Ryan Giggs an ageless inspiration for United
By Henry Winter
Sport.Telegraph, 6th August 2007
Football, the sport that never sleeps, hardly seems to have had a lie-down
this summer, and events here yesterday maintained familiar themes from last
season. All the talk was of Chelsea's injury travails, Jose Mourinho's
quixotic streak, Manchester United's rich attacking potential, and the
enduring excellence of Ryan Giggs, who continues to give Old Father Time the
runaround.
Giggs' manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, keeps expanding United's creative
department as if fearful of some flair famine stalking the land. Such an
intelligent frontrunner as Carlos Tevez, who makes his debut on Wednesday,
will doubtless link instinctively and prolifically with Wayne Rooney while
Nani showed glimpses of his gifts against Chelsea. Like Cristiano Ronaldo,
Nani can operate on either flank. Paul Scholes returns from injury soon.
Marvellous options abound. Ferguson can play fantasy football for real.
Yet there was Giggs, 33 years of age but with the enthusiasm of a teenager,
gliding through to score a superb 35th-minute goal to shake a clammy
Community Shield into life. Florent Malouda subsequently conjured up a
terrific equaliser, and Edwin van der Sar proved unbeatable in the penalty
shoot-out, but the main memory was of Giggs, of a class that never ages.
When Patrice Evra crossed from the left, and Rooney cleverly dragged blue
shirts out of position, Giggs calmly stroked the ball from 15 yards into
Petr Cech's goal. "Ryan placed it," said Ferguson, his eyes lighting up at
the recollection. "Ryan could see Ashley Cole on the line with the keeper
looking after the other side of the goal, so he placed it."
If the goal was exceptional, it certainly produced an extraordinary
statistic. It was so long ago that Giggs last scored at Wembley that he had
a different name. Then known as Ryan Wilson and captain of England Schoolboys,
this special player last found the mark at Wembley 18 years ago.
Rooney was three at the time, and sometimes does not have appear to have
matured much. The England international disclosed the shortness of his fuse
as well as the depth of his talent yesterday, and the fear is that his
conduct will continue to vex officials. Yet his booking yesterday was
unwarranted: Rooney accidentally caught Cech while chasing a loose ball
and knocked off balance by Tal Ben Haim.
Chelsea fans, some sporting T-shirts declaring that the title was only "on
loan to United", were enraged, and loudly questioned everything from Rooney's
weight to his parentage. United's No 10 responded by holding up a solitary
finger to signal who were the No 1 team in the land.
The Community Shield is rarely a good form-guide, but few would question
that United are favourites to claim the Premiership. For all his "mellow"
intent, Mourinho remains a one-man debating society and he sent eyebrows
rising faster than the mercury with his comment that "Chelsea controlled
the game for 90 minutes in quite an easy way".
Nonsense. Ashley Cole, who again dealt well with Ronaldo, and the purposeful
Malouda certainly impressed for Mourinho's side, but they were hamstrung
by the absence of John Terry and Didier Drogba with knee problems. Drogba
aims to be back within 10 days but Terry's anticipated month on the sidelines
is desperate news.
Such a committed leader and shrewd defensive organiser would have engineered
more resistance to United's goal. Ben Haim, otherwise all right, played
Evra onside while Ricardo Carvalho clearly missed Terry. Such were Chelsea's
injury woes (with Michael Ballack, Arjen Robben, Wayne Bridge, Andrei
Shevchenko and Salomon Kalou also unavailable) that Mourinho was forced to
field Joe Cole at centre-forward in a 4-3-3 and name two keepers among the
subs to make up the numbers.
Also on the bench was Avram Grant, Chelsea's new director of football, and
the chemistry between him and Mourinho will be much scrutinised this season.
Mourinho is not the type to accept interference in his first-team domain,
but those who know Grant insist that he is far too savvy and diplomatic to
engage in power struggles. Maybe it was the heat yesterday but there appeared
a thaw in Chelsea's Cold War with Roman Abramovich consoling Mourinho and
the players in the dressing room afterwards.
Chelsea will play better than this, and Mourinho looks to have invested
smartly in Malouda, who showed courage, speed and technique to cancel out
Giggs' strike on the cusp of half-time. Ashley Cole, uneasy on his right
foot, used the outside of his left to bend a fine ball into the path of
Malouda and United were exposed. Rio Ferdinand was left trailing, Van der
Sar's attempt to close Malouda down was half-hearted and Chelsea's £13
million signing clipped the ball expertly home.
Van der Sar made amends spectacularly in the shoot-out, saving from Claudio
Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Rio Ferdinand and Michael
Carrick both calmly converted their kicks, leaving Rooney to apply the
coup de grace, and then repeat his No 1 signal to the departing Chelsea
fans. Rooney, Giggs et al are again the team to beat.
|
|
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 2007.
Telegraph Group Limited endeavours to ensure that the
information is correct but does not accept any liability
for error or omission.
Users are permitted to copy some material for their
personal use as private individuals only. Users must not
republish any part of the data either on another website,
or in any other medium, print, electronic or otherwise,
or as part of any commercial service without the prior
written permission of Telegraph Group Limited.
|
|
