win
By David Lacey
Manchester United have won all that they have because, to
the last, their hunters' instincts never deserted them. All
the while they could scent a kill, Alex Ferguson's team were
never beaten.
At Nou Camp on Wednesday night Bayern Munich thought they
had put the European Cup beyond the range of United's
shooting party. The 12-bores looked empty, it was surely
time to send the beaters home. That was Bayern's little
mistake. One last rustle in the bushes, one final burst of
fire, and history had been made in seconds, having been
reduced to a distant hypothesis over the previous hour-and-a-
half.
Manchester United's completion of a unique Treble owes much
to the recent rationalisation of football's timekeeping. In
a final of few interruptions nobody could have quibbled had
Pierluigi Collina ended the match 30 seconds after the 90th
minute, but the fourth official decreed that three minutes
remained and it is hard to believe that any team has ever
made such good use of stoppage time in such momentous
circumstances.
Ferguson may well be knighted, just as Matt Busby was after
United won the European Cup in 1968. Old Trafford supporters
may feel it equally appropriate should Her Majesty be moved
to declare: "Arise, Sir Edward" when the day of investiture
arrives.
Barely a year ago Teddy Sheringham was being talked out of
England's World Cup team by critical opinion keen to see
Michael Owen brought into Glenn Hoddle's attack. Sheringham,
it was argued, was too one-paced. His time had come and
gone. So much for critical opinion. The facts are that in
two cup finals in the space of five days Sheringham has come
off the Manchester United bench to score a goal, set one up,
score another and set up another.
Roy Keane's injury had brought on Sheringham early against
Newcastle at Wembley and within 80 seconds he had scored.
The need to reorganise and end the misery of Jesper
Blomqvist on the left wing saw Sheringham recalled for the
last 25 minutes at Nou Camp and from the moment he came on
Bayern were presented with problems they had not encountered
up to that point.
In the matter of substitutions Ferguson has acquired the
habits of a poker player enjoying a run of straights. Andy
Cole came on to score the goal against Tottenham which won
the Premiership, Sheringham was the FA Cup final's man-of-
the-match, and within a minute of him scoring in Barcelona
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who had replaced Cole late in the
game, had flicked Sheringham's header into the roof of the
Bayern net.
This was a triumph of opportunism not tactics, team spirit
rather than teamwork which, for once, had found United below
par. While the victory was the ultimate vindication of
Ferguson's policy of rotating his side from a strong squad,
there was a point on Wednesday night when it all appeared to
have gone horribly wrong.
The success Beckham enjoyed at Wembley once he had moved to
central midfield after Keane's departure persuaded Ferguson
to keep him there against Bayern. While Beckham's passing
was often immaculate, the grip on Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole
quickly established by Samuel Kuffour and Thomas Linke meant
that much of it was wasted.
A situation was reached in which United had Beckham, one of
the modern game's most consistent crossers and who
ultimately supplied the corners which led to the goals,
making little headway through the middle while the full
benefit of Ryan Giggs's natural left foot had been lost once
the Welshman had started the game on the right. All this
compounded, rather than compensated for, the loss of Keane
and Paul Scholes.
Had the shots from Mehmet Scholl and Carsten Jancker found
the United net instead of hitting post and bar, Ferguson
might now be the subject of a post-mortem rather than an
object of acclaim. For once, his faith in Yorke and Cole was
not born out, it was the spirit he has imbued in the United
team overall which came to his rescue.
Bayern believed they could grind out a narrow victory once
Mario Basler's free-kick had given them an early lead. That
they came so close was due primarily to superbly disciplined
defending. Kuffour was entitled to his inconsolable tears at
the end.
Lothar Matthäus, watching from the bench as his one
remaining ambition disappeared, wore the look of a man
seeing his house slip into the sea. For years the Germans
had won prizes with substitutes, now they had been beaten at
their own game just when they thought it was all over. There
have been better European Cup finals than this one, but
never a better finish.