Showing posts with label Edwin van der sar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edwin van der sar. Show all posts
Edwin van der Sar's spectacular stop from Fabrice Muamba was voted Save of the Season by ManUtd.com readers.
More than 4000 United fans voted in the poll and here are the results:
- Edwin van der Sar v Bolton (26.8%)
- Ben Foster v Arsenal (13.8%)
- Edwin van der Sar v Liverpool (11.8%)
But contrasting to fans opinion, United’s goalkeeper coach Eric Steele considers Ben Foster's save at White Hart Lane from Jermaine Jenas as the Save of the Season. The reason he picked Foster's stop is due to "the amount of work that went into making the save."
Steele, who joined United's coaching ranks in August 2008, said
The shot’s been curled around a defender, which means Ben’s seen it late. He’s had to take an extra step before launching himself and not only does he get a hand to the ball, he gets a strong hand to ensure he tips it around the post.
What also made this save so special was its context: it was just after half-time when we were leading 2-1. A goal for Tottenham would have let them right back into the game.
He did praise VDS’s effort and said, “Sometimes Edwin’s labeled as a goalkeeper who’s very calm and good with the ball at his feet. But he’s also capable of making world-class saves and the one at Bolton is a prime example of that.”
Steele also voted Tomasz Kuszczak's flying stop from Jamie O'Hara at Fratton Park as one of the best saves. He described the save as “out of this world.”
Steele’s choices barely got any votes from the fans. Its surprising how the opinion of fans and the coach differ so much!
Manchester United have announced their third major sponsorship deal in a week with Africa’s largest mobile telephone operator, MTN Group Ltd. This is the club’s third lucrative agreement in the space of a week.
Following on from high-profile partnerships with Telekom Malaysia and Turkish Airlines, Manchester United have added a seven-figure contract with African telecoms giant MTN that will see the company become their exclusive South African telecommunications partner for the next three-and-a-half years.
The deal will see MTN become the South African extension of the club with exclusive mobile content and online inventory such as match highlights, player profiles, ringtones available to customers for download through the MTN Play entertainment portal.
Additionally, MTN has the rights to produce co-branded premiums and will receive signed memorabilia to use in competitions to reward its customers. It will also offer exclusive United-branded MTN products such as airtime vouchers and will run competitions for its customer base where some lucky fans will get an opportunity to have one-on-one interactions with players in the local and international football arena.
Man United Chief Executive David Gill said: "The partnership with MTN is a very important step in the club's plan to get closer to its fans based all over the world. MTN's strength, particularly in the pre-paid market will provide us with the perfect platform to achieve that."
Edwin van der Sar, Antonio Valencia and Patrice Evra were at Old Trafford for the announcement of this partnership.
Sir Bobby Charlton also attended the launch. The United legend said: "I’m delighted to welcome MTN to our club. The fact we have sponsors in various parts of the globe and millions of fans in different countries makes me feel quite proud. But it’s not a surprise to me because ever since I was a player here, I’ve always been well aware that our fans are everywhere in the world.”
Manchester United climbed to the top of the table in the Barclays English Premier League after defeating Bolton 2-1 at Old Trafford. The defeat of Chelsea at Aston Villa means United get a 1 point advantage over the Blues.
The game started perfectly for United as they were a goal ahead within the opening 5 minutes. The game looked pretty much one sided once the home team had scored their second. Antonia Valencia netting his first goal in the Red shirt at the Theater of Dreams.
After scoring 2 goals, Manchester United were looking very comfortable as they kept winning possession and troubling the Bolton defense. But Jussi Jaaskelainen was in terrific form as he made a series of brilliant saves. And that resulted in winning a lot of corners for United. It was sad to see that United could not score a single goal from more than 5 corner kicks.
I felt Man Utd got a bit complacent towards the end and that's when Bolton picked up there chance. Matt Taylor scored with a header and the last 15 minutes were interesting as Bolton tried to snatch an equalizer while the home team tried to seal the game with another goal. But it was 2 -1 to Manchester United.
Today's game saw the return of Edwin van der Sar in United goal and Michael Owen starting with Berbatov upfront due to the absence of Wayne Rooney. To be frank, Owen never looked in great form and failed to deliver the same performance that helped United win the Manchester Derby last month.
This win and Chelsea's defeat at Villa Park means the Red Devils comfortably sit at the top of the table. But the comfort level is very narrow as they lead the Blues by only one point and if United doesn't improve soon, then I feel we might lose the lead. Teams like Arsenal, Spurs, Villa and City are making the competition tough with back to back victories and that should really trigger Man Utd to show their real class to lift the premier league for the fourth consecutive time.
Ben Foster is facing a hell of a time at Manchester United right now. After enduring a turbulent few weeks at Old Trafford, he is currently recovering form a chest problem. And the return of Edwin van der Sar only make things even more sour for him.
Foster has been guarding the United goal ever since van der Sar injured his fingers during a pre-season match with Bayern Munich. But his performances have not lived up to United's standards. He was blamed for two Manchester City goals in the thrilling Old Trafford derby last month before being brushed aside far too easily by Sunderland's Kenwyne Jones last weekend.
Such unconvincing displays from Ben Foster have prompted United fans like me to pray for van der Sar's early return. With almost 2 months of absence, Edwin van der Sar is set for his highly-anticipated comeback after playing the entire 90 minutes in the reserves.
The tall Dutchman seems to be ready to start the game with Bolton before the Premier League begins again after the international break.
The tall Dutchman seems to be ready to start the game with Bolton before the Premier League begins again after the international break.
Meanwhile, Ben Foster's future seems to be in doubt as Sir Alex Ferguson plans to launch a £10million raid on CSKA Moscow for Igor Akinfeev if Van der Sar calls it a day at the end of the season.
Having not conceded a goal since losing to Arsenal in November last year, Edwin Van Der Sar has registered an impressive eleventh straight clean sheet. He achieved this feat in United's demolition of West Brom. The Dutch goalie needed to survive 84 minutes against West Brom to break Petr Cech's record of 1025 minutes without conceding a goal.
While he didn't concede, his team mates scored five at the other end to go three points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League table.
The Dutchman is now unbeaten for 1032 minutes and can extend this to 1122 minutes if he can keep Everton at bay on Saturday. I feel that even the defenders made a big contribution in helping van der Sar acheive this feat. It needs to be noted that for most of the 11 games, United did not have a settled back four. The fact that everyone has come in and done a job shows the strength of the squad. And this has been possible only because Sir Alex and the back staff have put in a lot of hard work.
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