Silva was an unused substitute, which must have been a personal frustration given his role in Euro 2008. Perhaps it was good, though, that he was not on the pitch given the tackles that his new team-mate Nigel de Jong was throwing about. De Jong and his co-bully Mark van Bommel were tasked with terminating Spain's passing with extreme prejudice and both were lucky to stay on the pitch after some brazen fouls. De Jong's flying kung-fu stamp on Xabi Alonso's thorax was punished with only a yellow card, when a red would have been more appropriate. I've said before how much I dislike de Jong's malice, and this was one of the worst.
That said, I would have loved him to win it. Not just because he, unlike Silva, is currently a City player but because of all our playing representatives at the World Cup, he feels ours in a particularly meaningful way. But Spain were deserving winners, on aesthetic and moral grounds, and de Jong was one of the main reasons for that.
3 comments:
Off topic I know, but comedy gold over on the dark side...
http://www.trulyreds.com/20100712/city-cant-stop-pretending-that-its-a-big-club/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TrulyRed+(The+Manchester+United+fans+blog+)
I have heard the aesthetic/moral justification before (I'm sure you've read it too, that very headline, if I recall), but it just doesn't work when the Spanish didn't play aesthetically pleasing football at this World Cup. They just didn't. This isn't Euro 2008. Not even close. The Dutch were awful in the final. Just depressingly awful. The Spanish didn't really justify the label of aesthetic football. I wanted a nation that hadn't won before to win this World Cup, and imagine my joy when the final guaranteed this would happen. Imagine my shame when it happened this way. When Nigel kicked Alonso in the gut it made me groan. Really bad. Just bad. Maybe I'll buy a City shirt with no player's name on the back. I was going to have de Jong on the back next season. His World Cup final performance has me reconsidering it. But, not even considering his violent streak, how long will any player last at City now? Why have anyone's name on it all? Yeah, I'm being pessimistic. Here I was worried that Nigel might be dumped after the signing of the other Touré, but after that kick to the stomach, what the hell, man. What was he thinking. Maybe Kompany?
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