Champions but not of Europe.

So I only watched the first 10 minutes of the Champions League final, there was an Extreme Makeover Special on the other side. I assumed United smashed it right? Oh! They started well enough. So that was Fergie’s A game; run around like lunatics for 90 minutes. No one dare mention they tried that two years ago and failed in fear of the ‘Hairdryer’ or worse still the Beckham treatment. Of course there was no future in trying out hassle Barcelona, they get that every week.

The game panned out pretty much exactly how the bookies had said it would. But that wasn’t the most annoying thing nor was it the plaudits Messi received over the weekend, though both grated on me. A small caveat regarding Messi; Granted he’s the best player of his generation & he did score but come on Van Der Saar should have done better with his goal. I know he didn’t so it’s academic but I’m struggling to think of anything he did better than any other Barca player? And I know he scored but I’ve already explained VDS should have save it, man I would have saved it! Though that’s slightly unfair as I’m pretty tidy in-between the sticks. In fact the most annoying thing was United saw Inter Milan get the better of Barcelona last year by not playing into their hands.  Adopting the ‘we don’t want the ball, you can keep it’ approach. This has it's pit falls but if you’re clinical it’s proven successful in the past. I’ve yet to see anyone out-play Barcelona so why try? That certainly doesn’t mean you need to employ Antonio Valencia as your midfield enforcer. What was the lad thinking? He’d been excellent up to and after his injury but then he decides that running at and beating players isn’t his game, instead he's gonna rough them up a bit. I know it was born out of frustration but it was just plain silliness. In truth I think only Rooney from the United ranks came out with any credit, his tireless running is a guarantee and great finish to boot clawed United back into it albeit briefly.

So let’s all congratulate Barcelona for a well deserved victory but excuse me if I don’t revel in their smugness and in my humble un-paid opinion nor should you either. Fergie touched on the increase of tribalism in the domestic game in a pre match interview. I think that highlights the heighten power and exposure of the Premier League and the pull of your local team. The fact that a fan of a English club would prefer a Spanish side win a European competition over their English counterpart is, well just a little foreign to me.  No clever wording intended. Frankly enjoying another loses perhaps only papers over the cracks in your own team’s failures.

It was a shame for the United who finally surpassed the 18^th League titles of arch rivals Liverpool. But now they have a new goal of equalling the 5 Champions League/European cups won by the same nemesis, nothing stirs the juices like local bragging rights. Apparently Rooney’s England buddy Stevie Gerrard was seen celebrating United defeat and the pictures have been splashed all over Twitter. Rest assured @Wazza8 & @Rio5 were online immediately registering their displeasure.  The thing is I did want United to win but had they won, they wouldn’t have half gone on about it.