This Sunday got off to a rather inauspicious start. Having DVR’d the Manchester Derby, I awoke at 9 AM downstairs to the sounds of my dad yelling at the television about how shit the referee was. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten Dad to become a City fan, so much so that he makes it a point to try to watch a lot of the matches with me when he can and that he often gets angrier at the players than I do. (“Dzeko is lazy! He doesn’t track back! Why isn’t Adam Johnson playing?”)

With that kind of alarm, I had an idea what I was about to endure when I met up with Bowie at 11 AM to watch the game over bagels - a brave, but heartbreaking loss. Chris Foy, Manchester United’s Man of the Match, managed to do what no team in England has this season and completely nullify City captain Vincent Kompany by ejecting him from the proceedings a little over 10 minutes in for making as much contact with Nani as you or I did. United had already scored once against the run of play and, with the added momentum of having City’s best defender sent off, added two more before the half. City, however, would not go quietly into the night - Kolarov scored a free kick shortly after the restart, and Aguero, who was phenomenal as the only true forward on the field for City, added a second setting up a final 20 minutes in which Manchester United, despite being up a man, hung on for dear life after having a 3 goal lead only a half hour prior. I briefly thought I had been hallucinating in the morning because I swore I heard Paul Scholes’ name coming from the TV, but there he was, his exhumed body one of the 11 trying to stop City from a historic comeback. They did, but just barely, and given the 12 on 10 advantage United enjoyed, I’ve rarely felt as good after a defeat, especially to…them.

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• Manchester City won a thriller against Newcastle. It was an incredibly entertaining game that they took control of with two goals 5 minutes in and then hung on to win 3-1. Now comes the 2011 calendar year and chasing Manchester United. Just a satisfying result and something I’ll hang my hat on as a sports fan, because right after I watched that, I watched:
• The Giants. Where do I start? Eli becoming a Favre-ian turnover machine (it was always his flaw, but never like this), the evaporation of the pass rush, the shoddy playcalling and overall coaching. It’s not quite as bad as the Mets (they’ve conditioned me to collapses), but the last 70 minutes or so of football have been inexplicably horrendous. Until the 4th quarter last week they managed to find a way to overcome their sloppiness, but it’s all exploded in their face. Yes, they can still make it, but I’m not even angry so much as stunned now, because a team that plays like that doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs. I reserve the right to take that back if they back in and go on a miracle run, but I don’t much like the prospects of that at the moment. And no, I don’t know how they fix those problems, and I don’t know how much of it is coaching or players. It’s simply awful.

…about Jeff Francoeur where a bunch of girls basically miss him because he’s good looking (and some other nebulous reasons, but let’s be real, you’re not in the Mets clubhouse and you definitely can’t prove to me that that bullshit outweighs his crappiness at baseball) just serves as a reminder that appearances do matter, as much as everyone wants a meritocracy. Look at the Beckham/Bellamy comparison I posted a couple of weeks back, or look at the rampant attention Anna Kournikova got (or Maria Sharapova still gets, despite her declining form). It matters in sports as much as anywhere. The dude winked and smiled his way to a free pass despite being the team’s worst everyday player (when position was taken into account), and people still miss him. It’s unbelievable. Just like most Americans know who David Beckham is but couldn’t pick out Lionel Messi from a hole in the wall. Knowing how to promote yourself goes a long way, and so does being attractive. Maybe a lot of people don’t take everything at face value, but a lot of people still most certainly do.

Sorry if I’m saying the obvious, here. I just really hate when people make it obvious they think something for a certain reason and then immediately backtrack when called on their bullshit and make up some vague unrelated crap to support their claim.