The Croat and The Serb

Tottenham's best chance of the night - getting squandered by Crouch.
And never got another.

On a cold dark rainy night in January, two Premiership clubs – one based in the borough of Trafford and the other belonging to the borough of Haringey fought hard and battered each other at the latter’s residence, to reclaim their positions in the league table which they had lost the previous day.  The former were one on a 25-game unbeaten record in the league and they had lost only thrice in twenty years to the latter, the last defeat coming almost a decade ago. But under the guidance of the former-Portsmouth-and-Southampton manager who had arrived at the club in desperate times – the club languishing in the relegation zone and had dragged them out of there up sixteen places to grab a qualifying spot in the Champions League for the very first time in the club’s history, the players and the supporters believed that they could get all three points out of a team that hadn’t given more than one since last April. However, the match ended in a goalless draw, a point apiece for both clubs – Manchester United regaining their top spot in the league owing to a higher goal difference over their local rivals and also have two games in hand over them and one over the rest of the title contenders; but Tottenham Hotspur stayed fifth due to a below-par goal difference, especially for a club bidding to win the title.

One of the few players I'd love to see in the Red Devils' jersey.

But this domestic English professional club encounter was comprised of two brilliant performances from two East Europeans who have consecutive jersey numbers but were wearing different coloured shirts. One of them was Spurs’ No 14 Luka Modrić – a Croat, bought from Dinamo Zagreb for a club-record-fee of £16.5 million. Playing alongside Honduran Wilson Palacios in midfield in Redknapp’s 4-4-1-1, the 5 ft 8 in guy completely took over the playmaking duties from Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart, providing Bale and Lennon with the ball and was at the heart of Spurs’ every attacking move throughout the match. Darren Fletcher was unable to keep up with him on numerous occasions and the departure of Palacios for introduction of Defoe changed nothing as he continued to dominate his part of the pitch. And he got what he deserved – as most people thought, the man of the match award.

Modrić in action - just another instance of what he did all night.
Except the almost-crotch grab, of course. :P

Yes you genius, your guess is correct. That’s not what I think. And if you have a good memory too, then you would remember that I talked of two people above. Yeah, I know what you’re thinking; keep it to yourself, thank you. 14 + 1 = 15. Everyone knows that much math. And since I mentioned a Tottenham player before, this other guy has to be a Red. And since two players can’t have the same jersey on the same team, it’s down to a little observation-skills test for you. And if you still haven’t guessed and you (1) regularly watch United’s matches or (2) have visited the player’s/club’s profile anywhere on the internet or (3) forgot/never paid attention to this post’s title, then shame on you. And to not trouble the-ones-who-already-knew any further, I’m referring to the Serbian stopper, Nemanja Vidić. And before I go on to explain why I felt he was impeccable and deserved the champagne, here’s a summarised transcript of the Serb’s prime involvements in the game.

13 min: Modrić passes the ball to Lennon who darts inside, beating Evra - before trying to beat Vidić on the outside. Vidić blocks Lennon's cross, out for a corner.

15 min: Rafael van der Vaart drills the ball in from the free-kick. Vidić helps Dawson to show a way out for the ball. Goal-kick.

22 min: Hutton clears the ball out for Crouch but Vidić rises above him and gets the ball away.

23 min: Bale looks to van der Vaart, who delivers the ball in early and tries to find Crouch but Vidić gets ahead of him and gets the ball away.

40 min: Lennon tracks back to take the ball back from Evra, then turns and clears for Crouch but Vidić takes it from him.

42 min: Modrić circles and finds Assou-Ekotto on his left who puts a beautiful ball in but can only find Vidić. A few seconds later, Spurs' Cameroonian left-back delivers another ball in but again Vidić gets his head on it.

I have 15 of these but all look the same so I decided against uploading them. :D

43 min: Dawson kicks the ball hard to Bale who turns Rafael over and in, and lofts a beautiful ball in for van der Vaart but Vidić is there with him in the air and the Dutchman can only find the side-netting.

46 min: Bale clears the ball from Spurs' part of the field, but Vidić denies Crouch a touch of the ball.

53 min: Lennon cuts inside from the right and knocks it on for van der Vaart but Vidić gets there first and puts the ball out.

60 min: Lennon kicks the ball ahead, the ball too fast for a back-tracking Evra, for the onrushing Hutton who is charged down by Vidić and the Serbian stopper hits the ball off him for a goal-kick.

68 min: Spurs counter with Lennon on the right who finds van der Vaart inside the box. He twists and turns but his shot is completely blocked by Vidić.

73 min: Vidić marches Modrić back to the half-line, forcing him to pass all the way back.

76 min: Modrić looks for someone but finds no one, and then back-passes to Assou-Ekotto who lobs the ball inside the box only to find Vidić's forehead. Crouch denied, yet again.

85 min: Lennon tries to a form a quick triangle with Modrić but Vidić is present and has none of it.

87 min: Assou-Ekotto hacks the ball away from his own half, the ball drops inside United's 18-yard-box and Vidić clears with a diving header.

90 min: Assou-Ekotto delivers another ball into the box but Vidić is there yet again, denying Crouch and Gallas any attempt on goal.

91 min: Modrić looks up and kicks it up for Defoe but it never reaches him, Vidić jumping high and getting in contact with the ball which lands for Evra who heads the ball back to van der Sar.

That in itself is extremely self-explanatory but since I have a story to tell (:P), I’m gonna continue. He knew that a large part of Tottenham’s goal-scoring-opportunities come from their wings and by completely taking out Peter Crouch out of the game – who by the way has a height advantage of 5 inches over the Serb (Vidić is 6’ 2” and Crouch is 6’ 7”), he ensured that United again became the team that would prevent Spurs from forcing them to start from the centre-circle more than once in the match.

But preventing a team from scoring cannot be done by a single person. And it was down to a collective performance from the Reds who closed ranks and defended as a unit. Ferdinand was there when needed, Carrick showed why he had earned the nickname “Carrickbauer” last season when both of Manchester United’s centre-backs were out injured – going in bravely to body-block Palacios’ shot, not allowing Modrić to create half a yard and have an attempt on goal as he so often loves to and covering back behind Ferdinand and blocking Bale’s low drive into the box, a very similar situation to the one that led to Barcelona’s second goal in the latest El Clásico where Alonso and Khedira were nowhere to be seen. Even Rooney handled right-back duties for the last quarter of the match after the young Brazilian’s sending off and re-emphasised the fact that he’s much more than a striker. And when Lennon got past Giggs in the twilight minutes of the match, even lone-forward young Chicharito tracked back at full speed to put a beautiful slide challenge in and deny the Englishman to look up and find someone in the 6-yard-box.

Rafael gives Dean (the best referee in the whole wide world) a piece of his mind.
Rooney argues, but all that results in is two yellow cards.
Bale (face not seen) is smiling, btw.
Assou-Ekotto is still clueless as to what happened.

But if there was one man who was ever present and was flawless every single time, then it was definitely the former Spartak Moscow defender who time and again thwarted Spurs’ attack – from the very beginning to the very end and left the commentator speechless because all he could say was “Vidić, AGAIN”. And Manchester United may not have had much activity in the summer transfer window last year but keeping Vidić has clearly been the best business deal for a long, long time. Ferdinand, Scholes and Giggs regularly play and have been at the club for ages but there is no better contender for the 2-inch-strip that bears in all capitals the word Captain on it other than the left bicep of Manchester United’s human brick wall.

The Red Devils have kept nine clean sheets in the league and he has been present for every one of them. Enough said.

I believe in Nemanja Vidić.