The Blues’ first game of the post-season tour started with a 1-0 win over Toronto. Here are the main talking points...
Best friendly goal since when…?
George Evans would be the first to admit he doesn’t score many goals but the Academy graduate’s first in (senior) sky blue was something special. A 25-yard howitzer from the 20-year-old settled the game at the BMO Field and raised the question - when was the last time such a cracker was scored? As it happened, a player who was on the same pitch could well lay claim to that honour - remember Sergio Aguero’s individual goal against Malaysia in 2012 would take some beating. Unless you know better...?
New blood: Who did what?
Manuel Pellegrini took the opportunity to take a look at some of his young charges against Toronto and is likely to do the same against Houston on Thursday evening. Pablo Maffeo, Bersant Celina, George Evans, Jose Pozo, Manu Garcia and Olivier Ntcham all saw some game time, not to mention Seko Fofana who was named in the starting line-up.
All of the youngsters contributed with Evans, of course, making the most impact with the winning goal, but perhaps Fofana’s overall performance just about stole the honours with the 20-year-old Frenchman clearly returning from Fulham with much-needed senior experience and linking up well with Yaya Toure in midfield.
Houston will no doubt give us further opportunities to see how the upcoming youngsters are progressing.
Silva service...
Never less than excellent David Silva ran the show from the start until he was replaced on 86 minutes by Garcia. The applause he received as he walked off was echoed by the Toronto players. TFC star Jay Chapman said: “David Silva was fantastic — the best player I’ve played against by a long shot. Sometimes my head was spinning watching them dance around, but it was all good fun and a great experience.”
Crowd problems?
A game like this inevitably invites question of how much interest there is. The public could easily have turned their backs on this game - Toronto are mid-season with an important match coming up at the weekend while City have just ended a long, arduous campaign. As it was, there was plenty of interest. Last season, Toronto took on Spurs in pre-season friendly and a crowd of 22,501 turned out. City attracted 1,000 more than Toronto’s 2014 average gate with 23,169 coming to watch the game with several hundred City fans in attendance.
More talking points after our trip to Houston...
