Super Sunday Football

     Last week's Sunday was truly an eventful one. United supporters rejoyced, Citizens suffered last-minute disappointment and unbiased fans of football enjoyed a real treat. Though the Manchester Derby was stained by a few unnoticed fouls and a goal that was wrongly  ruled out for an offside, the refs did a good job and allowed the two teams to truly provide an entertaining show. In fact, one might even say that the decision to not count Ashley Young's goal was what allowed the match to become such a spectacle. The match itself started in United's favour and Rooney did not miss the opportunity to score. Twice. Reminding us of his early years in United, Wayne Rooney took on the position of center forward and did not disappoint. Man City had its opportunities during the first half, but failed to capitalize on them. The two teams went into  halftime with a 2:0 lead in United's favour. But City had a lot of fight left in them, still, and came out of the lockers inspired. The second half started quite evenly for both teams and fast football was displayed. No one was able to score, though, until Van Persie hit the right bar with an amazing strike, leaving the ball flying toward Ashley Young, who put it in the net with ease. This goal, however, was ruled out due to an offside, which replays show was a wrong decision. Man City took advantage of the frustration the United players were feeling and managed to score with a swift counterattack. The score was now 2:1 and City fans were cheering on their team harder than ever. It seemed to help, because the inspired Man City team crushed United in the next 15-20 minutes, managing to equalize the score. The frustration of United was deepening and they were running out of ideas. Sir Alex Ferguson knew a change was needed and substitutions were the way to go. Phil Jones and Danny Welbeck came in, revitalizing the right wing of the United attack. This change proved to be the key to United's victory, as the pressure on City defenders was too much and in the very last minutes of the match, Welbeck managed to take the ball from a tired City defender and pass it to Valencia, who was fouled. With the score equal at 2:2 and United making a ditch effort to win the three points, Persie took on the responsibility of taking the foul. His strike was strong, but aimed right at Joe Hart. Nasri, however, made an unusual decision and raised his foot, allowing the ball to knock off it and swerve right into the right corner of Hart's goal. Etihad stadium plunged into silence, with only the roar of United fans echoing through. In the end, Man United deserved the win and took the three points justly, but the City team should not feel disappointed, because they showed some impressive football and treated us with a real derby. The Manchester Derby.

 

Hristo Stefanov

Thiago Silva - A Humble Captain

Thiago Silva is one of the world-class defenders in modern football. And as you may guess, I am not talking about the former CSKA player, but about the Brazillian who plays now at PSG. PSG quickly gathered a lot of critics because of the policy they implied in recent years to buy contemporary star players. A policy that was first introduced by Sheikh Mansour in Manchester City in 2007, copied by Anzhi and Malaga new owners. One may say that PSG even went over the ilmit this summer. Apart from ensuring the signature of Napoli star winger Eziquel Lavezzi, as well as new talent Veratti, they also bought probably Milan's two best performers for the last football campaign - Zlatan Ibrachimovic and Thiago Silva. It is interesting to note that both players, and especially Silva insisted on the fact they wanted to stay at the club, however, Milan's financial problems forced them into selling the talneted duo. It is worth mentioning that Thiago Silva captained Brazil during the Olympic games football tournament and performed well, but his performance in the last two season with Milan was sensational and earned him praises from many critics and football players and coaches, including Milan's former great player - Paolo Maldini. The former Milan captain was stunned by the selling not of star forward Ibrachimovic, but of Thiago Silva's departure. He described Silva as brilliant player and a captain for the future of Milan. Now, however, the Brazilian central defender is playing for PSG, a club that cannot match the silverware of Milan at this moment, but has started a project that is both promising and efficient. And Thiago Silva is the centre of this project, he is captaining his new team in his first season with PSG, and he is also captain of Brazil national team. The latter team has never been famous for producing brilliant defenders, but Thiago Silva has proved many people with his performances that unlike many of his Brazillian colleagues he prefers do to his job in defence, and leave the attacking duties to the rest of the team. And this is one of his brilliant qualities, aside from his anticipation, speed, good heading skills, technique, tackling abilities, he also loves his job playing defence and plays with both passion and determination, he does not take risks by going on forward runs (take a look on Lucio or David Luiz) which can be dangerous, but often produce greater hazard for the defender's team. Thiago Silva is also very humbe in his opinion of himself, but this is another honorable quality of his character which complements with his football abilities and makes him so remarkable player.

                                                                  To be continued...

"Arab Money" not enough to make the club a legend

Since 2007 there has been a new team, which was competing in the title race for Barclays Premier League. Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the new owner of Manchester City, invested more than 300 million dollars in the club and won two cups with his new team. First, it was the FA cup in 2011, and after that it was the Premier League at 2012, when City prevailed against their city rivals- Manchester United. And even though that Mansour Al Nahyan has spent more than 300 million on players, his team is still considered insignificant in Europe competitions. Manchester City failed to continue the Champions League groups after two years, finishing 3rd and 4th respectively. The owner of Man City announced that Manchester City will become the greatest teams in the world, but in the last years Manchester City doesn't show the form that a great club should show. Even though it is gradually picking up speed, Manchester City is way behind English legend-teams such as Liverpool, Arsenal and ofourse- Manchester United. In the previous years the Manchester derbies are not just city derbies, but title derbies. That makes the intrigue even bigger, and the city of Manchester is now colored almost equally in two colors- lightblue and red. Some opposers of Manchester United recently after the arrival of Mansour, became Man City fans in order to oppose "The Red Devils". Some people, however may not realize that money don't make history, nor class. This change definately makes the Premier League more challenging and more intriguing, but this change is only temporary. In history Manchester City will remain only a spot of glory, and will always remain in the shade of its greater opponent, and the city of Manchester will become entirely red, singing " Glory Glory Man United!"

Is United that ahead?

As Manchester United were  able to defeat its city rival Manchester City, the Red Devils were able to solidify their first position in the Premier League. Manchester City were on second place before the match and with the win of United they felt behind them with 6 points. On third palce is the Chelsea with their new manager, Rafael Benites. As Man United was able to beat their rivals they took a real secure position in the league. The season is far from being over, but many people think that the Red Devils have almost won the tournament. However, many people seem to have forgotten last season when the team of Alex Ferguson managed to lose the title with an 8 point advantage from their rivals, again Manchester City. Manchester United was able to lose their advantage in 3 matches. One of them was exactly against Manchester City. The other 2 matches ended in a loss to Wigan and a draw with Everton, while Manchester City was able to win all their matches. Then the title was going to be decided on the last match of both teams. Manchester City had better goal advantage through the season so any win for Manchester City would have won the tittle. They played agaisnt QPR, who actually were visitors on Etihad Stadium. They had controlled the match with the result of 0-2 for QPR. After that they lost a player by getting a red card. However, their defence seemed magnificent as they were holding countless attacks. Manchester City was able to reduce the deficit by scoring a goal. After that Manchester City scored 2 goals in the last minutes of the match. The last goal was in the actual last minute of the extended time. They were some conspiracy theories that actually QPR let Manchester City win, but that will never be proved. This only shows that in football  no matter how much a team has advantage it hasn't won untill the very last.