Ronaldo BERBATOV Rooney STRIKE

Head out to Carson to watch the dead-in-the-water Galaxy train or stay at home and watch Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and the rest of European and English champion Manchester United play Scottish champion Celtic in a Champions League match?

Some possibly interesting words from Bruce Arena or some definitely lively commentary from the most entertaining soccer duo on U.S. television — ESPN’s Derek Rae and Tommy Smyth?

Then there is the interest generated by some strange words from Celtic Coach Gordon Strachan, to wit:

“We’re actually trying to sign Snow White to lead my players out at Old Trafford,” Strachan said, referring to the fact that two-thirds of his players are shorter than 6 feet and that Manchester United will have a towering height advantage.

“They’ve got pace, power, height, ability, determination,” Strachan said. “I’m not being cheeky, but I don’t know if any of my players have that.”

So it’s the European champions versus the Scottish dwarfs.

That sound you hear is the TV being switched on. The Galaxy can wait.

Saturday

JOSEPH YOBO is winning his race to be fit to take on Manchester United on Saturday.

The centre-back missed Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal with a virus, but he and Nigerian team-mate Victor Anichebe, as well as Segundo Castillo, are ready to boost David Moyes’s squad for the visit of the champions.

Anichebe sustained a hamstring injury playing for the reserves in last week’s mini-derby victory against Liverpool and subsequently failed to make the squad for the Emirates.

Midfielder Castillo, meanwhile, also picked up a hamstring injury on international duty with Ecuador last week and will also be pressing to return for Saturday’s noon kick-off at Goodison Park.

“Joseph Yobo’s had quite a nasty virus,” said Everton physio Mick Rathbone. “He’s been off for five days but he trained today so hopefully he’ll be able to train all week and he should be okay.

“And Victor too – he got a very minor hamstring strain in the reserve game against Liverpool (last week) but he’s with Castillo now and running pretty comfortably.

“We’ll just see how they all go for the next couple of days.”

Marouane Fellaini departed the action at Arsenal with a dead leg but Rathbone is confident that there are no more serious injury concerns in the squad.

“There’s always a few bumps and bruises but I think all the players are okay,” he added. “Marouane Fellaini got a dead leg and came off in the second half but that’s not bad and I don’t anticipate any problems with that. So it’s so far, so good.”

Lars Jacobsen has targeted a return to action by Christmas after a shoulder injury.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Cristiano Ronaldo, Manutd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.