Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Now the Fun (Hopefully) Begins

This weekend will witness the re-start up of league play in Europe. There are still a lot of interesting storylines left that need to resolve themselves, but one of the most interesting to watch is Manchester United’s quest for the Treble.

Manchester won the treble in 1999, with the Giggs/Beckham/Keane team that went down as one of the best in the club’s history. This year that have a chance to repeat that feat with a club that many predicted would finish second, third, or even fourth in the premiership. Instead, the club has a comfortable cushion at the top of the English league, and are well placed to go to the finals in both the FA cup and the Champions League. Nothing is guaranteed, of course, especially because the Red Devils still have to play Chelsea once more in league play and could very well face them in both cup tournaments as well. Things are further complicated by the recent injury to Christiano Ronaldo, who has been far-and-away United’s best player this season. Alex Ferguson himself has recently gone on record as saying he believes the team will NOT achieve the treble (his comments can be found here: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=417168&cc=5901) because there are simply too many games for the club to play at the end of the season. United fans and also many neutrals hope, however, that Manchester hangs in there and gives us something to watch as the season winds to a close. United haters, on the other hand, (and they are legion) would love to see them drop all three, even if it meant they fell to the equally-hated Chelsea. The fun will begin for all of us this weekend.

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