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- sport - This may have came a bit late, but Manchester United won their third European Cup. To put it all in perspective, European victories are extremely hard to come by. Real Madrid may have won it nine times, but then five of those were in the first five years of the competition. AC Milan are next with seven, then Liverpool with five, AFC Ajax and Bayern Munich with four, and now United with three. Some may say it can't be used as a measure of the stature of a club since Barcelona, which by any measure are amongst the most prestigious club sides in the world, are on only two, the same as Nottingham Forest, but that doesn't make the achievement any less wonderful. Touch wood, but seriously it isn't something that comes by often, so watching it live was quite magical. There was the small matter of another job-mandated visit at 10 a.m. the same morning, which meant that there would at most be a few hours of sleep, but that was nothing that couldn't be overcome. I was all set after stocking up on soya bean and prawn crackers, and checking that the hamsters were ready. For those not in the know, dwarf hamsters are very useful in drying sweaty palms. Personally I prefer the coarser fur of the Campbell for the initial soaking up, then the finer strands of the Winter White for touching up, but I guess one can get by with a single hamster if one is not too preoccupied about minor details. Alvin came over again, and my cousin invited one of his friends too. Game on. For all the speculation surrounding Sir Alex Ferguson's team selection against a "more physical" Chelsea, in the end it was a straight 4-4-2 of VDS - Brown, Rio, Vidic, Evra - Hargreaves, Carrick, Scholes, Ronaldo - Rooney, Tevez. Probably their best general formation. Pride of Asia Park Ji Sung was conspiciously absent even from the bench, which led to some speculation on whether he was left out just because he was "too nice" and the obvious guy to "take one for the team". I wouldn't go as far to say that it wasn't a consideration at all, but I suppose the difference in ability is negligible anyway. United had the best of the early exchanges, with Ronaldo slowly warming up to the pace of the game. Scholes and Makelele collide in mid-air, leaving the ginger one with a bloodied nose. Then, after 26 minutes, United's earliest goal ever in an European Cup final happened - Brown plays a neat one-two with Scholes down the right side, then cuts back infield and delivers a looping cross with his left foot. Essien, who had been outfoxed by Ronaldo a couple of times already, stands rooted and can only watch as Ronaldo rises majestically and heads the ball just inside Cech's right-hand post. Chelsea have a chance when Ballack forces Ferdinand into a dangerous header over his own crossbar, but after that United should really have gone 3-0 up and put the game to rest. A brilliant sweeping move that began with Rooney rampaging forward from a rightback position deserved a goal, but Cech saved well from Tevez's diving header, then Carrick was far too cautious and returned the rebound right down the middle at the goalkeeper. A little more to either side, and Cech would have had no chance. Tevez had another great opportunity from a Rooney low cross when it somehow eluded Makelele, but to be fair I wasn't expecting that to get past the defending player either. View first half highlights (3 min 24 sec). I had an unwelcome premonition that United would pay for their poor finishing as they have so often done in the past, and indeed Lampard's powers of deflection came in handy for Chelsea. A strike by Essien bounced off Vidic, then off Ferdinand, right into the path of the Frank one. It must be said that you make your own luck to a certain extent, but it was still a bitter disappointment for us. The second half was quite disturbing as it was Chelsea's turn to gain the upper hand. They do however suffer a few bad corner decisions, which has Joe Cole in particular all hot and bothered: End-to-end stuff, with Drogba smashing a curler into the woodwork. Say what you like about him, but he's one heck of a striker when he's not flat on the ground. Myself, I thought van der Sar had it mostly covered. Giggs makes a bit of history of his own as he breaks Charlton's appearance record by coming on for the fading Scholes, but there are no extra time heroics like the last time around. United do it the hard way again. United continue to be in trouble as Lampard strikes the crossbar in the first period of extra time, but it didn't go in and that's all that matters. Think I swopped hamsters as the one I was holding was starting to get extremely damp. Nobody was in the mood to snack. Evra then burst through a bunch of defenders, who are understandably wary of giving away a penalty, and feeds Giggs in the middle perfectly. "Mr. Chelsea" John Terry saves his side this time, but the fortunes of these two would be reversed later... Drogba then gets sent off in an incredible turn of events. No macho headbutting for him, though, just a sissy little slap at Vidic (in fairness Nani didn't fare much better at emulating the great Zidane not that long ago either). It would have been interesting to see the Serbian rip into Drogba actually, but Terry inexplicably kept Vidic away from his soon-to-be absent striker, but not before seemingly clearing his nose onto Tevez sneakily. It was far too late for a man less to make a real difference, so it was penalties, and boy did it make a story. As with the 2006 World Cup finals, Hollywood scriptwriters would probably have rejected it for being too unrealistic. If it was nerve-shredding for us in a corner of Singapore, I wonder what it might have felt like in Moscow. Time passed very slowly. Tevez hits the opener low and to Cech's right as Cech goes the wrong way. 1-0 United. Ballack strikes it high to VDS's left. VDS guesses correctly but it was hit too well. One-all. Carrick steps up, swings it to Cech's right as Cech flies left again. 2-1 United. Beletti, substituted on as a penalty specialist, pushes a grounder to VDS's left as VDS dives rightwards. Two-all. Now Ronaldo. I had expected that he would take the last kick, with some reports stating that he "likes the pressure". Apparently not. He does his usual stop-start jig. Cech doesn't move. With only a couple of steps remaining to the ball, he just wings it and strikes it unconvincingly waist-high and far, far too close to Cech. Uh-oh. Would there be an instant reprive? Lampard is next, and he slams it to VDS's left. VDS gets the barest of touches on it, but not nearly enough to stop it. Chelsea take the lead. The pressure mounts further on United's remaining kickers, as any miss must surely spell doom. It's Hargreaves, though, and he takes possibly the best kick of the night as he smashes it into the top right corner with coolness. Cech guesses the direction, but it's too hard and too high to catch. Ashley Cole once more hits it to the left, and one senses that VDS has just about gotten the hang of it. I thought he had stopped it, but again there was just too much power behind the kick, and the ball manages to continue on into the back of the net. United's dreams were slipping away, as Nani had to score just to keep United in contention. This he did, striking it uncannily similar to Ronaldo, but without stopping his run. That probably gave it enough strength to get through. However, the situation was still very much against United, as Chelsea would win it if they scored the last penalty. And as we all know, it is far more common for a penalty to be scored than missed. But who would take it and claim the glory? Hoping against hope Surprise, surprise, it was none other than Captain Terry. VDS engaged in his usual delaying tactics, but all too soon he had to be back on his goal line, waiting for the shot. It is true that a well-hit penalty to the top corner is virtually unsavable - all professional goalies must know that. Does this weigh on their minds in such a situation, when they realise it is almost completely out of their hands? I do not know. Anyway, VDS guessed wrongly as Terry chose the left side like all his teammates did. When the ball left his foot, it seemed to be all over. Cruel, cruel fate... Then the ball bounced off the upright and disappeared off the screen. It was not over. Anderson, United's penalty specialist substitute, came up for the first sudden death kick. Some later said that at twenty, he was too young to be afraid. Certainly his smashing of the ball straight down the middle right at Cech seemed fearless enough. This sort of thing works sometimes, and this time it did as Cech launched himself leftwards. Kalou for Chelsea. VDS takes his time walking to the goal. Is it the moment? Not just yet, as Kalou sends it high and to the left. VDS goes low and to the right. Giggs then. Perhaps fitting that a legend should have a stage such as this. A United player has his face in the turf, not daring to watch (who is it?). Can't blame him much. Cech commits to the right fractionally too early, and the Welshman strokes it, easy as you like, safely to his left. Anelka the Incredible Sulk walks up, looking like a man who would rather be anywhere else at this moment. VDS, who must have realised that all six previous Chelsea kickers have aimed to his left, tries some mind games of his own. He points to his top left corner, as if to say, "Come on, I know you are going that side.". Did Anelka fall for it, or had he decided to kick it to the right anyway? We may never know, and it was an okayish kick, certainly not the worst of the bunch. But VDS had read it, VDS parries it. United win. A hamster was squeezed. From despair to joy Terry is inconsolable, and certainly it would not have been a rank injustice had Chelsea won in regulation time. But this is football. United again pull off a great escape to become European champions, and complete a great Double. Sir Bobby Charlton leads the United players up to receive their medals, the players take turns to hoist the Cup. Fifty years after Munich - perhaps it was just meant to be, after all. It was by now six a.m., but staying up was well worth it. Epilogue: Unsurprisingly, Avram Grant gets pushed out of the Chelsea door, although a second-place league finish and an European Cup final must be regarded as a decent season by any measure. Well, perhaps not if you have billions to throw. Likely miffed at the personification of dull getting to the finals, which he had not been able to do with much the same set of players, Jose Mourinho the Special One dismisses Grant's deeds as non-achievements, probably trying to distract people from realising that with half a billion pounds of talent, many managers with more than half a brain would have a good shot at emulating his specialness. Will continue on to the rest of the week soon, but first a couple of special AAAAAs to give out (special in that they bypass the original criteria): Firstly, to edchong, for getting his blog marked by a Content Warning (Quote: "Some readers may find the content of this blog objectionable." Never have truer words been displayed). The question is, how the heck did it escape the dragnet for so long? Secondly, to tpk, for appearing on MSN without the Busy modifier. The princeling will be off to Germany in a week or so, so here's hoping his AAAAA has some cachet there... Next: Semester 7 Post Mortem
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