Rarely do overly-hyped matches live up to their billing, as it seems almost impossible for today’s derby to live up to its Elizabethan story line, with a small fortune spent, a former-player-turned-gaffer against his old mentor, and a Judas-like defector returning to his former love.
All too often these games become overly-tight affairs or slip to the other extreme and boil over into an un-football-like madness. But not today – oh brother, not today.
In what Fergie immediately coined “the best ever” Manchester derby, little did we know that players more on the periphery of the build-up and big money – Bellamy, Given, and Fletcher for example – would play lead roles in the match of the season.
Today the pre-match stories failed to live up to the tension, drama, and intrigue of the match itself, as I’m pleasantly exhausted and wired at 10:00 AM Central Standard Time on a Sunday pinging away on my trusty laptop, enjoying every moment here.
After grabbing breakfast and taking some more time for reflection, the underbelly of today’s victory emerges from the afterglow.
When all is said and done, today’s match should never have been this close, with United gifting City two of its three goals with abhorrent mistakes, one from Foster and the other from Rio Ferdinand.
We look at Foster and pray that he’s not headed down the Calamity James career path – an excellent shot-stopper with moments of decision-making madness mixed in with good measure.
Surely, this performance in such a critical match may cause Fergie to lose faith in him, lest he resurrects himself with much calmer performances somehow and somewhere with van der Sar soon to return from injury.
You wonder if Foster might have done better crafting his skill for a few more years with a comfortable, mid-table team, one maybe a bit more forgiving of the occasional blunder. Only time, or Fergie, will tell.
Earlier this Fall I joked that Rio and Cashley (Ashley Cole, for those EPL-challenged) funding a movie together was an early warning sign of an impending (defensive) apocalypse for United.
After Rio’s chronic injury woes, his horrible back-pass with England, and today’s attempted playground trickery, I’m not so certain it’s funny anymore.
Rio plays center-half with such effortless-looking grace that mistakes seem to catch us all off-guard more than otherwise expected. I believe today’s gaff had as much to do with fatigue impacting his decision-making as anything else, as he plays himself back into true match fitness. This isn’t an excuse, mind you, but he’s been such a stalwart defender that I’m sure he’ll turn it around in classic Rio-like fashion, making things look remarkably simple and easy in due time.
Ah, but no worries. All is said and done, which inevitably make these three points even sweeter at the expense of newly-cocky City.
Back at you after the Stoke match. Cheers.
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