OWEN KEEPS TABS ON ENGLAND SET-UP
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Ryan Giggs and cup semi-finals will always mean Villa Park, Arsenal and 1999, thanks to the extra-time goal-from-heaven he scored in a replay to settle one of the greatest FA Cup ties, weaving from his own half past opponent after opponent like Nureyev on skis. If someone needs convincing of Giggs’ extraordinariness, show them that strike. If footage is not to hand, statistics will do instead.
There is no shortage of amazing numbers connected to the Welshman’s career and here is another. Giggs has been going so long he has appeared in one fifth of the Manchester derbies played. Ever. That’s going all the way back to 1891, when Manchester United were called Newton Heath.
“I didn’t realise. All these stats just mean I’m old. Thanks for that . . .” said Giggs, laughing. The Manchester City strand is another remarkable plotline in his story. Giggs, of course, began his connection with professional football by training with the City youth team in his early teens. “Right from day one I hated it, absolutely hated it,” he once recalled. “It wasn’t that City were hard on me or not nice people . . . there was no getting round it, I was a United supporter.” He would wear a red top to training at City’s Platt Lane practice ground and the coaches there would make him take it off.
Giggs’ first senior start came in the Manchester derby — and so, in the same game, did his first official goal, even though Colin Hendry got the final touch after Giggs had connected with a Brian McClair cross and it should (as Giggs later acknowledged) have been credited as an own goal. That’s going all the way back to 1991 and May of that year — a time so distant that there would still be three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
On Tuesday, Giggs hopes to make his 30th appearance in a semi-final match at club level and his 31st in a derby and — though he understands Sir Alex Ferguson, United’s manager, has to be sparing about using him these days — he is as keen to be involved, if not keener, than any United player.
“Earlier in the season, when City came to Old Trafford, there was the biggest build-up to a derby I’d probably ever known, because of the money City have spent. It will be the same case leading into this game and for the next few seasons. I love all that.
“The games don’t mean as much to me as they used to — they mean more and more,” Giggs said. “The older you get, the bigger responsibility you have and the more you savour the big matches.”
Giggs’ continuing zest for the major challenges is such that the FA Cup encounter with Leeds made him reflect how much he misses having one of United’s bitterest rivals around in the Premier League. “I know it’ll sound funny but I used to love playing at Elland Road. The atmosphere was electric, especially when Eric (Cantona) was in the team and they had a very good side,” Giggs said.
So, there is nothing jaded about his mentality. That his body retains freshness at an age — 36 — when other players begin seizing up like over-flogged engines, is down to a regimen involving a carefully managed balance between training, playing and rest; diet and yoga. He had 24 hours off from the latter on December 25 but otherwise — even on New Year’s Day — it is part of a daily routine.
“You have to keep it up no matter what, even if you don’t want to,” said Giggs. “It’s served me very well, so I’ll carry it on right to the end of my career.” The yoga helps keep him loose and give elasticity to muscles, especially his hamstrings, which were prone to injuries as a younger player, and has brought such results that several of the United players — including the likes of Wayne Rooney — join Giggs for sessions. “I tend to do the yoga after training and there’s a few of the lads who do it sometimes with me. Sometimes it’s with them, sometimes it’s on my own. I like it when the lads join in because it’s not as intense, but actually I enjoy it.
“The first year I dreaded it. Every day I was hoping Sarah, my yoga teacher, wouldn’t turn up at the training ground. I’d see her come in and my heart sank. But after about a year it’s still tough but you begin to like it. People think it’s all about breathing and relaxing but, no, it’s hard. You use muscles you don’t normally use and if you don’t want to go running or on the gym machines it’s a good way to stay fit.” Teammates are obviously used to it now, but was there banter in the United dressing room when Giggs started a pursuit some still regard as woolly and New Age? “Oh no,” he grinned. “Because Roy [Keane] started it . . . and nobody was ever going to give Keaney stick.”
After the defeat by Leeds, and some unexpected recent Premier League struggles, Ferguson will beef up the youthful side he has used in previous Carling Cup games and indicated Giggs may be among the experienced players brought in.
“I’ve got mixed views about the game now. I think we’ll have a mix. It won’t be the same team as against Burnley (in the quarter-final),” Ferguson said. “The derby is a fans’ game really and we have enough players who know about that, such as Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, Darren Fletcher and Wes Brown.”
He is reserving judgment on whether City have been transformed by Roberto Mancini (“they have had some easy games, haven’t they?”) and remarked that the semi-final is a bigger deal for City than United “because it’s been quite a while since they last won it or were in a final”. He continues to have “no regrets” about Carlos Tevez’s defection from Old Trafford to Eastlands though continues to regard City’s use of the striker in a Welcome To Manchester poster as “petty”.
Giggs noted “it’s a weird season. Everyone’s beating each other and United have had more losses than in the whole of last season”, and Ferguson is aware that if City continue to flex their wealth, the football landscape will keep getting stranger. “I read somewhere they were going to bid for Lionel Messi,” he said. “They could offer a billion for Messi and it wouldn’t affect them too much.” Then the barb. “Whether it would give them any joy or not . . . but given the money they’ve got, anything’s possible.”
Giggs’ special date
When Ryan Giggs runs out at Old Trafford in March he will look, in the front row of the South Stand beside the players’ tunnel, for a very special spectator.
Amy Dutton, 24, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma last year and is undergoing treatment at Manchester’s Christie Hospital, where she met Giggs recently. Giggs’ visit was to help cement a partnership between the hospital and the Manchester United Foundation, which is raising £250,000 to fund extra rehabilitation for young patients.
Two full-time nurses are being paid for through the project and via the foundation, young cancer sufferers are able to go United’s Carrington training ground and use its state-of-the-art hydrotherapy pool. Giggs, whose mother is a nurse and who lost his stepfather to cancer, said: “Everyone knows someone who’s had cancer and more or less the whole of the north of England uses Christie’s.”
Amy, a United season ticket-holder, has been unable to watch her team since beginning a six-month chemotherapy course in September but intends being back in her seat at Old Trafford by March. “I’ve been sharing my season ticket and it’s hard watching my boyfriend go off to the game every weekend,” she said. “We’re always in the front row and I’ve told Giggs he’s got to wave to me.”
ON TV TUESDAY
Manchester City v Manchester Utd
8pm (ko 8.05pm) BBC1Ryan Giggs: Manchester derbies
Giggs made his first derby appearance – and scored his very first United goal - as a 17-year-old in May 1991. United ran out 1-0 winners that day and to this day the goal scorer is still disputed, with many crediting it as a Colin Hendy own goal. If Giggs plays on Tuesday it will be his very first League Cup appearance against City but his 31st appearance overall, making him comfortably the record appearance holder in Manchester derbies. To date he has started 22, made eight substitute appearances and scored 3 goals.
Ryan Giggs v Manchester City
P30 W18 D7 L5
League: 20 apps (8 as sub), 3 goals
FA Cup: 2 apps, 0 goals
League Cup: 0 apps, 0 goals
Total: 22 apps (8 as sub), 3 goals -
amazing guy....115 mins alrdy still run like a devil. stuff of legends.
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how is Colin henry now?? really hate that guy for being so good... especially during derbies... knn...
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Dimitar Berbatov and Ryan Giggs are United's main fitness concerns ahead of the Carling Cup semi-final visit to Eastlands, for which Sir Alex Ferguson has pledged to pick "a strongish team, with some young players".
Berbatov, who has had problems with a knee injury recently, picked up a dead leg during an impressive display on Saturday in which he scored in the 3-0 win over Burnley. But Sir Alex is hoping the Bulgarian front man will make the short trip to the City of Manchester Stadium.
"I thought Dimitar had got a knock on the knee," the United boss said on Monday lunchtime. "It turned out it was a dead leg. We are having a look at that at the moment. I am hoping he will be all right but we will see what he is like in the morning.
"He is one doubt. Ryan is another because he missed Saturday's game. We have to give him time to recover a bit. All the rest are fit."
After the successful return of Edwin van der Sar on Saturday, there is further good news defensively for the Reds with the news that Rio Ferdinand is "training quite well now". "He's not in contention for Tuesday night, but he is closer though," said the boss.
The manager has a number of considerations to make with regards to his team selection; that includes selecting a team that merits a semi-final against a local rival whilst maintaining loyalty to the young men who got the Reds to this stage.
"I have got to think about getting a mix in terms of the programme we have got and also the fact I have given young players a game in the past," said the boss. "I will have a strongish team but there will be some young players." -
Goal-scorer Ryan Giggs says United will take heart from Tuesday’s performance at Eastlands, despite losing 2-1 to Manchester City in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final.
The Welshman, who’s played in 31 consecutive Manchester derbies, put the Reds in front on 17 minutes… only to see former United striker Carlos Tevez turn round the deficit with a goal on either side of half-time.
“It was the perfect start,” Giggs told MUTV. “You always want to go 1-0 up in a cup tie away from home. After that we probably weren’t as crisp with our passing and kept playing the ball backwards. We let City back into it, really.”
City’s lifeline arrived courtesy of a dubious penalty. Rafael tugged at Craig Bellamy’s shirt but contact appeared to be outside the box.
“We felt we were a little unlucky to go into the break at 1-1,” Giggs admitted, “but we also knew we could play better.
“[The penalty decision] was a turning point. If we’d have gone in 1-0 up it might have been a different story. Sometimes you get decisions and sometimes you don’t – you just have to get on with it.”
Tevez grabbed a second on 65 minutes before United dominated the closing stagesas the Reds threw everything at City in search of an equaliser.
“We created plenty of chances but we didn’t have that stroke of luck or the composure in front of goal. Hopefully we’ll have that in the second leg – hopefully we can put the chances away this time.
“After they scored we played well and probably deserved to get that equaliser.
“Last season we comprehensively beat Derby County in the second leg of the semi so hopefully we can do that again. It’s going to be tough – City are a good team – but there were enough signs – especially in the last half-hour – to suggest we’re good enough to beat them.” -
given berba's condition, better play him in EPL and impt games.. not sure how long it is going to hold... touch wood.
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Man U will win.
Man C dont expect go there to win.
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Originally posted by likeyou:
Man U will win.
Man C dont expect go there to win.
haha, ManCity almost got a draw the last time if not for the "fergie" time.. LOL
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Owen pictured during his last game for England in 2008.
Michael Owen has sought the advice of Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney as he seeks to break into Fabio Capello's England squad for this summer's World Cup finals.
Owen has scored 40 times in 89 England appearances - the last of which came in March 2008 in his only England game under Capello - but has conceded he is no longer the same player as the one who scored that memorable solo goal against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup quarter-finals.
The 30-year-old has spoken with Rooney about what the Italian expects as he seeks to join his United colleague in the squad for South Africa.
"I've watched all the games. I know what the manager is looking for, even though I'm not there listening," Owen told The Guardian.
"For example, I ask Wayne, 'What does he expect when you've not got the ball?'
"So I have to stay in with it without thinking I'm part of it, because I'm not."
When Owen was first overlooked by Capello, he felt "numb" - "It was really disappointing, upsetting", he said - but the former Liverpool, Real Madrid and Newcastle striker, who has been beset by injuries, admits he has now had to change the way he plays.
He added: "I was proper, proper fast at one point, and obviously I'm not now, so I've lost certain things, but when I was that fast I didn't need to do certain other things in a game.
"It was such a potent weapon. I was in the team to threaten in behind, to get the ball and run at players.
"But when I started losing that I had to find other ways to scare defenders. And that's how your game evolves.
"I'm much better now at timing the run and picking the moment and being able to spot something develop.
"I'd say my runs are more thought-out now."
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strikers who depend on pace to score if indeed, they do shine early on in their career, will fade out by their late 20s.
One classic example is the brazillian Ronaldo, he could virtually explode in his heydays. Torres will face the problem down the road.