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Premier League Asia Trophy Final Report: Manchester City 1 Sunderland 0
Edin Dzeko Manchester City
- The weather was reminiscent of Boggart Hole Clough on a a cold February night. The sort of place to truly test if a fancy-dan player like Messi can really hack it. A great idea to hold a football tournament during monsoon season. Let’s play next year in Qatar at midday.
- In such conditions, and considering that this is pre-season and thus utterly irrelevant, there is little point in fully analysing the players. Dzeko looked better and scored a great goal, whilst reaffirming the fact that he shouldn’t be allowed near penalties. Negredo looked a handful, others more sluggish, but as long as they are getting fitter, that’s good enough for now.
- I will add though- Fernandinho will be a star, Navas will cause havoc, and Negredo will easily get over twenty goals next season if he stays fit.
- But if one was to analyse progress (and we shouldn’t) the old habit of not taking chances remains. More goals are needed to match the dominance of possession that City often have. With the new additions to the squad, this shouldn’t be a problem for long.
- One player not fitter from pre-season is Nastastic, and we now have an anxious wait to find out the extent of his ankle injury. The pursuit of Pepe may well step up a gear next week. Or even Swansea’s Ashley Williams <taps nose>.
- The constant booing of Samir Nasri was bizarre in the extreme. Either the stadium was full of Arsenal fans, or just idiots. I suspect the latter. Or both.
- The wait goes on to see Aguero and Jovetic. Hopefully not for much longer.
- The commentary: a new season, and new depths to plumb. Niall Quinn’s utter ineptness when commentating is especially depressing, as the love I used to have for him slowly ebbs away each time I am exposed to his blathering.
- This time round I had to wear sunglasses, so bad was the glare from the surface water down the middle of the pitch. All the while, Quinn was keen to point out at regular intervals how well the pitch was holding up. The rest of the time he had nothing of interest to say so just borrowed from the Michael Owen book of tweets instead. Banality is often the key it seems for a co-commentator. Back in the studio though things were much worse, where Trevor Francis appeared to be under the influence of narcotics. Random words seemed to spill out of his mouth, but his crowning glory was a David Icke-like conspiracy theory that a referee from Altrincham shouldn’t be refereeing a Manchester City game, questioning the penalty he gave for the world’s clearest handball. There was lots more drivel, but it’s best to blank it all from our minds.
As for Martin Tyler, who clearly had money on South China netting against Tottenham, such was his state of near-orgasm each time they encroached into Spurs’ half, he wins pointless comment of the match, outdoing Quinn in the process. “It was there to be hit,” he commented at one point as a shot flew wide. That is generally the point of a football, Martin. - It’s no Thomas Cook trophy, but any silverware must be cherished. This does count as a trophy, right?
Man City News 24/7
11 years ago
Presumably the stadium was full of Tottenham fans hence booing ex Arsenal Nasri?