Have been just reading the posts without comment but after witnessing one of the most scintillating games for many a year I just had to comment. It had everything ...drama, tears, shouts of joy ...twists ... no one could have predicted this !
From a pure football perspective it was nothing to shout about ...we have seen many better games this season and every season but in terms of drama ...nothing to beat this game.
I stayed and watched the '99 European cup final to the very end and I did the same on Sunday. I never thought I would see such an impossibility again.
I was moved after the game to question my appraisal of Ballotelli though . W ith half hour to go I was thinking that it would be a good move to bring him on for either Tevez or Arguero ...good thing the coach made the right choice there. Imagine if ( ballotelli) the stone that the builder rejected became the corner stone ? ...guess I am a drama king ..it is what makes sports so exciting ...Bert Cameron in the 400 meters olympic semi finals... Mardona scoring the second against england...Ali knocking out Foreman after being dominated and closer to home, lawrence getting it right against Bahrain ... but even after seeing all the above and then some I still never expected this.
But I now have great respect for mario Ballotelli ...for me he was the game changer . I was wondering which Ballotelli would show up for the last game and did not really expect much ...told he wont figure for City next year, suspended, disciplined, made to sit on the bench for tevez ..but then again tevez was playing so maybe Ballotelli might get a play and do something ..and here is the why the but .....from his first touch of the ball you could tell he had come to play ...he never once looked like the task was too great. when you get someone who is already a proven goalscorer with so much potential come on with that attitude you will fight to the end.
Ballotelli signalled that he had come to join the battle and was not giving up ...he hit with both feet...tried headers ..made passes ..and even tackled and won the ball just outside his own penalty area in a tackle worthy of any of the great defenders . The commentator ( I was listening to the spanish commentary) called his name wrong as he was not expecting ballotelli to be back there with his team needing goals ( all yuh know black people all look the same right ) ...he was everwhere but the pass he made while falling to the ground in the area which set up the winning goal was for me the icing on the cake ...hats off to you " Super Mario ' I take back all the negative things I have said about you . If City let you go after this performance they would show that they know nothing about sport . somehow I dont think they would .
A millionaire playboy at 20, living away from home , partying with the jet set ...believing that the world is your oyster ...hey it has happened , is happening , will happen ..just remember George Best, Cantona, Maradona. some make it through others do not... yesterday's performance convinces me that Mario has learnt his lesson and if that is really so he could be one hell of a player!
Well emotions drained I now resign myself to the exciting world of work .....later I will continue to follow the exploits of the master of the impossible pass .... and the pretenders to the throne of the best team in south america.
