Another Game, another meltdown

The Union once again outplayed their opponents. They have been dominating in the midfield and upfront in their first 4 games. With half their games being played a man down they never seemed out of the game and were always one pass away from scoring. At the end of the first half the games was a nil-nil draw.

The second half started out well. The 50Th minute saw a beautiful cross from the Red Bulls enter the box and Salou headed in the first goal of the game for a 1-0 Red Bull lead. Seitz could have made a play on the ball, but he hesitated too long and swatted his arm in a pathetic attempt to clear it. The ball fell to Salou who made a simple head strike.

Nine minutes later, Sebastion LeToux tied the game on a brilliant pass from Moreno on the left side. Moreno crossed the ball brilliantly from the right to a charging Le Toux who instead of crossing into the Red Bull defenders stayed outside and nailed it for a 1-1 score.

We had life back in the game until yet another back four melt down occured. The preseason strength of the team is now turning into a crutch. The Red Bulls crossed a ball into the box and Union defender Orozco lept to head it out and hit it with an over stretched arm. Penalty kick to the Red Bulls, second penalty kick allowed in as many games. I have no idea what Orozco was thinking. Looking back on the replay, it was a clear penalty and another Peter Nowak poorly coached melt down.

With Seitz in goal it was an easy Red Bull Penalty kick for a 2-1 lead in the game. The game ended 2-1 to the Red Bulls. As the announcer said: "Same old story for the Union." They are their worst enemy. Though I will say that Seitz played well, except for the mental mistake that lead to the first goal. He was composed at the back and the defenders passed well to him and he was cool under pressure.

As usual another poorly coached and undiscilplined team from Nowak lost another game. The Union have talent, they control the ball well and counter attack brilliantly. They are a team to be feared. They need discipline. They need to stop making these costly mistakes. We dropped points today. We dropped points against Toronto too. Crucial road points that mean a lot to a team that has so many road games in the beginning. Now I know what it means to be a Liverpool fan.

GO UNION

Manchester Derby

Brilliant day for Manchester United. It was a hard fought game all the way. Either side could have won the match. With United trailing Chelsea by 4 points in the table and only a handle full of games left we needed a miracle. It was 35 year old Paul Scholes who delivered that miracle in the 93rd minute, sealing a 1-0 Derby victory.

Manchester City came into the game riding a streak of brilliance. They have been crushing opponents and old Manchester United favorite, Carlos Tevez, still with something to prove to United boss Sir Alex. The matchup that City wanted was Craig Bellamy vs. United defender Gary Neville. Bellamy and City were hoping to take advantage of Neville age and lack of speed, but it was the wily old veteran who was constantly the irritating force to Bellamy. He stopped him at every chance and in the 77Th minute when Neville slid into Bellamy's cross attempt and knocked it out Bellamy gave him a hard push in the back as Neville tried to get up. Clearly he was frustrated with Neville.

Rooney started the game for United and played well. He had a great chance in the first half, but sailed the ball wide. He came off in the 70Th minute for Berbatov. It was back and forth for the remaining 10 minutes with both teams flying up and down the pitch. Manchester City had it's best chance when United keeper Van der Sar misplayed a cross and the ball fell to City. Tevez and his City mates hacked at the ball but it was United's defender Vidic who while falling down stopped not one, but two shots from going in.

With less than a minute left in the game it was United's Patrice Evra who broke into space and lobbed a beautiful ball into the box where un-marked Paul Scholes with the snap of his neck headed home the winner to the bottom corner of the goal. The Manchester City home fans fell silent and the United traveling fans roared in amazement as Scholes ran to the fans and was mobbed by them and teammates. Sir Alex and the rest of the United bench were jumping up and down as they just stole 3 points from City to keep our title hopes alive and apply the pressure on Chelsea.

Congatulations to Paul Scholes for the first time in a long time playing a complete game with NO yellow cards!

In other news, Tottenham beat 1st place Chelsea 2-1 at home giving them only a 1 point lead at the top of the table with 3 games left. Tottenham has now passed Manchester City for the coveted 4Th place spot which they lead by 2 points.

Go Man. U. RED DEVILS!

Another game, another Red Card.

Another game, yet another red card received for the Union. Danny Califf received the Union's second red card of the season, three games in. Coach Nowak has promised a physical team. However, it seems like this team is poorly managed. I did not expect much going into the season because it is MLS. It seems like this team just cannot keep their composure under pressure. On a very poor pass back to the keeper, Califf stuck out his elbow and commited a poor penalty that resulted in the Union being a man down for most of the game, yet again.

Chris Seitz, Union keeper, had another horrific evening. Following up his potential disaster last week against Seattle, allowing the game tying goal, he came out this week with something to prove. Seitz gave up a soft goal from the set piece. It bounced off his hands. The Union tied up the game in the 44th minute on some wonderful passing that saw 18 year old wonder kid, Roger Torres, lob a beautiful ball over the heads of Toronto defenders to Jordan Harvey. Harvey took a perfect strike on goal to tie the game and give the Union the hope of salvaging a point in this early season road game.

The second half saw the Union defend well being a man down. They clearly controlled the game. However, Seitz became Seitz. He played a throw ball too late and gave Toronto the game winning penalty kick, by missing the ball and tackling the Seattle striker in the box. The Union fough back as hard as possible, but Seitz clearly is a cancer to this team. He almost cost us the game against D.C. United and now this debacle tonight. Nowak clearly has his hands full with this team. They are undisciplined, and poorly coached. I think a message needs to be sent to Seitz.

We need to start a new keeper next week. We need to practice passing the ball back to the keeper. We need a better coached and disciplined team. This team is better than what we have seen. At least that is my view. The stupidity needs to end, the keeper needs to go. The coach......

GO UNION!