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ESPN raised some eyebrows recently when, attempting to find the best modern day side of the Champions League era, they ranked Manchester Uniteds 1999 side higher than the 2008 winners. United fans have little to do during the week at the moment, being out of Europe for the first time in 25 years, so this topic certainly got a lot of their attention as they debated the merits of both sides. Why not, right? It was certainly more fun than picking the bones out of a 4-0 loss to Milton Keynes Dons in the League Cup or a recent 0-0 draw at Burnley. United fans have been doing a lot of looking back recently. They regularly cast their minds back to the Sir Alex Ferguson era and wonder if any of the current issues existed then. They are regularly reminded of the short David Moyes era where they became forlorn, former giants of the domestic game, forcing the clubs upper management to shop on a different street in the transfer market and finally bring back some expensive class home that can make a difference. Yet this season was supposed to be a new dawn. A new era away from Fergies 2012-13 and the Moyes nightmare of 2013-14 where they can draw a line under the past and move forward. If any comparing of recent eras were to take place, United fans simply hoped it would be in comical fashion referring to how poor they were last year compared to this. That ambitious leap looks far too premature at the moment after their most recent defeat, a 5-3 loss to Leicester City, in which they were massacred in the second half by a club who was playing in the Championship last season. After taking one step forward in their 4-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, they took another two steps back in humiliating fashion at the King Power Stadium on Sunday losing the last 30 minutes of the match 4-0, after being ahead 3-1 after an hour. Captain Wayne Rooney ended the game with a foul-mouthed rant in the face of the officials, believing referee Mark Clattenburg had gotten two major decisions wrong that led to two of Leicesters goals. There was no question that Jamie Vardy fouled both Rafael and Tyler Blackett on the buildup to the penalties being awarded but United will be naive and completely missing the point if they lay this loss at the hands of the officials. The simple truth is United were poor enough to allow the officials to be an excuse. Louis Van Gaal is known to be a coach of great details. He carries around a giant folder to each match and this week he gave us a glimpse of what kind of information was in it. a€?I have analysed them (Leicester) three times,a€? he said. a€?I prepare all my matches very thoroughly. I know all about the games they have played already and the game they lost to a minor team [Shrewsbury] in the Capital One Cup. I know everything about the team, about individuals, substitutes, what the atmosphere will be like in the stadium, how they take free-kicks, everything. My staff check all that out and then we send it to the players. Ryan Giggs gives them a presentation, then we simulate our opponents in training.a€? Whoever simulated Leicester in training this week got it wrong. Very wrong. They failed to show that two men would press Daley Blind whenever he received the ball, ensuring he made less than half of the passes he attempted last week against QPR. They failed to simulate Leonardo Ulloas instincts in the box shown when he scored a crucial header, not tracked, at 2-0. They failed to simulate the tempo that Leicester played with, even when they were down 3-1, something Van Gaal will never have experienced from a promoted team when coaching the likes of Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Above all, they certainly failed to test an embarrassingly open team that showed no backbone, belief and leadership when faced with adversity. In parts United were breathtaking, looking nothing like their former selves, when Radamel Falcaos brilliant cross found the head of Robin van Persie and when Angel Di Maria dribbled his way into the box and lobbed Kasper Schmeichel soon after, but in many ways it is those moments that makes Uniteds second half performance even more alarming. The Premier League has a video library of all of their past matches and inside that library is a list of what they call a€?EPL Classics. These are offered at a price to their broadcast partners around the world. United feature heavily in many of these games and most of them they win. Even when they didnt always play well such classics showed Uniteds incredible resolve and recovery abilities to come from behind and win matches, like the famous 5-3 victory at Tottenham in September, 2001. Sir Alex Ferguson called that one of his most memorable victories and talked in his book about the belief the team had down 3-0 at half-time. He wrote: a€?As they traipsed into the dressing room, three goals down, the players were braced for a rollicking. Instead I sat down and said: a€?Right, Ill tell you what were going to do. Were going to score the first goal in this second half and see where it takes us. We get at them right away, and we get the first goal.a€‰a€? It was a 5-3 that said everything about that United team. The moment they scored the first goal the entire ground wondered about a comeback. Sundays 5-3 loss to Leicester said everything about this current United team. Up 3-1 they should have seen it out but they left too many attacking players on the field and crumbled, losing a Premier League match, after being up two goals, for the first time ever. At 3-3, with 25 minutes left for them to still go on and win, they walked back to the centre-circle with their heads down. The only one whose head was up was captain Rooney who screamed at his United teammates. It is not all Rooneys fault but it was hardly the image of leadership and it speaks volumes that there is no better option than the Englishman to wear the captains armband. A team that once had incredible leadership and characters relied upon individual brilliance to insert their dominance over Leicester but when the going got tough they disappeared. Some blame falls at the feet of Van Gaal, of course, and it is clear his folder needs more chapters, and the profile of a world class centre-back wouldnt hurt either, but the capitulation falls on the players. There is no hiding behind an inadequate manager anymore. The Premier League has a new game to place inside their classic library. It is up to the current crop of United players to now ensure its a match that doesnt define this era. Kendrys Morales Jersey . Spains victory rendered Frances 3-0 win against Finland meaningless as Spain needed just one point to secure passage to Brazil. Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema scored either side of Joona Toivios own-goal as France advanced to the playoff among the eight best second-place finishers. Cheap Toronto Blue Jays Jerseys . -- In the stadium program sold at the Miami Dolphins game on Halloween, Richie Incognito was asked whos the easiest teammate to scare. http://www.cheapbluejaysjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-josh-donaldson-jersey . TSN 1290s Jordan Cieciwa, Big Marv and Toby are here to give their predictions on who will leave with the belt and who will take some of the other key bouts on the card. Johny Hendricks vs. Roberto Alomar Jersey . This is an exercise I have undertaken a few times, starting in 2009, and hope that Ive refined my approach a little bit in that time to help paint a better picture. Aaron Sanchez Jersey . Meeks has agreed to a $19.5 million, three-year deal with Detroit, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday night. The person, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because free agents cant sign contracts until the leagues moratorium ends July 10, also said Cartier Martin had agreed to a one-year contract with the rebuilding franchise.VANCOUVER -- Daniel Sedin scored twice before leaving on a stretcher after taking a hit from behind as the Vancouver Canucks concluded what has been a disastrous season with a 5-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Sunday. Frank Corrado, with his first in the NHL, Ryan Kesler and Yannick Weber also scored for Vancouver (36-35-11), while Jacob Markstrom made 21 saves for his first victory with the Canucks. The result of a game that meant very little was overshadowed by a nasty incident late in the second period when Daniel Sedin was checked in the numbers by Calgarys Paul Byron and stayed down before being stretchered off. Sedin appeared to be moving his fingers, but there was no immediate update on his status. Byron was assessed a five-minute penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. The team said Sedin was taken in stable condition to hospital to undergo further evaluation. "He exhibited signs of movement to his extremities and showed improvement from initially being hit," the statement read. "No assessment will be made until completion of this evaluation." Henrik Sedin added two assists for Vancouver, which goes into the off-season with more than a few question marks after missing the playoffs for the first time in six years. Johnny Gaudreau scored in his first NHL game and Karri Ramo stopped 18 shots for Calgary (35-40-7) as the Flames wrapped up a 2013-14 campaign that saw the team miss the post-season for the fifth straight spring. Vancouver scored twice in the first period and stretched its lead to 3-0 at 9:12 of the second on Corrados first career goal on a shot from the top of the faceoff circle through traffic past Ramo. Kesler then ripped his 25th of the season at 13:49 to make it 4-0 for Vancouver before Gaudreau scored his first in the NHL at 15:22, when a deflection in front went off his stick and past Markstrom to get Calgary on the board. The 20-year-old Gaudreau won the Hobey Baker award earlier this week as the top player in U.S. college hockey after the native of Salem, N.J. recorded 35 goals and 42 assists in 39 games this season with Boston College. After Sedin was taken off the ice before the hushed Rogers Centre crowd, Weber scored on the ensuing power play to make it 5-1 at 18:55, with Vancouver rookie Michael Zalewski picking up an assist for his first point in the NHL.dddddddddddd Markstrom, who came over as part of the Roberto Luongo trade with the Florida Panthers last month, made a nice save on a Sean Monahan breakaway early in the third but had a relatively quiet night. The summer should be interesting for both Calgary and Vancouver. The Flames need a new general manager after firing Jay Feaster in December, while the Canucks are also on the lookout for a new GM following Mike Gillis dismissal last week. The Flames have not made the playoffs since 2008-09 but came into this season with a young roster and zero expectations. The club got off to a rough start, but played much better in the New Year, a surge that coincided with the line brawl against Vancouver in January that saw Canucks head coach John Tortorella try to get into the Flames locker-room. The Canucks, meanwhile, were in a playoff spot at Christmas but stumbled badly for a 20-game stretch midway through the season because of injuries and an inability to adapt to Tortorellas system. Whether or not the embattled coach remains behind the bench next season could be one of the first decisions for newly minted president of hockey operations Trevor Linden. With playoff weather outside as temperatures reached 15 C in Vancouver on Sunday, there was more of a pre-season atmosphere with both teams playing for pride and little else. The Canucks gave up two separate 2-on-1 breaks to the Flames fourth line early in the first period but survived that scare to score the opening goal at 7:14. Vancouvers David Booth, while falling to the ice, swatted at a rebound in front that bounced off Daniel Sedin and past a surprised Ramo. Markstrom then made a couple of nice saves on a Calgary man advantage midway through the period before the Canucks doubled their lead at 13:57 on a power play of their own when Sedin chipped home his 16th of the campaign. It marked Sedins first two-goal game of the season and first since Feb. 24, 2013 -- a span of 101 games. Notes: The Canucks inducted former head coach and general manager Pat Quinn into the Ring of Honour high above the ice surface prior to the game. Quinn led the Canucks team that lost in Game 7 of the 1994 Stanley Cup final to the New York Rangers. ... Canucks players are scheduled to meet the media on Monday morning at Rogers Arena. ' ' '