Dueling Man-jos

Though I knew the result and had seen the highlights, I sat down and watched the whole Manchester derby anyway tonight, because I'll be lucky to see a third of Man City's games all year so I'll be damned if I'm going to pass one up.

It wasn't too bad. Reading the recap and, in particular, Ferguson's whinefest, you'd think the whole game was just United firing shot after shot while City stacked ten men on the 18-yard line, but that really wasn't the case. In fact, City controlled the ball in the midfield for most of the first half and probably had the nearest misses before van Nistelrooy put one in just before the whistle. (Bad break there for City as well - James did well to make the first save on RVN's redirect of the free kick, but nobody got there to hold him off on the rebound.)

The second half was closest to Ferguson's description - after playing a bit more open in the first half and conceding a goal, City seemed determined to lock down and look for an opening for a counterattack. So most of it was just United attacking and eventually being held off, before City finally broke through in the 76th when Barton tapped Vassell's shot past Ferdinand, who was on the line to van der Sar's left as the only person in the way.

And after that, City unquestionably had the only other good chance of the game, when Cole drilled one that van der Sar just got in front of, about thirty seconds from time. Very very close to stealing one there. But Ferguson's just whining about nothing. Sure, City played defensively in the second half and waited for the "scraps," as he said. So what? It's a game plan and it worked. You expect City to try and get into a shootout with a team running van Nistelrooy and Rooney out front on their home pitch? They were playing for the draw in the second half, not the win, and they still came near to stealing it. Don't be mad because you drew; be relieved you didn't lose.

On to the other Tuesday action:

Real Betis 1-2 Liverpool

Not the best-played of games. Liverpool got the opener about 90 seconds in and the second before the 15-minute mark, and then at halftime seemed to lose all interest in attacking and just sat back as Betis missed chance after chance. The Spaniards did put one in with just six minutes gone by in the second, but after that it was all for naught; just a lot of boring midfield play, and the Reds didn't even play particularly well on defense (in some respects you could say they were lucky to win, especially with the case that they got away with a push on the first goal). Still, I'm glad to see Champions League football back, though I'm already salivating over the knockout stages and their heightened drama. (Hopefully I wasn't just spoiled by last year's finish.)

As for the games I didn't see but saw the scores, quick hits: Yikes, Madrid. Shrug, Chelsea. Wow, Rosenborg. And hey, Rangers. The rest were as expected. Tomorrow's most interesting game is probably Man U-Villareal, which will be on ESPN2; I don't think I'll have the chance to watch it live but it will be waiting on TiVo when I get home.