This one's a much lighter one, and I'm going to be talking about my favourite football team, Manchester United! :D They just lost the opening game of the season to Swansea City 1-2 but it's alright I guess (:
(sorry to the people who don't watch football for this post hahaha but at least it's better than anything else!)
"Glory Glory Man United, As the Reds Go Marching On"
With every introduction to something new there must be a brief explanation so here it is!
Manchester United, founded in 1878 (that's 136 years ago for people who are lazy to do the math), started out as a group of people who worked at the Carriage and Wagon Department of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway (LYR), and is now one of the most successful clubs in English football history (if not the most). They have the highest number of English First Division titles (20), the joint highest number of FA cups (the biggest domestic football knockout competition) (11), and have the most number of FA Community Shield titles (20). As you can already tell, Manchester United have come a really long way since its humble beginnings.
But the road to glory and success is never smooth. In fact, United had already reached and tasted top flight as well as global success since the 1950s. That all changed, however, in a night at Munich, Germany.
On their way back to Manchester from a game in Yugoslavia, their plane stopped in Munich to refuel (back then planes couldn't fly as far as they can now) and weather conditions were harsh. Due to heavy snow, a layer of slush formed at the end of the airport runway, and this heavily slowed the plane, resulting in the takeoff of the plane to fail. The plane crashed, and 8 Manchester United players died. Just like that, Manchester United fell from their glory years.
"Wrecked."
But the very special reason why I love this club so much is that they have a unique spirit: They simply never give up. Despite the loss of several key players, manager Matt Busby managed to rebuild the squad, and by 1963 United were winning trophies again. That was, until he resigned from his position as manager in 1969. United soon went into a period of decline afterwards, and failed to achieve anything of significance ever since...
...Until they hired Sir Alex Ferguson in 1986. Initially, Manchester United were still lacklustre (Ferguson almost got fired in 1990), but a win against Crystal Palace in a FA cup replay match saved his career. And from then on, United never looked backwards. Whether the team played well or badly, United made sure they never ended a season without silverware (even if it was just a mere Community Shield trophy).
I've talked about their never-say-die attitude, and the finest example of that comes in the Champions League final match against Bayern Munich in 1999. United had already made a number of last gasp victories to make it there, and this match was not going to be any easier. Within just 6 minutes Bayern Munich had already scored and taken the lead 1-0, and even dominated the match (they hit the post twice). This was a match that no one would have expected to happen in the last few minutes, and here exactly is why:
This was also, the match that enabled them to clinch the "Treble", a major accomplishment where a football team wins 3 major trophies, and United are the only team in England to have done so till today. The 1999 match was only one out of the many games where they took last-gasp victories, and many anti-United supporters always pinned the blame towards the referee, saying that the referee should never have even allowed the games to continue on past the injury time that was given, otherwise known as "Fergie Time". But a win is a win, and no matter how they got it, it shouldn't be doubted that Manchester United has the best spirit amongst all the other football teams in the world. Here's just another example of it:
And that's pretty much why I like Manchester United! Though Sir Alex Ferguson has resigned due to his old age, and it seems like Manchester United are soon going to lose its position as one of the top teams in the world, I still believe that they will be able to achieve greatness eventually! They might have lost the match today, but I'm still confident they'll be winners really soon! :)
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