United v Wolves Carling Cup, third round 23 September
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United's Carling Cup defence begins on Wednesday against Barclays Premier League newcomers Wolves...
Form guide Mick McCarthy’s side are still finding their feet after a six-year absence from the top flight. The Black Country battlers registered an away win at Wigan in their second game back in the big-time, but only registered one more point before their weekend win against Fulham. And it took a penalty shoot-out to see off Swindon at home in the last round of the Carling Cup, following a 0-0 draw in normal time, so improvements are needed if they are to shock the holders.
Ins and outs McCarthy changed his entire starting XI for the League Cup tie with Swindon, having just lost 1-0 to Man City in the league, which suggests the Carling Cup is not top of his list of priorities. That team still had plenty of experience with ex-Reading keeper Marcus Hahnemann between the sticks, another former Royal Kevin Doyle up front and ex-United lad David Jones in midfield. For Sir Alex, his potent mix of breakthrough boys and old heads went all the way last term, so he'll no doubt stick with this winning formula.
Manager The dictionary definition of a bluff Yorkshireman, McCarthy's never been the most popular figure with United fans following his run-in with Roy Keane at the 2002 World Cup – he spent four years at Maine Road as well, remember. But the 50-year-old has worked wonders at Molineux since taking the reins in 2006, and will consider Premier League survival as his greatest achievement, rather than any headline-grabbing Cup runs.
Star man Striker Kevin Doyle arrived in June as theclub record signing – bought for a reported £6.5million – but arguably the most eye-catching arrival was Michael Mancienne, on a year’s loan from Chelsea. The cultured young centre-back is highly rated in the game and has fought his way onto the fringes of the senior England set-up.
Referee Peter Walton is the man in charge. He faced the wrath of Everton boss David Moyes recently when he failed to act in the challenge that saw Phil Neville stretchered off against Fulham. Walton has happier memories of matches involving the two opponents – his first top-flight game as referee featured Wolves and Leicester in 2003, and he was in charge of United’s Community Shield clash with Portsmouth last season.
Rivals watch Wednesday night sees a Mancunian rarity, with both of the city’s clubs in action at home at the same time. City face Fulham at Eastlands, while the pick of the evening’s other matches is the west London derby between Chelsea and QPR. -
Game started, not telecasted on tv... sigh... livescore is my buddy now.
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Theres a Joshua King on the bench... wonder who the heck is he.
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- 11'
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Near miss! Ebanks-Blake found some space on the edge of the United area. He unleashes a curling left foot effort just over Kuszczak's bar.
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is the league cup live on mio tv?
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some got sent off? macheda was substituted and replaced by de laet
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difficult to win this match after a player was sent off. not good at all. seems like its difficult to retain the league cup title now.
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absolutely no streaming for the match weird -.- watching real madrid vs villareal instead.
gah fabio got sent off. says he did a rugby style challenge tat earned him the red on soccernet -.-
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Nice assist by Referee (Again?) to Welback to score his only goal agst Wolves.
Poor wolves, Ref kept denying them.....
Looks like ManU got their young divers upstart.
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haha joke still can stay up so late to watch our match & still deny being a fan.
welbeck scored, assisted by owen
i kind of like darron gibson's shot-taking skills, he makes very accurate shots. joshua king came on for the last 10mins & had 2 shots on target, not bad.
kuszczak is so much better in between the sticks, he may start against stoke this saturday.
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MY BALL ... Michael Owen finds space to get in a header at goal last night
MICHAEL OWEN is flavour of the month at United. The hitman set up starlet Danny Welbeck's winner as the Carling Cup holders saw off Wolves - despite being reduced to 10 men.
England hopeful Owen, 29, was handed only his second United start as reward for Sunday's dramatic derby strike against Manchester City. And he played a key role in a brilliantly worked 68th-minute goal for Welbeck.
Forward Welbeck, 18, was congratulated by Owen who would have been proud of the clinical finish. It was a big relief to United after they played an hour with 10 men following Fabio's red card for a challenge that was more like a rugby tackle.
Owen's contribution this time was more low key than on Sunday but he still earned a pat on the back from boss Alex Ferguson.
Fergie said: "I told you right from the start Michael would be a winner for United. "It was a great pass, the angle he gave Danny made it easy for him. The return pass he gave was tremendous. "It was a fantastic goal with some great passing. I think one goal was always going to win it. Then we showed our resilience."
Ferguson chose a completely different side to the one who edged out neighbours City 4-3 at the weekend. But United's players were still slow to get going and their old boy Sylvan Ebanks-Blake went close early on with a 20-yard shot.
Kevin Foley forced a smart save from Tomasz Kuszczak who was determined to make the most of his chance with Ben Foster rested.
United had offered little going forward and looked to be facing a real uphill task when Fabio was given his marching orders. Brazilian Fabio, 19, was left floundering and eventually pulled the Wolves man to the ground when he was through. It left ref Peter Walton with no choice but to send him off. From the resulting free-kick Kuszczak made a spectacular stop to deny David Jones.
Boss Mick McCarthy said: "Strangely I'd have preferred the game to stay 11 v 11. "United have done it before against 10 men and are adept at getting back and then picking teams off."
Ferguson added: "Prior to the sending off they were a handful. But after that we seemed better organised. "We showed a good spirit, it was difficult to play for a full hour with only 10."
McCarthy admitted: "Even with 10 men, they have shown us what it's all about. The problem is our belief in beating a team with 10 men."
Owen's big chance to score again came just before the break. He peeled off his man but a header from Gary Neville's cross was too tame.
Back at the other end, an horrendous slice by full-back Neville gave Jones a gift of a chance but he could not keep his effort down and it sailed high over the bar.
Wolves looked likeliest to nick the tie early in the second half but Christophe Berra wasted a golden headed chance.
Wes Brown then made a brilliant last-ditch tackle to deny Karl Henry after Ebanks-Blake had flicked it on. It proved a turning point as United then enjoyed their best spell.
WEL, I NEVER ... Danny Welbeck slots past Marcus Hahnemann to win it for Man United
Welbeck picked it up on the edge of the box and exchanged a quick-fire one-two with Owen before beating Hahnemann with a superb finish into the far corner.
The local-born forward - who burst on to the scene 12 months ago in this competition - looks well worth keeping an eye on.
Fergie thinks he could go to the World Cup finals with England this summer - it may be a long shot, but do not rule it out.
MAN UTD
Kuszczak 7
Fabio 4
Neville 6
Brown 7
Evans 6
Carrick 6
Gibson 6
STAR MAN Welbeck 8 (King 5)
Nani 7
Owen 7 (Valencia 5)
Macheda 5 (De Laet 6)
Subs not used: Amos, Ferdinand, Tosic, Eikrem.
Sent off: Fabio.
WOLVES
Hahnemann 6
Foley 6
Berra 5
Craddock 5
Elokobi 5
Kightly 7 (Keogh 5)
Castillo 5 (Milijas 5)
Henry 6
David Jones 7
Ebanks-Blake 6 (Doyle 6)
Maierhofer 6
Subs not used: Ikeme, Halford, Zubar, Hill.
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Originally posted by divingutd:
Nice assist by Referee (Again?) to Welback to score his only goal agst Wolves.
Poor wolves, Ref kept denying them.....
Looks like ManU got their young divers upstart.
Ya, righttttt...hahahhaha.....err...ref had no problem giving man u a red card but u tink ref helping us? wow haha...and ref assist welback..didnt know owen was a ref :x....
Go learn more about soccer before bad mouthing the reigning champs :) -
Originally posted by divingutd:
Nice assist by Referee (Again?) to Welback to score his only goal agst Wolves.
Poor wolves, Ref kept denying them.....
Looks like ManU got their young divers upstart.
lol. I suspect this guy is Chris
Because his level of intelligence is just like that fella. He probably didn't watch this match. All he is out to do is to provoke the united fans, Just like how jffdevil is with the liverpool fans.
Surprisingly both of them started posting at the same time -
Originally posted by United4Life:
Ya, righttttt...hahahhaha.....err...ref had no problem giving man u a red card but u tink ref helping us? wow haha...and ref assist welback..didnt know owen was a ref :x....
Go learn more about soccer before bad mouthing the reigning champs :)why he doesnt target clubs like spur or everton or arsenal, is because he is jealous and feels that man utd is a threat to winning the EPL and CL this season. I used to hate a certain club when I was growing up, but I have since outgrown those behaviour in the past. when a club wins, you have to admire why they played such good football and wins almost everytime. Although I am not a fan of Barcelona, but they played attractive football and the win over utd last season CL was no fluke. if utd were to play Barcelona again, I am not sure if utd would win.
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Originally posted by Rooney9:
why he doesnt target clubs like spur or everton or arsenal, is because he is jealous and feels that man utd is a threat to winning the EPL and CL this season. I used to hate a certain club when I was growing up, but I have since outgrown those behaviour in the past. when a club wins, you have to admire why they played such good football and wins almost everytime. Although I am not a fan of Barcelona, but they played attractive football and the win over utd last season CL was no fluke. if utd were to play Barcelona again, I am not sure if utd would win.
Yea true...i used to like the way arsenal played soccer during the henry times..the insane passes and when they were unbeaten for so long lol.
People like divingutd promotes the HATE of soccer..cuz he isnt watching it cuz he loves a club..he's watching it cuz he HATES a club....what a loser -
Originally posted by United4Life:
Yea true...i used to like the way arsenal played soccer during the henry times..the insane passes and when they were unbeaten for so long lol.
People like divingutd promotes the HATE of soccer..cuz he isnt watching it cuz he loves a club..he's watching it cuz he HATES a club....what a loserthat proves one thing. he is still a kid, growing up. thats why he is a pain in the ass, as in growing pains. one day when he is an adult, he will look back and reminisced how foolish he was, but thats part of growing up.