First off, a win for Guangzhou City in the much-anticipated Guangzhou derby against Guangzhou FC.
Then a resounding 8-2 victory for our 5-a-side team against the bottom of the league side (who weren’t actually that bad). One goal, three assists and an absolutely belted point blank range ball to the face for yours truly. So yes, some bits were better than others.
And then this:
Is there any better way to win a tight, well-fought match than with the very last kick of the game?
Delicious!
I’ve been waiting for this email. And now it has arrived:
I love a good package (who doesn’t?), and with just 4 days until the first Championship match of the new season (although 7 days until our first Championship match of the season), I was wondering if a good package was going to come my way. Well, finally, it has.
And there’s an early bird offer. Kaboom!
On the other end of the spectrum, there are the pay as you go deals: £25 per month or [gasp] £10 per game. Ten pounds!
That’s right up there with R500 per baboon. You could actually almost get an actual match ticket for that. Although the air fare might bump things up a bit.
Anyway, now that my email has arrived, I am going to sort my subscription so as not to miss out on anything exciting. And by that – incredibly – I mean Millwall at home next weekend.
UPDATE:
Aww yiss!
I didn’t pay the £25 to watch United’s 6 pre-season friendlies. I wasn’t sure I could watch them all anyway, and £25 seems like a lot when the opponents are Casa Pia (won 2-1), Lincoln (see below), Scunthorpe, Mansfield, Burton and Barnsley. No offence to those clubs, but I would have thought a bit more about it if there had been a Spurs or a Bordeaux or something in there.
I might still go for the season long package again though, if it hasn’t gone up too much. And that even though there won’t be a Spurs or a Bordeaux or something in there.
Anyway, if I had bought into the friendlies, I would have got more for my money today, with United playing two (two!) back to back 60 minute training games against Lincoln City.
Fotmob handled this unusual scenario quite nicely (see above), but Google got all confused and claimed that the first game had been abandoned and the second one cancelled.
That clearly wasn’t the case, and personally, I would have liked a third game to see if we could have got to 23.
Again, no disrespect to Lincoln, but these are games that we would expect to be winning, so it’s all about the intricacies and the performances, rather than the results. And the boss seemed pretty happy with those aspects, so I think it’s safe to say that we’re definitely winning the league this season*.
Bring it on*.
* T&Cs apply
Yesterday’s climax to several of Europe’s top football leagues was every bit as exciting as any neutral could ever have hoped for. Of course, no-one is completely neutral in these matters: I can’t recall any game where I actually didn’t care at all about who was going to win. After all, we all have our little foibles and favourites and many reasons whey we hate the dirty, scab bastards from Nottingham.
And you can spin it any way you want, but Bill Shankly was right: winning is everything. And thus I know readers who will be happy and readers who won’t be happy this morning.
For me, looking across England, Spain and Italy last night (the leagues I watch) and the bits that I was mildly invested in, I got two out of three at the top (one having been decided long ago), and one of out three at the bottom (from yesterday).
Not great, but still better than the one that I was really invested in, which didn’t happen at all.
So now we are about to enter a period of quiet evenings in front of the family instead of the football. Of having to learn and talk about cricket (wut?!?) to distract ourselves, or face up to the crushing reality of South Africa’s economic predicament (I’ll take the cricket, please). Of betting on the likes of FCs Honka and Petrzalka, instead of the Blades and Real Madrid. Of blissfully early nights and lower stress levels.
I’m not sure what I’m going to do with myself. Bring on the 30th July.
I had a nervous morning. I always do when there’s a big game ahead. And this was a big game.
I needn’t have worried. We were brilliant.
Bring on the playoffs, and (at least) another 180 minutes of stress, emotion and drama.