Football Special Report: Player Profile – Wayne Rooney (Part 2)
He wasn’t only the star in the first leg; he also played a key role in the second leg of the tie. The Red Devils won the match 4-0 at home with Wayne Rooney scoring a brace, as the world saw total destruction of Milan at the Old Trafford. While the English club were the ones who raised their hand in victory after they came out with flying colours, as they won the tie 7-2 on aggregate.
Sir Alex Ferguson, however, decided to change his side as Rooney was to put on rest for the League Cup final at Wembley, which was against the English team Aston Villa. The striker urged his boss to start him for the match but he had to sit on the bench as a substitute, as he had suffered from a knee injury and fever. The striker, however, was injected into the team after the first half after Michael Owen suffered an injury.
Even though Owen injured himself in the match, he still managed to pull off an equalizer in the second half and soon Rooney was the one who got the opportunity to play for his club. Rooney was the one who was able to put his name on the score board again and scored a second half header to help his team win another trophy. For Wayne Rooney it was the seventh major trophy in the six seasons that he played for Manchester United, as the Red Devils had a “come from behind” victory over Aston Villa after they won the match 2-1.
Later, Manchester United were drawn with the Bundesliga Champions Bayern Munich, in the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League. The match was supposed to be a thriller, it totally was, and it was the “best English striker” at that time, Wayne Rooney, who opened the scoring of the match as he scored an early goal at Munich’s home ground in Germany.
However, it was the German team who actually won the match 2-1 as they came from behind in the second half. It wasn’t really the loss that the Red Devils’ boss was concerned about; it was actually the injury that Wayne Rooney took during the match, as he injured his ankle just during the final second of the match as he limped off the pitch during those final minutes. The injury wasn’t only a concern to Manchester United fans but also to the English fans who were expecting Wayne Rooney in the English squad during the FIFA World Cup 2010. The fears howled around Fabio Capello, the coach of the English side, as he saw the English star limping off from the German soil.
Such concerns were all given a shut-up call as Rooney was soon able to train for the club. However, he was not yet ready to play for the Red Devils even after the training sessions that he took. The player was still very enthusiastic about football and wanted to play for his club and after his “request” to the manager; he shocked the world by starting in the second leg of the Champions League which was in the following week.
Everyone could see that Rooney wasn’t totally fit to play for his side as he was limping around the ground throughout the match. Rooney could not really help his team from the crashing that they received because of the “away goal” advantage, and he couldn’t really add another goal to his 34 goals tally, as he was not able to score a single goal even for the next three games that Manchester United played in the Premier League.
With such amazing form in the English Premier League, Wayne Rooney’s season ended in a disaster. He could not really find his form during the FIFA World Cup 2010, as he went to South Africa along with other key English players who also failed to perform in the World Cup.
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