Louis Saha, making his Manchester United debut today against Southampton, showed he was worth every pound the Reds paid for him by scoring the first goal of the match and assisting on the second (scored by the excellent Paul Scholes) after a contentious transfer saga. Diego Forlan had previously been Ruud van Nistelrooy’s striking partner but I think after seeing the first result that the Argentinean will be sitting on the bench most of the remainder of this season. Since Arsenal do not play until tomorrow, the win puts ManU at the top of the EPL; however, this novice fan clearly noticed that their defense badly missed the suspended Rio Ferdinand in the first game they played without him as there was much confusion and poor clearances throughout, accounting for both Soton goals.
Meanwhile, Saha’s former squad Fullham picked up American national team star Brian McBride from the Columbus Crew as a replacement and he too scored in his team debut, putting the Cottagers’ winner in the back of the net eight minutes after coming on as a sub at the hour mark.
Finally, due to FIFA’s newly-imposed transfer window rules, San Jose star/American Player of the Year Landon Donovan will not be loaned to Portsmouth because the rules would have meant the player could not appear for the Earthquakes until mid-August (as opposed to late May). The experience would have been good for him though I think the rest–he’ll have a busy February but not too much action in March as the team prepares for an April 3 opener–will be very helpful after a crammed 2003.
BillSaysThis 