Manchester United - FC Porto CL 2nd Leg [R]

[Motterman]

http://koger.sc.edu/badge.gif Vs. http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/_data/objects/83899/logo_thumbnail.gif

United's squad: Howard, Carroll, P Neville, Brown, G Neville, Silvestre, O'Shea, Solskjaer, Butt, Scholes, Ronaldo, Giggs, Van Nistelrooy, Saha, Forlan, Fletcher, Kleberson, Djemba-Djemba, Bellion

Porto's squad: Goalkeepers: Vítor Baía, Nuno.
Defender: Secretário, Paulo Ferreira, Jorge Costa, Ricardo Carvalho, Ricardo Costa, Pedro Emanuel, Nuno Valente, Mário Silva.
Midfielders: Costinha, Deco, Maniche, Bosingwa, Alenitchev, Ricardo Fernandes, Carlos Alberto.
Forwards: Bruno Moraes, Benni McCarthy, Jankauskas.

Television: 2:30 ET on ESPN2 for those in the US

[SpeedyGonzalez]

UNITED TO WIN 2-1 ON THE NITE AND GO TO PENALTIES AND WE WILL WIN THERE.......................??

[Motterman]

Sir Alex: "I read that Porto want a good referee. They always seem to want referees to help them. "http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/lol3.gif

[Motterman]

Mourinho hits back with: "I hear everything that Ferguson says and I wonder what he is so worried about and why he is so afraid,'' said Mourinho.

"His team are big and powerful, we have only a small budget and after this game will probably only have our league season to think about.

Here's the "After all, we're just a small poor team from Portugal" rubbish that I've seen many a time from these jackasses.

[musicl]

Team -

Howard
P.Neivele Silveste O'shea Pugh
Ronaldo Feltcher Ginger-Scholes Gigges
Van-Man Saha

[Motterman]

Originally posted by bytheway
Team -

Howard
P.Neivele Silveste O'shea Pugh
Ronaldo Feltcher Ginger-Scholes Gigges
Van-Man Saha

Gary Neville is available, so he's on the right and P. Nev on the left is fine. You can play around with Fletcher/Klebs or work in DJ2 and Brown in a myriad of swaps as well, but this could be close to the lineup we'll see offensively. He'll save Ole on the bench for a late game cameo if needed....

[Unorthodox Yank]

Let's just not suck this game, please.

And...oh yeah...let's win in the process.

[Kvieira]

Great thing that it's on espn, i'm freaking out.

[um_chili]

Originally posted by Motterman
Mourinho hits back with:

Here's the "After all, we're just a small poor team from Portugal" rubbish that I've seen many a time from these jackasses.

It's called gamesmanship--both sides are doing much jockeying to get the psychological edge ahead of the second game. The whole article on this is really interesting:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=293650&cc=5901

For the record, I think ManU has the edge for any number of reasons: playing at home, the away goal, two defenders returning to the lineup, momentum from the FA Cup, and a more expensive and thus generally higher class group of players. I'd be surprised if they don't overturn this deficit given all that's in their favor. However, as the first leg showed, Porto have a strong side and aren't to be counted out. Should be a great game.

[haven]

I don't know why anyone is all that confident. IMHO, it's impossible to be confident with the two CB's we'll be playing.

United could dominate the game, start to finish, deserve to win completely... and then have Wes Brown or a half-fit Silvestre give it away with a mistake.

IF Rio and a healthy Silvestre were the defensive back 2, I'd feel pretty good. 2-1 isn't actually a bad away score. But without defensive solidity at the back, that creates a huge random factor.

[bigtoga]

Originally posted by bytheway
Team -

Howard
P.Neivele Silveste O'shea Pugh
Ronaldo Feltcher Ginger-Scholes Gigges
Van-Man Saha Who are these people? lol (j/k!)

Pooh? I can't see that happening. The man hasn't even played a domestic league match yet this season, has he? I don't think so.

Other than pooh, I like the homilies of these players you list in those positions. But if anyone thinks SAF will field a team without a true defensive midfielder, "You've got another thing comin"

I'm hopeful for Butt on Tuesday :D

[Father Ted]

If Silvestre is fit:

Timmy
Gary-Brown-Silvestre-O'Shea
Ronaldo-Phil-Scholes-Giggs
Ruud-Saha

If not:
Timmy
Gary-Brown-O'Shea-Phil
Ronaldo-Butt-Scholes-Giggs
Ruud-Saha

[Motterman]

BBC is reporting that Silvestre is not in the team to face Porto tonight...

Djemba-Djemba and Darren Fletcher will feature in midfield.

[bigtoga]

#### - no Silvestre? Oh ********.

I think we'll see 4-5-1 to counter Porto's clogged midfield:

Neville JO'sh Brown Phil
Ronaldo Butt DjDj Giggs
Scholes
RVN

With Saha coming for Butt/DjDj if we need goals in 65'+

[Motterman]

Originally posted by bigtoga
#### - no Silvestre? Oh ********.

I think we'll see 4-5-1 to counter Porto's clogged midfield:

Neville JO'sh Brown Phil
Ronaldo Butt DjDj Giggs
Scholes
RVN

With Saha coming for Butt/DjDj if we need goals in 65'+

Well, make room for Fletch in that lineup, and we'll probably also see Ole on the bench as well....

Saha is on the bench with Scholes in the hole behind Ruud....

[johno]

I dont particularly agree with the team selection, Fletch had a good game, and in his cameo Dj Dj impressed, however, I think that Kleberson should not have been left out.. especially since he is fresh cuz he did not play that last game...

The worst ommision has to be Ronaldo.. he has been phenomenal it makes no sense to leave him out... also, Fletcher played well in the middle of the park, not on the wing where he will be played this time out... well its either him or Scholes, and neither of them have performed well on the wings... last time we played Porto we played a 4-5-1 and we saw what the result was and this time out and we played Saha out of position at wide right role and we saw that he did not play as good as he can, i just dont understand this obsession with playing players out of position... it is bloody infuriating, i cannot comprehend why we wont play players in their positions... i think next match we might see Ruud and Howard swap places.

[BillyManutd]

Silvestre didn't even make the bench. Wasn't he suppose to be healthy by today's game?

[Motterman]

Originally posted by BillyManutd
Silvestre didn't even make the bench. Wasn't he suppose to be healthy by today's game?

He said he hoped to be fit for tonight's match. Alas, he didn't pass his fitness test...

[BillyManutd]

First half started. Lets go MU!

[Motterman]

Our bench is funny:

Ole, Saha, Bellion, Klebs, Forlan, Ronaldo, and for our defensive cover - Carroll. :)