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Moyes embarrassed on derby day as scale of Manchester United task looms large:
The Premier League champions were humiliated in a 4-1 defeat to City at the Etihad Stadium, putting pressure on the new Old Trafford boss already.



David Moyes took on the impossible job of succeeding Sir Alex Ferguson knowing he faced the sternest of challenges in Manchester United’s early season fixtures, but he could never have anticipated such a humiliating defeat in his first derby.
It was beyond dreadful, a day to forget. Moyes made it clear in his post-match press conference that he had made the players aware in no uncertain that they had produced an unacceptable performance.
The Scot can only hope that the David Moyes hairdryer treatment can have the same galvanising affect as that of his predecessor.
In three major Premier League tests - against Chelsea, Liverpool and City - Moyes has now picked up just one point and scored a solitary goal, Wayne Rooney’s late free-kick here.
The parallels with the 6-1 defeat to City at Old Trafford in 2011-12 are inescapable, the echoes of a day Ferguson described as his “worst ever” in his 26 years in charge of the club.
On that occasion, City scored three goals in the dying minutes to humiliate their rivals; this time United were hung, drawn and quartered within five minutes of the second-half. If anything, it was even worse, so total was City’s dominance from the first whistle.
Moyes pointed to the fixture list as a major reason behind United’s worst start to a campaign since the 2004-05 season. “I think any manager would have found it difficult taking over the club with that run of fixtures. If those games were later in the season I might have had a better understanding.”
Moyes will be grateful that United now have an eminently winnable run of fixtures to ease some of the early pressure and respond to the psychological blow of such a heavy defeat to a title rival.
The visiting supporters, to their credit, stuck behind the team and their manager, chanting throughout and staying until the end of the match despite the uncomfortable taunts from the City fans.
It all started to go wrong for Moyes with the news that Robin van Persie would not risk a painful groin injury, despite training over the last two days.
Moyes admitted the obvious; that United were “second to things” and “never got to grips” with the aggression, speed and technique of the City players.
In the first-half, he bravely tried to turn the tide as he barked instructions from his technical area, imploring Marouane Fellaini to get closer to Yaya Toure, barking at Rio Ferdinand to watch Sergio Aguero’s movement.
In the second-half, he knew the game was up and never once left his seat on the bench, instead ramping up the voltage on the hairdryer before giving United’s players a piece of his mind.
The major question over Moyes on his appointment surrounded his ability to handle the greater pressure, the weekly expectation and how he could pit his wits against the best managers and teams on the continent.
Moyes, after all, failed to win a derby at Liverpool in 11 years as Everton manager and saw his side embarrassed here.
He was handed the impossible job of replacing Sir Alex Ferguson - but with this result he may reflect that it will be even harder than even he imagined.

Cristiano Ronaldo: How personality defines brilliance
The Real Madrid player is an amazing talent who gives everything to succeed on the pitch. But is his personality type responsible for his prowess?
The fact that Cristiano Ronaldo, who recently committed his future to Real Madrid till 2018 after signing a new three-year extension to his contract, is a world class footballer is surely an understatement. While many factors are responsible for the brilliant striker’s performance, undoubtedly his personality has also largely contributed positively to the convincing performance of the dexterous Portuguese, who has scored 203 goals since his €94 million move from Old Trafford in 2009.
Personality, the sum of those characteristics that make a person distinctive and its potential effects on sports participation and sports performance has been of interest to psychologists and researchers for many years.
Going by the narrowband approach to studying personality, there is no doubt Cristiano Ronaldo is a Type A footballer.
Type A individuals can be described as people who are impatient, lack tolerance of others and have high levels of personal anxiety. Type A individuals also have a strong urge for competition, have high desire to achieve goals, always rush to complete activities, will happily multi-task when placed under heavy time constraints.
Even though it is difficult to link between personality types and sports performance or identify an ideal personality for sports, you will agree with me that the description of personality type mentioned above isn’t atypical in CR7.
At Sporting Clube de Portugal, the impatient Ronaldo once had a surgery that should have truncated his promising career if unsuccessful or better still, kept the promising player behind the turf for several weeks. Interestingly, the goal getter resumed training in few days.
His touchiness is also often noticeable even while on the pitch. He is often seen moaning, gesticulating and surly while trying to speed up his team to victory. In fact he once insisted that his competitive nature should never be mistaken for conceit, affirming "I was in the swimming pool with my girlfriend and sometimes we like to have a race. Sometimes you have to give her an opportunity to be happy but I win because I don't like to lose. It's simple like that.”
Besides impatience, Ronaldo is also a footballer known to be intolerant of others. One of such instances was in 07/08 season at Manchester United. He was shown red with a three-match ban for head-butting Portsmouth’s Richard Hughes during United's second match of the season. Even though the player said he had "learned a lot" from the experience and would not let players "provoke" him in the future, he has often reacted starkly to tackles both inside and outside the pitch after the incidence. An interesting one was when the Spanish media and fans consistently criticized him for his arrogance. The Portuguese retorted that people were jealous of his handsomeness.
At Euro 2012, during the match between Denmark and Portugal, the Danish fans chanted Lionel Messi's name whenever Ronaldo was on the ball. The frustrated and tormented Ronaldo squandered two one-on-one chances, and when asked about the Messi chants, he responded exasperatedly: "You know where he was at this time last year? Do you know? He was being eliminated in the Copa America, in his own country. I think that's worse, no? And people say that he is the best player in the world. This sort of thing is normal for great players.”
Another trait that I have personally noticed in the prodigious player is high level of personal anxiety. This he evidently shows each time he’s frustrated.
After the opening 0–1 defeat against Germany at Euro 2012, Cristiano Ronaldo was criticised for underperforming, showing frustration at his team-mates' errors and for walking off into the changing-rooms straight after the match, rather than acknowledging the crowd along with the team. Although his team mate Nani, later defended him, stating that he had left the pitch as he needed to instantly be treated for a possible injury, there was no doubt CR7’s attitude was influenced by excessive personal pressure to perform which he was unable to do.
Diego Maradona once said about the anxious player: "As good as he is with Real Madrid, he often seems frustrated on the national level, as if he was surrounded by players who do little to assist him.”
As previously mentioned, Type A individuals have strong urge for competition, have high desire to achieve goals, always rush to complete activities. Could these be said of Ronaldo? Yes of course.
In fact, Ronaldo is one of most the fantastic footballers the universe ever produced - if not the best. His record speaks volume. Ronaldo was the first player playing in England to have won all four main PFA and FWA awards, doing so in 2007. In 2008, Ronaldo won theBallon d'Or. He placed second in theBallon d'Orin 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012. He was awarded the European Golden Shoe in both 2008 and 2011. In 2008, he won three of the four main PFA and FWA trophies and was named the FIFPro Player of the Year, World Soccer Player of the Year,Onze d'Or, and the FIFA World Player of the Year. In 2007 and 2008, Ronaldo was named FWA Footballer of the Year. Ronaldo was the inaugural winner of the FIFA Puskás Award for the Goal of the Year in 2009.
The prolific striker, who has the potential to become one of the greatest of all time, holds numerous former and current scoring records, including records for most goals scored in a season for Real Madrid, most goals scored per minute inLa Liga, first top European league player to reach 40 goals in a single season in two consecutive years, fastest Real Madrid player to reach one hundred league goals, and the first player ever to score against every team in a single season inLa Liga. In January 2013, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 300th club goal.
The last of my personality analysis of Ronaldo is that Type A individuals will happily multi-task when placed under heavy time constraints. This too could be observed in CR7.
The versatile player can either play as a striker or as a winger and is known for his finishing, pace, dribbling, positioning and his passing and crossing ability. He is able to play on either wing as well as through the center of the pitch. How many strikers of caliber could do that?
Having said all these, it could be concluded that Ronaldo’s personality has really influenced his attitude and performance on and off the pitch. It is an understanding that should guide our perception of several footballers around the globe and their differences and uniqueness.

Why Madrid and 'peacemaker' Ancelotti are a match made in heaven
The Italian was officially announced by the capital club on Tuesday and signs a three-year deal. His calm approach and tactical nous make him the ideal successor to Jose Mourinho..





When romantic relationships reach their end, it is common for both men and women to seek in their next attachment the qualities lacking in their previous partner. And something similar has happened with Real Madrid; ever since separating with Jose Mourinho, the Spanish side have set their sights on a different type of coach: Carlo Ancelotti.
Madrid announced late last month that Mourinho would depart at the end of the season, after three turbulent terms in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu. And following weeks of arduous negotiations with Paris Saint-Germain, the French club signed Laurent Blanc on Tuesday and allowed Ancelotti to join Madrid on a three-year deal.
Real president Florentino Perez has long admired Ancelotti and had hoped to sign the Italian when he returned for a second mandate in 2009. That summer, however, Carlo chose Chelsea after ending his seven and a half year association with AC Milan. Fouryears on, Florentino has now got his man - and he looks like the ideal candidate to replace Mourinho.
ANCELOTTI'S TROPHY HAUL AS COACH
Juventus (1999-2001)
No major trophies
AC Milan (2001-2009)
Serie A (2003-04)
Coppa Italia (2002-03)
Champions League (2002-03, 2006-07)
Supercoppa Italiana (2004)
Fifa Club World Cup (2007)
Chelsea (2009-2011)
Community Shield (2009)
Premier League (2009-10)
FA Cup (2009-10)
Paris Saint-Germain(2011-2013)
Ligue 1 (2012-13)The first big advantage for the former PSG boss over the man he replaces is that, unlike the Portuguese, Ancelotti played professional football at the very highest level. In the aftermath of a painfulClasicodefeat to Barcelona in January of last year, Madrid defender Sergio Ramos responded to harsh criticism from Mourinho for switching set-piece marking duties with Pepe by telling his coach: "You wouldn't understand becauseyou never played [at this level]."
Ancelotti was a highly technical midfielder who won two European Cups in the magical Milan side of the late 1980s and early 1990s, playing alongside such greats as Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten. During his playing days, he also picked up a vast array of tactical knowledge under some of the world's best coaches, including Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello at Milan, Nils Liedholm and Sven-Goran Eriksson at Roma, and World Cup winner Enzo Bearzot with Italy.
Back then, of course, Serie A was considered to be by far the strongest league in terms of tactics, an area of Mourinho's armoury which can be questioned following his three-year spell in Spain. While the Portuguese played counterattacking football with some of the world's best players, Ancelotti has utilised a number of different systems and styles throughout his coaching career and is likely to bring a much more astute tactical plan to the Santiago Bernabeu.
His favoured formation at Milan was a 4-3-2-1, adapted to become a 4-4-2 diamond at Chelsea. But there is a usually a point of reference in his sides behind the striker - a playmaker ortrequartista: Zinedine Zidane at Juventus and Kaka at Milan being perhaps the two best examples. At Madrid, Mesut Ozil, LukaModric or likely new signing Isco could be primed for this role. But whoever he selects, Ancelotti's technical football will likely please fans fed on some of the world's best in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and who wereuncomfortable at the defensive play favoured by Mourinho.
The Italian may have collected fewer trophies than the Portuguese over the course of his coaching career but, as Mourinho managed last year when he proclaimed himself to be 'The Only One', the former Milan boss can claim a league title in a fourth different country by winning La Liga, following championship cheer in Italy, England and France. Ancelotti, as well as being a two-time European Cup winner as a player, has won the Champions League twice as coach (as has Mourinho), leading Milan to the trophy in 2003 and 2007 (as well as the final in 2005 when Liverpool amazingly came back from three goals down to win it in Istanbul).
But unlike Mourinho, he comes without controversy. Described as a 'peacemaker' byMarca, the Italian is a strong character, yet a man who works out of the limelight and who is not one to rock the boat. The 53-year-old forged a healthy professional partnership with Silvio Berlusconi at Milan, despite receiving criticism from the then most powerful man in Italy over his tactics and so-called defensive football, and also worked well under Roman Abramovich at Chelsea untilresults cost him his job in his second season at Stamford Bridge.
Ancelotti has also coached some of the finest footballers in the world over the last 15 years,including Zidane (with whom he is expected to form a partnership at Madrid now), and is seen as a kind of Italian Vicente del Bosque - acoach with excellent man-management skills who can control the egos in the dressing room in a sort of father-figure role.
He is high profile, while his popularity with players and pedigree as coach mean the Italian will also be able to entice the very best players to Madrid. Essentially, he appears to tick all the boxes as the man to replace Mourinho.
Successful and tactically astute, he is also diplomatic and respectful and is extremely unlikely to cause controversies or fall out with players in the way that his predecessor did do often. And in a summer when very few top-class coaches are available, Ancelotti looks like the ideal man to smooth over the deep divisions left by Mourinho.
Indeed, even if other top trainers had been available (Jurgen Klopp, Jupp Heynckes, Joachim Low and Andre Villas-Boas have all been mentioned), the Italian would still have been Madrid's first choice as Perez at last getsto work with the coach he missed out on in 2009.
The Mourinho marriage is now well and truly over, but Madrid believe they have found justthe right man to replace him.

In as much as I want dortmond to win,I dont want lewandowski to score more than one goal.....I want Ronaldo to go home with the Golden boat...






Lest I forget..







It's gonna be an interesting match to watch.It is high time a German team wins the champions league because they deserve it for their hardwork.
One only need to look at the talents at their disposal.Thomas Muller,Toni Kroos,Julian Draxlar,Mario Gotze,Marco Reus,Andre Shurrle,Ilkay Gundogan,Matt Hummels,Holger Badsturber,The Bender brothers,And not forgeting Mesut Ozil and Samir Khedira that are plying their trade in Spain...
All in all Germany's youth development has paid off..
One thing am happy about is that a German team is winning the UCL..










See you guyz on saturday.

Interesting indeed.[color=#990000][/color]

[quote author=sakaguchi]Clueless old thieves and coupists