Wayne Rooney Heads United To Carling Cup Victory
Wayne Rooney Heads United To Carling Cup Victory
By Dominic Vieira
50th League Cup Final, Aston Villa 1 – 2 Manchester United,
Wembley Stadium, London - 88,596 spectators
Wayne Rooney’s deadly head makes up for Vidic’s hot head and retain Manchester United the status as champions of the Carling Cup.
The atmosphere was magnificent from both fans, from each corner of Wembley the roar could be heard from top to bottom. Manchester United fans protest against the Glazer ownership of the club was clearly visible with the thousands of green and yellow scarves, but the protest did not destroy the match. In a close encounter between two fast, physical and efficient sides, one of the teams had to end finish victorious and United were worthy winners, but Aston Villa put up a strong challenge to the defending champions.
As expected, both teams approached the 50th final of the League Cup fielding a traditional 4-4-2 formation, Aston Villa using two wide offensive wingers. Manchester United, captained by Patrice Evra had no real surprises in the starting eleven; Ferguson did hint that Wayne Rooney would be rested. However, Tomasz Kuszczak was given the responsibility to defend the nets instead of Ben Foster and Michael Carrick played instead of Darron Gibson. As I predicted and was expected, Aston Villa started with their strongest eleven.
(detailed match summary, with highlights, is embedded after the jump)
Line-ups
Aston Villa (4-4-2): Friedel; Cuéllar (Carew 80’), Dunne, Collins, Warnock; Ashley Young, Milner, Petrov ©, Downing; Agbonlahor, Heskey
Manchester United (4-4-2): Kuszczak; Rafael (Neville 66’), Evans, Vidic, Evra ©; Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, Park (Gibson 85’); Berbatov, Owen (Rooney 42’)
Scorers: 1-0 Milner (5’pen), 1-1 Owen (12’), Rooney (74’)
Bookings: Collins, Downing; Evra, Vidic
Match Summary:
Manchester United had a terrible start to the game; James Milner perfectly flicked a pass to isolated Gabriel Agbonlahor, who was clearly brought down by Nemanja Vidic in the box, he was lucky to escape a booking from referee Phil Dowd. James Milner calmly tucked the penalty by slotting the ball in the bottom right angle. United rapidly bounced back from the early goal, in the 12th minute Richard Dunne lost possession to Dimitar Berbatov, he then tried to retain the ball but ended up passing it to Michael Owen who sharply slotted the ball in the bottom left corner, leaving Brad Friedel no chances of reaching it. The match stayed deadlock throughout the first half but The Red Devils turned out to be the stronger side who played more comfortable and calmly on the ball, they circulated the ball all over the pitch, on both sides with Park and Valencia made deadly runs with the ball. Also, Berbatov was highly influential in United’s attacking plays contributing his elegant flicks and skills which definitely lighted up the match. Carrick had a poor first half, he looked slow at some stages and was in charge of the set pieces which never disturbed Villa. Aston Villa used their typical approach of focussing balls down the flanks; Young and Downing were the men who continuously unsuccessfully fed the ball into the box. James Milner, without a doubt, was the driving force for the Villans in the first half. On the 42nd minute, Michael Owen was forced to limp off the pitch after trying to get the end of another slick Berbatov flick. It was a shame for the international striker, who was having a good game and certainly impressed Capello with his goal. Rooney was brought into the fray. Moments later, just before the whistle was blown, Park Ji-Sung fired the ball against the right post after a poor clearance by Collins.
The second half started with a similar quick pace and rhythm the first half started with. Both teams had attacked the opponents’ goals but the only real chance was when Brad Friedel superbly saved Carrick’s powerful shot which was created in a beautiful build up between Valencia and Berbatov. After this, United continuously dominated the match and played their game intelligently, they gave the Aston Villa wingers little space on the ball most of the times. Their alternative was long direct balls from the back drilled to target men Heskey and Agbonlahor, which didn’t create much danger. The deadlock was broken in the 74th, United had been circulating the ball which resulted to quick one-two between Berbatov and Valencia, who beautiful placed the ball on unmarked Wayne Rooney to head the ball in the top right angle and United took the lead. Who was marking him? Moments later, Rooney could have killed the game in a similar play from another sweet Valencia cross but this time the ball hit the bottom left post. After this, United went down a gear and Aston Villa tried to break past the United wall but failed. They had two close chances, the first in the 82nd minute by Collins which was tipped over by Tomasz and the other in the 89th when Dunne went close. United won the match 1-2.
My View
Manchester United did not play at their best level, but they played their game wisely and deserved to win. They closed down the opposition in their strongest areas, on the flanks, only in the second half did Ashley Young and Stewart Downing wake up and start to make an impact, but too many times their crosses were poor and they didn’t have much freedom on the ball. The pitch may not have helped but that’s not an excuse. The result of this led to many long direct balls been kicked into the box and time after time, United easily cleared it. Intelligently, James Milner started picking out Agbonlahor with his through balls; this is how they got their penalty. Agbonlahor is a fast player and good with his feet, why were they playing high balls to him? A problem with the Birmingham side is that they don’t yet have the ability to change their style of play which is can be repetitive and easy for defenders to understand. Aston Villa’s defence was not solid, this allowed Park and Valencia to profit from this, and they both had a great match. But, none of the teams created many goal scoring opportunities; the game was battled through the centre of the park most of the time and the most clinical team won on this occasion. Nevertheless, it was a good final between two solid teams who earned their spot in this match.
A note on the referee, I believe Phil Dowd made the correct decision not to book Vidic because it was very early in the first half; however, he failed to book Carrick. Nonetheless, he had good game and carried out correct decisions.
Man of the match: hard one to pick, Milner, Valencia, Berbatov and Rooney all had great games. It is hard to pick out one as United played as a team, but Park was an emperor today, constantly running up and down pitch, always with an eye for the goal and deserved a goal.
United knew what to do and they ended up being victorious this time. Aston Villa fully deserved to be at Wembley today; Martin O’Neil has done a lot of work for the club and needs to receive some recognition. Villa is still in the FA Cup and hopefully they will be fighting in May at Wembley for the FA Cup.
What did you think of the match?
