GK: Howard D: O'Shea, G. Neville, Rio, Fortune MF: Fletcher, Butt, DJ-DJ, Giggs F: RVN, Forlan SUBS: Bellion, Keane,Carroll, P. Neville, C. Ronaldo
22' Ferdinand miscue gives the ball to Yakubu who forces a Howard to make a good save at his near post
Just curious, are you watching or listening to this one. From the GameCast on Soccernet it looks like Portsmouth is taking it to ManU early on. Is this a case of a lesser team coming out hard ... only to have the better team hold them off and take over after 25 minutes?
I'm watching it on the PPV feed. I've got the whole season package There's not been much in the first 25 minutes or so but it looks like Portsmouth came to play. Ferdinand looked dodgy (two mistakes already). ManUtd have had a couple of corners and free kick but their attack has been generally lacking in the final pass and uncordinated of course, just as I say that RVN blasts a volley off the crossbar in the 30th minute
32' Fletcher cross just missed by the head of Ferdinand. Big appeals for a penalty from Rio but the replay shows only incidental contact (IMHO)
36' Beautiful through ball from midfield by Giggs finds RVN all alone at the top of the penalty area. RVN skys the ball 10 yards over the crossbar
Giggs received a cross deep in the box and headed it back out to the penalty spot and Forlan finished low and hard past Hislop who had no chance.
41' Quashie 35 yard shot goes over the crossbar Portsmouth are pressing trying to get a quick equalizer.
43' Nice run by RVN. Tries a give-and-go with Forlan but return pass is intercepted in the penalty area.
45+1' Nice ball movement by Portsmouth. Fouled by Giggs 20 yards from goal. Howard intercepts the free kick before any danger develops. Halftime
Now, don't bite my head off but you mentioned Fortune beating someone in midfield and the game cast has us listed as a 3-5-2 and when i saw the line ups with no Keane and Forlan playing I imediately thought 3-5-2 and then laughed at myself for thinking so. All that to ask, are we really playing a 3-5-2???
I wouldn't mind it that much if thats actually what we are playing, consider this, Scholes and Keane are both absent, which leaves us lacking creative spark in the middle, best way to make up for that would be to add a striker. I still dont think we are playing a 3-5-2 but if we were i would suspect something like this.. Ronaldo is also rested. Portsmouth aint a bad team to experiment on. -----------Forlan-------Ruud-------- -----------------Giggs-------------- Fortune-----------------------Fletcher -----------Butt--------DjDj O'Shea---------Rio------------Gary
What I meant was that he was in the middle of the field (just past the halfway line) I lost the TV to my 2 year old toddler during halftime but I'm back now. I'll try to give updates as I can. Still 1-0 to ManUtd.