Chapter 235: The first round of the new season against Reading,
After Ricardo chose his number, the last player to confirm his jersey number was Carlos Tevez, who joined the club last, and then the first-team squad for the Red Devils for the 07/08 season under Sir Alex Ferguson was confirmed.
There are three goalkeepers:
No. 1, Edwin van der Sar, born on October 1970, 10, Dutch nationality, height 29 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 12, Ben Foster, born on April 1983, 4, English nationality, height 3 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 29, Tomasz Kuszczak, born on March 1982, 3, Polish, 20 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
There are 8 defenders, namely:
No. 2, Gary Neville, born on February 1975, 2, English nationality, height 18 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 3, Patrice Evra, born on May 1981, 5, French nationality, height 15 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 5, Rio Ferdinand, born on November 1978, 11, English nationality, height 7 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 6, Wes Brown, born on October 1979, 10, English nationality, height 13 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 15, Nemanja Vidic, born on October 1981, 10, Serbian nationality, height 21 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 19, Gerard Pique, born on February 1987, 2, Spanish, 2 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 22, John O'Shea, born on April 1981, 4, Irish, 30 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 27, Mikael Silvestre, born on August 1977, 8, French nationality, height 9 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
The 10 midfielders are:
No. 4, Owen Hargreaves, born on January 1981, 1, English nationality, height 20 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 7, Cristiano Ronaldo, born on February 1985, 2, Portuguese, 5 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 8, Anderson, born on April 1988, 4, Brazilian, 13 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 11, Ryan Giggs, born on November 1973, 11, Welsh, 29 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 13, Park Ji-Sung, born on February 1981, 2, Korean, 25 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 16, Michael Carrick, born on July 1981, 7, English nationality, height 28 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 17, Ricardo Ricci, born on June 1986, 6, Italian nationality, height 6 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 18, Paul Scholes, born on November 1974, 11, English nationality, height 16 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 24, Darren Fletcher, born on February 1984, 2, Scottish, 1 meters tall, 1 kilograms in weight;
No. 33, Chris Eagles, born on November 1985, 11, English nationality, 19 meters tall, weight 1 kilograms;
4 forwards
No. 9, Louis Saha, born on August 1978, 8, French nationality, height 8 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 10, Wayne Rooney, born on October 1985, 10, English nationality, height 24 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 21, Dong Yuanchao, born on February 1985, 2, Chinese nationality, height 25 meters, weight 1 kilograms;
No. 32, Carlos Tevez, born on February 1984, 2, Argentine nationality, height 5 meters, weight 1 kilograms.
@
When Ricardo saw that the baby-faced killer Solskjaer was not on the 25-man roster of the first team, he knew that Solskjaer seemed determined to retire.
Two weeks after the start of the league, on the morning of August 2, 2007, Manchester United held a special press conference, and the 8-year-old Norwegian striker Solskjaer officially announced his retirement.
Solskjaer was full of emotion at the meeting: "I want to thank the head coach, the coaches and the medical team and the fans who support me. They have been so good to me over the years... I am proud to have played for Manchester United for 11 years. I have left some very special memories..."
Sir Alex Ferguson also gave a very high evaluation to the super substitute killer: "It is always a sad day to end a career. For Solskjaer, he left behind 11 wonderful years. He has achieved all the achievements a player can hope for. He has made extraordinary contributions to the club and has always been a model for professional players. He will hopefully become a very good coach!"
During his 11 years at Manchester United, Solskjaer made 366 appearances and scored 126 goals.
Last season, Solskjaer had an amazing performance. After two years of injury, he made a miraculous comeback and contributed 11 goals, which was one of the heroes for Manchester United to regain the Premier League title. In addition, in the Norwegian national team, Solskjaer played 67 times and scored 23 goals.
In his first season at Manchester United, Solskjaer became the team's top scorer with 18 goals, helping the team win the 96/97 Premier League title.
In the 98/99 season, in the Premier League match where Manchester United beat Nottingham Forest 8-1, Solskjaer scored four goals after coming on as a substitute in the 72nd minute. After the game, Sir Alex Ferguson called him the substitute from the hell!
Last season, on May 2007, 5, Solskjaer came on as a substitute in the FA Cup final. It was Solskjaer's last appearance for Manchester United, but unfortunately he failed to help Manchester United win the FA Cup.
The most profound memory Solskjaer left for Manchester United fans must be the 98/99 European Cup final, when he came on as a substitute against Bayern Munich and scored the winning goal in stoppage time, helping the Red Devils achieve the treble.
In the 11 seasons that Solskjaer has been with the Red Devils, he has won a total of 12 major championships, including six Premier League titles, two FA Cup titles, one European Champions Cup title, two Community Shield titles and one Club World Cup title.
Finally, what makes the fans less sad is that Solskjaer was appointed as a club ambassador last year and started to coach Manchester United's echelon to help the club train young players. And Sir Alex Ferguson has decided to give Solskjaer a position in the coaching staff, so that the baby-faced killer will still fight with the Red Devils in the new season...
@
On the evening of August 8, Julian passed through Manchester to return to Chicago to start courses for the fall semester. However, this stopover would take a long time. Julian planned to stay in Manchester for only two weeks, until after the traditional Chinese Valentine's Day, in order to comfort Ricardo's wounded heart, and take care of Ricardo's diet and daily life in the new environment, as well as the most important sleep quality!
The day after Julian's visit, the new Premier League season kicked off on August 2007, 8. In the opening match, Manchester United legend Roy Keane won his first Premier League game as coach, with Sunderland beating Tottenham Hotspur 11-1 at home.
不过对于大部分球迷来说，07/08赛季的英超在8月12日才算真正开始，因为曼联、切尔西和阿森纳这三支过去10年主宰英超的霸主们将在这天才隆重登场。
Before the game started, the media generally believed that the strong Manchester United would win the victory without any bloodshed.
After all, Reading, Manchester United's first-round opponent, does not have a strong lineup. In addition, last season's top star Sidwell moved to Chelsea this summer, which could have a fatal impact on a mid-table team.
双方上赛季4次交手，曼联4胜4平保持不败。雷丁历史上唯一一次取胜曼联还是1927年1月足总杯第3轮的第2次重赛，其后9次交锋，曼联6胜3平保持不败。双方历史交锋14场，曼联7胜6平1负占据优势。
Therefore, in this away game at Old Trafford, Reading coach Coppell also admitted that they did not have much hope of getting points against Manchester United in the first round. As long as it was not a big defeat, it would be fine to avoid causing a huge psychological blow to the players.
Koper's worries are not without reason. Last season, Manchester United scored a staggering 83 goals, and the goal difference was as high as 56. Ronaldo and Rooney are the pride of Manchester United. Last season, they scored 46 goals in all competitions, and Ronaldo won all the personal honors in the Premier League.
This season, Manchester United is even stronger. The additions of Tevez, Ricardo Lich, Anderson and Hargreaves have ensured that Ronaldo and Rooney have no shortage of helpers. Giggs is in excellent form this summer, and Scholes has also returned. Except for the old injured Gary Neville and Saha, all the players in the Manchester United team are on standby. With such a stable lineup, Manchester United is naturally confident of a good start.
A good start is half the battle. Last season, Manchester United started with four consecutive wins, laying a solid foundation for the eventual championship. Now Manchester United needs to repeat last season's glory.
Although they were favored by everyone, Sir Alex Ferguson did not dare to be careless. He kept reminding the team at the pre-match press conference: "Years of experience in the Premier League have taught me that the first round of games are always very difficult games... Reading is not easy to deal with. Last year, we only won 3-2 at home and were tied by the opponent away. We cannot underestimate the enemy."
Before the game, both sides announced their starting lineups for the first round. Sir Alex Ferguson, who was keen on playing it safe, adopted the 4-4-2 formation that was commonly used last season and mainly used last season's main lineup.
Hargreaves missed many of Manchester United's warm-up matches due to injury, and he and Anderson were not included in the squad, while Tevez, who just completed the transfer procedures yesterday, was also unable to catch up with this game. Among the new players, only Li Qi, who had been in good form before the season, was included in the match squad, but he started the game from the bench.
Manchester United's starting 4-4-2 formation was as follows:
The goalkeeper is No. 1 Van der Sar;
The back line from right to left is No. 6 Wes Brown, No. 5 Ferdinand, No. 15 Vidic and No. 27 Silvester;
The four midfielders from right to left are No. 7 Ronaldo, No. 18 Scholes, No. 16 Carrick and No. 3 Evra;
The forward duo is No. 11 Giggs and No. 10 Rooney;
替补席上的五人是29号库什恰克、17号李奇、19号皮克、22号奥谢与24号弗莱彻。
Yes, unlike other major European leagues, the Premier League bench can only register 5 players, but 3 players can be replaced. Therefore, apart from the goalkeeper substitute who must be prepared, there are only 4 places left for the head coach to make tactical adjustments, which means that each of the three lines has 1 substitution quota, and one panacea is reserved.
Li Qi, who is versatile and can play in multiple positions on the court, is the favorite of all Premier League coaches, and Sir Alex Ferguson is no exception. Therefore, in the first round of the Premier League, even if Manchester United does not bring any other new players, they will reserve a VIP bench seat for Li Qi...
Opponent Reading also fielded the Premier League's usual 4-4-2 parallel starting lineup.
However, Li Qi did not recognize most of the players in the team, except for one Asian face, the Korean star Xue Qixuan.
The 27-year-old Seol Ki-hyun joined Reading last season. He can play in multiple positions, including forward and midfield. He quickly became a regular starter, playing 27 Premier League games and scoring 4 goals last season.
英国当地时间2007年8月12日下午16时，07/08赛季英格兰足球超级联赛首轮一场焦点战在老特拉福德球场展开争夺，红衣白裤的曼联在主场迎战蓝白间条衫的雷丁。
Less than a minute into the game, Xue Qixuan, who Li Qi paid special attention to, won a free kick in the frontcourt through a personal breakthrough; the free kick was sent to the back of Manchester United's penalty area, Doyle headed the ball, and Gunnarsson in the middle headed the ball too straight and was confiscated by Van der Sar.
The game then slowly fell under the control of the home team Manchester United, and the visiting team could only frequently commit fouls, even rough and fierce fouls, to stop the Red Devils' offensive, and even tried to dampen the morale of Manchester United's big-name stars.
Li Qi, who was sitting on the bench, also felt the penalty scale of the Premier League for the first time. It was indeed lenient and encouraged physical confrontation. Many actions that Li Qi thought would definitely result in a card in La Liga did not even trigger a foul in this game. The visiting team committed crazy fouls throughout the first half. In Li Qi's opinion, there were at least a dozen reckless tackles that should have been yellow cards, but only Xue Qixuan received a card...
In addition, Reading goalkeeper Hanemann played superbly in this game, making high catches and defenses, which made Manchester United's 8 shots and 5 shots on target all fail.
So although Manchester United controlled the game in the first half, they still had to draw with the visiting team and went into halftime.
The second half was just as tense, but Reading deployed an even more rigorous defense than in the first half, intending to hold on to a dull draw. They even replaced a striker in the 55th minute to increase the midfield defense, and replaced Xue Qixuan, who was given a yellow card, in the 65th minute to ensure the hardness of the midfield interception - in other words, leaving room for rough fouls and then getting cards.
However, Manchester United's bridgehead center forward Rooney was not afraid at all. He was the most outstanding player of the entire Manchester United team in the first half. As of the first hour of the game, he had contributed 4 very threatening shots. If it were not for the heroic performance of Reading goalkeeper Hahnemann, Rooney would have helped Manchester United take the lead long ago.
But when the game reached the 57th minute, an accident happened!
……
