The Fall from Glory: How United Blew It Up in Rome

(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

It was one of the biggest European nights for Sir Alex Ferguson's newest team—a team that he built to challenge Arsenal's stranglehold on the league and Chelsea's power monetarily. They seemed to literally buy every trophy that was in existence.

In that sense this team is about three to four years old or may be half a year more to the good. And in all fairness, the team has evolved over time and has gone from strength to strength blending into a fine mix of youth and experience.

Some have even claimed this team to be the best of all time. But regardless of how old or new you are, all that matters is winning. The current team was on the cusp of greatness and glory till before this woeful night.

They may still go on to be great and win many more things in the future, but this was one glorious moment that, SAF will admit, could have been a turning point, if not a make-break situation for this young side.

Sir Alex Ferguson has always said fondly, "We like to do it the hard way." For once, he might want to retract his evergreen one-liner because United did not do it the hard way. They lost their European Crown, but they kept it neat, clean and most importantly, simple. This is how it was done.

B-ve

This probably was not the blood group of the majority in United's squad but definitely the hypothetical type that the boss injected into his team going into the big one.

Playing a winger as your center forward does not exactly send shivers down the spine of many defenses. Yet this might be a unique case as we are talking about one of the meanest scorers in the English league, who has bedazzled many top-class defenders for the last few seasons.

All said and done, United gave a clear signal to Barca that they would play a counter attacking game and literally gave into submission even before kick-off.

It would have been worth it had United sacrificed their attacking flair for a cause, but they did not. Though United were more like an away side, their strategy of playing on the counter attack from the kick-off was ill-advised and short-sighted.

The Barcelona team's defense, though having creative players in abundance, is not one that many teams are envious of. Also, the absence of the likes of Danny Alves and Abidal further weakened Barca's attacking prowess to a large extent.

That made the defensive unit fragile as well, which had already shown gaping holes against Chelsea on a few instances.

Rather than going for the jugular, United hoped to sit back and counter, as they did at the Emirates.

But two things worked against them. One was that Barcelona carried a much more creative and attacking threat than the Arsenal side United beat in the semis. Secondly, the little bit of luck that is needed on a bad day would just not be United's.

Chase shadows on the pitch

Most of United's midfield was left chasing shadows and ghosts on the night. The likes of Giggs could not even get closer to those shadows.

Such was the plight of United's midfield. One of the world's most expensive and apparently talented midfield was made to look ordinary at most.

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