20 September 2009, 13:30 p.m.

Old Trafford, Manchester.

Manchester United goalkeeper Ben Foster, dressed in a yellow shirt, stood in front of the goal line, looking up at the sky with great reverence, reaching out to his forehead and chest, and praying with words in his mouth.

He was twenty-five years old.

He made his professional debut with Stoke City, but never played for Stoke City for even a minute, spending three years on loan with five teams, wandering almost every six months until '05, when he was loaned to Wrexham in Wales.

In Wrexham, he meets a man who changes his life completely.

His teammate, the son of Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, Darren Ferguson.

He will never forget that night at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, four years ago.

It was one of the few games Ben Foster played for Wrexham, and he was in excellent form, making a number of good saves to help Wrexham win the title 2-0.

After the game, Ferguson came to the dressing room to visit his son Darren, but also met Ben Foster.

Three months later, Manchester United bought Ben Foster from Stoke City for £2 million.

But it wasn't easy to get a foothold at the Red Devils, and Ben Foster was loaned to Watford just after he joined.

In his first season, he helped Watford to a successful breakthrough as a first-choice goalkeeper, and he established himself in the main team, performing well, and in the summer of '06, he was surprisingly named in England's World Cup squad in Germany, which catapulted Ben Foster to fame.

After returning from the World Cup, Ben Foster continued to play for Watford to further improve his strength, and he also won the national team many times with his wonderful performances, and even became the starting goalkeeper of the national team for a time.

But two years at Manchester United have been undoubtedly lonely.

The veteran Van der Sar firmly controls the position of United's main goalkeeper, and the fierce competition has left Ben Foster with little chance, and he has only been trained in three league games in two years, which is undoubtedly quite painful for a goalkeeper who is in desperate need of game experience.

But the most terrifying thing is not this, but the lack of games for a long time has caused him to lose that sharp reflexes, and he has been away from the field for a long time, so that he simply cannot adjust his condition skillfully.

Many people simply can't understand that as a goalkeeper, especially the goalkeeper of Manchester United, he spends most of the game standing alone in front of the goal, especially in the cold season, the whole body seems to be stiff, but when the opponent scores the half, he must react in the first time.

These two extremes of form are a huge test for any goalkeeper, and only an experienced goalkeeper knows how to adjust himself in the game to keep himself in the best shape at all times and at all times to deal with the sudden blow of the opponent.

At the start of March, Ben Foster excelled in the Carabao Cup and saved a penalty from a Tottenham Hotspur player in the final penalty shoot-out to help United win the Carabao Cup.

After the game, Ferguson personally led the contract extension with Ben Foster, raising his salary to £25,000 a week and handing him Van der Sar's successor, promising him a decade-long future.

At the beginning of August, Manchester United were invited to participate in the Audi Cup, only to be suspended for at least two months after Bayern Munich midfielder Vidal's powerful volley contused Van der Sar's left hand, resulting in a fractured left finger.

This is undoubtedly great news for Ben Foster, and it can be said that it is a godsend.

You know, Van der Sar is 38 years old, although he is in good shape, but as long as Ben Foster can show that he has the ability to replace the Dutch goalkeeper in these two months, then Van der Sar will replace him and sit firmly in the position of Manchester United's main goalkeeper, it will be a matter of course.

I don't know if it's because of this, but he added a little pressure to himself.

During Van der Sar's injury, Forts secured the position of United's first-choice goalkeeper, starting five league games this season and conceding three goals, which is not statistically ugly, but Forster has made a total of three fatal mistakes, which has led to his questioning this season, with many believing that his quality is not up to United's requirements.

You know, the object of comparison is Edwin van der Sar!

That's an almost legendary figure in European football!

Forster felt that the comparison was unfair to him, but he still tried to prove that he wanted to prove to everyone that he, Ben Foster, deserved to be the first goalkeeper of Manchester United.

He has performed well against Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur before, and I hope he can continue this good momentum against Manchester City this time.

…………

…………

"Alright, it's time for the game!"

Giggs, who wore the captain's armband on the field, clapped his hands vigorously and shouted to his teammates around him.

With captain Gary Neville out injured, vice-captain Ryan Giggs was the team's on-field captain and was responsible for directing the game to his team-mates on the pitch.

"Be careful, they're coming. ”

As soon as the whistle blew for the game, Manchester City, who were fighting away, dominated the opponents and pressed on it vigorously, showing the momentum of suppressing Manchester United from the beginning, and also making Manchester United's entire midfield and backfield like a big enemy.

But the game had just begun, and just after half-time in City's first attack, United broke the ball off and passed it back to the backline, with Rio Ferdinand in charge of the ball.

Manchester City's front trident was pressed very tightly, rushing towards Manchester United's defense, especially Benzema, who rushed directly to Ferdinand, who had the ball, and was very fast.

Ferdinand sensed the threat, turned to protect the ball and fed it back into the box to goalkeeper Forster.

Unexpectedly, Benzema's speed did not slow, and he swept directly past Ferdinand and chased the ball.

What's worse is that Ferdinand's pass was a little small, causing Foster to be taken aback, and then decisively abandoned the goal and cleared the ball first, but Benzema still flew up and wanted to block Foster's ball with his body.

Only a thud was heard, and the ball hit Benzema's back solidly and bounced towards the goal.

There was a scream from the whole Old Trafford stadium, only to see Benzema quickly chase the ball, but Forster was so shocked that he almost lost his soul, and quickly took a step faster, grabbed a big kick, and kicked the ball out of bounds, Manchester City's throw-in.

After dealing with this, Foster felt a chill run down his back, and his whole heart was about to jump out of his voice.

But there was a huge boo from the stands at Old Trafford, with many fans booing Foster.

This made Ben Foster, who was in the stadium, feel very depressed, and then looked at Rio Ferdinand, but the big man in the dressing room of the team still looked indifferent, as if the kick just now had nothing to do with him.

But it was obvious that the strength of his pass was too small, which caused Foster to be passive when receiving the ball, how did it become a problem for the goalkeeper?

"Concentrate on it, they're here again!"

Manchester City quickly sent a throw-in, Sanchez ran to the right to receive the ball, picked up the penalty area, Benzema blocked Pepe with his body in the box, deftly stopped the ball, turned and hit the goal.

Startled, Foster flew over and clutched the ball under him.

Fortunately, Benzema was interfered with by Pepe, and the kick could not hit the force, otherwise Foster would not have been able to save at all, which made the United goalkeeper secretly pinch a cold sweat.

After getting up from the ground, Foster looked up and saw that the Manchester City players did not retreat in a big way, but still formed a tight pressure on Manchester United, and there were signs of taking advantage of the opening game to eat Manchester United in one bite.

One minute, one shot, one throw-in, this Manchester City's attack is getting sharper and sharper.

Forster's powerful goal kick sent the ball straight into City's half, and Xavi Martinez headed the ball over to Zabaleta, who stabbed the ball past Xavi Alonso before Wayne Rooney.

United began to put pressure on City's central midfield, and when Xavi Alonso got on the ball, he made another big foot and sent it straight up front and into the left side of the United penalty area.

Benzema and Ferdinand started at the same time and chased the ball.

Ben Foster also decisively dropped the goal, he was closer than the others, and the ball seemed to be in his hands, so Ferdinand did not chase it anymore, but slowed down, and only Manchester City's Karim Benzema continued to press the goalkeeper.

It can be seen that pressuring the goalkeeper is also one of the tasks assigned to him by the manager.

But just when everyone thought that Foster would get the ball, they didn't expect the Manchester United goalkeeper to make a mistake in his judgment.

He wanted to stand in the penalty area and wait for the ball to roll in, and then bend down to pick up the ball, but he didn't expect that the ball was sticking to the white line of the penalty area to the left and did not enter the penalty area.

According to the rules, once the goalkeeper is out of the box, he can no longer use his hands.

This made Ben Foster a little stunned, and he changed his mind in a hurry and decided to use his feet.

But at the moment when he changed his mind, the ball reached him, but Benzema, who suddenly accelerated, also arrived.

The Old Trafford stadium was screaming again, and everyone shouted in disbelief.

Ben Foster himself was taken aback and quickly hooked the ball with his feet, but Benzema reacted faster than him, breaking the ball with successive kicks and poking the ball away before Foster could kick it.

The sudden change stunned the entire Old Trafford stadium, and Ferdinand immediately pounced on Benzema, blocking between Benzema and the goal, but the Frenchman shook off Foster and caught up with the ball, and instead of choosing to hit the goal himself, he passed the ball to the middle.

I saw Cristiano Ronaldo enter the penalty area like a lightning bolt from the top of the arc and easily push the empty goal.

“GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL！！！！！！！”

"Just two minutes into the game, just two minutes, Manchester City opened the scoring for Manchester United!"

"Goal from Cristiano Ronaldo!"

It was also his seventh goal of the season. ”

"Oh my God, City opened the game with a furious attack and Manchester United made two big mistakes in a row. ”

"Goalkeeper Forster and centre-back Rio Ferdinand didn't look out of shape for the game, and there was already a return pass just now that almost made Benzema a threat, but I didn't expect it to come again. ”

"It should be said that this is also a big drawback for Manchester United, especially the centre-backs and goalkeepers. ”

'Van der Sar's absence has had quite a bit of an impact on the Reds, and it now appears that Ben Foster, who has been derided by fans as a butter hand, is simply not capable of keeping the Reds in the back of the net, while Rio Ferdinand's form so far this season is worrying. ”

"1-0, Manchester City broke the deadlock on the pitch!"

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