Hello my wonderful football people, trust all’s good with you… well, barring all you Manchester United fans out there.
It’s always hard losing a final and despite some progress being made this season, United fans will feel like it was another underperforming campaign.
It’s strange, despite what (on the surface) may have appeared to be a close game, for me it always felt like City could have dug deeper if needed.
Watch the highlights of our #FACup victory, from our unique Pitcam angle! 📹 🙌
— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 5, 2023
For the best part they looked pretty comfortable, but no disrespect to United coach Erik ten Hag, with what he has squad-wise compared to City counterpart Pep Guardiola, it wasn’t a million miles apart.
It could well have been after an early Casemiro (potential) ankle shattering challenge somehow avoided VAR scrutiny?
Had it not been for the FA’s royal showpiece, it was a possible straight red. The chubby Brazilian was, however, largely ineffective and a step off the City midfield pace.
And while Ten Hag successfully cancelled out Erling Haaland, Ilkay Gundogan was repeatedly left prowling alone on the edge of the box. Scoring twice past a keeper who surely can’t hold a first-team place next season.
But really key (for me) was the non-existence of Christian Eriksen, Fred and Jadon Sancho. It was incredible how insignificant they were made to look on that pitch!
United’s “creativity” was completely nullified, leaving Marcus Rashford visibly frustrated at the lack of service.
Yeah, if I was a United fan I would have found that a bit of a hard watch… somehow amplified by Pep’s absolute dressing down for the occasion, like this man really doesn’t give a f***, could have just chucked some old clothes on to go and buy some milk. Not a care in the world, always knew he was gonna win it!
The only plus for Cape Town fans was Tekkie Town, Footgear and DSTv ads digitally superimposed on the electric hoardings around the stadium.
So, anyway, that takes us to Istanbul this coming Saturday at 9pm as the Sky Blues aim at the big one! Can they manage to repeat United’s legendary 1998/99 season and complete an historic treble?
Istanbul awaits! 🇹![CDATA[]]>🇷 pic.twitter.com/tDH5LIhf4D
For me there’s absolutely no doubt… the FA Cup simply served as a competitive warm-up for the massive occasion and it just feels like the momentum is with them this time.
I know better than most that ‘on the night’ anything can happen, I mean look what went down in 2021.
Kai Havertz scored the winner against City to lift Chelsea’s second Champions League two years ago. But naaah, that’ll just ensure Pep makes sure this time!
No mistakes, no chances, he’ll be working round the clock to perfect every tactic and instruction.
Either way, it’ll be a much bigger and better occasion than last week’s Europa League final. Jeeez, that was k@k. What an awful game of football.
And to top it off Jose Mourinho making a complete ass of himself throughout the whole game, performing like Mikel Arteta on the touchline, before waiting to abuse referee Anthony Taylor in the car park after the game.
I mean ffs, what is this? Matroosfontein on a rainy Tuesday night? His antics paving the way for fans to show up at the airport to harass Taylor, his wife and kid as they departed Budapest.
Mate, I’m all up for a bit of aggro at football, but he should be old enough and wise enough not to let himself down like that.
So ladies and gents, we have one more game to go before football properly shuts down and that depressing feeling becomes a reality…
What the hell am I gonna do for three months? Suggestions to nick@heartfm.co.za (Twitter) @thehonestnick. Chat next week, bye byeeee.
dailyvoice@inl.co.za