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Foster signed extension for 4 more years. Does this mean Kuszczak will look somewhere else now?

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foster

Old Trafford confirmed yesterday that Ben Foster, two times England international, has signed an extension for four more years at ManUtd. Foster who committed until 2013 and has been at OT since 2005 is rumoured to be the first choice stopper once EVDS finishes his career and is also said to be the next England first choice. The news of the extension comes as a surprise after he said some weeks ago that he might have to look elsewhere to increase his chances to be selected for 2010’s World Cup in South Africa.

The question which comes with this is what with Kuszczak?

The Polish stopper has been at Old Trafford since 2004 and regularly provided good backup for EVDS. Will he be satisfied with a third spot or will he want to go elsewhere now and play regularly?

International Break, A Much Needed Time For Recovery

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Neville and VDS CelebrateAfter Saturday’s amazing second half display, SAF must be a happy man. Not only because of our 6 consecutive victories in the League, or the 8 consecutive clean sheets victories UCL games included, but most of all because of the international break.
A much needed break for ManU.

ManU has been one of the biggest victims in this season start when it comes to injuries, with almost a complete squad sidelined and this week could be the first time Alex actually IS happy because of an international break. Most of the time this means that OT is almost empty and between 15 and 20 players leave Manchester to train with and play for their national team, but this time things are different.
This time many players won’t play in their national kit, but will enjoy the almost two weeks to recover from injury and return entirely fit for the clash with Aston Villa on Saturday 20th October.

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Player Reviews #1: EVDS & Carling Cup Elimination

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Edwin van der SarNow the season really has started and the games follow up each other in a rather high pace, it’s time to start a series reviewing our senior squad members and their performances so far. Today, we kick off with our goal keeper Edwin van der Sar, the Dutch almost 6’6″ tall international, who has won everything there is to win on club level.

Van der Sar has played all the games so far, 7 in the Premiership and the UCL game in Lisbon. VDS had come in in the line of fire after some errors at the end of last season. The tall Dutch international has this year been a role player and a rock in our system.
Although rarely tested during the Community Shield against Chelsea, VDS was our hero when he won the trophy for us by stopping 3 penalties.
VDS, backed by an awesome defense so far, has mostly only been tested by long range shots and always stood solid. EVDS made the difference in last week’s UCL game with two brilliant world class saves.

EVDS has hardly ever been caught on an error in this season so far, although one could say he might have done more with Citeh’s goal, but deflected shots always are hard for a keeper. As known, VDS has ruled on both long distance shots and in the air and kept 5 consecutive clean sheets.

The value of VDS for the team can’t be better worded than Giggs did it some days ago

He has a calming effect on the whole team because he doesn’t make that many mistakes. He has been doing it for so long now, you take it for granted

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Community Shield 2007 ManU’s. Chelsea Better Get Used To Lose.

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VDS lifting the Community Shield TrophyThe Community Shield delivered exactly what every ManU fan expected: a win against Chelsea.
Sadly our trophy win wasn’t as exciting as we’d have loved it to be, but penalties decided the tie.

ManU dominated the first half, with fast football in the midfield and a well organized position game. The Chelsea midfield was almost invisible during all of the first 45 minutes and the Reds ruled. Chelsea hardly created any chance, actually they hardly created any good midfield combination. We covered the whole midfield and except two breakthrough chances Chelsea was rather invisible. During the first 30 minutes our best man definitely was Patrice Evra, and it was him in the 34rd minute who, after a quick 1-2 with Ronaldo, delivered the decisive assist on Giggs left foot. Giggs terminated without hesitating in the right upper corner. View Giggs’ goal here.

For the next 10 minutes ManU continued to control the midfield, but a brilliant pass of Ashley Cole launched Malouda who scored, after arguably having pulled down Rio Ferdinand. 1-1 Was the score when both teams left the pitch.

After the break Chelsea became more prominent in the game, but not because they controlled more, rather because the number of bad passes by ManU started to accumulate. Ronaldo’s chance in the early minutes of the second half, brilliantly saved by Chech, was not representative of our game at all.
Even after Mikael Silvestre was changed for Nani, ManU couldn’t really take advantage of the game.
ManU slightly kept control of the game, but mostly because of the weak performance of Chelsea.

The scoreboard locked at 1-1 after 90 minutes lead to penalties and this would become the moment of one of the most questioned players lately: Edwin Van Der Sar.
Edwin saved the first three Chelsea penalties, taken resp. by Pizarro, Lampard and Shaun Wright-Philips. Rio Ferdinand and Michael Carrick both converted perfectly, leaving the honours of scoring the decisive penalty to Wayne Rooney.


Chelsea V Manchester United Community shield 2007 penalties

Even though Jose could once more realize how little a club Chelsea is, today’s game learned us that there still is a long way to go and we still have to improve on almost every line. Defense, midfield and even the attack will have to work lots to integrate Carlos Tevez’s style in our game. Nothing is won yet, but it all looks great so far.

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