2007/2008 Glory just sunk in

ave fenix

I just finished watching the season review dvd now, and just bursted into tears for this amazing feat we just achived.I know is a bit late,but I knew someday it would come.I was still in shock being this my first European final as a United fan(I've been on since 99-2000 season).I'm so happy I want the new season to begin!!!!

esmufc07

I re-watched the final the other day, was fucking amazing!

What I wouldn't give to have that feeling again when VDS saved that penalty

kikks

Agreed! The feeling of pure ecstasy and joy

ave fenix

Evs=legend!!!!

FlawlessThaw

Ah that just was just pure pure ecstacy. Only Ole's winner in 99 and Giggsy's goal against Arsenal can top it.

KingEric7

There is literally no drug out there that can replicate that.

esmufc07

Nor will there ever be.

Anduin

...or 'Mr. Chelsea' slipping

jasonrh

I listened to the Red News podcast the other day (it was their first since Moscow), and it totally did it again for me in a way that even the SR didn't quite - as somehow the SR lacked a little bit of context and I found myself not being washed on the wave as much as remembering a ton of things that were separate from what they were showing me.

I'm really disappointed that (at least in the USA) they've not broadcast a qualidee concise European Conquerors show that gives context and interviews to the journey so I can show it to the vaguely uninitiated.



I have a long-standing deal with a great friend of mine (me, friends? what?!?) that if we win the European Cup he has to stay over for a weekend and get our triumphs in Europe shoved down his throat in depth (he's only pretty much seen the goals and the '3 Minutes'.

If we win the League and European Cup then I have to go to his place on a European Tour and bring the SR, the Final, and a few other bits and bobs to show his girlfriend why the Cup is so important to us - I've chosen the BBC's 'Munich Remembered' programme from February with Sir Bobby and Harry Gregg, although she's a Southern Belle and I'm a little worried about her understanding the accent of an Irish pensioner with dentures!

If we win the treble, he promises to spend the year watching every game and to watch the entirety of the PL Season Reviews and become a 'proper' supporter of a sort.

If we win the quadruple, then we will make the pilgramage for the Charidee Shield and for the first game - no matter what the cost to my body - although that part of the deal was made long before I was this bad.

SEVENTEEN GEEDEE ELEVEN (grumble) EFFING THREE!

HAVE THAT THEN!

I love you each and every one.


buttsecks?

esmufc07

That was relief more than anything for me at the time, didn't laugh or anything until after we'd won as I knew we could still lose. Football definitely isn't good for your health!

jasonrh

You mean "Missdah Penaldee"?

Anduin

I was almost in tears when Terry made the run to hit the ball and just thought 'if there is a god that cnut is going to miss', but deep inside I had already closed the case and said to myself 'we tried hard and deserved it, but it's fucking Chelsea, they are always lucky' - but the moment he missed I was totally convinced we were going to win it. Magic moment for any United supporter, even though none of our players (not counting VdS) was involved

esmufc07

Americans really are a strange bunch.

Successful

I think the best feelings came when Terry missed that penalty. I mean, the beer was in the air, the tables were in the air, everything just went slow motion and people hugging each other. From that on I knew we were going to win

Spoonatov

I didn't watch it. Just couldn't. In fact I stopped watching after Cashly Cole scored. I put it back on, thinking Chelsea have won the CL, just a micro second after Terry missed his kick. Amazing feeling. I then turned it off, again, and switched it back on just as Anelka was about to run up and take his penalty. Frigging amazing. I always wondered how I'd react to a penalty shoot out in the European Cup final. I'm actually surprised I watched as much of it as I did. Awful to go through. . .but the rewards for winning it, can't be explained. It's something you can only experience. I'd hate to have lost it on penalties. That said, the empty feeling inside thinking they had won, was truly gutting. Thankfully, they didn't. . .and fate took it's course. Not that I believe in fate. But winning it again, on the 50th anniversary, was spooky.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind another win, next season. I know, it's not much to ask for.

jasonrh

Somehow I was convinced that we were nowhere like improving in sextra time although on second viewing we clearly did start to come back into the game,. I thought we ourselves just desperately had to hold onto it for penaldees in spite of our miserable record in shootouts.

The Charidee Shield made me hope they'd choke, and I just knew in my widdle heart that they'd never make all of theirs - I just thought it would be the likes of one of our middling players who would miss, not Ronaldo.

I figured Ronaldo had buried his 'Big Game Bottler' demons once and for all, but those sort of 'best player/goalscorer' scripts just get written again and again and again, so I should have figured.

When you think about it, we had some good takers and at the right times.

Tevez is a natural as he is too stupid to have nerves and is a hell of a finisher when it counts, Carrick has a hell of a shot although if he had his proper boots on in the first half we would have cruised it. Hargreaves as an erstwhile German took what I thought was the very best of the lot - I was most puzzled when Red Clive said that he 'just!' made it, how was Cech getting to a mid height ball half a foot from the post exactly?. The pressure was sort of off for Nani. Anderson has a lot of guts. And of course, Sir Ryan.

They had one certain bottler in the form of Anelka, two gloryhunters - one who missed and one who VDS got a hand to in A Cole. Lampard did well, but he's already backing his bags, Balletti was only at the club for that one shot. Malouda might as well do something right. And Ballack, OK, he was a true natural for that.

It was definitely advantage us for the shootout even though we made it hard on ourselves - of course.

jasonrh

I spent the entirety of Istanbul laughing my tits off at the very idea of this horribly crap team winning the biggest prize in Europe.

And people wonder why a Yank can end up hating the scousers so much...

If the Eboue Roll™ had won out the next season, and 6-2 had caused that bus to not be the stuff of legend, we may not be speaking right now.

I'd take 5-4 over 6-2.

I'm not spoiled.

18-4? That would be brilliant. That's what the situation looked like on the Dark Side for most of our lives.

jasonrh

You don't like the idea of converting a Louisiana Born Bayou Boy away from Gridiron Throwball to Football?

Whatever works, I say.

In America there is so much land and so few teams (when my parents were young there were only 16 baseball teams for 48 states - my Florida father supported the Brooklyn - then Los Angeles - Dodgers) that geography is no object.

Because of that, and because of the franchise system and modern inventions like the salary cap, American sports are very boring with no long term dominance, or real rivalries that mean anything, no really important life-or-death struggles, no politics, no fights for survival, no international battles, no multiple competitions, and most importantly if you finish in the top half of the league you can still win the title through the crap arsed playoffs.

He's fascinated by the whole thing. European comps, Cups, promotion, relegation, teams with political histories, teams that once were great, teams that have no real history, changes in the game, internationals, changes in rivalries, different regions, different philosophies, the whole bit.

A lot of Americans think it is a bunch of Southern Californians who know they can't make any money doing track and field and who are vaguely homosexual.

Spoonatov

18-4 would be great. If we keep Ronaldo, and add to the squad, there's no reason why this team can't win one or two, more. It'll be the best chance we'll have for years to dominate Europe, not only because we've got a great side, but I think the others sides(barring the English clubs) aren't all the great. Thankfully Barca, Real and Milan are rebuilding hence won't cause us many problems.

ThatOldRedMagic

Yeah; hence 'I'm just high on this world..'

jasonrh

We're a fantastic side, the very top in England are just unreal - and us and Chelsea last year were increasingly build on the best of England and the best of the world when it really counted.

This is what so wildly infuriates me when Barwick and others surgically implant themselves inside Platini's arsehole in order to hurt English club sides in Europe.

Finally the legacy of Heysel has been well and truly swept away. It took a decade to get the perfect squad to get the perfect amount of sheer luck to win the European Cup.

It took another half decade for English teams to finally reassert their proper place in Europe.

From 1970 to 1980 - an entire decade - England qualified for absolutely nothing.

In the span between qualifying for the World Cup in 1970 and appearing in the European Championships in 1980, English club sides achieved the following:

LFC

European Cup Winners: 1977 (Liverpool); 1978 (Liverpool); 1979 (Forest); 1980 (Forest)

European Cup Finalists: 1975 (Leeds);

European Cup Winner's Cup: 1970 (Manchester City)

European Cup Winner's Cup Finalists: 1973 (Leeds); 1976 (West Ham)

UEFA Cup: 1972 (Spurs); 1973 (Liverpool); 1976 (Liverpool)

UEFA Cup Finalists: 1972 (Wolves - first all English Eur final); 1974 (Spurs)

Fair's Cup: 1970 (Arsenal); 1971 (Leeds)

This wasn't because of foreigners - this was because like today we simply were the best around where other clubs fiddled while Rome burned and didn't move with the time. Milan is absolutely the perfect symbol of this.


This whole 'the only reason the English teams are good in Europe in the naughts is these greasy foreigners' thing' is a joke.

The real reason for England's persistent failures has been poor management of the best generation in ages, then the 60 mile rule stunting the growth of the next generation.

The anti-English continentals want the English to be cut off at the knees in Europe, hence all of this 6+5 crap.

The Barwicks of the world want to use foreigners as a red herring to cover up for their own utter incompetence in destroying the national team.

ThatOldRedMagic

Were you born and bred in the USA Jason? If so, how did you come to be a United fanatic? I find the whole subject of American sport fascinating ('soccer' on The Simpsons; represented as imbecilic and terminally boring, but then the kids and the soccer moms seemingly so prevalent throughout the States.)

gerrydaly

With a lull in the Ronaldo saga, and it's thread, and with even the Ronometer swinging back to us, this thread appears.

This is what we should have been going on about all summer.

jasonrh

That was the single greatest moment of my life I think, and I was just here by myself in my house - as it happened at 5 o clock here and no one was home.

I seriously didn't think we'd win it in a long long time.

When you only win it twice in your history, you accept the idea of enjoying the European adventure for the adventure that it is until the point that it comes to its inevitable end.

Only in 2002 and 2003 - with it being at OT and us drawing Real in the knockouts with all that represented going back to the 1950s and 1960s - did I think it might be set up for us to win it.

Last year when Roma scored their second I thought "well, that was fun" then slowly went totally insanely beserk until the injuries mounted, but was still proud of the season and even of the San Siro given the circumstances.

This year was unreal - I don't even think it happened. AND YES, 0-0 AT BARCELONA IS A GOOD RESULT WHEN YOU MISS A FIRST MINUTE PENALTY.

unitedbhoy

I'm the same.......I never cried so much in my life yet it was the greatest moment of my life! I know I will never feel like that again.

Wandering Red

Best part is not having to see those Chelsea gloryhunters who just two years ago were so sure they'd be dominating world football for the next decade. Mostly they're stopped showing up at the pub, probably moved on to supporting Madrid or Inter anyways.

It's fantastic when you're having a shitty day and you can just think of how you felt on the night of the 21st of May and you'll all of a sudden be much better.

Only wish I'd been able to watch it at my local pub rather than in a Spanish hotel room after running back from the office. But I'll take it.