Barcelona-Man U Postgame

180 minutes plus of boring and cynical football played between Barcelona and Manchester United, interrupted only by a dreadful pass by Gianluca Zambrotta and one moment of genius by Paul Scholls. Barcelona played well enough to hang their heads high, but Manchester never wanted to play an attractive game. The only positive period of play from United was the five minutes after Zambrotta’s horrendous error, where Barça was shell-shocked and lost organization and passion. The best players on the pitch for United were the ones who hustled and thwarted any attack, namely Evra and Tevez coming back to harass the blaugrana back four. The most positive player for United was Park Ji-Sung, whose passing and work rate were outstanding. He seems 100% back from his injury woes; I have not seen a game this good from him since he returned. All that being said, that one moment of brilliance by Scholls make United a worthy winner of the tie, I just wish they had played more positive football. I thought other than Nani, who would stink at the zoo and consistently confuses me as to why is selected, all the United players played well enough.

For Barcelona, I thought other than Messi, no one really stood out. Messi was a menace wherever he was, and his patented staccato dribbling baffled defenders at times. Only his final touches, both shots and passes, betrayed the pygmy genius. To accompany his howler, Zambrotta stooped to Ronaldo’s level of immaturity during his many encounters with the Portugese winger. Deco narrowly missed a couple mid-range shots, but that has never been his game and he did well enough to put himself into those spots.

Throughout this blog, I think you will see a theme after big Man U or Portugal games, and that is how much I loathe Ronaldo. To me, he is the reason why most Americans refuse to take this game seriously. Though he had none of his obvious, card worthy-dives today, his constant complaining, going down when just breathed on, and rolling on the ground and feigning injury is unbelievable. He is bar none the best player in the world, yet he acts like a spoiled, cheating brat. Could you imagine LeBron, or LaDanian acting like that in a game? They would be mocked incessantly and for good reason. How does Sir Alex, or any of the strong, fair players United have [Tevez for one needs to be shot to be brought down, same with Rooney and Park] put up with that crap.

We’ll see tomorrow who they will play in Moscow, but I am thinking 2-1 Chelsea. That or I am just hoping for some goals to make up for the snooze-fest we witnessed today.