Asia Tour

As most of you are well aware, all of the Big Four are out doing tours of the Far East, Middle East, Latin America, Africa and whatever other places that are expected to show an GDP growth of 5+% in the next few years. Chelsea of course, went to Russia. The matches have managed to throw up quite a few interesting stories – lot of draws for Liverpool, the lack of their biggest draw (as in Stevie G) becoming a full-blown media war, Arsenal’s chance:goal ratio of 200:1, Man City losing to South African sides… nothing that the average Super Sunday doesn’t throw up. However, I believe the idea, was to not have the average Super Sunday effect with these tours. That never seemed likely to happen, till this last match in United’s Far East tour.

Those who have so far caught only the reviews of these matches on most sports sites, well, a semi-firsthand report of the match against… well, that Chinese team.

It must be said that I caught exactly the second half of the match, as I was watching with amusement the shocking (in these days) spectacle of McLaren and Ferrari in a 1-2 in a Grand Prix. Mon Dieu! But then, it transpired that Force India were not going to get any points out of this one either, and I simply couldn’t take it anymore. Thankfully, the advantage of watching sports on internet streaming is that any other sport from any other part of the globe is exactly a click away. And thus it was that I joined United at 4-0. It took them exactly around 7 minutes, to make it 5-0. And then Giggs came on and scored a hat-trick, while Evra hit the post thrice in between. That’s why one is United’s most capped player and the other is left back. I mean, a left-back. I’m sure you can find out how the goals came from any random report, so let’s focus on other things.

So, here’s what we know already. From what I read, Owen is still capable of poking home from 6 yards, and most definitely so when it’s laid on a platter right in front of him. That’s good, those kinds of goals are always welcome. Berba, there was this description of him once in an article. An ocean of calm amid the frenzy all around. If you look at United play like you would watch the radar on your FIFA ’09 screen, you’d see a solitary red dot on the top 1/3rd of the pitch, moving in a radius of 10 m, and four red dots screaming up and down all around him. I think it works, someone needs to get the ball to those screaming dots. Either way, his touch was sublime as ever, totally unperturbed by any number of green shirts around him.

For me, the sit-up-and-take-note man was Zoran Tosic. He was completely involved in the game and also got a goal in for good measure. He’s tearaway fast, genuinely left-footed and completely in tune with the front two, at least in this match. It was like Giggs, ’92 all over again. Speaking of whom, I think Rooney might’ve been quite miffed about Giggsy’s three goals, considering he’d been on the pitch for 15 minutes lesser. But then, Roon’s not Ronaldo.

That was Hangzhou’s first goal when United were on 7, and once it was scored, I kid you not, the scoreboard disappeared for a full 8 minutes. I think they did not program their side to accept any number other than ’0′. Before they eventually got around to figuring it out, the scoreboard had become this.

But before you thought that was endgame, the men in green got one more back, well after the two minutes of extra time that were scheduled. Maybe the referee was prescient, maybe  United wanted the hosts to have the last laugh. Maybe a lot of things. Either way, this was the last kick of the match.

No one even bothered taking the ball back to the center line.

10-goals to end a rather one-sided tour. Fair enough

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