A Fairy Tale Season (So Far)

It's quite amazing how United players stand up and be counted so far this season. Perhaps it's the Chelsea factor that urged them on. Or perhaps it's just quality that finally came through. Whatever it is, we started to enjoy our football again

Take Ryan Giggs for example. The way he has played this season, one would think he's closer to 23 than 32. Dazzling again on the left wing, his speed and trickery complements the intelligence and decision making that comes with experience.

Paul Scholes cap his fairy tale last week, scoring his 132th goal in his 500th appearance against Liverpool, United biggest rival. Not only scoring, there he put on a Man of the Match performance as well. Teaching the 'supposedly better' Steven Gerrard of Liverpool a thing or two about midfield play. Strong in possession, flawless in distribution. It was Scholes at his best.

But it wouldn't be fair to singled out Scholes for that win. As good as he is, he didn't do it all alone. Other players worth a mention too, like one Darren Fletcher. Much maligned by many United supporters last season, he has been nothing sort of excellent this time. His endless energy and excellent work rate proved to be the perfect foil for Scholes, and Carrick to a lesser extent. He tackled, harried every Liverpool players in sight and stopped them from playing their game.

And last Saturday, it was Wayne Rooney's turn. Much being said about his goal drought, and what better way to end it with a hattrick on a ground where the opposition never conceded a single goal before this season? Bolton was left wondering what has hit them 16 minutes into the first half when Rooney scored his first two in the space of 6 minutes. While his first is owed much to the vision and passing of Michael Carrick, the second was pure Rooney. Received a loose ball just outside the D, he curled in a right foot shot to the far corner, eluding every Bolton defenders trying to block it.

The question still remains, whether this United side are capable of matching Chelsea all the way. I wouldn't think about it this time, but I love the fact that this United side played the game the right way. With flair and skill, and attacking style which left the other team on their arse. Chelsea, for all their money, managed to bored their opponents to defeat. I got goosebumps seeing the team now before every game because I know, win or lose we're gonna do it our way, the Manchester United way.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

How To Save A Life

I've come across The Fray when I was browsing around in youtube. Someone made a music video of their song, I Look After You, based on scenes from Prison Break. The song was great, and the comments on the youtube site was interesting enough, so I decided to check out their other songs.

And I wasn't disappointed. I have to admit, that I'm a sucker when it comes to these pop-rock emo songs. Over My Head (Cable Car) was very catchy and Isaac Slade's voice was full of emotion yet powerful.

The album name was taken from their second single, How To Save A Life, which was famous due to its use as the promo song for Grey's Anatomy third season.

They've been put in the same bracket with the likes of Coldplay, although I think it's just the case of lazy journalism. They're both soft-rock pop band with melodic sounds, but that's about it. Their approach to their songs was different, and if anything, The Fray sounds more raw at times. They're still trying to make their way in the industry while Coldplay already established themselves.

Nevertheless, it's pretty much a decent album which was well recommended to fans of the genre.

A Tribute to The Quiet Man

If nothing go wrong in the next 4 hours, when Manchester United take on Liverpool on 7 PM tonight, Paul Scholes will be making the 500th appearance for Manchester United. Only 8 players in Manchester United history have played more games than him, and only two players in the current squad who have more appearance than him, which is Ryan Giggs, and Gary Neville.

While Giggs has been touted for greatness from the day he walked in to Old Trafford as a 14 years old, it's quite surprising to see now that there are people who are sceptics whether Scholes would make it as a professional footballer back then. Les Kershaw, United Youth Academy director still remember how the 16 years old Scholes in the youth team.

"At 16, we could play Scholesy for only 20 minutes a game. He couldn't run. He was a little one. Had asthma. No strength. No power. No athleticism. No endurance". "You've got a bleedin' dwarf!" someone mentioned to Brian Kidd, United youth team coach back then. But the United coach know better, since for all the negative qualities, Scholes vision and technique was miles above any 16 years old he'd ever seen. They stuck by him, and 499 appearance and 131 goals later, it was a worthy gamble.

Many people who has seen Scholes play goes as far that he was naturally the most gifted footballer the islands has ever produce since Paul Gascogine, but his quiet and shy demeanor meant that individual awards rarely comes his way. Not that it bothered him that much. This is the player, probably the only player in the Premiership who does not have an agent. He doesn't like all the hurly burly of publicity, he likes to keep everything simple and efficient. Just like his football.

But his peers and people in the game knows better. Thierry Henry called him the best midfielder in Britain. Juan Sebastian Veron, who came to United only heard about David Beckham, realised that Scholes is the best midfielder at United during his time in the club. Even Patrick Vieira, called him the best midfielder he ever played against. Kieron Dyer, who secretly wished that he'll replace Scholes in England midfield in the future admitted that "Paul Scholes is on a different planet". And in Laurent Blanc, he got his biggest admirer. When Blanc got interviewed for the Euro 2004 match buildup of England vs France, he swifly said, "Paul Scholes. I've said it before and I tell everyone who asks me: Scholes is the best English player. Intelligence, technique, strength . . . all the attributes are there. At Manchester United I saw what he could do on the training ground. Phew!".

Played as a deep lying forward as a youngster and early in his career at United, Paul Scholes was dubbed "The Ginger Prince" by the United faithful, because of his red hair and seen as the understudy of The King's, Eric Cantona. Described by Sir Alex Ferguson as the "most natural finisher" at United, he racked up two goals in his debut at the League Cup match against Port Vale in 1994, and scored further 5 goals in the next 17 league matches when he replaced Cantona when the Frenchmen got banned for the rest of the season due to the famous kung-fu kick incident.

But he didn't become a permanent fixture in the side until the 1997-1998 season. When Roy Keane knee ligament gave up for the remainder of the season, up came Scholes to Keane place in United midfield. Together with fellow youth-team mate Nicky Butt, he formed the central midfield pairing which enabled United to race into an eleven point lead in the league, before further injuries and fatigue see Arsenal pipped them for the title in the closing stage of the season.

But that season proved to be his baptism of fire. Scholes come out from it a much better player. His performances earned him his first England cap, in the Turnoi de France match against Italy, where he scored a goal and assist the other in the 2-0 win. He was named Man of the Match. He scored again in his first World Cup match later that month, a super curling shot from outside of the area in the 2-0 win against Tunisia. And he hasn't look back ever since.

Now, retired from England duties, and fully focused on his United career, Paul Scholes is on the best form of his life. His goal against FC Copenhagen last week was a typical Scholes goal. Received the ball from Patrice Evra, he took one touch to set himself before lashing out a right foot drive from 5 yards outside the area into the top corner. Simple, efficient and deadly. That's Scholes for you.

Much Ado About Nothing

With many comic book movies that's been around lately, not much been said about the upcoming Luke Cage movie. I wouldn't blame them since, the character will not be known to most people outside the comic book society. I didn't even know about it, until I trawled in one of those comic forum.

Before we go any further, we need a little background on the character. Luke Cage was a character that was created in the height of blaxploitation. He was created as "the ultimate brotha'". His origins is simple enough, he was a subject to an experimentation which makes him somehow invulnerable, and superstrong. Cage was also known as the first black main character that appear in his own book.


In the current Marvel continuity, Cage has a long time relationship (and later married) with Jessica Jones, superhero turn PI which story can be found in highly succesfull Alias comics. It's interesting for me to noted that since they're probably one of the most high-profile interracial couple in the comics, it wasn't much of an issue in it. The story in the comics was NOT about a black man and a white woman having a relationship, but it's about two people who somehow end up falling with each other. You could easily swap the characters with two people in the same race and still tell the same story. And I applaud Marvel for that. Rather than telling a cliche, they managed to avoid that and still deliver a strong storyline.


However, question was raised when the director of the aforemention Luke Cage movie, John Singleton, choose a black actress to potray Jones in the movie. Singleton probably took the safe way of not trying to 'upset' the female target of the movie, if they see the black main character having a white woman as a wife.

The thing is, I could never understand what black females objects to (if any), on having a male black character married with a white woman. It smacked racism to a degree. I've said it before, making an issue of something that isn't worth making an issue about, is drawing negative response to it. The story in the comics never made race as an issue, and it was great because it should not be an issue.

Hollywood seems still to scared to made that point. Television series True Colors try to it lighten it up by taking the matter to family humour, and partly succeed. The show didn't last very long either to succesfully made that point. But so far, I hardly see any major interracial couple (mainly black male and white female), in the screen, without making race as an issue in their relationship.

I sincerely think that Hollywood missed a major opportunity in making that point in this case. However, if this actress somehow dropped out or actually playing another character, and they did cast a white woman as Jessica Jones, then forget what I've just wrote 6 paragraph before