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#5458458 · 29 Apr 2007, 05:31 · · პროფილი · პირადი მიმოწერა · ჩატი
რუნიზე კარგი სტატიაა:
Sultans of spring
Manchester United will go to Milan on a goal-scoring high, thanks to a late-season surge by Wayne Rooney
Jonathan Northcroft
It was last June in Germany when Wayne Rooney, given the all-clear to play in the World Cup, strolled into the England hotel announcing, “The big man is back”. But that’s not where the story starts. For that we go back 12 months exactly, to Stamford Bridge, April 29, 2006. Chasing a through ball, Rooney was tackled by Paulo Ferreira and stumbled, his left knee banging into the back of his right calf, causing two bones to crack in his right foot. “I thought the end of the world had come,” he said. “It was the worst single moment of my life so far.”
It has taken Rooney the full year to get over his trauma, recover his game completely and make good his boast. In the interim there were not just moments but whole periods when people wondered about wonder boy: was his bright star already burning out?
Timing is a gift of all top strikers and Rooney has paced his rehabilitation wonderfully from Sir Alex Ferguson’s point of view. Seven goals in seven games have kept Manchester United chasing a treble. On Tuesday a sudden thump battered open the door to the Champions League final. Stoppage time against AC Milan, goal required; in such instants history turns. The big man is back indeed.
Ferguson hopes that Rooney can do the same as the maestro to whom he compares him. Eric Cantona got going when the going got tough. He did it in 1991-92 when he gave Leeds the extra required to win a championship at United’s expense, and in 1995-96 when he scored winning goal after winning goal to lead a young United squad to a league and cup double.
From having scored just eight times by January 21, Rooney now has 23 goals for the season, his best total, and is looking to make some extra pocket money, as Cristiano Ronaldo did, from Ferguson’s love of a wager. “I hope to reach 25 goals. Hopefully I’ll end up with more than that before the end of the season,” Rooney said. “I’ve a little bet with the manager.” For how much? “That’s private.”
Rooney’s two strikes against Milan give him four goals in his past three Champions League games. It has been as unsettling as a teenage growth spurt, so suddenly does he appear to have shot from naivety to European maturity. He had gone 30 months from his first Champions League goals, versus Fener-bahce, to his next one, away to Roma, and often worn an angst-filled look as he tried to navigate the subtleties of continental club opponents, not to mention the three-forward system Ferguson likes deploying against them.
“According to you guys, I’ve been on a [European] goal drought all season, and last season and the season before,” Rooney told journalists. “So I’m feeling good.”
Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan manager, is considering dropping his main centre-forward, Alberto Gilardino, for the second leg on Wednesday, when his team will have to score at least once to progress, but in all likelihood — given United’s goal habit — on multiple occasions. “Gilardino has only scored once in the Champions League. There’s more pressure in the Champions League compared to the domestic league and Gilardino is not experienced enough to manage it yet,” said Ancelotti. Gilardino scores nearly once every two games at international level and is three years Rooney’s senior, yet he suffered horribly through comparison with his United counterpart last week.
The value of Rooney’s performance then and in both legs of the quarter-final against Roma was not just in his scoring but in his sophistication in adapting to team demands. Against Roma he played the part of support forward, rotating position with Ronaldo and spending much of the tie in wide areas when he would rather be playing in the centre. Against Milan he played in the centre but as a lone striker against two thoroughbred centre-halves, Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta. They seemed to control Rooney at first, but it was a mirage; his movement, energy and unyielding challenges for the ball were wearing them down. With half an hour gone, Nesta could be seen, hands on knees, snatching deep breaths during a break in play. Maldini’s knee gave out and he is likely to miss Wednesday’s game.
The veterans had dealt with Rooney so much more easily in 2005. “It’s only natural that for myself, Ronaldo and Darren Fletcher last time it was difficult against players like Maldini, who’ve been there so many times. We’ve grown up, matured as a team and we’ve become more clinical,” said Rooney.
With the prematch focus on Ronaldo and Kaka, Rooney reminded us there was another world-class young talent on the field. A few months ago he seemed to have forgotten that himself. Rushing back to play in Germany six weeks after his metatarsal injury, when patently only partly recovered, may have made full rehabilitation over the longer term more difficult, and then he was banned throughout September because of a red card in a preseason friendly.
After two goals in the first match of 2006-7 against Fulham, Rooney scored in only three of his next 27 games. There were others to carry United then, but with Henrik Larsson gone and Louis Saha injured, the past few weeks were exactly when Ferguson needed the real Wayne Rooney to step forward. That he obliged demonstrates possession of an essential quality of the great player: we have seen it in international football — pressure is a stimulant, not an inhibitor, for Rooney.
His scoring may be needed in the San Siro. Nil-nil would put United through, but that is a scoreline that the current side achieves only inadvertently.
“I don’t think it’s right we have to go over there and not concede,” said Ferguson. “There’s every chance we will concede. We just have to win the tie. We don’t necessarily have to win the game, but we have to score.”
Milan will have to quell Rooney from first minute until last. “We [United] play to the end. You’ve seen Chelsea do the same. It is a good battle between us for the three competitions,” said Rooney.
Ferguson would happily lose a thousand bets for the youngster to win him his Treble chance.
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ამ სეზონში უკვე 122 გოლი აქვს MU-ს გატანილი და იგლზი იყო მე-20 მანჩესტერელი ვინც წელს გოლი გაიტანა. მართლაც მაგარი შედეგია და რაც ყველაზე მთავარია რუნი ათამაშდა როცა კლუბს ყველაზე მეტად სჭირდებოდა, ლარსონი წავიდა და საჰა ქრონიკულად დამტვრეულია.
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Mourinho conceded Chelsea had “almost” lost their grip on the Barclays Premiership trophy: “I feel sad but I have a big game on Tuesday night [against Liverpool in the second leg of their Champions League semi-final] and that’s a good thing in this situation. But it is almost lost, almost. It is not over, because mathematically there is a chance and when the chance is there, we have to believe and chase the opportunity you have.
“Manchester United, in this moment, feel very, very close. They have to lose two games and we have to win all three. They are very, very close to it. But we win things as a team and we lose as a team.”
მაურინიო ფაქტიურად დანებდა
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ესეც გარი ლინეკერის სტატია პოლ სქოულსზე, თუ როგორ აკლია ის ინგლისის ნაკრებს და რომ ის ერთ-ერთი ყველაზე ტექნიკური და ჭკვიანი ფეხბურთელია ვისაც კი უთამაშია ინგლისის მაისურით ოდესმე:
Scholes shows England what they are missing
By Gary Lineker, Sunday Telegraph
There is no question that if Paul Scholes made himself available for selection he would walk straight back into the England team, and what terrific news that would be for the England fans, players and, of course, Steve McClaren.
Hugely appreciated: England desperately miss Paul Scholes
England have missed Paul Scholes, who is one of the most intelligent and technically gifted players ever to pull on the national shirt. You only had to look at the improvised scoop pass which unlocked the Milan defence in the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday to see what he offers. Even the most organised defences will struggle to keep out an in-form Scholes. And what form he has been in.
At the PFA awards he was rated the best English player in the Premiership this season as he came third in the individual award behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba. Those two have had exceptional seasons but Scholes deserves to be up there. In the PFA team of the year he got in ahead of Frank Lampard, who hasn't had a bad season himself. No wonder England miss him.
He has been like a new signing for Manchester United, having spent so much of last season out with blurred vision in his right eye. Despite that long lay-off, he has come back into the team playing some of the best football of his career. The goals have been flying in- and his all-round play has inspired United.
He's a real player's player, a terrific footballer who is hugely appreciated within the game. He's not just top-class, he's world-class and Milan will be desperately hoping Rino Gattuso gets fit by Wednesday because, after the Italian holding player limped off, Scholes dominated the midfield.
With his outstanding technique, Scholes has always excelled in European competition and you can understand his determination to get to the Champions League final this year - like Roy Keane he was suspended for the 1999 final when United beat Bayern Munich in such dramatic circumstances.
Suspensions have always been Scholes' problem. If there is one weakness to his game it is his tackling which is, well, pretty shambolic. He is not malicious but just seems to mistime his challenges, a product of his fierce competitiveness. He has already had crucial suspensions this season and he missed that 7-1 thrashing of Roma because he picked up an unnecessary booking in the first leg.
Still, these errant tackles are not going to disappear from his game at the age of 32 and they are a small price to pay for having one of the modern English masters of the passing game in your side. It is not just on the pitch that Scholes is a valuable presence; off it, he eschews the nonsense that comes with being famous. He doesn't go in for self-promotion and is a devoted family man. He quietly gets on with making the most of the game. He is a real role model for younger players and I'm sure Alex Ferguson holds him up as an example.
He was already guaranteed legendary status at Old Trafford for his magnificent achievements since breaking into the team 14 years ago but this season has shown he still hungers for more. This is clearly a player still burning with ambition and, with several seasons left in him, it seems such a shame that his ambition does not extend to England. Scholes has made his decision and we must respect that, but you have to wonder if his outstanding form has not prompted him to reconsider. Only he will know.
Would it be a retrograde step to get Scholes back in the national side? I don't think so. It was always his decision to step down and he has twice turned down invitations to return to the set-up. No coach has ever said they can do without Paul Scholes.
I know for a fact that Steve McClaren would welcome him back with open arms. I told him he might take a leaf out of Raymond Domenech's book: the France coach so desperately needed Claude Makelele that he forced him into joining up with the national side after he had retired. My comments might have been tongue-in-cheek, but England do desperately miss Scholes.
He is exactly the sort of player who can open the kind of defences McClaren's players have become frustrated by. Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are powerful, hard-running goalscorers, but neither has the guile that Scholes possesses. He can pick teams apart when others cannot find a way. Just ask Milan.
Of course, some might say that the reason Scholes has had such a renaissance in form has been precisely because he quit the national team. There may be an element of truth in that but I would hesitate to agree. It was certainly true that Alan Shearer extended his club career by retiring from international football but he will readily admit that it was because his legs had begun to go.
Strikers suffer from that more than players in other positions, especially hard runners like Shearer. Scholes has shown no signs that he has lost any of his zip.
It is always an honour to play for your country but perhaps Scholes was simply fed up with the constant criticism that comes with the England scene. That can happen, believe me. Before he retired he had been getting a hard time because he hadn't been scoring. He was being played out of position on the left and it must have been frustrating. This is the problem with England -- it is only when our best players are gone that we realise how much we miss them.
Michael Owen should be back for Newcastle at Reading tomorrow, another example of a player some thought England would be better without. They were wrong about him and they were wrong about Scholes: having them both back in the team would make qualifying for Euro 2008 a lot less daunting.
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