I watched a live soccer game between Manchester United football club and Aston Villa football club as broadcasted by Manchester United TV on the internet. The match was played on the 12th of December 2009 at 3pm local time for a period of 90 minutes plus a few extra minutes. The venue of the match was Old Trafford; a football stadium located in London with a capacity of 50,000 seats thus its ability to accommodate a considerable percentage of football fans. It is owned and managed by Manchester United. The outcome of the soccer game was 0-1 in favor of Aston Villa football club.
The offensive tactics of the game were varied as seen in the desire of each team to outclass the other. Manchester United’s focused on deploying two strikers that is Wayne Rooney and Dimitiar Berbatov to the flanks leading to Aston Villa’s goal post. These two strikers were served with long shots from mid fielders like Darren Fletcher and Ryan Giggs. Immediately Rooney and Berbatov received the ball they interchanged positions thus confusing Aston Villa’s defenders. This technique was also aimed at beating the offside track. The perfect result of such actions would have been a goal however Aston Villa’s tactics proved to be more effective. Another offensive tactic utilized by Manchester United was evident during free kicks and corners as seen in the manner in which the ball was directed towards the mid field with the aim of starting a fresh attack. The defensive tactics were seen in the coordination of efforts between Wes Brown and Vidic who guarded the flanks from the speed and talent exhibited by Aston Villa players.
The offensive Tactics utilized by Aston Villa basically incorporated the use of low passes and counter attacking mechanisms such that immediately Manchester United lost the ball while attacking Aston Villa rushed to counter attack before reorganization of the defense team took place. These attacks were carried out by Young and Agbonlahor. The defensive techniques utilized by Aston Villa basically incorporated strengthening of the midfield in a tactic known as playing defensively in the mid field. This restricts Manchester United’s players from accessing the last quarter of the area to Aston Villa’s goal post.
The star players for Manchester United as portrayed both in this match and other matches are Wayne Rooney and Nemanja Vedic. Rooney is recognized for his speed and accuracy. In this particular match he created numerous chances however it was Dimitiar Berbatov who did not execute such chances. Nemanja Vedic is perhaps the best defender in the world, he is a Serbian recognized for his physical and mental strength especially in restricting strikers from advancing into the penalty area of the soccer pitch. The star players in Aston Villa are Young and Agbonlahor. These are strikers recognized for their goal scoring abilities as evident in their stylistic footwork that confuse strikers. This is the reason for their goal against Manchester United football club. Aston Villa’s goalkeeper is also recognized for his skills in saving balls that could have otherwise been goals had it been another goal keeper guarding the goal post.
The goal of the match was scored by Agbonlahor who shielded off Manchester United’s Wes Brown. He then passed the ball to Young who further shielded off Nemanja Vidic. Agbonlahor then dashed towards the open space close to Manchester United’s goal post. This was for the purpose of receiving the ball crossed by Young after which he scored with a header.