A bit of a letdown

It's not really fair to compare any game to last year's Champions League final, I don't think, but it still must be said that the 2006 edition was fairly disappointing. Arsenal were reduced to ten men on a foolish takedown by Jens Lehmann early in the game - and there's nothing worse than a red card to the goalie, because then you have to burn a substitution to put in a new goalie AND pull a non-goalie off - and yet somehow went ahead 1-0 on a nice header by Sol Campbell... but Barcelona knew they could bide their time, and sure enough, the winning two goals came in a flurry with only around 15 minutes to go. And that was that. Not all that exciting from start to finish, and it was disappointing that we didn't get to see two full sides - especially two that have historically underachieved in Europe and were getting back at their past - go at it for the whole game. C'est la vie, as they say outside the Stade de France.

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while (I say to the zero people who read this), but it's amazing how fast you'll lose interest in soccer when your club team is going down the toilet. I know injuries take a lot of the blame, but WOW did Man City turn a promising year into a lousy one. Nine losses in ten to end the year, I believe it was? Routine clean sheets by opposing keepers... ugly stuff. And then Pearce let Riera go back to Espanyol, which was disappointing (at least Samaras is here to stay, for now anyway). Then again, Riera couldn't have been playing that well the last couple months for City to drop all the way to 15th.

It's always nice when your team has a bad year and you know they don't really have the money to get much better. Man City is like, I don't know, the Minnesota Twins right now - they've got some good players, but not enough to win, but they don't have enough money to make any real marquee signings, so if they're going to get better it'll have to be through the "farm system." Hey, the Wright-Phillipses came from the Academy. Why not more?

Speaking of which, Pearce apparently continues to try and lure SWP back to Eastlands. I mean, would you even want this guy at this point? Here's someone who might have helped Man City into Europe this year, but instead he forces a transfer to Chelsea because they're champions (and probably because he can get more money there too, let's be honest). Then he doesn't play - gee, you transfer to a team that was already league champion without you and you're shocked that your new nickname could be Mr. 80th Minute? - and now he wants out? Bah. I guess I wouldn't be upset if he came back - God knows City need more goals. But what does that mean for Vassell and Samaras, both of whom I like? I guess technically SWP is an attacking midfielder, so maybe it means nothing. What a front line that would be! On second thought, make it happen.