Every year I do some awards where I jot down a whole bunch of things from the previous year that stood out, from games, protagonists, music and movies. I’ll be doing it a little differently this year as I plan to write something about each particular thing and plan to keep adding to them over the coming days. To change it up a little from the talk of games, the first area I’m going to cover is going to be football.
Football
Team of the Year:
I always feel a little dirty voting against Manchester United, but last year you really, really couldn’t look past Barcelona. I genuinely feel we should have beaten Barcelona and forgoing an injury to Owen Hargreaves and a ridiculous suspension to Darren Fletcher then we would have set up differently and, I’m confident, have beaten them on the night. Aside from that though, Barcelona really were a cut above the rest, from an insane number of goals shared across their three strikers, Messi, Henry and Eto’o to the complete domination of the midfield through the silky skills of Andres Iniesta and passing quality of Xavi. All over the pitch they had stars that performed week in and week out, they definitely deserved their plaudits.
Best Player:
Everyone seems to say that Messi was the best player last season, I really don’t agree, sure he bagged a load of goals but he doesn’t do it on his own. For me, both Andres Iniesta and Gerard Pique stood out at Barcelona above anyone else last year. I do love my defenders, but for me, the mercurial Iniesta deserves it, he was the heart of the Barcelona midfield, rescued them against Chelsea (the biggest fix ever) and seemed to be an integral part to every single flowing move that Barcelona put together. If I could take any player at Manchester United right now then Iniesta would be the one, he just oozes class.
Honourable Mention:
I’ll go with Gerard Pique. I was always a huge fan of him at Manchester United and was incredibly dismayed when we opted to keep Jonny Evans, not a bad defender, but not one that I’d rate too highly, he certainly didn’t have the presence or reading of the game of Pique, who, since joining Barcelona has only gone on to prove me right, dominating the back line as well as being a real presence up front from set-pieces. Pique is good enough to have a starring role in any defensive line-up in world football, I just wish it was still ours.
Biggest Disappointment:
Without a doubt, for me, the biggest disappointment has been Anderson’s progress at Manchester United. He’s gone from one of the most promising young players in the world game to a player who is clearly terrified at the prospect of shooting, no longer goes in for tackles and often looks lazy as well as trying the killer ball a little too often. His passing ability and strength on the ball are still very good, and there’s no doubt that a lack of playing minutes has impacted him hugely, but in the last 24 months we’ve seen Anderson completely superseded by Fletcher, who has gone from being inferior to becoming a world class midfielder. I have no doubt that Anderson will leave Manchester United in the future, which I really should be more upset about seeing as he is so promising, and I have no doubt that at another club he’ll shine and become a real star, but he really needs to improve his attitude and work ethic as well as working on the finer attributes of his game.
Honourable Mention:
This is an obvious one, it’s the player I never wanted, and certainly never at the ridiculous price paid, Dimitar Berbatov. I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s lazy, certainly not like many others would, we knew what we were getting, but he could perhaps try a little harder with his effort getting into the box, try a few more shots. He has been excellent at holding up the ball, he is one of the best around for it, but he should have adapted other areas of his game. A good example would be his pace, people think he’s slow, but he’s not, he’s actually pretty quick, but the nature of his game is to drop lower than the front man, which doesn’t happen at Man Utd because Rooney plays in a free role naturally. I never wanted him, we could have bought so much better for £30m and to think we passed on a £20m Fernando Torres to buy a £30m Berbatov is enough to boil my piss. Argh!
Goal of 2009:
This should be easy, but it’s really not, there are 5 goals that come to mind, 4 of which are Man Utd, 3 of those scored by Cristiano Ronaldo. The none Man Utd goal was by Maynor Figueroa of Wigan, a free-kick quickly taken from his own half which beat Sorenson off his line. Another is the free-kick by Ronaldo against Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final which stands out for two reasons, the fact it was over 40 yards out and secondly due to the commentators line, “Too far out, even for Ronaldo… Oooohhh”. The other goal by Ronaldo in the same game also stands out, a text book example of the counter-attack.
My second favourite though was Federico Macheda, a goal that was not only of the highest skill and quality, but a goal that arguably won us the title last year at a time when we were wobbling more than ever. Receiving the ball on the left hand side of the area, Macheda flicks the ball back underneath himself before quickly striking the ball around Brad Friedel and into the far right hand side of the goal. To win the game. In the 92nd Minute. On his debut. At 17. Brilliant.
The winner however should be no surprise, a Ronaldo wonder strike that rightly won the official UEFA goal of the season award. In need of a win after a poor first leg against Porto, Man Utd needed an away goal, step forward Cristiano Ronaldo to rifle hom a goal from 40 yards into the opposite top corner to progress us through to the Semi-Finals of the Champions League. Breathtaking.
