Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Champions League Final Prediction

I'm not going to do a full preview here, considering there's 5,477,759 of those or so that have been on various websites and media outlets in the build-up to tomorrow's game in Moscow.

Suffice it to say, though, that I'm feeling a bit devilish. I'm going to go out on a very short limb and pick Manchester United to win 3-1, cementing their status as the best team in Europe without question this season.

Who's going to score, you ask? Well, Cristiano Ronaldo will shut all the critics up who say he doesn't show up in the big games by scoring twice, and Rooney will seal it late on the break as Chelsea will need to send men forward to equalize. For the Blues, their Kaiser, Michael Ballack, will make it a 1-1 game but that won't be enough.

Chelsea doesn't have enough firepower to compete with United, in my opinion. Avram Grant just doesn't have a true match-winner on his team, whereas guys like Ronaldo, Tevez, and Rooney can put United on their backs if necessary.

The coaching edge clearly belongs to Sir Alex Ferguson, who has so much more experience then his counterpart. Grant has been hesitant to make moves and tactical changes this year and when he has, they've rarely turned out well. Ferguson is a proactive manager who will fix something before it's even gone wrong, and I just have a feeling that one of the players he brings off the bench will have a huge impact on this game.

We'll find out everything tomorrow, starting at 2:45 PM here on the East Coast.