Glory, Glory Man United!!!

If ever in my blogs you feel that I am favorable to Manchester United, in relation to their performances, or their dealings in transfers, or for that any matter where you may have a negative opinion of the club, you must forgive me. The problem is, I am in love with the team and the football that they play, and as any man can't bear to hear anything spoken against his Lady Love, I can't bear anything said against the Red Devils, and to me they would never be in the wrong.
It all began back in 1997, when I was introduced to the computer game FIFA 1997 on my mom's ICQ account. I didn't know a God damned thing about football back then, didn't even know that players play at different positions. All I knew though, was that United was the team with the best attributes in the English League then, which I chose because it was the first option given to me while choosing the region of the League I want to play. Neither did I know that that Number 9 who would always be at the centre when the game was about to kick off was not just another Number 9, that it was Eric "the King" Cantona. I didn't know that that Number 11 who I always for some reason found on the left side of the pitch from my goal was who I would later call Giggsy. To me, it did not matter back then what there names were, all that mattered was that they played decent, kicked the ball in the right direction, and won me the matches, which they somehow always did.
But, alas, for some reason I couldn't play the game any longer, since ICQ for some reason decided not to provide it any longer. I was separated from the lads for years, until, one fine day at a boarding school where I was then studying, Liverpool vs Manchester United was being aired. There were two reasons why I was rooting for United that day, one was of course my previous liaison with them, and because there was this bully that I loathed who was supporting Liverpool. Almost everyone in that room was in fact on Liverpool's side, scared to be on the wrong side of the bully, but it helped me a great deal that United got all three points, and, mor importantly, won the most bitter rivalry in the English game.
I wasn't a die hard United fan till I began playing FIFA 2002. Till then, I only preferrde to read in the newspapers that United won a game, but it didn't matter much to me, the same way right now I would like to read the Dallas Mavericks performing well in the NBA. But things changed with the new FIFA game. I started knowing players names, also learnt from my sister that there was this bald guy who plays for United who all girls drool while thinking of him. Now, with the ability to transfer players in the game, I also learnt of the talents that lay beyond the English borders. Soon, I was a football addict. All of us at my school were. We used to play football, or footsie or footer, as we called it, for about four or five hours on the sundays at our school. And I started following United's performances more seriously. The first United match I watched live was United vs Liverpool in December '02. It was at Anfield, and United won 2-1, with Diego Forlan scoring both. Maybe that's why I always liked Forlan, and that I did not really like to see him depart for Villareal.
Although they won the League that season, the next three seasons, where they only had an FA Cup and League Cup victories, were hard to bear. But, nonetheless, they were still by far the best team in the world to me, because when they played well, they made the good sides look like teams that should be playing in lower divisions, and smaller teams like they consisted of a bunch of guys picked up at a local club and thrown onto the pitch with a jersey. And, finally, last season United's real abilities came through as their newer players finally found their feet. Rooney finally began performing more consistently, though more often providing goals than scoring them, and Ronaldo by far was the player of the season. Long time players Giggs, Scholes and Neville provided the team with leadership, and the Vidic-Ferdinand combo at the centre defense positions provided the backbone. Result? United dethroned Chelsea in the League, narrowly lost out to the London team in the FA Cup final, and lost to eventual winners AC Milan in the Champions League. With new recruits Nani, Hargreaves and Anderson lined up for next season, I'm looking forward to more than one new addition to the trophy cabinet, and some more breathtaking games to savour.