User:NYC2TLV/Maccabi Haifa F.C. season 2009–10

The 2009–10 season is Manchester United's 18th season in the Premier League, and their 35th consecutive season in the top division of English football. Having equalled Liverpool's record of 18 English league titles the previous season, Manchester United will be looking to break that record with an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League title in 2009–10. They also have the chance to be the first team since Juventus in 1998 to reach three consecutive Champions League finals.

Pre-season friendlies
Maccabi Haifa announced the first three European fixtures of their 2009 pre-season schedule on 4 June 2009, with the team training in Saalfelden, Austria. The early start of the pre-season was to get the players ready for an early Champions League qualifier against a non-seeded club. The first training session on 18 June 2009 at Kfar Galim, had to be abandoned early as the Haifa supporters stormed the pitch to continue the celebrations of the club winning the championship. For the second pre-season friendly against Bnei Yehuda, began the trial of Portugese defender, Jorge Teixeira. After two friendly matches against Bnei Yehuda, the squad departed for Austria though without the South African players, Tsepo Masilela and Thembinkosi Fanteni who were competing with their national team in the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa. The club brought in to Austria, Georgian striker, Vladimir Dvalishvili for a trial. When Masilela returned from South Africa, he brought national teammate, Bongani Khumalo to join the other trialists at the club. Though Khumalo failed to impress Elisha Levy.

Second qualifying round
Maccabi Haifa's European season started before their league opener as well as Toto Cup group matches. Haifa were drawn on 22 June 2009 against Northern Irish side, Glentoran in the newly created Champions Path. The first leg was played in Haifa at Kiryat Eliezer Stadium. After a difficult first half where Haifa only managed a 1–0 lead, they Greens kept pressuring until the Glens conceded five more. In the return leg in Belfast, Glentoran could not threaten Haifa in the least and Haifa ran out to an emphatic 4–0 victory giving them a 10–0 aggregate win.

Third qualifying round
The draw on 17 July 2009 pitted the Greens against Aktobe of Kazakhstan. Aktobe was coming off of a 6–0 aggregate victory over Fimleikafélag Hafnarfjarðar of Iceland. The first match was due to be played on the Jewish fast day of Tisha B'Av but with some pressure from the local Jewish community in Kazakhstan, Aktobe agreed to have the match moved in order to satisfy the request of Haifa to observe the fast day. After a scoreless first match in Aktobe, the return match was played at Kiryat Eliezer Stadium in from of a raucous crowd. Within fifteen minutes of the first half, Haifa was trailing 3–0 and it looks as though their Champions League hopes had been dashed. Captain Yaniv Katan pulled one back for the hosts and Eyal Golasa provided more hope before the close of the first half. Knowing that a draw would still mean that they would be knocked out, Haifa scored two goals in dramatic fashion sealing a 4–3 aggregate goal victory and moving one step closer to the Champions League group stage.

Play-off round
The draw ceremony for the play-off round, which was conducted by UEFA General Secretary David Taylor and UEFA Competitions Director Giorgio Marchetti, was held on Friday, 7 August 2009 in Nyon, Switzerland. For the draw, clubs were separated into seeded and unseeded teams based on their club coefficient. Maccabi Haifa was one of the seeded clubs and received Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg. The first leg matche was played on 19 August in Salzburg, while the second leg was played on 25 August 2009 in Israel. Haifa were forced to use Ramat Gan Stadium as their home venue as Kiryat Eliezer did not meet UEFA criteria.

At Red Bull Arena, the Greens went home with a 2–1 victory. Mohammad Ghadir provided Haifa with the early lead before Alexander Zickler leveled the score for Huub Stevens men. Supersub Shlomi Arbeitman sealed the win for Haifa in the eighty-forth minute, just minutes after he entered the match, giving Haifa a lead before the return leg. With a packed Ramat Gan Stadium, Haifa cruised past Salzburg and secured qualification to the group stage of the Champions League. Georgian signing Vladimer Dvalishvili opened the scoring in the thirty-first minute and youngsters Eyal Golasa and Mohammad Ghadir capped the victory by each getting a goal a piece.

Group stage
The draw for the group stage of the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League took place in Monaco on 27 August 2009. As one of the top eight-ranked sides in Europe, Manchester United were seeded in Pot 1, meaning they would avoid the three other English sides in the competition, as well as Sevilla, Milan, Bayern Munich and their opponents in the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, Barcelona. However, they could still be paired with clubs such as Real Madrid, Internazionale or Juventus, amongst others. Eventually, they were drawn into Group B with three clubs they had never played before: CSKA Moscow of Russia, Beşiktaş of Turkey and Wolfsburg of Germany.

United opened their Champions League campaign with a 1–0 away win over Beşiktaş on 15 September. Paul Scholes headed in the winning goal in the 77th minute after Nani's shot had been saved by Hakan Arıkan. The Portuguese winger cut inside off the left wing, hit a shot that was too hot for the Beşiktaş goalkeeper to handle and the ball rebounded into the path of Scholes, whose header went in off the post.

For the next match, two weeks later, United played host to the German champions, Wolfsburg, at Old Trafford. Wolfsburg began the game strongly, imposing themselves physically on the pitch, but although United had the upper hand by the end of the half, the teams went into the half-time interval at 0–0. After the break, United continued to create chances, but it was Wolfsburg who got the opening goal through striker Edin Džeko. Michael Carrick committed a foul on the edge of his penalty area, but the referee allowed play to continue as Wolfsburg were still in possession. The ball was crossed in by Makoto Hasebe and Džeko rose above Patrice Evra at the far post to head past Tomasz Kuszczak. United responded immediately through a Ryan Giggs free-kick that took a large deflection off Christian Gentner in the Wolfsburg wall, wrong-footing goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, and found the bottom corner of the goal for Giggs' 150th for Manchester United. In the 78th minute, United won a throw-in on the left side, from which Evra found Wayne Rooney. Rooney played the ball in to Dimitar Berbatov in the Wolfsburg penalty area, but the Bulgarian was unable to make room for a shot and laid the ball off to Giggs. Likewise, Giggs could not find a shooting angle and chose to nudge the ball back to Carrick, who curled it into the far corner from outside the area. United protected their lead for the remaining 12 minutes, and the win took them to the top of their group.

For the first of their two matches against CSKA Moscow, on 21 October, United travelled to the Luzhniki Stadium, the venue for their 2008 UEFA Champions League Final victory. However, they were without Ryan Giggs, Patrice Evra, Park Ji-Sung, Darren Fletcher and Wayne Rooney, who were all unavailable due to injury. The stadium's artificial pitch had caused some concern prior to the game, but although CSKA were more used to the surface, United also settled on the unfamiliar turf and the match became cagey, resulting in a goalless first half. The match remained goalless until the 86th minute, when Antonio Valencia fired a shot past CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev to secure a 1–0 win. The ball was flicked on to Valencia from Nani's left-wing cross by Dimitar Berbatov, and the Ecuadorian's shot was too powerful to stop. The win put United within one win of qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition, and gave the club their first win in six matches against Russian opposition. It also maintained their unbeaten away record in the UEFA Champions League, which stretched back 14 matches to May 2007, when they lost to Milan in the semi-finals. The streak drew United level with Ajax, whose streak was ended by Juventus in the 1996–97 semi-finals.

Premier League
The 2009–10 Premier League fixtures were released on 17 June 2009, with Manchester United opening their campaign against Championship runners-up Birmingham City on 16 August 2009. Despite missing several of their first-choice defenders and goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar, United won the match 1–0 with a first-half goal from Wayne Rooney, though they could have had more but for the goalkeeping of Joe Hart. The goal came in the 34th minute, when Dimitar Berbatov released Nani down the left. The Portuguese international then crossed for Rooney, whose header ricocheted back off the post to him, allowing him to tap in with Hart beaten.

Three days later, the Red Devils suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 1–0 away to Burnley. Still missing key players at the back, United went behind after only 19 minutes, as Robbie Blake hit an unstoppable volley into the top corner of the net after Stephen Jordan's cross was only half-cleared by Patrice Evra. Blake himself conceded a penalty on the stroke of half-time, but Michael Carrick had his kick saved by the inspirational Brian Jensen low to the 'keeper's right. As the Reds – wearing their all-black change strip – searched for an equaliser, the final ball kept evading them and several promising moves came to nothing, leaving United to suffer an unexpected defeat.

After the mid-week setback, United returned to winning ways at the weekend, beating Wigan Athletic 5–0 at the DW Stadium on 22 August. Despite a goal-less first half, Wayne Rooney's 100th and 101st Manchester United goals, divided by one from Dimitar Berbatov, effectively sealed the win for the club just after the hour mark. Michael Owen scored his first competitive goal for Manchester United five minutes from full time, before Nani made it five with a free-kick in the second minute of injury time.

United faced their first "big four" opposition of the season on 29 August, when they faced Arsenal at Old Trafford. Arsenal opened the scoring five minutes from the end of the first half through Andrei Arshavin; the Russian playmaker had been denied a penalty claim moments earlier, but then picked the ball up from Denílson just outside the penalty area and fired a 25-yard strike past Ben Foster. Wayne Rooney won a penalty for Manchester United in the 59th minute, knocking Ryan Giggs' through-ball past Manuel Almunia, who brought the English striker down. Rooney then stepped up to take the penalty himself, and slotted it home to the goalkeeper's left. Arsenal responded with a free kick from Robin van Persie that hit the crossbar, but a United attack immediately afterwards produced a similar free kick, taken by Ryan Giggs, which Abou Diaby headed into his own net. With the final attack of the game, deep into the fifth minute of injury time, Arsenal had the ball in the net again, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside against William Gallas, and the match finished 2–1 to United. For his show of frustration with the offside decision – kicking a water bottle down the touchline – Arsène Wenger was sent off.

After a two-week break for internationals, United returned to Premier League action with an away match against Tottenham Hotspur. Despite United having their first-choice centre-back partnership together for the first time since the 2009 UEFA Champions League Final, Spurs took the lead after 38 seconds through a Jermain Defoe bicycle kick. Ryan Giggs levelled the scores in the 25th minute, curling a free kick past Carlo Cudicini in the Tottenham goal, before Anderson gave United the lead with his first competitive goal for the club. In the space of 10 minutes in the second half, Paul Scholes received two yellow cards and was sent off, although the second booking was controversial and later criticised by manager Alex Ferguson. Nevertheless, despite being reduced to ten men, the Red Devils increased their lead to 3–1 as Wayne Rooney slotted the ball through Cudicini's legs for the final goal of the game – Rooney's fifth in five league matches. The result took United to second place in the league table behind unbeaten Chelsea and ahead of Manchester City, who had a game in hand. Giggs' goal continued his record of having scored a League goal in every Premier League season since the Premier League began in 1992-93, the only player to have done so.

Five days after playing against Beşiktaş in Turkey, United returned to England for a home match against Manchester City, the first Manchester derby of the season. Despite having only just recovered from a knee injury, Carlos Tévez was picked to start against his former team by City manager Mark Hughes (himself a former Manchester United striker). United drew first blood, as Wayne Rooney scored his sixth goal in six league games in the second minute, but Gareth Barry equalised for City less than 15 minutes later after Tévez had forced an error from Ben Foster in the United goal. The score remained at 1–1 going into half-time, but no sooner than Darren Fletcher had restored United's lead, heading in a Ryan Giggs cross four minutes after the break, Craig Bellamy drew City level again as Park Ji-Sung was drawn away by the run of Tévez. After Berbatov had twice been denied by saves from Shay Given, the Bulgarian striker was withdrawn for Michael Owen with 13 minutes left to play. Giggs again provided a cross for Fletcher to head United 3–2 up three minutes later, but with 10 seconds of normal time left to play, Martin Petrov was gifted possession by Rio Ferdinand and played Bellamy in, who scored past the onrushing Foster. The fourth official had already indicated that a minimum of four minutes would be added on to the 90 to account for stoppages, but Bellamy's goal celebration and United's substitution of Carrick for Anderson meant that more would have to be played. Then, in the sixth minute of added time, Giggs played a through-ball for Owen, who clipped the ball over Shay Given to clinch a last-gasp 4–3 win that temporarily sent the home side to the top of the table. Mark Hughes later expressed his aggravation at the fact that United's winning goal had come almost 90 seconds after the added time indicated by the fourth official had elapsed, and television analysis also showed that the referee should have signalled the end of the game one second before Owen's goal had crossed the line.

The following weekend, United made the trip to Stoke-on-Trent to take on Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium. After a goalless first half, Ryan Giggs was brought on in place of the unimpressive Nani ten minutes into the second half, and had an almost immediate impact. Darren Fletcher played a through-ball into the penalty area and into the path of Giggs, who then played a square ball across the edge of the six-yard box to Dimitar Berbatov, allowing the Bulgarian a simple finish. With 15 minutes left to play, Fletcher was bundled over by Rory Delap on the right side of the penalty area. The left-footed Giggs crossed the consequent free-kick into the penalty area, where John O'Shea rose above his marker, Danny Collins, to head the ball past Thomas Sørensen in the Stoke goal. The match finished at 2–0 and, combined with Chelsea's 3–1 defeat by Wigan Athletic the same day, the result meant that United finished the weekend on top of the league for the first time in the season.

The league schedule took United back to Old Trafford for their next game against Sunderland on 3 October. United were one of four teams still protecting a 100% home record in 2009–10, but it was Sunderland who took the lead after seven minutes, as Darren Bent beat Ben Foster from outside the penalty area. It took the Red Devils until five minutes into the second half to equalise, but they did so in some style, Dimitar Berbatov volleying John O'Shea's cross home with a bicycle kick. However, parity was short-lived as Kenwyne Jones scored for the Black Cats just seven minutes later. The Sunderland striker went up for a header with goalkeeper Ben Foster, but the two collided and the ball came off the Trinidadian and trickled into the empty net. With six minutes remaining in normal time, Sunderland's former Manchester United winger Kieran Richardson was sent off for dissent leading to a second yellow card. This allowed pressure from Manchester United to mount, and in the fourth minute of injury time, a shot across the face of goal from Patrice Evra was turned into the Sunderland goal by defender Anton Ferdinand – brother of United defender, Rio Ferdinand. The 2–2 result maintained United's unbeaten home record for the season and gave them a one-point lead at the top of the table. However, they dropped back down to second place after Chelsea beat Liverpool the following day.

Another international break followed in the middle of October, from which Wayne Rooney returned with a calf strain, ruling him out of United's next fixture against Bolton Wanderers on 17 October. However, Edwin van der Sar recovered from his hand injury to make his first appearance of the season, while Berbatov returned from the birth of his first child in Bulgaria to partner Michael Owen up front. A header from Owen, diverted into the net by Zat Knight, gave United the lead in the fifth minute, before Antonio Valencia doubled the lead just after the half-hour mark. The Ecuadorian winger played a one-two with Gary Neville to work his way into the penalty area, and then fired the ball past Jussi Jääskeläinen. Matthew Taylor pulled a goal back for Bolton, heading home a cross from Kevin Davies, but it turned out to be the last goal of the game, and United won 2–1. Following Chelsea's 2–1 defeat by Aston Villa earlier in the day, United's win sent them back to the top of the league table.

Pld = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

League Cup
As one of the seven Premier League sides involved in European competition in the 2009–10 season, Manchester United received a bye to the Third Round of the 2009–10 Football League Cup. The draw for the Third Round took place on 29 August 2009, and gave Manchester United a home tie against fellow Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers. The match was played at Old Trafford on 23 September 2009, and Alex Ferguson took the opportunity to give playing time to some of the club's fringe players, including back-up goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak, midfielder Darron Gibson and forwards Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda, while derby hero Michael Owen was also given a position in the starting line-up. Ferguson also handed squad numbers to young Norwegian duo Joshua King and Magnus Wolff Eikrem. However, United were reduced to 10 men half-an-hour into the match as Fábio was sent off for a professional foul on Michael Kightly, who was through on goal; Ferguson responded by bringing Ritchie De Laet on in place of Macheda. Despite the numerical disadvantage, though, United went one-up in the 66th minute, as Welbeck played a one-two with Owen before firing past Wolves' goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann. With ten minutes left in the game, Ferguson gave Joshua King his professional debut, coming on in place of Welbeck. Although King had two opportunities to add to United's lead, the match finished at 1–0 and Manchester United progressed to the Fourth Round of the competition.

The draw for the Fourth Round was made on 26 September 2009, and handed Manchester United a trip to Oakwell to play against Barnsley, who are managed by former United striker Mark Robins.

Squad statistics
Statistics accurate as of match played 21 October 2009

Transfers
United announced early in the transfer window that they had agreed a world record fee of £80 million to sell Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Shortly after this, they confirmed that Carlos Tévez, who had been on loan with the club for two seasons, had not taken up the offer of a permanent contract. Tévez would later sign for United's local rivals, Manchester City. Lee Martin, Fraizer Campbell, Richard Eckersley and Manucho also left the club.

After the sale of Ronaldo and Tévez, United sought a new striker, and Karim Benzema (who eventually signed for Real Madrid) was one player they courted. Despite the record deal for Ronaldo, United opted for a cheaper deal in the end, signing free agent Michael Owen after his contract with Newcastle United had expired. The signing of a former Liverpool star caused some consternation amongst supporters of both clubs. Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan also joined, and Alex Ferguson announced that his buying for the transfer window was over. However, a few days later, Mame Biram Diouf also signed; the club explained that Diouf was originally going to sign in the next January transfer window, but that they had hurried the signing after other clubs became interested in the player.