Manchester United Shows Wealth of Talent

Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

Manchester United's Wayne Rooney celebrates his goal that gave Manchester a comfortable 2-0 lead.

Less than a week after being told by the financial experts at Forbes that his club was the richest sports franchise on earth, Manchester United’s manager, Alex Ferguson, was given proof where it counts — on the field.

Manuel Neuer, Schalke 04's goalie, played valiantly but lost to Manchester United in a Champions League semifinal opener.

His team simply strolled through the away leg of its Champions League semifinal on Tuesday. With a goal 22 minutes into the second half from Ryan Giggs, and another two minutes later from Wayne Rooney, United looked to be in a league different from that of its German opponent, Schalke 04.

And the game was played on Schalke’s turf, in front of 51,000 home supporters and 3,000 Manchester United fans. It was played, from the first minute to the last, at United’s tempo, and there was one big reason why the 2-0 final score was not as embarrassing a landslide as it had threatened to be.
That reason goes by the name Manuel Neuer. He really is a big man, 1.94 meters, or 6-foot-4, and approaching 90 kilograms, or 200 pounds, of solid mass. Time after time, Neuer defied Giggs and particularly the darting Mexican, Javier Hernández.
When Neuer was beaten, it was because he had no chance. Rooney, playing with more maturity and less rage these days, delivered a pass along the ground and through the heart of the Schalke defense. And Giggs, 37, did what he has done throughout his two decades as a pro: he scored with almost nonchalant craft.
Moments later, Hernández, in his first season in Europe, played a knowing pass, a flick off the outside of his right foot. Rooney anticipated it, and Rooney, like Giggs, stayed focused and calm to stroke home the second goal.
Game over, with 20 minutes left to stroll. United began resting players, because on Sunday it plays at Arsenal. Next Wednesday it should finish off the semifinal against Schalke, but its next game after that, on the following Sunday, is against Chelsea, United’s only competitor for the English Premier League title, at United’s stadium, Old Trafford.
Not for a moment did Schalke make hearts beat. Never did it strike fear, the way it had in eliminating Inter Milan in the quarterfinals by scoring seven times against the current European champion.
This was a timid, anemic, outclassed German team, and frankly not even much of a fighting one. Neuer, its captain, is a Gelsenkirchen product from birth. He began playing for Schalke when he was 5, and now, at 25, he has broken some hearts by announcing his imminent departure.
Manchester United would love to sign him, but the word is that Neuer rather likes his homeland, and Bayern Munich is his probable destination. United also has a fine goalkeeper, but its man, Edwin van der Sar, is 40 years old and counting.
And so it was, at the end of the one-sided semifinal Tuesday in the Auf Schalke Arena, that Alex Ferguson made his way onto the field, straight to Neuer. Sir Alex held out his hand, Neuer accepted the handshake, and, looking up into the eyes of the German giant, Ferguson offered a few words.
“I know he’s probably going to Munich,” Ferguson said later on television. “But I had to tell the boy that was one of the best performances I’ve seen against Manchester United from a goalkeeper.”
Without actually confirming that an agreement with Bayern Munich already existed, Neuer said after the game Tuesday that ‘‘Manchester United was never an option for me. I will focus now on my performances and my team, all the other things don’t matter at the moment.’’
Neuer, however, was disappointed with Schalke’s approach to the game. ‘‘We played with too much respect in the beginning,’’ he said. ‘‘We knew, of course, that Manchester are a big team, but Inter were, too. Today we weren’t as strong as we were in the quarterfinal. We weren’t compact enough.’’
Neuer, nevertheless, was the difference between a rout and a reasonable final score. The performance Tuesday embraced another milestone from the astonishing Giggs, who has adapted his game to use his brain more and his legs less.  He officially became the oldest man, way beyond his 37th birthday, to score in the Champions League.
The truth about this competition is that it is played at a less physical pace than England’s, but it is more cerebral. Giggs still has that, and when he got back to the locker rooms, someone no doubt informed him that his total of 28 goals in Europe’s top tournament now equals the final tally of Denis Law, a United hero of the 1960s.
One man, a goalkeeper, cannot prevent an outmatched team from losing. And one player, even Giggs, cannot create victory on his own. The balance of this United side — one that has not conceded a single goal away from home in Europe this season — is between youth and experience.
On the wings, Antonio Valencia and Park Ji-sung are gifted workers. Through midfield, Giggs exploits space and Michael Carrick holds firm. Up front, Rooney and ‘‘Chicharito’’ Hernández pass and move for one another like blood brothers.
Usually, it is way too soon after the first leg to say the tie is over. But so dominating was Manchester, so acquiescent was Schalke, that it would take a monumental turnaround for the German side to prevent United’s seemingly inevitable place in the final at the end of May. By then, Manchester’s team should already be England’s champion once more.
The rich getting richer.