This is the ninth piece in our season-long survey of the big games this season in European football. Check out the FoxSoccer.com archive for past installments, and stay with the Fox family all season long for in-depth introductions to the clubs, the players, and the history of the European game for American readers.
Manchester United against Manchester City.
To soccer fans worldwide today, that says it all. Americans can find out what all the fuss is about for themselves on Wednesday with the first meeting of the season between two of the wealthiest teams in world soccer at the City of Manchester stadium.
It’s arguably the biggest intra-city clash in England. Sorry Liverpool, Birmingham and, yes, London. Thanks to City's big-money makeover, the Manchester derby may now be the biggest game on the calendar.
Longtime football fans might rightly scoff. The truth is, until recently, meetings weren’t annual, and when they played, games veered between a mismatch and a joke. City spent many seasons in the wilderness of the lower divisions, and the biggest piece of history the clubs shared was that Scottish great Denis Law played for both. Being a City fan in Manchester was a badge of perverse pride, akin to supporting the hapless Mets while living in the Bronx.
Today, the incredible amount of cash pumped into both clubs has made the once forgettable City an instant global brand while transforming this match into one that has deep ramifications in the Premier League title race.
Bluntly, both teams need to win this one.
United is currently sputtering, winning games by queasy combination of pride and luck, but looking very much like a shadow of the once great teams Sir Alex Ferguson fielded. City, on the other hand, is losing games it should win, then turning around and winning games it should lose. The inconsistency has piled the pressure on manager Roberto
Mancini as everyone tries to figure out just what the heck is going on at Eastlands.
A win would give both teams a major boost as they chase the title and a Champions League slot. A loss will be unacceptable to at least half the folks inside the bounds of the M60 and a draw, while perhaps saving face among supporters, is likely the result both managers need the least.
Let’s talk cash. City is on a different fiscal plane from United, and fans of the Sky Blues are relishing the chance to knock their rivals down a good peg or two. Ever since City was taken over by the sovereign wealth fund of Abu Dhabi, the team has spent in monomaniacal fashion to snap up the best available talent. United, on the other hand, is enduring a crushing debt load (and near-daily protests from its fans about it) and questions about the governance of the current American owners, the Glazer family.
But United has things City can right now only dream about, including a world-class scouting system, arguably the best manager ever in the game, and a proud history that even people who see the Red Devils as satanic, have to concede is well-deserved. United is one of the two most successful teams in English football, tied with Liverpool for the most titles. City? Um, well, not so much.
City, however, has depth, and that’s something United could sorely use right now. Their star striker, Wayne Rooney, is off at Niketown this week, undergoing intensive rehab on his ankle. Mexican wunderkind Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez has been a revelation since joining the club from Chivas, but he is still young and untested up top.
His partner, Dimitar Berbatov oscillates between the sublime and the absent, leaving a great deal of work for squad players like Scotland’s Darren Fletcher and Korean Park Ji-Sung to do. And those squad players, increasingly, are being called upon to win matches. Sunday, Park bailed United out with a last-minute effort against lowly Wolves, earning what wasn’t a truly deserved three points.
The keys to stopping United have remained constant these past few years. If you can take Paul Scholes out of the game in midfield, and force Nemanja Vidic into fouling your strikers as they streak netwards, you have an excellent chance at winning. Edwin van der Sar remains one of the best in the game, and beating him in goal means taking a lot of shots, hoping he coughs up a rebound.
Appearances to the contrary, Ferguson still fields a tough, gritty team. While looking very fragile over the past few weeks, United still has the ability to force teams to do things they shouldn’t -- like giving winger Nani an open break on your goal.
City has depth, talent and what seems to be a mysterious lack of chemistry. Tales of practice-squad rows and locker room fights now so frequently emerge from Eastlands that the malice has formed a dull buzz behind Mancini’s oddly detatched denials. After losing three straight, including a humiliating 3-1 loss to Poland’s Lech Poznan in the Europa League, Mancini seemed almost presidential in his ability to ignore the facts in front of him.
That fact is that it takes a very special manager to handle the cadre of highly-paid, extremely sensitive superstar egos that City has accumulated like Faberge eggs. Joe Torre could do it with the New York Yankees; Sir Alex clearly can do it at Old Trafford; and it looks at this juncture as if Mancini is still searching for the formula -- while looking over his shoulder at his impatient bosses.
City is currently living and dying on the performance of bullish Argentine striker Carlos Tevez, a man who continually looks flabbergasted by his teammates. Young England 'keeper Joe Hart has been brilliant, and new signing David Silva is finally providing service, but the others too often have looked lost.
Hatchetman Nigel De Jong seems unable to control his bloodlust; Yaya Toure has been frustrated and forgettable; and new boy Mario Balotelli celebrated his debut with two goals -- and then an ejection. Let’s not even talk about the petulant Emmanuel Adebayor sulking on the bench, or the fact that Mancini has yet to able to shape this collection of talent into something resembling a team that can attack as one and defend with the same fervor.
That said, when City get all the parts going, they are extremely difficult to handle. They move the ball quickly, are constantly challenging your net, and have such physical grit you’re advised to check and see if all your teeth are intact after the match. And Tevez is one of the game's true match-winners, challenging Chelsea talisman Didier Drogba for the title of most feared big game striker in the business.
All bets are off on this one, other than that both teams will show up and slug it out. It could play out as the highlight of the year, or a grinding bloodbath. Like most of these high-profile clashes the team which scores first probably will get the result it needs.
For many years, United supporters could simply ignore City. No more, and one suspects they wouldn’t have it any other way.
City supporters? They have to be still wondering if all of the promises made by their new regime can be kept. They’d love to start with the scalp of their most hated rival.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the Barclay's Premier League and the UEFA Champions League.
