____T.H.E. .P.A.S.S.

____Kurenai of Manchester United

It must be no new news about how Manchester United cruised to a famous 2-0 victory over Liverpool but this season, the feeling that creates an orgasmic buzz about Manchester United is back. It is amazing how by just naming the players in the team provides me an excitement about football that no other teams have ever given me - yet, there is something strange about the way I came to support Man Utd.

It was only 1994 (wow! more than 10 years back) when I got in contact with football with a little interest. At that time, it was Sundram, Abbas Saad, Alistair Edwards and Fandi Ahmad playing in the Malaysia Cup. If I did not remember wrongly, we won Kedah 2-0 that year to lift the cup. We had a good team then, with players like the late Bohan Abu Samah, Malek Awab and Kadir Yahya backing up the four stars mentioned above.

By the time Singapore pulled out of the competition, my cousin was already bugging me about Man Utd. There was a lot of talk about Ryan Giggs but the rest of the team was still anonymous to me. Still that was when I started to support Man Utd. It sounded silly because in school, the guys were talking about football had a club to support. I picked Man Utd to be THE team, so as to be part of the guys, not because I knew Man Utd was great, but because it was the ONLY team I knew.

I know that supporting a winning team is easy. Afterall, not living in England means that I do not have to support the club of my hometown. After many years of being accused of supporting a winning team, I just had to justify my choice of selecting Man Utd.

I already knew Man Utd were winning stuff on a yearly basis by the time I was Sec 3 - that was when I took it upon myself to take a look at Man Utd playing. By that time, the era of players were Beckham and company, and the legend called Eric Cantona had retired. I have seen clips of the master in action but it is my regret never to have caught him playing a full match.

In 1999, United won the treble. That was the start of the tingling feeling Man Utd gave me. The heart, the spirit, the never-say-die attitude coupled with exciting play, wizardry winging in Giggs, hearty finishing from the strikers and Scholesy, and handsome Beckham (not that I gave it a damn). Oh yes, there was Roy Keane too - determination 100%, drive 100%, mad tackling 100%.

Sure, there were other great teams around. There was Real Madrid, when Fat Boy Ronaldo tore Man Utd apart with his brilliant hattrick. Arsenal, with their free flowing passing play. More recently, Milan and Barcelona - both teams led in attack by brilliant Brazilians in the form of Kaka and Ronaldinho. Although there was admiration, there was never a time when I felt the fighting spirit from within them.

Look at how Milan broke down in the second half by a spirited Liverpool couple of years back. Unbeatable Arsenal got their arse kicked by Man Utd 2 years back and they never found back their unbeatable form. Madrid collasped due to too many stars which resulted in the creation of the term "player power".

In contrast, what Darren Fletcher lacks in terms of technique, as compared to the rest of his teammates, he made it all up by the way he ran his lungs out against Liverpool. It's amazing. It's called the blood. The determination. The way Man Utd cannot bear to look at the face of the apparition called "Defeat".

Red is the rage of Rooney. I want this drive. Red is the colour of a winning team. When I pull on the blue jersey of Hall One coming InterHall Games, be sure that beneath this dull navy blue, there is a red that wills me to win. The red that similarly drove Roy Keane - the Kurenai of Manchester United.

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