New York City F.C. played their first home match at Yankee Stadium this evening and beat the New England "Revolution" 2-nil. 43,507 were on hand, a wonderful crowd. New York City tied the Orlando City "Purple Disney Worlds" 1-1 before a sold-out Citrus Bowl of over 63,000 last week.
On this subject, the City, my beloved Manchester City F.C., the parent club of NYCFC, lost to Burnie...Burnley 1-0 at Burning Stadium yesterday. Manager Manuel Pellegrini's seat on the bench is burning, too. The champions are done in the English Premier League race, five points behind Chelsea who have two games in hand, and only one pint ahead of the Arse. They are eliminated from the FA Cup, the Capital One Cup, the Sherwin Williams Cup, all them cups. They are alive, but on life support, in the UEFA Champions League. They lost to Barcelona in the first match of the tie 2-1 at the Etihad and now have to beat 'Lona by two or three touchdowns at the Camp Nou to advance. I.e. TAIN'T gonna happen.
City is old, they are the oldest club in the EPL and they got old quickly this year. Age has really caught up to captain Vinny Kompany who is just not himself anymore. Kun Aguero has had exasperating knocks and bruises the last couple years but this year got a serious knee injury, tore one of those ligament things. Yaya Toure was not mentally right this season and had that blasted African competition that sent him AWOL from the club for a month. In other words, City has really slipped. The core group, the greatest in the club's desultory history, has now been together for several years. They have literally grown old together and I think are mentally spent. They just have not clicked for long enough stretches this season.
In the past, that is before Financial Fair Play, it would never have been allowed to get to this point. Sheikh Mansour would have plucked who he wanted from the Arsenal farm team, from the great European Clubs, from the Chevies, and would have reloaded. Apparently they could not do that. In any event they did not. They made some nice acquisitions in the off season but the newbies cannot replace the core. I was concerned going into this season with the same old--brilliant, but old--faces but they did and the season has been a failure. Unless somebody spikes their water bottles with cocaine they will crash out of the UCL with a whimper if not a bang.
I do not pretend to know what financial legerdemain is possible to restock the team but tinkering is not an option. They need a major overhaul. That will start with the sacking of Manuel and should continue with a fond fairwell to Vinny and several man hugs for his service, a polite, respectful but not affectionate parting with Yaya, City can skip the birthday wishes this year, and, gulp, with Kun, who is just not physically dependable any longer. Selling those players is necessary, regrettably, as the club can not turn to sports' greatest owner for some personal petro-dollars under FFP. In other words the manager and the core must go. City should be in full rebuild mode in the summer. Undoubtedly, that will result in a step, probably a few steps, back, and probably out of the UCL next year and probably the year after. I, at least, don't see the alternative. A disagreeable task to write all of this about the Beloveds but I close this section of the post with a throaty, loud-as-I can statement of lifelong fidelity;
CITY FOREVER!!!!
This is "Selection Sunday" in the US&A when only the best, only the 68 finest, scholarly basketball teams are invited to the "Big Dance," the NCAA tournament, to determine the National Champion. The teams are seeded 1-64 and then there are two "play in" games. There will be surprises, there will be a couple of teams of the Florida Gulf Coast ilk that make the first two rounds so charming but the selection committee has got this seeding biz down pretty well and it will be a real surprise, shock really, if one of the four top seeds, Kentucky, Duke, Villanova, or Wisconsin don't win it a couple weeks from now.
Before checking one last time for any updates on MHPutin, inn-teresting countries represented among readers today are:
-Argentina, 3.
-Guatelama, 1.
-Greenland, 1.
Good night unless Putin reappears.
