It Was "An Off Day"

Aside from a beautiful goal by Dimitar Berbatov, my Reds today were mediocre at best.  Hosting the Sunderland Black Cats, perennial mid-to-low table dwellers, United looked comatose for much of the first-half and had spurts of action in the second.  Perhaps they were stunned by the goal on 7 minutes by the Cats' Darren Bent, a striker tied with Wayne Rooney (United) and Didier Drogba (Chelsea) for second-place in total goals this season (6).  Only Fernando Torres (Liverpool) has more with 8 (thanks to a hat-trick last week).  The key word seemed to be lethargy.  At half-time I'm sure that Sir Alex gave the team his infamous hairdryer treatment, as the Reds seemed to perk up a bit at the start of the second half.  At 51 minutes United defender John O'Shea provided a beautiful cross that found Dimitar Berbatov's foot and the Bulgarian did a backwards cross-body volley straight into the goal.  United had leveled.

Berbatov's volley to level United 1-1

Fletcher celebrates with Berbatov

Ben Foster, United's replacement in goal after starter Edwin Van der Sar suffered a broken thumb in pre-season play, looked timid and unable to marshal the defenders as VDS normally does.  Bent's first-half goal was untouchable, but on 58 minutes Kenwyne Jones (10th in the table with 4 goals) outjumped United defender and captain for the evening, Nemanja Vidic.  The Serbian is rarely outjumped (see photo from blog entry The Cream Rises to the Top and you'll see what I mean), and the fact that he had been outjumped seemed to surprise keeper Foster...and Jones headed in to put the Cats up by one.
The rest of the second-half was largely uneventful, save for a penalty that should have been awarded to United and of course the sending off of former United starlet Kieran Richardson.  Richardson already had a yellow for an aggressive tackle.  When he tangled down the wing with United's Valencia, referee Alan Wiley called for a freekick.  Seemingly angered that a foul had been called, Richardson aggressively kicked the ball away from the spot and despite his protestations was given a second yellow...which equals a red.  Bye bye, Kieran.  It was more than ironic that yesterday Richardson was quoted in a newspaper article that "United was the best place to learn the game."  I don't suppose United taught him to do something so stupid.  Sunderland was now down to ten men with just five minutes of regulation to play.
Regulation ended and four minutes of extra time was added.  In the second minute, United left back Patrice Evra took a shot on goal that careened into the soup in front of the goal.  Ferdinand tried to clear it away but it went into the goal.  United had leveled once again.  If you're wondering why Rio Ferdinand would be clearing away one of our goals then I must tell you that the Ferdinand in question was Rio's brother, Anton, a defender for Sunderland.  He immediately fell to the pitch knowing that his gaffe had taken three points from his team, who had outplayed United for most of the match.  With that one gimme, United earned a point with the draw.

Anton Ferdinand knows his mistake was costly

Sunderland goalscorers Darren Bent and Kenwyne Jones were resigned after the match:

"(I'm) really disappointed,'' Bent told ESPN. "I thought the boys played really, really well. We worked really hard. You know what Manchester United are going to be like at home, they're going to come at us, come at us, come at us.
"It's a good point in the end because if you come to Old Trafford and get anything you've done well, but obviously we're dejected not to get all three points.''

"We definitely can take a lot of positives from this game. We didn't come to sit back at Old Trafford. The game at Old Trafford is never finished until it's finished and as you can see they always have a tendency to come back. "But the team played really well and we got a great point here today.''

The draw, which was deemed "an off day" by Sir Alex, put Sunderland 6th in the table after 8 games with 13 points (United leads with 19), but two teams directly below them with 12 points have only played 6 games.  Tomorrow they may well find themselves in 8th and regretting that they couldn't earn the extra two points against a very lackluster United side.
Sunderland's start this season reminds me a great deal of Hull City's run last year.  Also perennial bottomdwellers, Hull made a great start to the season in '08 only to see their side slide to the bottom at season's end.  It will be interesting to see if Bent and Jones can keep propelling their side to victory.
With 30 matches still to play, the Premier League is shaping up to be a barnburner this season.

The next few weeks is reserved for World Cup qualifiers.  Many United players will be on international duty for their respective countries.  They will not reconvene at Old Trafford until their match against Bolton on the 17th.  I have to say that I despise these international matches.  Too many chances for injuries.  I always envision Sir Alex sitting in front of his telly with a bottle of wine just praying that none of his prized players receive a knock.  Drink one for me, Sir Alex.