A very long break!

At the end of this seemingly long international break, all of the teams around England are coming back together to make their runs at the end of the season.

As it stands right now, before this weekend's Premier League matches take way, Manchester United sit 5 points clear of second place Arsenal. It also shows that Chelsea, last year's title holders, are now back in the race, four points behind Arsenal in third place.

In a surprising survey of fifteen bosses in the league by Premier League and League Managers' Association, showed that 80% of them backed United to become champions for this year's season, which would give Manchester United their record breaking 19th league title, giving more of a reason for Liverpool to hate Man Utd. Sir Alex was also voted, with a eighty seven percent majority(espn), greatest manager in the premier league of all time.

England's International Friendlies



During this break saw all of the international teams around the world come together in their respective teams and set out to play a couple of friendlies.

Running up to the first friendly for England against Wales, news stories started to come out of the wood work about the captaincy of The Three Lions with Fabio Capello giving the armband to John Terry and did not bother to talk to Rio Ferdinand about it causing a slight debate about it all, weather or not Terry deserved it and how Capello handled it.

But in the end, this all did not prove to matter on March 26th, as the Three Lions strode out to play at the Millennium Stadium.

The match started out great for the England squad, with Frank Lampard's penatly strike setting the tone for the rest of the match. Lampard smashed home a nice goal, giving England a one - nill lead over the home side, and only seven minutes later a long ball from mid field, and a nice box pass to Darren Bent who tapped it in close range to make the game two - nill, the final score for the rest of the match.

The Wale's game proved to be a good time for the England squad, with Captain Terry showing what the England team can really do and it helped them look good for the future.

But, March 29th came rolling quickly and England was set to play Ghana at Wembley.

The game started off with a couple of back and forth across the field between both sides, and both keepers showing their true skills as Richard Kingson for Ghana made a couple of incredible saves, plus was also saved by the bar in a cross to Ashley Young were the ball bounced off of the bar. Joe Hart, for England, did as well, stopping Ghana's off of the minute stroke first attack and keeping the ball played deep for England.

Finally at the 43rd minute, a nice cross was launched from Ashley Young into the box towards Downing, who controlled the ball towards Andy Carroll and the thirty five million pound man smashed the ball with great accuracy into the bottom corner.

A little disappointing show from the Liverpool man, who had such a great success at Newcastle before getting injured and traded to Liverpool. He was routinely found outside of his position, struggling to get into the set place and continued to do this till the hour mark when he was replaced by Jermaine Defoe.

Stewart Downing and Ashley Young really proved to be the pace set for the whole England squad, pacing up and down the pitch and getting on the ball as much as possible and getting as many attempts as they could. It was really neat to watch these youngsters work so hard for their nation team, especially after the 2010 World Cup and England's very poor display.

But there is a reason why Ghana did so well during the 2010 World Cup and it really started to shine for them during the 2nd half, with 20,000 Ghanaian supporters at Wembley to support and cheer their team on. If it was not for a stronger defensive stance by the England team and constant great saves by Joe Hart, Ghana could have easily gone well above the 1 goal scoreline.

But Ghana and England kept the battle on, till the first minute into injury time when Ghana's hope was all but lost, Asamoah Gyan, the Wonderman from Sunderland, smashed home a nice shot, through the England defense, and saw the game end all tied up 1-1. Gyan totally deserved that, and Ghana definitely deserved the draw.

FA Bashing Sir Alex



The Great Scot continues to be the whipping boy for the FA, as yet again the FA makes another predictably grandiloquent statement about Sir Alex.

As most Man United fans know, Sir Alex is serving a 5 match touchline ban for his comments after the Chelsea game about Referee Atkinson and the calls he made. After a long couple of weeks of back and forth between the two, and even a media black out, Sir Alex took the charge on his hand and started to serve the match bans.

Now it seems the FA are not done with him and will continue to try and go after the Scot for his comments even after his trial, which he is stating wasn't very fair.

The FA panel released this statement;

"The commission was referred to Sir Alex's previous disciplinary record, which included several misconduct charges.

"Although it was his entitlement to do so, he denied the present charge in the face of a strong, if not compelling, case against him.

"Although he denied any intention to question Mr Atkinson's integrity, he should, at the very least, have realised the import of what he said.

"It follows that any credit to which Sir Alex may have been entitled by admitting the charge, and reduction in sanction, was lost.

"In addition, it follows from his denial of the charge that no clarification or retraction of any of his comments has been made by Sir Alex and no apology given to Mr Atkinson, even after the charge had been brought."

The panel added: "The commission regarded this as a serious aggravating feature and rejected Sir Alex's case that his use of the word 'fair' was effectively retracted during the interview itself.

"The commission also took the view that Sir Alex's comments undermined the attempts by the association, through its Respect campaign to encourage higher standards of behaviour within the game, including respect for officials."
From SkySports

United's Pre-season USA Tour

Another important bit of information we found out was the announcement of the pre-season USA Tour set for the summer months.

Just like last year, Manchester United will face off against a handful of Major League Soccer teams, including the MLS All Star team. To add to that line up, Manchester United will take on Barcelona in a pre-season friendly in Washington DC, which will prove to be their highlight of the pre-season tour.

A quick blurb from ESPN;

Sir Alex Ferguson's men are scheduled to meet the Spanish champions on July 30 at FedExField in the US capital in their final game of a five-match tour which will also see them meet three Major League Soccer sides as well as an All-Star team.

''Tours are a fantastic chance for the players to get away as a unit, to put in some good training sessions and to meet some of our fans around the world who don't have a chance to watch us play live every week,'' said Ferguson.

''Our visits to the US are always enjoyable ones. The training facilities are excellent and we certainly found last year that, with the improving quality of the MLS teams, the games are very competitive, which is great preparation for a new season.

''To finish off with a match against Barcelona will be a special moment for all our fans in the States.''

United open against New England Revolution on July 13 in Boston before travelling west to meet Seattle Sounders a week later.

Next comes a game against Chicago Fire on July 23 before they take on the MLS All-Stars in New Jersey on July 27 and Barca in Washington.

Returning players and some not



Right before the international break, Manchester United lost a few key players to injuries, but also welcomed back the likes of Antonio Valencia. Now, at the end of the break, it seems like a couple more players MIGHT be on the return, including key defense player Vidic.

When Inside United got a hold of Sir Alex, this is what he had to say about Valencia's return and his impact so far;

"Antonio has showed in the parts of the games he's played so far why we've missed him," the Red Devils boss told Inside United.

"He is a fantastic footballer. He came on at the right time against Marseille because Nani was starting to wilt a bit after his injury.

"His ability to get to the dead ball line is a big advantage to us and his football brain was there for all to see when he made Javier Hernandez's second goal against Marseille. His pass to Ryan Giggs was fantastic.

"It is a big plus point. Having both Antonio and Nani is a big boost for us."

In another interview with ESPN, Sir Alex was asked about Javier Hernandez and his impact so far this year, and this is what the Scot had to say;

"I remember Paul Scholes saying 'boss, he'll score 25 goals'," Ferguson told ESPN. "I said, 'do you think so?' He said 'yeah, he's got the touch'. So we had an expectation that he would score."

"When he first came in I think it was like every other young player coming from another continent to English football, it's not easy. So there was a settling-in period allowing him to develop physically. Bit-by-bit, when we were bringing him on and he started to perform and score these important goals, you said 'well, his rest period is over, his breaking-in period is over' and he has been more regular and his performances have improved by it and he's just done absolutely fantastic."

"The boy comes in every morning at nine o'clock, does his gym work on his own, joins in with the players at ten and then, after training, he practices with some of the other players. He has got the determination to succeed. He's got the fire needed to be a top player."

"I think we were very fortunate to get in quickly and we had great help from Chivas, who were fantastic with us. We have built a really good relationship with that club. (It is) well-run, with a good professional set-up. We sort of resonate with most of the things that they do and their help in that situation was phenomenal. Not a bit of news got out during the negotiations with the deal."

To wrap this segment up, news came from Manchester United's training that Owen Hargreaves injured his shoulder during his stint to regain his fitness to play again.

Hargreaves has played less than ten minutes of football for Manchester United since September 2008 having had surgery on his knee problems on two occasions before tearing his hamstring on his brief comeback against Wolves in November.

Now it seems he could easily sit out for another month with this injury. His contract runs out in June and it could very well be the end of his time at Manchester United unless he is able to get fit enough to play very soon and can prove himself to Sir Alex.

This weekend

This weekend is the end of the long international break and start for many teams back in the Premier league. It sees top of the league United heading to Upton Park to play against West Ham.

Vidic is rumored to be fit to play, but may not play for this game though I will find out more when we get closer to Saturday. The game is at 12:45 GMT(7:45 AM EST). Depending on if I can get up early enough I will try and give live match commentary.

In some other quick news, Former Manchester United midfielder Bryan Robson is stating that he is confident in making a full recovery after undergoing surgery for throat cancer earlier this month.

He quickly spoke with talkSport and this is what he had to say;

"[The doctors have] been very positive with what they've been telling me," he told talkSPORT. "I'm over in England for a week and I'll get a second opinion from a specialist here, but I am quite confident about going back out there and receiving the treatment.

"Fingers crossed everything will be clear within a couple of months. When I return to Thailand next week I'll start on a five-week course of radium treatment and just keep my fingers crossed. They are very good over there on the medical side and they're very confident that it's treatable and I should make a recovery.''

"I thought I just had a sore throat, so I went into the hospital to see the doctor on the Monday,'' he said. "He diagnosed it straight away, I had the MRI scan on the Tuesday and he operated on me on the Thursday, so that's how efficient they are over in Thailand.''

"I've had a fantastic response from football fans all over the country and Europe since it came out in the media. When things like this come up you've got to be positive and get on with it.''

On a personal note, I was sick during a lot of the international break since my last post, but now I am in better health and should be seeing more posts from myself in the next few weeks, as the run of the season shapes up to be a great one!

Leave a comment and tell me what you did during the international break and let me know how you coped, did you watch some of the international friendlies, or just did nothing.