It is Still Early to Tell

The second day of competitive football in EPL and La Liga has seen some contrasting results comparing to the opening games. And so far only Manchester City has fallen prey and slumped to a stunning 2-3 defeat against a well organized Cardiff City. And tonight will be a great conclusion for day 2 and what the EPL season would be in the coming days as ManU and Chelsea will square-off at Old Trafford. On the other hand, all eyes are set on Real Madrid as the imminent transfer of Gareth Bale is forthcoming, who have been staying at his agent’s apartment in Marbella.

Although it is still too early to tell as it is still only the second day but at some point it will be crucial not to be taken advantage early on of the season. So winning each game will only benefit each team especially if the 2011 EPL season is to be repeated wherein, Man City only won in goal difference right at the very last game of the season. And speaking of last-gasp goal, Manchester City had almost duplicated their 2011 stoppage time victory as Cardiff was 3-1 up going into injury time. City can only manage to pull one back despite a couple of chances before succumbing to a stunning defeat.

It was stunning because Man City is already a goal up just seven minutes at the start of the second half and I haven’t seen also the fire power and style that they have had in thrashing New Castle in their first match. And I could only see two reasons of their defeat. First and foremost, the absence of injured captain Vincent Kompany has made two defensive mishaps with a makeshift center back of Javi Garcia alongside Joleon Lescott. Or probably, The Bluebirds just played an incredibly disciplined and well organized football in front of home crowd in their first Premier League home match.

Image from wikipedia

Gareth Bale Arrives in Spain

The long speculation of Gareth Bale transferring to Real Madrid this summer has come to an end after Real agreed to a world record deal worth 86 million pounds. And will officially become the most expensive football player in history, breaking CRon’s 80 million pounds transfer fee in 2009. Although Tottenham’s manager insists that a deal has yet to be completed but Gareth Bale’s arrival in Spain is more than enough to hint that he finally agreed to move to the Santiago Bernabeu.

There are more indications that the deal has finally been completed as Bale was left out for the match against Swansea although the Spurs are claiming that he is nursing an injury. Then after Bale was given two days off, he flew and arrives in Spain on Saturday, on a private jet and waiting for the go signal to travel to Madrid for the medical check-up and formally sign the contract. The third indication is that, there’s already a stage intended for Bale’s presentation at the Santiago Bernabeu and could be unveiled as early as Tuesday. That is because the Spurs manager said that if the deal is not completed then he expects Bale to be back at the White Hart Lane for training.

Lastly, the more daring stance is Real Madrid’s number 11 jersey with Bale’s name at the back was up for sale in one of the store in Madrid last week and in fact, Gareth Bale’s name already appeared in Madrid’s official website but was then taken out after awhile. Instances like this is not new for Real Madrid as it happened also to Luka Modric’s apparent moved to the Bernabeu last season. So when Gareth Bale arrives in Spain, it is now considered a done deal.

Image from wikimedia commons.

Classy Man City Rout New Castle

Barca’s 7-0 demolition of Levante last Sunday might be phenomenal when you simply look on the numbers without consideration of the type of opponent they have. They may be playing their highly disciplined style of play again but I believe that with what Manchester City showed last night in thrashing New Castle with a 4-0 victory is far better, knowing that the Magpies is not a push-over team. And if only Man City don’t have so many missed opportunities on goal then they must have buried New Castle right from the beginning.

Their aggressive and offensive type of play could have scored them a few more goals especially Eden Dzeko who was so unlucky not to score from several clear chances he has had. But perhaps that has something to do also with the excellent saves and quality goalkeeping by New Castle keeper Tim Krul who was very busy all throughout the match, diving and parrying here and there. Yet even his outstanding effort and somehow luck, must have reached its limit at some point as he surrendered four stylish goals from David Silva, Aguero, Yaya Toure and Nasri.

And I think Sergio Aguero’s 22^nd minute perfectly fired goal into the far corner is probably the goal of the match as it was not only a superbly created goal but it also came from the other half of the field, supplied by Kompany towards Dzeko who mindfully showed great passing skills. He created a perfect back-heel pass straight into Aguero’s path then slotted a low shot that went in off the far post which I think beyond the reach of Krul even with his already outstretch arms. And with the very resounding 4-0 win over New Castle, Man City emerged at the top of the leaderboard.

Image from wikipedia.