Community Shield- Thrills, spills, sense and nonsense!!!
August 10th 2009 07:59
Well the first official match of the new English soccer season has come and gone with the first piece of silverware, the Community Shield, having been carted off to the trophy cabinets of Stamford Bridge West London. This as Chelsea football club ran out 4-1 winners over Manchester United on penalties, after a 2-2 regulation time score line. So a winning start for new coach Carlo Ancelotti, no doubt he is a happy man. No doubt this was a better game than last year and it was certainly better than when the teams met in 2007. Still not the best we will see of these two teams for the rest of the campaign, but at least it had entertainment value.
Manchester United came out guns blazing in the first half of the encounter and whoever thinks that the loss of supremo Cristiano Ronaldo would mean that United would fall apart are dead wrong. They showed the world that while a void has been left by Ronaldo’s departure they still can be very lethal. In fact were it not for the brilliance of one Petr Cech in goal for Chelsea, United would have been up by three clear goals going into the half time break. Chelsea also have the likes of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho to thank for saving their blues on the defensive end of the pitch in the first half as the united forward line showed it still had the bite and venom in it. Sense or nonsense? Berbatov hav finally found himself at Manchester United? The strike from winger Nani to open the scoring was a ferocious one, Cech might have done better to try and stop it but that takes nothing away from the effort. All in all thou the first half belonged to Manchester united, but Chealsea’s keeper and center halves must share the spoils for keeping the score at only 1-0 heading into the second half. In fact it’s their effort that made the community shield a contest this year.
If the first half belonged to United the second half belonged to Chelsea in no uncertain terms. They played attractive football as they set to work on reducing the deficit. This they achieved with only nine minutes on the clock in the second half. Whatever Ancelotti said or did in the dressing room at half time worked wonders as his team responded and responded well. Here thou comes the nonsense in the game started by one Michael Ballack, first he dived winning an undeserved free kick, then he body checked Patrice Evra. Now the game was going on fine until these incidents, which were to say the least unwarranted and disgusting. It spoilt the good nature of the competition and while good football was played afterwards (especially by Chelsea who’s passing game at time was sublime), the game was never the same. It led to a rash challenge on Ballack by Evra later on. The referee had his part to play in the nonsense too as he allowed play to continue while a player was down injured on the pitch. While his initial decision to wave play on after the body check by ballack on Evra was indeed correct and made sense seeing that Rooney had the ball in an attacking position, why did he not stop play seeing that the player was still down on the ground and did not look like getting up? This is the same referee who stopped play earlier for a petty incident, in fact a dive by Ballack. It seems that the demons of last year’s officiating have awakened early in anticipation of this year’s season. We had hoped that during the break that they would have been exorcised, but it seems some still linger. Well there is still a week left before the long haul begins so let’s hope that those seen in the Community Shield are only remnants and will be dealt with before next week. Let’s hope that the players will also show more professionalism and respect the sport. Yes play with passion, play with heart, Play with pride but also PLAY FAIR!!!
Over all as said before we were treated to an entertaining match by these two giants and enemies of English football. Speaking of English football, Sense or Nonsense? England has one of the most if not the most potent center forward playing the game in the form of Wayne Rooney. I say sense!!!! He has matured under two great coaches, Sir Alex and Capello and this was evident today in the match. Judging from today’s performance by individuals and both teams we can look forward to a glorious season to come. We’ll be there to pick the sense from the nonsense
Congratulations to Chelsea!!!
Manchester United came out guns blazing in the first half of the encounter and whoever thinks that the loss of supremo Cristiano Ronaldo would mean that United would fall apart are dead wrong. They showed the world that while a void has been left by Ronaldo’s departure they still can be very lethal. In fact were it not for the brilliance of one Petr Cech in goal for Chelsea, United would have been up by three clear goals going into the half time break. Chelsea also have the likes of John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho to thank for saving their blues on the defensive end of the pitch in the first half as the united forward line showed it still had the bite and venom in it. Sense or nonsense? Berbatov hav finally found himself at Manchester United? The strike from winger Nani to open the scoring was a ferocious one, Cech might have done better to try and stop it but that takes nothing away from the effort. All in all thou the first half belonged to Manchester united, but Chealsea’s keeper and center halves must share the spoils for keeping the score at only 1-0 heading into the second half. In fact it’s their effort that made the community shield a contest this year.
If the first half belonged to United the second half belonged to Chelsea in no uncertain terms. They played attractive football as they set to work on reducing the deficit. This they achieved with only nine minutes on the clock in the second half. Whatever Ancelotti said or did in the dressing room at half time worked wonders as his team responded and responded well. Here thou comes the nonsense in the game started by one Michael Ballack, first he dived winning an undeserved free kick, then he body checked Patrice Evra. Now the game was going on fine until these incidents, which were to say the least unwarranted and disgusting. It spoilt the good nature of the competition and while good football was played afterwards (especially by Chelsea who’s passing game at time was sublime), the game was never the same. It led to a rash challenge on Ballack by Evra later on. The referee had his part to play in the nonsense too as he allowed play to continue while a player was down injured on the pitch. While his initial decision to wave play on after the body check by ballack on Evra was indeed correct and made sense seeing that Rooney had the ball in an attacking position, why did he not stop play seeing that the player was still down on the ground and did not look like getting up? This is the same referee who stopped play earlier for a petty incident, in fact a dive by Ballack. It seems that the demons of last year’s officiating have awakened early in anticipation of this year’s season. We had hoped that during the break that they would have been exorcised, but it seems some still linger. Well there is still a week left before the long haul begins so let’s hope that those seen in the Community Shield are only remnants and will be dealt with before next week. Let’s hope that the players will also show more professionalism and respect the sport. Yes play with passion, play with heart, Play with pride but also PLAY FAIR!!!
Over all as said before we were treated to an entertaining match by these two giants and enemies of English football. Speaking of English football, Sense or Nonsense? England has one of the most if not the most potent center forward playing the game in the form of Wayne Rooney. I say sense!!!! He has matured under two great coaches, Sir Alex and Capello and this was evident today in the match. Judging from today’s performance by individuals and both teams we can look forward to a glorious season to come. We’ll be there to pick the sense from the nonsense
Congratulations to Chelsea!!!
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