The moment Drogba scored, the television cameras immediately cut to Ferguson.
Unlike Mourinho, who was celebrating wildly with his coaching staff, Ferguson showed almost no reaction at all. He was not angry, nor did he make any visible gesture. He simply stood there, expressionless.
He clearly knew the cameras would be looking for him, and perhaps because he had no intention of giving them a reaction, he remained perfectly still.
Mourinho was the complete opposite.
The Portuguese manager celebrated with his coaching staff before turning towards the pitch and giving his players a thumbs-up.
The gesture immediately drew a huge roar from the New Manchester United supporters in the stands.
They had waited five full years for this moment.
Five years.
In football history, five years was not particularly long.
But for a supporter, how many periods of five years did a lifetime really contain?
Five years earlier, New Manchester United had been founded amid skepticism from almost every direction.
People said the club had no money.
No players.
Not even a proper home ground.
Many believed it would disappear almost as quickly as it had been created.
Yet five years later, New Manchester United were standing inside the Millennium Stadium, facing Manchester United, the club many of their supporters had once followed before disagreements over the direction and identity of the club drove them away.
And now Drogba had scored against them.
For those supporters, the goal meant far more than simply taking the lead.
For a moment, the Manchester United end fell silent.
Against almost any other opponent, United supporters would have responded immediately to such celebrations with louder chants of their own.
But New Manchester United were different.
The simple fact that the Red Rebels had reached this stage so quickly carried its own meaning.
Five years after being dismissed as an impossible project, they were now leading Manchester United in a major match at the Millennium Stadium.
The television cameras swept across the stands.
Several supporters were openly crying.
Not because of the scoreline alone, but because the goal represented five years of belief, frustration, work, and expectation.
Ethan's eyes were wet as well.
In the days leading up to the match, he had barely been able to sleep.
He wanted this game to prove something.
To prove that the choices he had made over the previous five years had meant something.
To prove that all the work invested in building New Manchester United had not been wasted.
And, on some level, to prove that the path he had chosen after leaving Manchester United had been the right one.
But he was also afraid of losing.
He could tell Mourinho that a team had to accept the possibility of defeat before it could truly learn how to win.
He could not convince himself that the result of this match did not matter.
For five years, he had imagined the first meeting with Manchester United.
He had always assumed it would eventually happen in the Premier League.
He had never expected the first confrontation to arrive like this.
Looking down at the players on the pitch, Drogba, Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo, Beckham, Essien, Terry, and the others, Ethan felt a powerful surge of confidence.
He trusted this team.
He trusted these players.
They had already proved how good they were.
And they deserved the chance to aim even higher.
That began with beating Manchester United.
...
The match restarted.
After falling behind, Manchester United immediately became more aggressive in their challenges, especially in midfield.
Butt and Keane increased the pressure on Beckham and Essien.
Beckham, in particular, was given almost no time to turn or release the ball comfortably.
Yet against Keane's relentless pressure, Beckham began showing a side of his game that had rarely been seen during his years at Manchester United.
"Beckham receives it from Essien. Lovely turn... he's away from Keane! Still Beckham. He sends it out wide to Cristiano Ronaldo. Cristiano takes on Phil Neville, gets to the byline and crosses... Drogba with the header!"
"Wide!"
Martin Tyler sounded genuinely surprised.
"That was interesting. Beckham chose to turn away from Keane rather than releasing the ball immediately. During his Manchester United days, he would usually have looked for the pass much earlier."
Andy Gray chuckled.
"If you can pass your way out of trouble, why dribble?"
"True," Tyler replied. "But that was very clean from Beckham. The turn, the control, and then the pass out to Cristiano Ronaldo all came in one movement."
Andy Gray laughed.
"People sometimes forget that Beckham was always technically gifted. When he was young, he won a national football skills competition before establishing himself at Manchester United. He had an excellent technical foundation from the beginning."
"In his early years at United, he was a very complete wide player. He could pass, shoot, carry the ball, and create. Later, as his crossing and long passing became such defining parts of his game, people started overlooking everything else."
Martin Tyler nodded.
"Exactly. People talk about Beckham's crossing as though it were simply the product of repetition. Of course practice matters, but you also need vision, timing, awareness, and the ability to read the game. Without those things, the passes would never be so accurate."
"And since joining New Manchester United, he seems to have worked deliberately on becoming more comfortable under pressure."
Just then, Beckham received another pass.
"There's another example!" Andy Gray said. "Beckham turns away from Scholes this time. Scholes can't get the ball off him. Beckham plays it into Drogba, but Ferdinand reads it early and clears."
Martin Tyler suddenly noticed something on the replay.
"Andy, look at the support around Beckham."
Gray leaned forward.
"What about it?"
"When Beckham turns there, he has at least four players positioned around him."
The broadcast replay froze briefly before continuing.
"Essien is sitting behind him in case possession is lost. Kaká has dropped into a passing lane. Cristiano Ronaldo has come inside from the left. Curtis has stepped forward while tracking Van Nistelrooy."
Tyler pointed towards the screen.
"So even before Beckham turns, he already has several options."
Andy Gray nodded slowly.
"And look at what happens if he loses it. Scholes still has very few places to go."
"Exactly," Tyler said. "The players around Beckham are already positioned to counter-press. If Scholes wins the ball, Beckham turns immediately, the nearby players close the passing lanes, and Manchester United are under pressure again."
"That gives Beckham more freedom to take risks in possession than he might have had before."
"He knows that if he loses the ball, the structure around him is designed to help win it back quickly."
"Of course, the coaching staff have clearly worked with him individually as well. His shielding, turning, and confidence in one-on-one situations all look sharper."
Andy Gray looked impressed.
"That reminds me of something Mourinho said when Beckham first signed."
"When a reporter asked him what New Manchester United could offer Beckham besides money, Mourinho said, 'We can give him the best football of his career.'"
Gray watched the replay again.
"A more central Beckham, with greater responsibility for organising the team and a more complete role in possession. You're right, Martin. This wasn't improvised after he arrived. They clearly had a plan for him before they signed him."
Throughout the first half, Beckham repeatedly showed flashes of that wider role.
His diagonal passing remained as accurate as ever and continued to threaten Manchester United whenever New Manchester United attacked quickly.
But he was also becoming more involved in short combinations through the centre.
He played more one-touch passes.
He protected the ball more confidently.
And when necessary, he was willing to turn away from pressure rather than immediately moving possession elsewhere.
That did not mean Beckham had suddenly transformed into a completely different player.
There were still obvious signs that he was learning the role.
His control of the match's tempo was not yet perfect.
His understanding with some teammates was still developing.
Several passes went astray because one player moved before the other expected, and on more than one occasion Manchester United almost turned those mistakes into counter-attacks.
Curtis, however, was having an excellent first half against Van Nistelrooy.
He followed Mourinho's instructions almost perfectly.
At least three Manchester United attacks that had been directed towards the Dutch striker were broken up by Curtis before Van Nistelrooy could turn them into anything dangerous.
In the stands, Ethan watched New Manchester United go toe-to-toe with Manchester United and felt increasingly excited.
He knew Beckham's career had reached a crossroads when he left Old Trafford.
Many coaches and analysts had long believed Beckham could become more influential from a central position rather than remaining permanently on the right.
That was exactly what Mourinho was now trying to develop.
The difference was that New Manchester United had built a midfield structure around him.
Essien provided defensive security.
The team's pressing system protected possession losses.
The attacking players constantly moved into passing lanes.
And the coaching staff had spent weeks working on Beckham's role in detail.
Moniz had even personally worked with him on one-on-one situations, both attacking and defensive, while additional sessions focused on receiving under pressure, protecting the ball, and controlling the tempo of matches.
Beckham's basic technique had never been the problem.
Moniz believed the real issue was that Beckham had spent years specialising so heavily in certain strengths that other parts of his game had become underused.
The aim was not to rebuild him from scratch.
It was to help him use more of what he already possessed.
A player of Beckham's quality understood his own strengths very well.
He was never going to dribble like Cristiano Ronaldo or Palacio.
Nor did he need to.
Instead, he relied heavily on quick combinations.
One touch.
Two touches.
Move the ball.
Move again.
Receive in another position.
That suited him far better than carrying possession for long stretches.
And that was perhaps the clearest difference between Beckham and Juninho as New Manchester United's organiser.
With Beckham in the role, the team attacked with greater depth, particularly because of his ability to switch play or send long diagonal passes behind defensive lines.
The midfield also moved the ball more quickly.
Beckham covered more ground, offered himself for more passes, and constantly shifted position to support the players around him.
Juninho had been more comfortable carrying the ball and controlling possession himself.
Neither approach was necessarily better.
They were simply different.
But Mourinho and the coaching staff believed Beckham's style was particularly well suited to the current squad and to the demands of English football.
Even though he had not completely adapted yet, Beckham had unquestionably been one of the best players on the pitch during the first half.
As New Manchester United's main organiser, he had been involved almost everywhere.
Starting attacks.
Supporting combinations.
Dropping deep.
Helping defensively.
And most importantly, he had played a central role in creating the only goal of the half.
When the referee finally blew the whistle for half-time, New Manchester United went into the dressing room leading 1-0.
The cameras immediately found Ferguson again.
His expression was as dark as the clouds over Manchester on a winter afternoon.
The Manchester United players would almost certainly face a difficult half-time team talk.
Mourinho, however, did not look particularly pleased either.
Throughout the first half, he had been writing down mistakes and positional problems.
A one-goal lead was not enough to satisfy him.
There would be corrections.
There would be warnings.
And for some players, there would almost certainly be a few harsh words.
(To be continued.)