Monday, May 12, 2008

Oh Happy Day!

This is a very happy day, one on which the sun seems to shine brighter, and the world glows with a special warmth. Of course, to those of you who know me well, the reason will be obvious. My team, Manchester United, the best football team on the planet, has won the Premier League in England. It was a glorious season, made all the better for our having won out over three of the best teams in Europe, all of whom play in the same English League. Well done to Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool for staying so close, and making such a fight of it.

The club has played exceptionally over the season, scoring more goals and letting in fewer than any other team. They won the league by going out for each game with total self belief, knowing that they would score. They were exciting, entrancing and better than all the rest. Not easy in the best league in the world. The same league that supplied four (each country in Europe is entitled to a maximum of its four highest placed teams into the European Champions League) of the quarter finalists and three of the semi finalists of the Champions League.

Now, with an allowable party period of a day or two to get over, the mighty Manchester United will fix their eyes on trying to win the European Champions League Final in Moscow against Chelsea in a little more than a week. It will be a tough game, but it seems appropriate that Man U are in the final fifty years after the Munich air crash decimated the club. That team will be watching over the progress of their successors, and they will be smiling.