United's Bright Future?

We all know the era of the Treble-winning United side is over; the squad from merely 5 1/2 years ago has been almost completely overhauled. Peter Schmeichel, Jaap Stam, Ronny Johnsen, Denis Irwin, David Beckham, Nicky Butt, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, and Teddy Sheringham have all moved on. In their places, numerous replacements have failed to measure up: Mark Bosnich, Massimo Taibi, Fabien Barthez, Laurent Blanc, Quinton Fortune, Juan-Sebastian Veron, Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba, David Bellion, Diego Forlan, and countless youth team graduates. It's unfortunate that our brightest stars at the moment are either left-over from '99 (Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville) or purchased at enormous sums (Rio Ferdinand, Gabriel Heinze, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney, Alan Smith, Louis Saha). Where have the home-grown players gone? Granted, John O'Shea and Darren Fletcher have firmly established themselves - O'Shea especially so with two beautiful strikes in the last two matches - while Kieran Richardson and Jonathan Spector look to be on the cusp of regular first-team football. But where have the youth players gone? Names like Luke Chadwick, Michael Stewart, Bojan Djordjic, David Healy, Jonathan Greening, Danny Higginbotham, Danny Pugh, Danny Webber, etc. used to give us optimism for the future. Will we ever see another generation like the Class of '92?

Having seen last Saturday's FA Cup tie with Middlesbrough, however, I am convinced Rooney and C.Ronaldo will inspire us to further glory in the next decade. Rooney, of course, shone brightest in the second half with an exquisite Veron-esque chip from 30-odd yards out and a breathtaking 20-yard dipping volley. Ronaldo, meanwhile, was less frequent with his stepovers, but switched flanks with Giggs often and highlighted his performance with close control leading up to O'Shea's opener and a cheeky no-look pass, Ronaldinho-style, before coming off shortly after the hour. There is seemingly no end to his wizardry, having wow'ed the crowd with a Zidane pirouette a week ago.

O'Shea showed incredible composure putting away the first goal from ten yards, and displayed nimble footwork in midfield, running forward effectively to support Rooney up front. Ferdinand nearly gifted Boro an equalizer before halftime when his back pass to Gary Neville was picked out by Zenden, who played the one-two with Hasselbaink but had his shot tipped away by a sprawling Carroll. Had Boro grabbed an equalizer, it would've been a much different story.

Down Middlesbrough's left, teenager Stewart Downing, tipped for England's problematic left-wing position, showed good close control but never really troubled Gary Neville, who capped his own solid performance providing the splitting pass for Rooney's first. Downing still needs to improve his delivery from set-pieces, however. Boro never caused the United defence any problems from corners and free-kicks.

Finally, kudos to Phil Neville for his pre-match studying as well as his dedication to the cause. Anticipating Hasselbaink's intentions on a 30-yard free-kick, he threw himself forward as Zenden teed the ball up for Hasselbaink, and took the thunderous drive full-force on his inner thigh. Let's hope he's rewarded for his sacrifice.