Soccer Central

With a penalty shoot-out victory over Tottenham Hotspur; Manchester United has won the 2009 Carling Cup final. With the score still level at 0-0 at the end of 90 minutes, the game therefore went to extra-time, but still neither team was able to score. The match was therefore decided by a penalty shoot-out, and with Manchester United scoring all four penalties taken, and Tottenham missing two; Manchester United resultantly won the Carling Cup.

Ryan Giggs was the first player to take a penalty for Manchester United, and the veteran midfielder scored a beauty of a penalty as it smashed the inside of the post and rattled into the back of the net. Jamie O’Hara then saw his spot kick saved by Ben Foster, and United instantly had the advantage. Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo scored their penalties for Manchester United, and Vedran Corluka his for Tottenham, David Bentley thumped his wide though, and Anderson therefore had the opportunity to win it for United if he could score his penalty. Anderson, who scored a penalty in the Champions League final shoot-out win over Chelsea last summer, looked cool, calm, and collected as he stepped up to take his spot kick, and sure enough he scored it comfortably.

In winning the Carling Cup today, Manchester United is still right on track to win five major trophies this season. The club had already bagged the FIFA Club World Cup, has now won the Carling Cup, and looks to have the Premier League in the bag also. It’s going to prove to be a tough task trying to win the FA Cup and Champions League also, but the club is still very much in the running to do so.

Five major trophies in a season would be an absolutely incredible achievement for Alex Ferguson; he’s arguably the greatest football manager there is right now though, and if anyone can do it then he can.

Cristiano Ronaldo will perhaps feel that he could have won the game for United in normal time, and will be understandably unhappy that a penalty decision went against him, and that he was actually awarded a yellow card for diving after the boot of Ledley King brought him down in the box. King certainly made contact with Ronaldo, and having failed to touch the ball; Ronaldo was very unfortunate to have been shown the yellow card. Ronaldo was travelling at speed, and what Chris Foy deemed to be a dive was a definite foul in my eyes, and a penalty therefore should have been awarded. It was a pretty even game though, and the fact that it went to penalties was probably a fair reflection of the match.

So Alex Ferguson has done it again; he’s won his third Carling Cup, the first major domestic trophy of the season is United’s, and Manchester United Football Club has won its second major trophy of the season. United will now push on in an attempt to win more, Tottenham meanwhile will now focus purely on Premier League survival. Today’s tough performance from Tottenham suggests that the club should stay up, there are still twelve games to play though, and if results don’t go Harry Redknapp’s way then Tottenham could easily slip back into the bottom three.