Terrace Talk

Absolutely brilliant is the only way to label this United performance. In fact, absolutely brilliant is the only way to characterize Cristiano Ronaldo. From top to bottom, United dominated Aston Villa and did more than they needed to, to deserve the three points. They had just watched Arsenal take a late victory from Bolton and knew they had to put in the work to hold on to their lead. As a fan, this will not be a game forgotten, with Ronaldo playing out of his skin and slowly solidifying my argument that he has already reached legendary status in a red shirt.

From the opening minutes United were beginning to threaten, with Wayne Rooney thundering a shot at goal from the penalty area, only to see it ricochet off of Stilian Petrov. While some may say that Aston Villa had given United the game, that would not be a fair or true assessment of the first half hour, which saw Aston Villa begin to dig in and try to make it a level contest. Ashley Young started off the first attack of the game with a shot that was almost on target in the fourth minute. In fact the opening 15 minutes were fairly end to end until Ronaldo decided to score the cheekiest of goals. A Ryan Giggs corner met a chested effort from Rio Ferdinand that went into Ronaldo’s path. The winger’s first instinct was to do a back-heel through the legs of his marker and beyond Scott Carson.

After the first goal, the pressure only increased with United continuously running at Villa defenders with a class and dominance not seen since April of last year against Roma. A Paul Scholes through ball was met by Ronaldo who one-touch crossed the ball to the far post where Carlos Tevez buried the ball in the back of the net. The Old Trafford crowd went into raptures, but they hadn’t yet seen the full extent of the class Ronaldo was planning on showing.

From then on the game was as good as done, with Paul Scholes pulling the strings from midfield, Carlos Tevez continuosly harrassing the Aston Villa midfielders, Wayne Rooney constantly looking for a run to go past defenders, and Ronaldo looking to be brilliant. After the restart, Rooney had another open chance to score from an intelligent Carlos Tevez through-ball. In the 52nd minute, Ronaldo made himself enough room to shoot from distance, only to have the bar deny him. Ronaldo could not be stopped as a minute later, he met a Scholes pass in air and flicked it into the path of an on rushing Wayne Rooney. The pass absolutely tore the defense apart, leaving them for dead and Rooney only having to round the keeper and slot home. It was Rooney’s first goal in six games, and was not to be his last. United were ahead 3-0.

By the 60th minute United were playing keep away and advancing when they were in the mood. With one eye on Tuesday’s clash with Roma, Sir Alex Ferguson quickly pulled off Patrice Evra (who had taken a slight knock above his left knee), Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick. Evra was replaced by John O’Shea, Carrick by Anderson, while Wesley moved into the center of the defense with Hargreaves taking over for him at right back. Even with the substitutions, United were in full control of the match and coninued to press and Rooney scored his second goal in the 70th minute through another Ronaldo assist.

Rooney came close to scoring his third with Giggs feeding him brilliantly from the center of the pitch, only to have the far side linesman raise his flag for a marginal offsides call. In the end United should have scored more, but since they played such beautiful football, no one could complain.


(Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)