Club World Champions and League Cup Winners

The stage couldn’t get bigger and the teams tougher. This is the place where one team – after winning the trophy could then call themselves “Kings of Club Football”. Manchester United had missed out on in 1999 and were all geared up this time around, they won the Intercontinental cup that year. The Champions of England and the Champions of Europe were on a mission to conquer the world – their playground – Japan!

The Premier League has been grueling enough, what with the FA Cup, Carling Cup and Champions League games. United would have loved to relax a bit. But when you are Manchester United and when you have Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm, you stop at nothing. The finals was not a cake walk and Liga de Quito proved no push-over, which saw Nemanja Vidic see red, though 10 man United went on to win it by a solitary goal. A win nonetheless and another trophy in cabinet, a job well done and now back to the grind. Hey, hold on we are in the running for the Carling Cup too…After losing 1-0 to Derby in the Semi-final first leg, United romped home 4-2 at Old Trafford to set a date with Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham on March 1. The game was surprisingly goalless in the scheduled 90 minutes and even in extra time. It took a magnificent display by Ben Foster in goal to trump Tottenham 4-1 in the penalty shoot-out.

This is their 3rd League Cup and 3rd major trophy this season – Charity shield, Fifa World Club cup and the Carling cup. The class of 2008-09 is truly best of the best and they have many more goals to achieve. I must admit, it never felt so good being a United fan.

GLORY! GLORY! Man United!!

Julien Menezes
(Pictures courtesy – Fifa.com and Carling Cup website)