No. 29--Soccer: Manchester United vs. New Castle United Soccer: Six Goals For Manchester in the Second Half

by Soccer Coach Albert M. Luongo

The match took place on January 12, 2008. The score was Manchester United 6, New Castle United 0. All 6 goals were scored in the second half. Manchester totally dominated New Castle United except for a few short periods in each half.

Manchester United’s playing was well executed and it appeared to me that the team was well coached in passing techniques and driven hard by its endurance training. Their ball shielding was also superb. New Castle’s playing appeared to be just the opposite where the passing (except for only a few brief periods) was lacking along with their stamina. While they held up during the first half, they only had two shots on goal, Manchester had 10. Several of which were by Wayne Rooney: Several of his shots were on the mark, but most were stopped by New Castle’s goalkeeper. One could say that Rooney had an unlucky game that day.

The scoring for Manchester United (second half) went like this. At 49 minutes, Cristiano Ronaldo scored on a free kick just outside the penalty area. He kicked the ball at the wall and it went under the feet of New Castles’s players. For some reason the defenders in the wall jumped up and the ball went under their feet directly into the goal. At 54 minutes, the ball was fed back to Tevez during a defensive confusion of New Castle giving him a clear shot. Ronaldo at minute 69 received a pass and had an unopposed shot on goal. At the 85th minute Ferdinand was unmarked as he received a pass at the right wing and scored. At the 87th minute Ronaldo scored his 3rd goal and at the 90th minute Tevez scored his second goal by hitting the cross bar and the ball shot down to just barely cross the goal line.


Two yellow cards were given and a red card was issued to New Castle’s A. Smith at the 93rd minute. The referee was lenient on many fouls and fortunately it was a relatively clean game, making it a nice game to watch.

Summary of Important Information Necessary for Young Players and Coaches
Obviously with the score being 6-0, Manchester United’s playing skills were far superior to that of New Castle. Manchester United made few mistakes to speak of and their endurance was high as proven by the fact that they scored the last 3 goals in the last 6 minutes. This would indicate that their opponents could not keep up with them as well along with seeing their defenses break down. While I am speculating on Manchester’s endurance training, the results of the last 3 or 5 goals do indicate that strenuous endurance training must have been a factor for developing such a top soccer team. It takes a high amount of energy by players to continue to play where they make few passing errors as well as the way they demonstrated such great ball shielding .

It should be pointed out that when defending on a direct or indirect kick, it is not a good idea to jump up unless the kicked ball is high. I.e. remaining stationary is the best defense. Jumping up defeats the wall’s purpose. I say this even though my opinion is that a wall in front of the goal should not be permitted in soccer. Allowing a wall gives the defending team a good reason to take down an opponent who may be dangerously close to scoring. Disallowing walls would bring up the number of goals scored and who wouldn’t like that. It might even reduce the number of fouls.

All of the above information is the author's opinion. This article in no way is meant to degrade, discredit or defame any team or person. Its sole purpose is to improve the skills of young soccer players, coaches and the game itself.