One minute of added time. 45th min. -- United win a late corner, but Bennett grabs it easily. Halftime... Manchester United 1 van Nistelrooy 35 (pen) Birmingham City 0 Stats to follow...
Stats ManUtd ====Birmingham city 5 goal attempts 1 4 shots on 0 55% possession 45% 0 yellow cards 0 0 red cards 1 7 fouls 6 4 offsides 1 1 corners 0 9 crosses 1
Yes he was a member of the youth team except Fergie (and Bruce Arena and 95% of American soccer fans) realized that he doesn't have the skill to be consistently productive at the top level.
True but that was long ago in a world far far away. Since Jovan lost all attempts at a work permit as a ManU Youth/Reservist... he's been a spot player for teams in Germany, Portugal, and England. He had a fan in Steve Bruce in Div 2 with Crystal Palace and was pulled up to the Premier League with Bruce (well after some time) but it's apparent he's never going to be a regular on a top quality side. Shame, but he's hardly the first bright youth prospect to not become a star.
Actually ManU thought he "was" good enough to play at the top level... unfortunately he never got a chance to prove it with ManU as he couldn't get a work permit.
47th min. -- Second half starts, no subs for either team, and Birmingham's Clapham forces Howard into a point-blank save. The Blues' best chance so far. Stat check: Birmingham have neither won nor scored in their last four Old Trafford visits.
55th min. -- RVN gets a good look at goal, but shoots straight at Bennett. United's back four get behind the ball well as the Blues try and break from a quickly-taken free kick. 57th min. -- Scholes strikes rapier-like, beating Bennett from the top of the box to make it 2-0, Manchester United.
62nd min. -- Bennett saves well from Keane, off a corner. Before that, Bennett had parried an RVN shot over the bar to concede the corner. United's passing game in full flow, and are in so much control that Birmingham's attacks are limited to just the odd counter or two. United can win this game, and can name the score if they like, it would seem...
Not just the strike, but the ball movement was as good as you'll ever see, also. 64th min. -- Howard gets a backpass from Ferdinand and coolly plays it out of the back. That's as close of a reference to Timmy as I think we may get for a while.
3-0... Giggs "makes it all too easy" from Forlan's short pass, with eight minutes plus stoppage time to go.
Full time. MANCHESTER UNITED (1) 3 van Nistellrooy 35 (pen) Scholes 57 Giggs 82 BIRMINGHAM CITY (0) 0 Taylor s/o 34 Stats to follow...