Source: Daily_Mail
Manchester United 0 Spurs 0 (United win 4-1 on pens): It's Big Ben's finest hour...but he gets a lit
Planting a football in a skip from the top of an office block is not something David Bentley finds terribly challenging. He demonstrates as much on YouTube.
But put that ball on the penalty spot and Tottenham troubled winger would appear to be like the majority of Englishmen. Hopeless. Absolutely hopeless.
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No more surprising than seeing Manchester United collect another trophy here at Wembley on Sunday was the sight of two English professionals cracking under the pressure from 12 yards out.
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A Welshman, an Argentine, a Portuguese and a Brazilian had no trouble guiding the ball from the penalty spot beyond the grasp of diving Tottenham goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes. A Croatian converted with similar ease for Spurs. But Jamie O'Hara saw his effort saved and Bentley did not even force United goalkeeper Ben Foster to move, so woeful and wide was his attempt on goal. Presumably Foster expected as much, having watched the opposition players in action on an iPod.
Ben Foster was United's penalty shoot-out hero, saving from Spurs midfielder Jamie O'Hara's spot-kick
O'Hara, rather like last year, ended the afternoon in tears. Last year because he missed out on a place in Tottenham's squad. This year because the poor lad missed his penalty. But O'Hara will just have to accept that somethings never change, and that includes United's mastery under Sir Alex Ferguson when it comes to collecting silverware.
In United's favour was the fact that their four penalty-takers had all endured the same lottery in the rather more pressurised atmosphere of Moscow last May during the Champions League final, with Cristiano Ronaldo exorcising that particular ghosthe missed from his spot-kick —by scoring on this occasion.
But this also amounted to another demonstration of United's remarkable strength in depth. On Friday Ferguson dismissed the competition as nothing more than 'a bonus'.
By last night a bonus actually amounted to a second trophy this season with more now expected to follow, not least because of Liverpool's
miserable display in the Barclays Premier League at Middlesbrough
the previous afternoon.
Predictably, the football left much to be desired. It was billed as a contest between two teams with much more important matters on their mind and 120 minutes of goalless, largely soulless, battle was exactly what they produced.
Memorable moments were certainly limited. A goalkeeper did not have a proper save to make until the 71st minute, when the outstanding Foster denied an equally impressive Aaron Lennon, and it was two minutes into second-half stoppage time before United even responded. A surging run from Ronaldo was followed by a left-foot shot that rebounded off a post.
Only one real chance then followed in extra time, Foster again excelling in blocking a vicious strike from Darren Bent with his feet before then emerging as the one English hero of the penalties. A hero whose performance would have encouraged a watching England manager Fabio Capello as much as Ferguson.
United's manager will be criticised for selecting the side that he did, even if he did leave the world's best player on the pitch for the duration of the encounter. As well as omitting Dimitar Berbatov and Edwin van der Sar from his squad, there was no Wayne Rooney, either. And why? Because he had a 'virus' that did not stop him sitting with his colleagues behind the dugout and celebrating at the end of the shootout.
