CSKA Moscow v Manchester United: Match Preview and Predictions

By: Taylor Rockwell | October 21st, 2009

cska united
Who: CSKA Moscow v Manchester United
What: UEFA Champions League – Matchday Three
Where: Luzhniki Stadium (Moscow, Russia)
When: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 (17:30 BST or 12:30 EST)
Why: Because the viewing public need to know which is icier… Moscow in October or Sir Alex Ferguson’s currently relations with the media. Boom! Pun!

Current Form: United
United are currently top of the table in the English Premier League (by a whopping one point). The Red Devils are currently sporting a record of seven wins, one draw, and one loss, with a total of 22 points. United are also on top of Champions League Group B with six points (having bested Besikatas and Wolfsburg in their first two match days).

Current Form: CSKA
CSKA are fourth in the Russian Premier League (seven points behind current leader Rubin Kazan). Through 25 games, CSKA are sporting a record of thirteen wins, four draws, and eight losses with a goal differential of +17. The Russians are also third in Group B standings, as they are level on points with Germans club VfL Wolfsburg (three points), but are trailing on goal differential (-1). CSKA lost their Champions League opener away to Wolfsburg, but rebounded with a home win against Besiktas.

Points To Ponder:

1) English announcers struggle with foreign names. Match commentators tend to refer to the Russian club as C-S-K-A Moscow, electing to pronounce each letter individually. However, most Russians tend to refer to the club as (phonetically) Siska Moscow. So, uh, there’s that.

Fergie now 2008 2) Sir Alex Ferguson is a curmudgeon. So, obviously, there’s been some tension between United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and pretty much everyone else involved in football. It all goes back to United’s draw against Sunderland, wherein Ferguson blamed the poor result on match referee Mike Wiley’s fitness (or lack thereof). The FA and the referees didn’t take kindly to those sentiments, and Fergie was eventually charged with improper conduct by the FA. I’ll refrain from comment on all of this, because I feel like the majority of the parties involved in this story are being a bit ridiculous. Regardless, during yesterday’s press conference, Fergie was asked about the situation, and responded honestly and openly. Oh wait… no… he didn’t. “Silly question gets no answer. I’m not answering it.” When another reporter responded that he didn’t feel it was a silly question, Ferguson ended the press conference with a curt “good night” and then left the room. This whole issue could have blown over rather easily if Fergie would have issued a real apology immediately, but instead he elected to issue a statement which referees’ chief Alan Leighton described as “half-hearted”. Regardless, the fact that a news story which could aptly be titled “Old Man Is Grumpy” continues to make global headlines never ceases to amaze me.

3) The United squad is looking slightly threadbare. United flew to Moscow without the likes of Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs, Patrice Evra, Park Ji-Sung, and Darren Fletcher. Furthermore, Dimitar Berbatov and Nemanja Vidic both traveled with the team, but are sporting injuries of their own and may not feature prominently. Couple those facts with the obvious alien-abduction-pod-people-replacement Rio Ferdinand, and one is forced to wonder if United will be calling on the groundskeeper and the kitman to fill out their roster. Well, never fear loyal supporter, for United remain one of the deepest squads in Europe. With capable stand-ins/starters at nearly every position, United should still fare well this afternoon/evening.

4) Who wants to play on plastic? CSKA play all of their home games on artificial turf, which depending on who you talk to is either totally fine or horrendously awful. Fergie doesn’t sound particularly worried, stating, “”I watched CSKA’s previous Champions League game and I didn’t see any issue with it at all. It is a passing surface and we have good passers in our side. When Luton and QPR had them all those years ago we always played well on them. We had a great record at those artificial pitches and that was when the artificial pitches weren’t as good. The one in Moscow has a far better covering on it.” Some (with visions of England crashing to defeat to Russia in Euro 2008 Qualifiers) will have less glowing things to say about the matter.

5) Who gets the nod up top? With no Rooney to challenge the Russian ranks, Fergie will have to choose between a combination of Berbatov, Michael Owen, Danny Welbeck, and Kiko Macheda. Or, more likely, he’ll run out Owen on his own for approximately 13 seconds and then sub him for Berbatov when the Englishman’s legs literally fall off of his body.

Squad List: Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Foster; Neville, Rafael, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown, J Evans, Fabio; Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, C Evans, Anderson, Nani; Owen, Berbatov, Macheda, Welbeck
Taylor’s Patched Together Starting Lineup: VDS, Neville, Evans, Ferdinand, O’Shea, Valencia, Anderson, Scholes, Nani, Welbeck, Owen.
Prediction: If we can get out of this one with any points, I will be thrilled. Although CSKA have a lot of talent (most notably Serbian striker Miloš Krasić), the previous statement owes more to the United players missing than it does the CSKA players that will take the pitch. CSKA 2 – United 1 (reverse jinx anyone).