Hey Mr. U.S.A., still find soccer boring?
Well forget drinking the cool-aid of the Beckham hype machine, stop praying for a cut price deal on Henry as he creeps past his sell by date and stop thinking that the MLS will ever be taken seriously enough within your fair country for it to grow. It won’t, well not for the foreseeable future anyway.
So why don’t you all just try and make sure you catch every Manchester United game. It would be hard to fathom a better advertisement for the game. It may be like glory hunting to support a team who is so successful but who cares? It is becoming increasingly hard to have anything other than an admiration bordering on obsession with Sir Alex’s merry men.
The reason news should watch Manchester United over any other EPL team is that they are a team assembled a lot like a “best of” album of the premier league. They play attractive football and groom players to the same degree of Arsenal, they have the big name strength in depth of Chelsea and they have that intangible of grit and competitiveness of Liverpool. They even have a collection of cameo try hard lower level EPL players who slot into the team much like mail in competition winners, like John O’Shea, Wes Brown and Darren Fletcher.
They have that big name, Michael Jordan style player who new fans can immediately fall in love with due to his spell bounding display of skill, but yet they have a team dynamic to the point that Christano Ronaldo can have an off night and nobody will notice, for they have Tevez, Rooney and even a player like Hargreaves can fill in with a touch of genius.
When Manchester United are on the TV, it feels as if you are watching the future. I imagine American sports fans could draw comparison from the first time they saw the Spread offence in the NFL. Teams can barely cope with Manchester United because the positions players’ play is so ambiguous. The papers this year have described Manchester United as playing 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 but the answer is, that none of these are true. They play with such dynamism and movement that they play without a defined formation. They don’t play with an out and out striker, they don’t play with holding midfielders, anybody, can be anywhere, at any time. That is why their threat is so hard to nullify but so good to watch.
The change in style of play comes in line with the change in the Soccer landscape. American investors are slowly trying to eat up the English game. A lot of people wonder why it appears England is beginning to dominate in Europe where it had failed so often before. The answer may be that England is the most accessible nation for American investors, or indeed investors from any country, due to the English language. This makes them easier to export back home to the U.S.A. but also easier to export to Asia.
They are unstoppable. The ‘strikers’ they have at the moment are Rooney and Tevez. With Ronaldo playing behind, in front, side to side or wherever he wants really. That’s a lot like a team in the NFL having a solid young downhill runner with breakaway skills in Adrian Peterson (Rooney), a solid but under rated versatile attacker in Brian Westbrook (Carlos Tevez) and an often un-defendable multi faceted player who can hurt you in any way (although he often doesn’t do it in the big games) in Ladanian Tomlinson (Christano Ronaldo) The battle for central midfield is even more interesting due to the parity. Paul Scholes acts as a veteran QB in the mould of Jeff Garcia, nurturing the growth of Anderson, who looks like another extremely shrewd by from Ferguson, despite his performances this year being exceptional; he still brings with him an air of untapped potential, like a Vince Young. With Hargreaves and Carrick acting as Matt Hasslebeck and Drew Brees (solid, reliable passers who can often turn on the genius), distribution from the centre of midfield to begin the attack is always exceptional.
When they play on the wings, Kim Jung Park, and Ryan Giggs are under rated in their influence, both are incredibly dependable and Ji-Sung Park in particular is an under rated story of the season. Cynics would surmise that Park was a player bought for marketing purposes to Asia rather than skill, but he has not looked out of place, while Giggs has changed his role from a home run threat to a possession receiver. Nani when placed in the came becomes the home run, kick returner like threat that can catch teams unaware.
In defence, Vidic and Ferdinand act like Strahan and Umenyiora. Formidable players that don’t let the attack breathe. Wes Brown is the misprint in the team due to injuries and has the stench of a Patriots player who a team would completely overpay for due to his connection to a winning team (I’m looking at you, David Givens) While Evra plays like a dynamic cornerback in the mould of a champ Bailey,
Ferguson has stockpiled so much talent to the point that even if team 1(b) is playing, they are still more exciting than any other team. It also allows a special feeling to remain when Sir Alex’s perfect 11 is on display. Manchester United were a great team in 1999, but they were more of an old school style team. If Manchester United can win the Double, without sacrificing a nugget of excitement, or dynamism. They are a team willing to experiment so freely without losing any of their quality. So if the EPL becomes a “copy cat league”, like the NFL then you Americans should make every effort to get in on the bottom floor of this new revolution.
