A sad end to United’s dream year

Ultimately, as Wayne Rooney conceded, Manchester United went to Rome and came up against the world’s best football team. The counter-attacking thrust that consistently beat the lesser lights of the Premier League, and blew away Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final, wasn’t able to trouble Barcelona’s goalkeeper, Victor Valdes.
 
After Barca's Samuel Eto'o rounded Nemanja Vidic and poked past Edwin van der Sar, Barcelona were never really threatened. And after Lionel Messi slipped everyone's attention and turned up in the box to seal the tournament with a deft header 20 minutes before the final whistle, the United players didn't really appear to believe they had another miraculous European comeback in them.
 
But while they may have come up short against the guile of Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, Ferguson's team were deserved champions of England.
 
As their superior goal difference attests, Liverpool often played the more exciting football. But the run that United went on, from the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates in November to the 4-1 humiliation by Liverpool, when Fernando Torres toyed with Vidic, in March, was what won United their third successive Premier League title.
 
During this run, Van der Sar went a record-breaking 1,311 minutes without conceding a goal. To give all the credit to the veteran Dutch keeper would be misleading: such was the protection offered by the (injury-ravaged and constantly changing) defence that in those 14 games he barely had to make a save of note.
 
Often, United won without playing particularly well. The games against Man City, Sunderland, Stoke - where Cristiano Ronaldo was marked out of the game by journeyman Andy Wilkinson - Middlesbrough, Wigan and Bolton were all decided by a single goal. But United only had six draws, while Liverpool had eleven.
 
Rooney was consistently excellent, despite the unfamiliarity of the left-sided, more defensive role that Ferguson asked him to perform this season. But it took a while for Ronaldo to find his form. His long-range goals against Porto and Arsenal, and his performance against Aston Villa, where he scored twice before Federico Macheda stole the limelight with an exquisite turn-and-finish on his debut, were a reminder of why, despite his theatrics, his petulance and his recurring flirtation with Real Madrid, Ronaldo is one of the world's three best players.
 
As well as the Premier League title, United won the Carling Cup in a penalty shootout against Spurs, and took the World Club Championship when they beat an Ecuadorian side in Japan. Whatever the disappointment of losing to Barcelona, it was a very, very good year. ·