Toronto has a little Italy district, little Portugal, Chinatown and many more ethnic districts, but this weekend Toronto’s “little Manchester” was alive and rocking. It all kicked off Thursday with a meet and greet down at the Manchester United Supporters Club of Canada’s pub, the Main Event. Where ex-players Dennis Irwin and Paddy Crerand were greeted by hundreds of United supporters. With the giant “Love United Hate Glazer” banner sent over from Manchester for the occasion and fans from all over the world in the pub the atmosphere was fantastic. Irwin and Crerand were gracious and signed autographs late into the night after a question and answer period. All in all a successful night.
After a restless sleep Thursday night I woke up ready to go for Friday. The game against Celtic was to be my second live United match after watching them lose 4-1 to the Scouse in the 08-09 season. I went down to the Main Event at around two and the party had already kicked off. Various news channels came in through out the day to get footage of us belting out “the Pride of all Europe”. One of the highlights being after a rendition of “My Old Man” (for those who are unfamiliar with the lyrics just search it on google…) the reporter just stood there shocked and after a momentary silence she said “I can’t put that on TV!” which lead to louder renditions. After trading various United stories we headed down to the Rogers Centre.
Despite being in the United end the atmosphere needed a bit of help when we got there which we duly provided. Throughout the game the only real chant that took off through out the whole stadium was a simple “United! United!”. However throughout pockets in the United end we went through the entire repertoire of Man. United’s songbook as we sang about everything from Giggs to City to Cantona to Sir Alex and the Glazers (plus a lot in between). The match itself was quite entertaining as well.
The slow pace of the pre-season match allowed the more technically gifted players to really shine. Berbatov was very impressive. He scored the opener with a well taken first touch and perfect finish, he went on to assist both Welbeck’s and Cleverly’s goals. Although I’ve said many times on here Berbatov doesn’t really fit the United system, he showed last night he still has a tremendous amount of class. He holds up the ball as well as anyone in the world and his control is impeccable. Berbatov was given the man of the match award an honour he clearly deserved.
Even though he only played the first half, Paul Scholes looked quite sharp. His passing range was as good as ever as he regularly picked out Giggs and Obertan on either wing. The partnership of Scholes and Fletcher worked well last season and was quite effective again last night. Without a doubt Darren Fletcher is better in the tackle than any centre midfielder United has had since Roy Keane left.
A few more quick player notes:
Edwin Van Der Sar – Despite the horrendous purple keeper kit, he put in a solid performance.
Chris Smalling – The kid really impressed in his United debut, despite conceding the penalty which lead to Celtic’s goal. He was very confident and a huge guy, probably about 6’5″ and well over 200 pounds.
Gabriel Obertan – He has a lot of pace, he could turn into something quite special, hopefully he will get a few more chances in the first team this season.
Danny Welbeck – Looked good and scored what ended up as the game winning goal, which is nice to see because some were speculating he may be destined for an exit after what had been a brilliant start to his United career.
Well after two days in Toronto’s Little Manchester my voice is dead and I’m exhausted, but it’s been an incredible experience. Hopefully the 3-1 win over Celtic will be the start to another vintage Manchester United season.
I was really impressed by Berbatov last night. Over the last year I’ve been really critical of him, but seeing him ‘off-camera’ really showed me his class. His ability to find space, and create space, and link with other was excellent. He still drifts in an out of the game but I spent a good portion of the 2nd watching his link play and movement away from the ball – this was outstanding.
United played a ‘triangle’ up front much like the Dutch did – with Berbatov, the two wings, and a forward midfielder constantly rotating through positions… well done.
I was in the Anti-Berba camp before…. Seeing it in person is different and I now know what Fergie saw.
Let the boy settle.
I wouldn’t say we playing a triangle. It looked like a pretty traditional 4-4-2 to me with Diouf partnering Berbatov up front in the first half and then Macheda coming on towards the end.
As for Berbatov. I’ve never put myself in the Anti-Berba camp. I believe he really is a special player he just doesn’t really fit into the United team. I may write a post about Berba in the coming days, but he can be quite the enigma sometimes.
Berbatov’s a ‘different’ player up front than Rooney for sure – Rooney can play that ‘false nine’ role very well (which he SHOULD have be deployed for England). Berbatov’s been labelled more of a traditional Centre-Forward but I saw him on the flanks quite a bit especially in the 2nd half.
Looked liked a diamond up front through the 2nd half from what I saw. Regardless the movement up front was excellent – alot of interchange of positions. To me it reminded me slightly of the Rooney-Ronaldo-Tevez trio up front where they essentially switched positions very fluidly.
Love the blog… looking forward to the post on Berbatov – his space finding is excellent off the ball, and that’s where games can be won.