Happy New Year one and all…I hope last night wasn’t too hard on you all mentally and have your winter woollies on ready for a day at football..
We’ve seen a few turkey’s this season, and we’ve seen a fair few average games. In fact it is hard to reflect on whether a game is good or bad in the hour or so after it finishes. So trying to choose three of the best games of the year is a bit easier when we put everyone into context and focus. But three we did find, although it was easier to find the three worse games!
3rd Place – USA 2 Turkey 1
For the USA this was one of the last warm-up games before they jetted off to Brazil. For Turkey, it was a distraction from their shopping trip in 5th Avenue. The last time I was at the Red Bull Arena, the kick off had been delayed to try and rustle up a few more fans to break the four digit mark for the Red Bulls. For this game we had to pay over $80 for a ticket on the secondary market. #MNTUSA was in full effect. The Americans do patriotism end of. Everything about the game was rammed full of nationalism (in a good way). The game itself was very open, with the USA impressing from the first minute. I could almost forgive the ridiculous licencing laws in US sports grounds….almost I said.
2nd Place – Real Madrid 2 Sevilla 0
Chances to see some of the best players in the world don’t come around every week…unless you live in Munich, Barcelona or Madrid of course. When I first heard of the Super Cup being played in Cardiff I didn’t believe it. But then I remembered that Platini is in charge of UEFA so figured that it was another one of his bizarre decisions, although it would actually be the biggest stadium this game had been played at. The opportunity to watch Real was too good to miss – Ronaldo, Bale, Rodriquez, Modric et al. The weather was perfectly Welsh – sunshine and heavy rain, the hospitality was tip top and the game itself didn’t disappoint.
1st Place – Lewes 3 Grays Athletic 2
You have to love it when your team scores an injury time winner. It’s even sweeter when it delivers your first win of the season after a sticky start. Add in the fact that you had also thrown away the lead when playing against 9 men and the game starts to change in context. Amazingly, there was only two reds as both teams could have had men sent off – Lewes keeper Rikki Banks when conceeding an early penalty and veteran ex-Burnley and Reading midfielder, Glenn Little for a cynical and dangerous tackle when the visitors were already down to nine men. But this was all about the winner, scored by Fraser Logan (and captured here by James Boyes). The goal that saved a season? Possibly.
Tomorrow, on day eight of the TBIR Christmas, the best