Wayne Rooney put his World Cup torment behind him to set
Manchester United on their way to an impressive Community Shield
3-1 victory over Chelsea at Wembley.
Although Rooney could not get his name on the scoresheet against
the Double winners, it was the striker who was so out of touch in
South Africa that created United's opener with a brilliant cross to
set up Antonio Valencia.
New-boy Javier Hernandez marked his competitive debut with an
immensely fortuitous second and, although Salomon Kalou pulled one
back, Dimitar Berbatov's fine injury-time finish allowed United to
collect the trophy for a record 18th time.
Together with Paul Scholes, Rooney terrorised the Chelsea
defence at times during an entertaining opening period in which
both sides could have claimed the lead before United eventually
did.
Branislav Ivanovic came closest for Chelsea when he climbed
above Serbian team-mate Nemanja Vidic to reach Florent Malouda's
free-kick and angled a header towards the corner that brought a
fine save out of veteran United keeper Edwin Van der Sar.
The Dutchman's inability to hold a long-range Nicolas Anelka
effort earlier in the contest had led to a clear sight of goal for
Salomon Kalou.
But from an acute angle, Kalou instead turned the ball back into
the six-yard box, which was vacant of both United defenders and his
own attackers.
United took a bit longer to get going. Yet it quickly became
apparent Scholes was going to take some stopping.
Fabio Capello will not be the only England manager to lament the
midfielder's retirement. Steve McClaren felt exactly the same way.
But the Italian will continue to wonder what might have been if
Scholes had been given longer than a couple of hours to decide on a
last-minute offer to head for South Africa.
His calmness in possession and the accuracy of his passing mean,
even at 35, he is very hard to subdue.
One cleverly disguised pass set Rooney up for a shot that just
evaded the far post and Scholes was also the inspiration behind a
Michael Owen cross that forced Ivanovic into a hurried
clearance.
But it was the brilliant cross-field ball for Rooney, delivered
from inside his own half that did the real damage.
Sensing there was little danger as he jogged behind his brother
in ignominy, Terry offered Rooney the room with which to execute a
perfect first-time cross, drilled right into the heart of Chelsea's
penalty area. Only Valencia read Rooney's intentions and the
Ecuador man gleefully tapped past Henrique Hilario.
It was the kind of moment that proved Rooney is right to be
lauded, while at the same time leaving his World Cup performances,
particularly the awful one against Algeria, totally
inexplicable.
Rooney's 45-minute cameo gave way to new-boy Hernandez, whose
pace alone unsettles defenders and who came so close to releasing
fellow substitute Berbatov with a sublime reverse pass after
initially being picked out by that man Scholes.
Everything about Hernandez's move from Mexico so far has been
positive. The one fear was, rather like Diego Forlan, whose
otherwise stellar career will be scarred by those 27 games he took
to score for the Red Devils, the man dubbed Chicharito would take
too long to get off the mark.
But the kind of goal Forlan would have killed for, a mis-hit
shot that ricocheted into his face, bounced into the Chelsea net
from Valencia's cross 14 minutes from time.
It was harsh on Chelsea, who had just gone close through Kalou,
Michael Essien and Ashley Cole.
Kalou did eventually beat Van der Sar but a frenetic spell of
attacking failed to bring further reward and Berbatov's deft lob
from Nani's cross ended any hope of a comeback.
