On March 11, 2011, an earthquake that measured a 9.0 on the Richter scale and an ensuing tsunami struck Japan, resulting in nearly 20,000 lives being lost. The same also caused severe damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant, one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents since the Chernobyl incident in 1986, causing a lot of people living nearby to fear about their immediate futures.
A year later on Sunday, March 11, 2012, there was a somewhat of a similar feeling for the hardcore City fan as Swansea City beat Manchester City, 1-0, to dethrone the latter as the leader of the EPL, giving way to their arch city rivals to take over.
Prior to this past weekend, Manchester City was on a rollercoaster ride towards the ultimate prize, the eternal; the EPL title.
All weekend, there was about the matchup the slightly stuffy smell of an induced anxiety. A team that was comfortably beaten by four goals in the opening fixture of the league and that was sitting on the other half of the table would have been easy to beat. Well that, obviously as we all witnessed, was not the case.
With the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal grabbing a win, along with losing the top position after maintaining it since mid-October was somewhat of a sore blow to the egos of the City fans.
But the real blow came when Balotelli managed to have a clean game. What I mean by a clean game is that there was no elbows and neither were there any intentional fouls from the Italian. The yellow card he received was ok. What’s one without a yellow for Balo.
Talking about Balo, here is a Japanese animation to entertain yourself as you read this.
Was it that bad of a result? Does the City faithful think that they have squandered their chances of winning the title for the first time since 1968?
No, I personally do not think so. What made it worse was watching a city fan (John Millington) “crying” after Swansea scored. Watching him crying on TV.
Although I would admire his passion for the club, that was a little embarrassing. But to his defense, he has come out saying that he was not crying but was left frustrated. Now, that does not look like a face that was frustrated. You can decide though.
All eyes are going to be on the next few fixtures, importantly the upcoming game against a broken Chelsea and a back from the dead Arsenal. Makes for an entertaining end of the race towards the EPL trophy. As one said, there is no reason to be feeling Blue already, now is there?
