United on Top and Beckham mania

Manchester United have qualified top of their group in the European Cup after their easy win against Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday morning.

Beckhamania has arrived and departed from Aussie and now the superstar has arrived on the shores of our beautiful country. Lets hope he gets a chance to relax a bit, enjoys the scenery and WANTS to visit again soon.
No word on the boss getting a minute of Davids time, but you never know.

Good luck to everyone travelling down or up to see the games and we wish you all a great time in the lovely capital.

Weird scenes inside the goldmine

Had a look at the Man Utd NZ Quiz results yesterday, someone called arsenal70 scored 15 out of 15 !!!! Hmmmm


And for the lads, the 3 teams in the first 1st division and also in the 1st Premier league, were Blackburn, Everton and Aston Villa.
Sheffield were in that other league which became the 2nd division.

Wandering United

How many times has it happened, the Machine is cruising along beating all the top flighters and along comes someone from the bottom to upset the cart.

With Ronaldo out we lacked some spark, but you can hardly say we lost because of Piques error, which allowed Anelka to score. It was in the TENTH minute, sort of leaves a long time to the final whistle, but United failed to peg back an equaliser and Bolton was a worthy winner.

Heads up, we have 3 home games and Arsenal have 3 away, so we can restore the balance in the next few weeks.

November MUFCNZSC meeting

Nice to see some old timers back in the meeting ranks tonight.

Major points:

In regards to the match ticket, it will be solely the responsiblity of the holder to return the ticket to our nominated member (Karen). If you take the ticket home after the game and someone misses out, you will be held responsible for the lost revenue. The committee decided that it will allow the posting (courier or track) of the ticket back if the member can't return it straight away.

The party going down to Wellington will all be there for the Phoenix game on Friday night as well as the Los Angeles game on Saturday. So if you are travelling or attending either game get a hold of Woody and arrange to meet the crew before and after the games.

The Club shirts have nearly sold out so if you want one, get in touch with Rob as soon as possible, mostly larger sizes left. We also have a handful of Club badges left, only $10 each and a great Chrismas present.

Discussion about a letter from MUST, a Man Utd Supporters trust (more in mag).

More discussion about getting hold of Becks, looks not to good at moment and the plaque and Patron issue have been put on hold.

Finances are good, big thanks to Katrina and Rob for doing the paperwork and a great response to the magazine thru email idea.

The golf day at Chamberlain Park in the New Year got a good reception and people should get in touch with a committee member or Steve Taylor in regards.

The XMAS party is all on for Sunday, December the 9th, at the Naval Base sports ground at Ngataringa Bay in Devonport.

Ken has a dinner (non curry) planned for Friday December 14th at a Birkenhead Italian place, let Ken know as soon as possible (027 2848862) if this sounds good, always an entertaining night.

Gareth is going well over in England and looking forward to seeing more United games the tickets are in demand so get a hold of Woody if you are going back to blighty well in advance of travelling.

And a big thank-you to Mick Hinder for the donation of a soccer ball for the Sunday team and also a belated thanks to Jans fathers contribution to the teams gear last year as well.

Scotland +

The decision of the ref to award a last minute freekick to Italy in their Euro match with Scotland was an absolute disgrace. The Scots have played some wonderful football over the last year, beating France twice and drawing with Italy and now they go out because of a shocking decision like that.


On the home front, we have the Trivia tonight at Speakers Corner and then double up with the Manchester United Supporters Club meeting tomorrow (Wednesday).

Still looking for Player of the Year (Sunday Footy) picks, let me know asap. Have got a definite leader, but all your votes count.

Ronaldo 2 - Blackburn 0

..

Manchester United 4 - Kiev 0

MANCHESTER United qualified for the Champions League knockout phase after a easy victory over Dynamo Kiev at Old Trafford.

It took United’s rampant recent run to 22 goals in six games, an amazing streak which surely marks them out as one of the tournament favourites.

Cristiano Ronaldo belted one long-range free-kick into the visitors’ wall and Nemanja Vidic headed wide but the most notable aspect of United’s play during the first half was a succession of badly-taken corners by Nani, who failed to beat the first near-post defender on three separate occasions. But it was all United after that, the first goal came a Ronaldo free-kick that floated into the Kiev box, Michael Carrick’s header cannoned into Tevez but the ball looped up kindly for Pique to convert his first United goal.

Carlos Tevez scored the second, after a 35-yard driving run, Tevez flicked a pass to Rooney, who instantly returned the compliment. Suddenly, Tevez was in the clear and equally quickly, his shot was whistling in, his first European goal for the club.

It was Rooney who provided the slide rule pass which should have seen Tevez grab his second. This time though, the former Boca Juniors man delayed too long and allowed El Kaddouri to slide in and rob him. However, when Nani arced over a cross from the right near the end, Rooney had an easy tap in for Uniteds third

Then the ball of day was released by Evra to Ronaldo who finished off in some style to complete the rout.

COME ON YOU REDS

Gutted

Gallas's last minute goal for Arsenal ruined an otherwise enthralling game.

With end to end football the whole game, it looked like Ronaldo had once again grabbed the winning goal for United. After some brilliant lead-up work from Saha and Evra, Ronaldos tap in seemed to be the winning edge, but a goalmouth scramble in the last minutes saw Arsenal get a draw.

I thought Rooney was very disappointing, but Evra was magnificent with his runs down the sideline and the late introduction of Saha was well timed.


News on the Wesley front;
He is doing good and the broken bones have healed well and he hopes to get of Rehab in a few weeks. Thanks to all of you who prayed for his recovery and he wishes to thank everyone for the support.

Congratulations

Young Karl and Amber have a lovely bouncing boy, born at 4.15 am, this morning, weight 7.8 lb.

ALL WELL


The first tenth generation KIWI, with due respect to the other whanau.