof to this claim. The San Siro magic has dispelt the confidence and self-beliefs of the red devils, whilst it also effectively casted another form of magic onto the host, transforming the host into a fighting team that always show the hunger for more success.
We saw the ginger head of united, Paul Scholes, and his long-term comrade Ryan Giggs walking away from the pitch in a mood of aweful disappointment as this could probably be their last UEFA dream. The Wales international winger was the only united player who was able to unleash a shot to test his opposition brazilian keeper Dida during the dreadful first half of the match, and yet could only see his effort stopped by the shot-stopper without much difficulties. While we were made to believe that Michael Carrick has finally lived up to expectations and levelled himself with the amount of cash united paid to his former club, however, Carrick was performing one of his worse match for united to night. Unable to spark his passing magic, and also could not find a way to hold on to the pressure imposed on him by Pirlo and was absolutely no match for the ferocious Gattuso thourghout this match. Carrick was always second best in this match.
While watching this match i cant stopped wondering why did the united player looked so weak and even 2 step slower than any of the Milan player, they would always fail to win the possession in a 50-50 situation, and they would not be able to pass their ball with appropriate power, let alone accuracy. They were soft, they were not even themselves, i am sure they would wonder how on earth they managed to slam 7 goals past AS Roma few weeks ago, and hit by disbelief that they actually registered the scoreline past AS Roma.
In the pre-match talk, we would always see headlines with the name of Cristiano Ronaldo drawn to Kaka’, and the duo were being compared as to who is the best footballer in the world this moment. If one of the two has to be named as the best, apperently Kaka’ would beat the Portuguese to the honour. Ronaldo was just another united player who were struggling with the ball and found himself losing possesions, passing the ball to his oppositions, lost his pace and always found the ball beyond his reach throughout this match. Well, the actuality is the whole team from Old Trafford were in terrible conditions tonight.
The magic of San Siro must have dispelt the fighting spirit in the red devils as they did not play to convince the audiences that they had the burning desire to win the match and book a date with their arch-rival Liverpool at Athens. It is obvious for anyone of us who have watched this match that the anchorman of Milan, Gattuso would have taken this Manchester United down on his own, tireless run and countless interceptions combined with his strong will to win the ball with every tackle he plunged into, the villiant Gattuso was always likely to win the ball back for the host and was a kind of force that destablelized the manchester united team.
Now that the match is over, Manchester United UEFA dream is effectively ended in Italy. 3 goals down, and they thought everything was over, and hence slowing down and never again seemed willing to fight for a draw, while we seen Liverpool stormed back to lift the trophy 2 years ago after being 3-0 down to the same team, the only difference is that The Reds had shown fighting spirit and desire to win, but United, apparently lacked this tonight, and hence found themselves going back to Manchester knowing they must bounce back from this defeat as soon as possible if they were to beat Chelsea to the top of Premier League and win the FA cup.
~ it is always excitig to watch manchester united playing their football this season, but not tonight. Liverpool, i plead you to avenge for the devils… ~
ps. hopefully the pitch at athens will be a lot more better than the San Siro’s pitch. perhaps this is one of the san siro’s trick as well =)
