Ferguson's Task: Keep Veterans in Fighting Shape

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/18/sports/soccer/18iht-soccer18.html

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LONDON — Midway through the first half of Manchester United’s home game against Reading, Rio Ferdinand made the move that might already have sewn up the English league title with more than two months of the season remaining.

Ferdinand’s run Saturday was redolent of his past, and for those who remember Franz Beckenbauer, it recalled the grace with which Der Kaiser used to turn defense into seamless attack in Germany in the 1970s.

Elegant and upright like Beckenbauer, Ferdinand began his surge deep in his own half of the field. No, not a surge; a serene glide through the tackles. With the ball under his command, the Englishman eased past one, two, three opponents before picking out Wayne Rooney with a low pass.

Rooney, who is becoming United’s chief striker again after Robin van Persie has cooled down, did as Rooney does. He shot on sight of the goal, and his low right-footed shot struck the backside of defender Alex Pearce and looped over the goalkeeper into the net.

Game over, plaudits to Rooney and, because Manchester City lost, 2-0, at Everton that same afternoon, the Premier League title appears inexorably to be returning to the red side of Manchester after it became City blue last May.

The gap is now 15 points, and a lot on goal difference, in United’s favor with nine games each to play. “People can say what they like about it being all over,” Alex Ferguson, the United manager, said Saturday. “But you don’t get points or medals for being complacent.

“It’s a great position to be in, but all we can do is make sure we win our next game.” And the next, then the one after that, until the title is mathematically beyond the reach of City, Chelsea, and the rest.

Ferguson is old school. He remembers not just last season, when City edged his team to become champion with the last kick of the campaign, reinforcing the historical claim that England’s league is more competitive than the rest.

This time, galvanized by the shock of losing to its neighbor last year, United is doing as Ferdinand did on his solo run. It has its eyes on the ball, and its mind closed to what others might attempt.

Ferdinand is integral to it because he knows how to win titles. And he hungers for them, like his boss Fergie.

The two of them are in their eleventh season together, and they seeking their sixth Premiership crown. Double both those tallies, and you have Ryan Giggs’s tenure and haul of titles under Ferguson, with 12 titles in 23 seasons.

Both men played the full 90 minutes against Reading on Saturday — Giggs at age 39, Ferdinand at 34.

And Sir Alex, the boss, is an old hand at managing players through the rigors of an English season.

He has, no doubt, prolonged Giggs’s first-class career by persuading him to give up national team duty for Wales and concentrate on United. Ferdinand, who needs constant medical care and specialized training because of a long-term back ailment, had not represented England for almost two years.

This past week, however, he was called up for the World Cup-qualifying squad for games this month against San Marino and Montenegro. He is likely to play the second of those, which means canceling the treatment he would otherwise have taken in Germany for his spinal problem.

If he returns healthy, he will resume his play at the heart of United’s defense. Its task is almost done, and the title appears almost won — just as it does for Barcelona in Spain, Bayern Munich in Germany and Juventus in Italy.

But in England, the cliché of no easy games remains true. Reading, deep in relegation mire, kept the losing margin to just 1-0 at Old Trafford by fighting every inch.

There are eight clubs — almost half the Premier League total — playing right now in fear of the drop. Three will go down in May, and the cost to each of them will be £60 million, about $90 million, in TV income.

Such money makes rational men do irrational things. Last week, before the United match, the Russian-led ownership group at Reading fired the team coaches as if changing the management would prod the players to achieve beyond their capabilities.

The head coach, Brian McDermott, decent and hard-working, had served the club in various capacities for 13 years.

He probably overachieved by leading the team’s promotion last season as he imbued the players with his never-say-die attitude. If that is a firing offense, what price must the head coach pay at Manchester City? Abu Dhabi’s ruling family threw a fortune at City and won the title under Roberto Mancini last year; now it looks as if it will lose it.

The same City team has lacked the power, perhaps the energy, to repeat the results of last seasons. This past weekend, without the injured players Vincent Kompany, Yaya Touré and Sergio Agüero it was weakened in all departments.

Nevertheless, its roster still had talents costing hundreds of millions of pounds more than Everton’s. And Everton was reduced to 10 men after Steven Pienaar was sent off for his second rash foul on 61 minutes.

Everton at that time led 1-0, an identical situation to Manchester United’s plight this month in the Champions League. But whereas United blamed the referee for sending off Nani, and causing the 2-1 loss to Real Madrid, Everton turned adversity into a cause célèbre.

Its remaining 10 competed like dervishes to prevent City from taking advantage.

There were contentious issues in both penalty boxes, and, again, both sides lamented the arbitration.

But Everton prevailed to score a second goal at the end. City was left whistling in the wind on which its title drifts away.