I first saw Manchester United in the summer of 1999. Not a bad year to start following this club I guess. What started off as a pastime slowly became an obsession. And became the reason for many friendships!
This is an attempt to stay in touch with my football following friends, United following in particular. I want this blog to be a community for sharing opinions; should be more about the banter in the comments section than the article itself. To keep the blog active, I'll be posting 2-3 articles a week to set the tone of discussion. I hope this blog witnesses some great exchanges and soon becomes the place to celebrate Manchester United's greatest moments.
Moments like these.
The Champions League is the most coveted prize in club football and it is no surprise that my favourite football moment came in the finals of the 2008 edition that United won. The stakes were incredibly high for United since it was the 50th Anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster. United simply had to win it. It was 1-1 After Extra Time and 3-4 in favour of Chelsea after 4 penalties each. Ronaldo, of all people, had missed one. Up stepped John Terry. Mr. Chelsea. British Bulldog. Captain Fantastic. The most loathsome player in football history was to condemn United to misery. As he walked up to the penalty spot, he pulled the captain's armband up his sleeve. Utterly nauseating. He took a confident run up and in the split second that I saw van der sar go the other way with the ball bound for the back of the net, I realized it was going to be the most depressing moment of my life...
Well, you know what happened next!
Football, Bloody Hell!
This blog is a tribute to that night in Moscow!
A great start to a great idea. As you can see already, I am going to be a regular here :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ritesh :)
ReplyDelete@world: Ritesh is the man who introduced Republik of Mancunia to me way back in 2007. RoM used to have 5-6 comments per article back then. Its now become a blog that United fans cannot survive without!
Good start Rajesh!! :)
ReplyDeleteKeep up your promise of writing 2-3 articles a week. Apart from match reviews, analysis, etc. I hope there will be off-field stuffs as well. I'm more interested in the economics of Club football.
~Seetharaman
Great stuff mate...I started one..but couldnt manage time to write substansially.Keep up the good work...
ReplyDelete@seetharaman: thanks :) will do my best. appreciate you commenting here. another chelsea fan's reaction was: "ur blog will hv one less visitor, after the first post" :D
ReplyDelete@jagan: thanks. i'll be glad to post your articles on this blog, if u do find time to write. :)
did u watch a match at OT yet?
Hello Friends,
ReplyDeleteIf any of you interested to wear the face of the Great CANTONA and the Red Devil logo, you can do show by buying the T-shirt here.
http://www.24hoursloot.com/product/9b587a6b41380dbd7502ac5f5249d918
It will cost you Rs.250 Including shipping and it is available only till the end of day!
Or may be our blogger can buy one for each of us, The Loyal United Supporters :)
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/845447-fergie-wants-barcelonas-pep-guardiola-as-next-united-boss
ReplyDeletewould love to have him when fergie leaves. but that's at least 3 years away from now. a lot of things could change by then.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBut doesnt fergie's contract end by the summer of 2011?? I feel the barca man will be an ideal replacement as he employs a similar style of play
ReplyDeleteI think Mourinho has already been earmarked as fergie's replacement. The mutual respect, the comments they make on each other, mourinho's comments during the rooney saga, the alleged manutd clause in his madrid contract. Everything points to just this. One thing we haven't seen from guardiola or mourinho is how well they can rebuild a team when some of their key players retire or leave, especially with limited resources. They both can run great teams. But can they make good teams great? Only time will tell.
ReplyDelete"They both can run great teams. But can they make good teams great?"
ReplyDeleteexcellent point. we still don't have the answers, at least in guardiola's case.
the man replacing fergie will be under a lot of pressure. and it'll be a thankless job as well. success for him will be discounted "because he inherited the team from fergie and didnt have to do much". any failure will be followed by "this would not have happened had fergie been there".