One more time !

Once more…

There’s nothing spectacular in a football match whose final score reads 1-0 . And if that happens to be just a league match,there’s not much one would normally read into it . One such match was played today in the City of Manchester stadium  between two teams today which couldn’t be more different – one being the most successful  English team of the last two decades and the other taking baby steps into footballing success buoyed by Gulf money . It was a classic clash of the new versus the old guard – One team prides itself on local home grown talent and the other  being a consortium of international stars and since they were city rivals the clash was always going to be high on passion . There’s something about these derby matches that inspires lesser teams to match their more illustrious neighbours . May be we need  these clashes to remind ourselves that passion can triumph over great difficulties .

The match wasn’t the classic derby match . Manchester City is no longer the poor country cousin . The vast amount of money that’s been pumped into the club lately has made it into a favoured destination of star players from across the league . United on the other hand were hampered by injuries to their captain-defender and came into this match after being knocked out of Europe and a disappointing draw from last week . The star-striker,who was snagged from a smaller club when he was barely out of his teens , started this match carrying a unhealed foot from a couple of weeks before . Trailing the league leaders by 4 points with the end closing in United just HAD to win this game . Manchester City too had a lot  to be fired up with,a win today would have pushed them into contention for a berth in Europe next season .

The match was going to be cagey and that it was . Both teams were more or less evenly matched After half time,United just had to push for a win . But every time they did , they came across an equally resolute defense .The ball had been kicked in for ninety minutes and every time it was headed out by defenders . Every time a player weaved his way into the opponents’ domain , a precise tackle would end the run . And many times, players would slide in with the sole purpose of hurting the other ! This was the script for most of the match,I repeat  ‘most of the match’ . In the last minute of the match , it happened . The smallest man on the pitch jumped high enough to head the ball into the opponents’ goal for the win . The ball kicked into the penalty box was just like the ones which had been kicked all day long . There was nothing particularly outstanding about it . But what was extraordinary about the outcome was that the smallest man on the pitch,who rarely scores over an entire season had managed to score and that too with his head . He wasn’t meant to score,he was old,a work-dog whose job was to tread every piece of land within the  playing field,he was the unlikeliest man for the job, even the ball was targeted for the taller striker right next to him . But he did . He did it not out of some heroic urge , that would be too flamboyant ! He did it because this was what he was supposed to be doing . He knew that the taller defenders were favorites to get to the ball , they had been doing it for the entire match . He knew that nobody expected him to score for he wasn’t a striker . But he jumped . He persevered and in that last moment when everything worth seemed done and dusted , he flipped the script .Let somebody else be flamboyant,he could do it better .  Sometimes ,you just need to put your blinders on and slog . Forget about what happened before , ignore what’ll happen afterwards and just do what you do one more time . One more time …

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