He plays on the left, he plays on the right

A Ronaldo on each wing sounds like a dream come true but according to this report on the BBC we have signed Portuguese winger Nani.


Man Utd swoop for Anderson & Nani

Anderson and Nani look to be on their way to Old Trafford Manchester United have agreed "in principle" deals to sign Anderson from FC Porto and Nani from Sporting Lisbon.
The Premiership champions are set to make 19-year-old Brazilian Anderson and 20-year-old Portuguese winger Nani their first signings of the summer.
"Terms are agreed with both players and an announcement will take place once a medical and other procedures are done," said a statement on United's website.
United are also on the brink of signing Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich.
Anderson has been named in Brazil coach Dunga's squad for the Copa America in Venezuela next month, but not Friday's friendly with England at Wembley.
He joined Porto from Gremio in December 2005 and played against United in a pre-season friendly last August at the Amsterdam Tournament.
Nani had also been linked with a move to Tottenham, but recently said he would only leave Portugal to play for a club like United.
Nani has been compared to his compatriot Cristiano Ronaldo in his homeland, with pace and trickery similiar to that of the Footballer of the Year.
He has played five times for Portugal, scoring once in the process.

Man Utd NZ vs Northcote

Manchester United NZ 4 - Northcote 4.

review on West Ak Red, later.

do you remember

Marc, Gareth, Ken, Neil, Barry, ?, Rob, Graham
Steve, Mike, Steve, Ron, Simon, Steve

d birthday boy

Having a drink with Duncan in football nirvana.

aftermath

Manchester United finished the season in the worse possible way losing the FA Cup to Chelski. The last three games have never been up to the standard of earlier football and during the Milan and Chelsea games United seemed to have no sense of direction or purpose, at least during the West Ham game they had 30 shots at goal !

Anyway, NO WORRIES, seasons over and we ARE the Premier League CHAMPIONS and its time to give the lads a rest and look forward to a fairly secure future with Rooney and Ronaldo re-signed and a reasonable defence as well.


"Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back and choose the path to wisdom."

FA CUP FINAL

1: Party at new guy Ians on Sylvan Ave, Northcote, just up from Onepoto domain, 12 am kick off, BYO.

2: The rest are going to the ALBION

Manchester United Supporters Club of NZ

Come along on Wednesday night, May 16th, to the Speakers Corner in Browns Bay for the Manchester United New Zealand Supporters Club monthly meeting. We will be celebrating the Premier League Championship win as well as discussing the upcoming FA Cup final.
So come on down, the Speakers has great British beer and excellent food at reasonable costs.
There will be lively discussion about the season past and the upcoming cup match, so if you enjoy chatting with fellow fans or just want to keep in touch, drop in and let us all celebrate together.

Kick-off about 7.30 pm.

ALL WELCOME

Hammers at Old Trafford

What is it about the rain !
Manchester United again stumbled in the wet as West Ham once more ruined the last weekend of a Manchester United season.

The game was intense from the start, as West Ham fighting to stay up, piled on the pressure, but it was United that wasted the most opportunities, especially Rooney. Though United attacked continually they couldn’t get past Green in the West Ham goal. Over thirty attempts on goal showed United’s desire to finish the season on a high note and even bringing on Giggs, Scholes and Ronaldo early in the second half couldn’t produce a goal.

After the game Manchester United were presented with the Premier League trophy and the joy that was displayed was wonderful, the crowd chanted and sung and then the teams families joined them for a victory lap. Absolutely fantastic.

Wall of honour

Jim Soper, Player of Year
Wes Crerar, Goalscorer of Year

Manchester United NZ

The Manchester United NZ football team at East Coast Bays.

Over the bridge

Oh well, we couldn't bust their home record, but the United travelling fans surely told the home crowd who are the champs. Ferguson fielded a youthful side to save some legs for the Cup Final and the youngsters put up a great effort to come away with a nil all draw.

So onward and upward, as we have West Ham on the weekend, the Supporters Club meeting on Wednesday the 16th and then the Cup Final.

United at Waikaraka

Colchester Steve on his way to goal.

More Waikaraka photos on West Ak Red.

Man Utd NZ vs East Coast Bays

After such a great start to the weekend, (the Dragons, Blues and Tigers won), I didn’t really think the rest would mesh out so fine, but boy was I wrong.
Strangely, I was the early bird at the East Coast Bays ground (Superb pitch and spectator viewing) and as the ex reps rolled up, I thought we were in for our usual kicking.
Slowly but surely our lads came in and when Cardiff appeared in the dressing room, the whole day turned around. When we got out on the field, the team began shaping into one of the great Man Utd NZ teams, Jim was late so Cardiff went into goal, Steve Mellor, Mike 2 (Cardiff’s mate), Marc and Mark 3 (Gareth’s mate) made the backline, Gareth, KJ, Rob and Jan in the middle with Wes and Steve Taylor up front !
The game was the usual frantic pace (us) and the slow controlled passing (them) that shows the difference in technical abilities of the teams and twice in the early spell their main man Willie was given too much room but luck kept him out. A couple more close ones were repelled by Jim (newly arrived). In general we passed the ball around well, usually only suffering on the last touch and then lo and behold, who walks over the hill but half of the Korean national team ! Not quite, but if you thought In Taek was good, I now believe his mate Lee may be BETTER ! We battled out the rest of the first half for a well deserved nil all draw.
Early in to the second half we started with a new defensive line and a formidable Korean strike force, but of course those old buggers didn’t get to the higher levels without a bit of nous and 5 minutes in they had scored TWO cracking goals, after they scored the second the United heads started dropping, but Steve T quickly wound everyone back up and Lee, Taek and Wes sprung into life, with a dynamite display of passing, leading to our opening goal scored by Taek, then ten minutes later Lee made another dazzling run into the area only to be hacked down. Steve T calmly strode up to the spot and slotted home the penalty, 2 all, this really rankled a few of the old boys and Willie quickly put them back in front, but this only intensified our attack force and the thunderous applause from the United bench as we moved down the pitch was fantastic, esp when one of the young Koreans (playing from the back) stormed up the field and let fly from 40 out on the diagonal giving the old boy in goal a heart attack as it hit the crossbar and after having a couple of penalties turned down, the atmosphere was electric, then Lee just zig-zagged past 2-3 defenders and around the keeper to slot home our third. By this time the bench and supporters were going crazy and I have never heard clapping and cheering like this in all my years playing with the team. But sadly it wasn’t to be and in the last two minutes they set up a beautifully worked move down the right and a great cross in to Big (6ft 6) Mac (again familiar face, just can’t pin the name) who headed it home, like they had done it a hundred times before.
So we went down, but only just and when you consider their record and the number of old reps, I think we did a fantastic job.

I would like to thank all the guys and gals for their support on this great day. And I would also like to thank the East Coast Bays guys and their ladies for their wonderful hospitality (chicken, cheese, bread etc) and great beer. Jim won the $50 bar tab

And then to top off the weekend in great style we won the Premiership.

We have a break in our schedule now, so we might have a Family Runabout and BBQ in a couple of weeks at Onepoto or Owairaka (Mt Albert). ALL WELCOME

CHAMPIONS

Manchester United are once more the English Premiership Champions after Arsenal drew with Chelski this morning. After four long years, the stranglehold that Chelski and Arsenal held on the worlds premier league title has been broken and United rule the roost again. Alec Ferguson then announced that the title was more important than Europe, hmmmm, doubtful, but I believe we still have to finish the season strongly and send a message to the others, that fully fit we are the best team in England.
And heres to getting the trophy on Thursday morning at Chelsea.

GLORY GLORY MAN UTD

GLORY GLORY MAN UTD

Karma ?

Not really, if karma existed, a truck would ran over Ball's foot after the game, but Ronaldo scored his penalty and Van de Man saved his, so its all good. Being a betting man and anaylsing the odds, I am not in the 'home free' camp yet and will wait till after tonights game to celebrate.

Derby weekend

Manchester United take it all out on City this weekend in another early game, 11.30 kick off.

East Coast Bays on Sunday

Man Utd NZ take on East Coast Bays this Sunday at 2 pm. Always a great game with plenty of goals, the ECB team is mostly ex rep players from the last 40 years of NZ and Auckland soccer. Great spectator viewing, so do come along and don't FORGET a $50 bar tab for Player of the Day.

Missing Sunday football kit

See West Ak Red link >>>