Manchester In North America

Manchester City travel back to the Manchester weather after a very hot and heated tour of North America. The squad had a few days rest and relaxation before getting down to the semi serious work of playing matches.
The trio of fixtures kicked off in San Francisco with the City team taking on Club America. City started with new signings Clichy and Savic, youth prospects Mancini, Guidetti, Veseli as well as members from the FA Cup winning squad, Hart, Toure, Richards and Dzeko.
However it was old boy SWP and Ryan McGivern who netted both City goals as they ran out victors, 2-0.
Next up the City team traveled to Canada to face the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was not the start that City had hoped for with the Canadians going a goal up through a deflected shot from Sanvezzo before losing Yaya Toure through injury.
Mancini again elected to play a different team each half and it was the second half City that struck back. Guidetti latched on to Mancini Jr’s corner to power the Blues back on level terms before Sweepie secured the win five minutes from time with a cracking effort.
Lastly it was off to LA where the ever intelligent David Beckham, who signed for LA Galaxy for a reported $250million and paid $6.5million a year, stated that City are buying success but will never be as big as United. LA Galaxy meanwhile have won???? To the game though and it would be fair to ask LA if they knew it was a friendly as first Clichy was clattered into la la land before Richards was felled in the area. Balotelli dispatched the penalty to put City 1-0 up and despite the protests from the LA keeper it was a good penalty. A few minutes later, however Balotelli was again put through on goal but instead of putting City 2-0 up he decided to spin and back heel the ball past the post. This initiated a barrage of anger toward the quiet City forward from fans, announcers, his team mates and more importantly, City boss Roberto Mancini, who hauled him off at the next available chance to his disgust.
This was the turning point for City as before we were slicing through their backline at will we know seemed to lose our spark and it as feared a terrific goal from Magee on 53 minutes tied up the contest. It could have gone from bad to worse for City if not for Harts double save. The game ended a draw a 1-1 but as with all American sports a winner needs to emerge and so to spot kicks. Milner, Weiss, Suarez and Kolarov all scored before Guidetti failed to end it. Then we went into sudden death with Hart stopping LA’s first and Lescott failing from the spot. At this point even my American girlfriend stated ‘This is ridiculous!’ I had to agree, but it is her country! Sweepie put the next away and Hart stopped another. Joe, obviously tired of the whole circus stepped up and launched a shot into the top corner to seal the win for City. My mind went back to Nicky Weaver going crazy after the playoff win on penalties and running around the pitch like a fool. However this wasn’t that important and Hart just did a Ninja pose and walked off.