UNITED wonder kid Federico Macheda scored the matchwinner for the second successive week as the Reds stayed ahead in the Premier League title race.
Paul Scholes put United in front after 19 minutes but Kenwyne Jones equalised for the Black Cats 10 minutes after the break.
Just as he did last week against Aston Villa, Reds boss Sir Alex Ferguson turned to substitute Macheda, and the Italian scored just 46 seconds after coming on for Dimitar Berbatov.
The result leaves United a point ahead of second-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.
For 20 minutes, United looked to be cruising with Scholes and Michael Carrick in complete control in the middle of the park and Wayne Rooney a real menace wide on the left side of midfield.
Rooney fired a shot across the Black Cats’ bows within 16 seconds of kick-off when he curled a right-foot effort just wide, but as the game unfolded, it seemed only a matter of time before his side took the lead.
Stranded
They would have done just that with 17 minutes gone had Danny Collins not hacked Nemanja Vidic’s towering header off the line and then looked on as the Serbia international sent an overhead kick just wide with United laying siege.
Ferguson’s men did not have to wait much longer to edge their way in front when Rooney cut inside on to his right foot to deliver the perfect cross for the unmarked Scholes to glance a deft header past the stranded Craig Gordon and into the top corner.
Sunderland went close to an equaliser twice within seconds on the half-hour when first Djibril Cisse and then defender Calum Davenport, making his first start for the club, met Phil Bardsley crosses.
Then Jones fired just wide from another ball in from the right-back.
Keeper Ben Foster, deputising for Edwin van der Sar, had to tip Cisse’s rasping 37th-minute effort from distance over, but he needed the help of the woodwork five minutes before the break.
Carlos Edwards, recalled on the right-wing, skipped past full-back John O’Shea and saw his driven cross flick off former team-mate Jonny Evans, only for the ball to come back off the foot of the post.
Park Ji-Sung smashed a shot across Gordon in first-half injury-time after United broke swiftly, but the visitors returned to the dressing room knowing the game was still very much alive.
Business
United re-emerged looking as if they meant business with Rooney seemingly intent on securing the points single-handedly.
In the space of four minutes, he forced Davenport to cut out a cross and concede a corner, and also drilled a 25-yard effort inches wide.
The equaliser arrived with 55 minutes gone when Foster failed to claim Teemu Tainio’s cross under pressure from Jones, and the striker stabbed the ball into the empty net to peg the visitors back.
Scholes smashed a volley wide and Carlos Tevez curled a free-kick over, and it took a fine block by Bardsley to keep out the Argentinean’s 63rd-minute effort after Scholes and Dimitar Berbatov had combined to play him in.
The rested Cristiano Ronaldo eventually joined the fray as a 69th-minute replacement for Park, but Cisse shot into the side-netting within seconds of his arrival.
Berbatov had appeals for a penalty for handball against Grant Leadbitter waved away two minutes later, but it was Macheda’s arrival as a 75th-minute replacement for the Bulgarian which changed the game.
The youngster had been on the pitch for just seconds when he steered Carrick’s shot past the helpless Gordon to further enhance his blossoming reputation.
What is your verdict on the game? Have your say.
Sunderland 1 United 2
April 11, 2009
Comments
Login or Register to comment
Before the game I was watching Spanish TV they showed a montage of all the goals scored by Macheda for United one thing they all had in common was they were all quality goals.
The Spanish rate him highly however they were surprised he never got on the field against PORTO with his adrenalin so high. However they expected him to start against Sunderland.
When I saw United,s team sheet for today’s game I thought we are going to have big problems and we did for most of the game we were rubbish, why start O,Shea at left back when Fabio would have been a much better choice.
Berbatov will end up 30+ million down the drain just imagine how much Macheda must be worth.
However do not think for one minute Alex will play him on Wednesday because he never does the obvious on that performance we will go out any way.
Also nice to see MANUCHO scoring.
RED DAWN,
you dont need stats to prove you are a great player.it should be there for the whole world to see.
get rid of berbaflop a.s.a.p. BRAVO MACHEDA. WHAT A PLAYER.
Its hard to know where our next cleansheet is going to come from...but guess we can take positives out of this being the win and the fact that kiko scored it, not spetacular as last week's but we will take it any day...hope ferdinand will be back for wednesday and plz plz start rooney up front this time. happy days... way up kiko!
Well I said jones would def score, from the sounds of things the defence was a bit ropey again, at least we won.
Also after rafa's rant about teams lying down against us shouldn't fergie pipe up and try and encourage teams to at least put some effort in against them, look at the contrasting displays of villa,fulham and now blackburn against them compared to how much effort they put into playing us.
Let's get focused for wed, personally I would have tevez on the left wing instead of park and play rooney and macheda/berbatov upfront as we need a win and much as I hate how we always play players out of position at least tev can defend as good if not better than nani/park and is a threat going forward.
Kiki - supersub.
fergie must get rid of park, tevez,scholes,nani,giggs ,berbaflop,o'shea in the summer and bring in ribery, gourcuff, and one more defender.
the boy has done it again but the defence is horible.i must congragulate nevile he tried berbatov hasn't improved.macheda shud av started anyway they should check on their defence be4 wednesday n als6 advice carick tn start tackling
Unbelievable!
well not a convincing performance from the lads, and what a bad goal to give away! you look at the game and sunderland had at least 7 or 8 guys behind every united attack we had and we stroll back up the field no chasing back or tight marking in evidence
dont know why anderson didnt start and I thought berbatov, ronaldo and Park made absolutely no difference - when they are world class talent
I would be playing macheda to start and take him off as he gets tired
we look really fragile in defense and I was really dissappointed by fosters positioning on their goal, what was thinking about and evans didnt even make a challenge?
not sure we have turned any corners with this display but at least we got 3 points in day when the freaking scousers hammered blackburn who of course dont turn up at anfield
unless we get world class performances from tevez, rooney, ronaldo and rooney, we are winning nothing this year
cant see why SDAF dosent see that the midfield is absolute crap, carrick couldnt tackle a fish supper and we give hard tacklers like butt, neville, smith, beardsley away who all wore the red shirt with passion and 100% committment - plus two of them captain their new sides for the last 4 years!
gary neville of course is a total waste of space as captain and right back
is wes brown and hargreaves ever coming back?
red forever
Way to go Kiko, let him start on wednesday Fergie, Come on Reds!!!!
Without a 17 year old kid, we would have dropped 4 points and be in deep doo doo in respect of our defence of our title. Says it all about how absolutely rubbish we are at the moment. Berbatov and Tevez should not have a future at United. The former was anonymous, the latter ran around like a headless chicken as usual - offering no end product.
Defence was at sixes and sevens - is it so difficult for the coaching staff to get our players to communicate with each other? We will get knocked out by Porto on Wednesday and it will serve us right. May do us good in terms of us being able to concentrate on not screwing up the league.
We are an absolute shambles of an outfit at the moment.
Adventurous team selection but what a woeful performance. Can anyone honestly say we are playing like champions? The table doesn't lie but what is going to spark this team?
Great win well done boys, we are not playing very well but we are hanging in there somehow getting results.
Well i also think they will be no deal for Tevez now, not is fault shame really to too much money, and with Macheda, wellbeck and Campbell coming back next season there is a lot of promise in the striker department, can not really mention Manuchu not seen enough of him to make an opinion.
Unfortunately another unconvincing display by United. After the first goal United look like they would be cruising but actually lost control of midfield right up to the end although Anderson's entry did bring a slight improvement. I have said it before and will say so again: United badly need a proper anchor man in midfield, something that Carrick will never be. Moreover the midfield lack creativity and is predictable with too many lateral and back passes. We need an attacking midfielder who is capable of taking people on and in the process force the opposing back four to leave their line and leave gaps for our forwards to move in. If there is no dramatic improvement we should consider ourselves very lucky if we win anything else this season. Let's hope Arsenal take some points off Liverpool because we shall definitely drop more!
Great to get the win. Of course. It would have been horrible to drop points. But we need to start playing properly. I think Berba can go pack his bags. I also hope Scholes and Neville do not start more games. Yes Scholes scored, but everytime he had the ball it felt like he was going to give it away. Rooney did reasonably well on the left, better than most others would have. Carrick still needs to check himself. Just hope Arsenal do us a favor and beat Liverpool at Anfield.
Poor performance once again. Scholes & Carrick midfield doesn't work, Park off form. Thank goodness for Macheda, once again the kid saves the day....
That's another one chalked off and one game nearer the title. With 15 minutes to go we were looking at yet more strife. I don't care how we win at this stage of the season, the result is everything. It was always going to be ugly the way we've been playing. Cheer up you miserable old sods.
good win rooney what a superb game he played for us today. tevez cant control even the simple 10 yard pass as it comes off him like a pin cushion. berbatov is not right for us. scholes had a better game and tried his best to keep us going forward. mary ellen was quite happy to pass on resposibility nothing new there. the road runner was totally and utterly a waste of time was nutmegged for the goal and did not stand his ground lost count again of the no of times he lost possesion. vidic was more like his old self foster should have done better for the goal. ronaldo has lost more than a yard of pace.
by the time the last half dozen games have come and gone i will be a nervous wreck every game is a roller coaster what has happened to our usual strong finish we are missing ferdinand at the back and although i still think we will see porto off i would honestly see another premiership title for another 3 on the trot huddersfield arsenal liverpool and united have won 3 in succession but its never been done twice the champions league is nice but not the great competion it was and a cup final afternoon with united in the final is always a spectacle
Hey Roy. What was adventurous about that line up. It was AS EXCITING AS COLD PORRIDGE and was never going to win. Well done Macheda, pity Fergie will not see the value of starting you at Porto on Wed. Immagine how many goals he might have scored in 180 mins.
At least we needed a win before the Porto game and pliz we just need to revert back to our 4-4-2 formation and i guess SAF is the only person in the world who sees the sense of including Park and Gary......PLIZ these guys must not travel to Portugal, it's nice to see Anderson back and fit
3 points but not convincing. We still haven't got our form back and it is difficult to see us getting anything out of Porto but, who knows? OK, so Berbatov was well off the pace today but at least he gives us another option upfront - I do feel for poor Tevez, who always plays his heart out for the club, because he's so off form that everyone calls for the introduction of a 17 year old kid. Please folks, it's great when he succeeds but don't put too much expectation on one so young - if we give him time, Macheda may be the future but don't expect him to save our season singlehandedly. He should continue as a substitute for the time being to give him experience without too much pressure. We surely need the likes of Tevez, Berbatov and Ronaldo to step up a gear; it seems that Rooney is carrying the forwards on his shoulders at the moment. It was good to see Anderson back today, I thought we missed his pace/energy/commitment last Tuesday and hope he starts on Wednesday. I'm surprised SAF didn't also rest Park today because he, too, has been showing signs of tiredness. For all the 'why didn't we?' questioners, as I understand things (1) Rafael is expected to start training this week (2) Wes Brown is close to a recovery (2-3 weeks?)(3) Fabio has not started for the Reserves for a while, so presumably is also injured (4) Hargreaves is back from Canada and will train at Carrington but unlikely to play until next season (5) Forget about Tevez starting on the left wing - he's never played there and it isn't the time to experiment - if we were that desperate for a change and don't fancy wasting our time with Nani, I guess we could give Zoran Tosic a try at some time on Wednesday.
The defence yet again was lacking !!
Well done to scholsey and kiko !
the rest were not good at all with the exception of Anderson !
belfastboy, pickering, canada
Thats just what they said on Spanish TV Macheda should have started,its amazing how the others run around in circles yet he finds the goals without problem.
Also I think we should make Wayne Rooney captain and have O,Shea and Neville given away on a free transfer.
Fabio scores a hatrick and he can,t even get a go.
All the Hall Marks of David Fairclough, David McCreery years ago Supersub, start Kiki on Wednesday against Porto.