0-0: The Worst Result for Man Utd?

Manchester United seemed very satisfied with their efforts after a 0-0 draw at Barcelona’s Camp Nou. Certainly, there was a certain amount of professionalism about the result, achieved in the face of loud whistling whenever the English side maintained possession for more than a few seconds. The ESPN commentators, particularly Tommy Smyth, had absolutely shocking games, unable to perceive anything about what was happening in the match.

After repeatedly stating that Barca were dominating the game, producing the kind of performance that has recently been lacking in their league form, they slowly came around to the fact that their having 65% of possession was meaningless, since they did nothing with it. In fact, Barcelona’s performance was a carbon copy of Saturday’s tepid affair against Espanyol. As Xavi stated in the pre-game, Barca prefer to keep possession and wait for a “moment of magic” to provide the cutting edge to their game. He may as well have said “Lionel Messi” instead, because the team’s decline has been illustrated in his absence. Barca are distinctly one-paced and are fortunate to still be level in the tie.

Meanwhile, Manchester United must be asking questions of the referee. After correctly giving the penalty one minute into the game, Massimo Busacca seemingly lacked the nerve to give two further penalties for clear fouls by Marquez and Abidal. In fact, United were hard done by all game, with throw-ins, corners and free kicks wrongly awarded to Barcelona on several occasions. Iniesta was also lucky to stay on the field after a potentially leg-breaking challenge on the knee of Owen Hargreaves. Still, United will rue the penalty miss by their star turn Ronaldo, even if they must be confident of beating the Spaniards back in England.

While the commentators were clearly creaming themselves over the amount of possession Barcelona had, they were totally clueless about the fact that United are a counter-attacking side, so that soaking up the pressure was exactly their plan. They weren’t dominated in midfield, they were just happy to let Barca pass the ball from side to side without penetrating their well-organized defense, marshaled by the excellent Rio Ferdinand. Completely missed was the danger of the United counter, when Ronaldo had space to run at a retreating Barcelona defense. He got unlucky with his touch on a few occasions and was fouled on several others, some of which were called by the referee and some not. Still, a Barcelona goal in Manchester would give them a huge advantage, which is why 0-0 is not a great result for Man Utd.

Ferguson made some good team selections and some poor ones. Starting Hargreaves at right back was a smart choice. Bringing on Nani in the second half was wise, but belated. Leaving Anderson on the bench in favor of Scholes was foolish. Say all you want about his “reading of the game,” but he can’t tackle, can no longer run and is a shadow of the player he was. It’s time for Anderson to be first choice, with Scholes filling in against the likes of Wigan and Derby.

My final rant is again directed at the referee, this time for ending the first half at 44:56. How on earth can this be allowed to happen? At the bare minimum, a half of football is 45 minutes long, and that’s only if the ball never goes out of play during the half. To not only ignore the penalty (and protestations of Barcelona’s players), all the fouls, goal kicks, corner kicks and throw-ins is disgraceful and UEFA should take a very hard look at this. Leaving aside time-wasting, the fact is that the paying fans are being routinely robbed of several minutes of football. The only explanation is that the referee could not handle the atmosphere and chose to end the half before he should have. It’s unacceptable and it harms the integrity of the competition. End of. Thank goodness there’s live football online.