City-Orlando Pirates Live Blog (Final: Orlando 2, City 0)

Manchester City’s first official friendly match against Orlando Pirates is scheduled to be streamed live on City’s official site on Saturday. Kickoff is 2 pm UK time.
I won’t be in South Africa, but I plan to watch the stream and offer some live-blogging commentary here during the game. It should be an interesting occasion as several new faces make their debuts in a City shirt–a shirt that itself will be new as City’s kit deal with Umbro kicks in.

2:25: All worldwide satellite feeds appear to be delayed, but the club has twittered that it hopes to have a stream working from 2:30. we’ll see (or not!).

2:34: This stream and blog is looking increasingly like a lost cause, but the Guardian reports Adebayor is on his way to Manchester to complete his move….

36th minute. finally a feed that works! But Orlando Pirates score a penalty. 1-0 Orlando.

37th. L. Thwhala (excuse spelling) had the goal.

39th minute. Tal Ben Haim is on the pitch, and Michael Johnson, who just committed a foul.

40th minute. Much dancing and horn blowing in the stands at the moment.

41th minute. Nice attacking move down left ends in a well-taken shot by Bojinov, well-saved (it appears–feed isn’t the best).

42nd minute. Bellamy gets a yellow card for dissenting on an offside call. He was played through on a long ball. There’s Vlad Weiss on the ball. Stuart Taylor is in goal. Ireland out there too. Will try to name all the players as we spot them.

43rd minute. Nice replay of Bojinov’s shot. Well stuck but right at the keeper. Another chance just now down the left but Bojinov headed just wide. THAT should have been a goal. Hughes shakes head. Petrov and Zabaleta also on the pitch.

45th minute. It has been all City since the feed came on 8 minutes ago, still awaiting replay of the penalty. Garrido is on. Orlando just fired over the bar on a half chance from outside the box.

Extra time. Yellow card for Petrov. This referee isn’t messing around. And that’s halftime with City trailing 1-0. Feel bad for MCFC who invited fans to watch on a big screen outside City of Manchester Stadium but couldn’t get a feed up due to “technical problems.” Okay correct spelling on Orlando’s goal scorer is Thwala.

Halftime: Official stream is up and it’s excellent quality on MCFC. They are having a ceremony to honor Nelson Mandela, who turns 95 today. Wow! But just now the feed’s gone dark again.

Okay they are giving away a blue VW, it appears in a halftime contest of some kind. Really good quality video! I hope the club put up a video of the complete first half after the match so we can all see what happened.

Javal Vidal and Benjani are coming on. Ben Mee also out there (didn’t spot him before). 2nd half coming up. Johnson and Bellamy out.

Loads of Orlando substitutions being announced. 2nd half has kicked off.

48th minute, free kick for City in an attacking area won by Bojinov. Petrov and Weiss lining it up. Petrov goes for goal, a couple of yards wide.

49th minute. Benjani has a nice pass into Ireland but nothing comes of the move. Big moment this match for the Zimbabwe man.

51th. Vidal with a well-timed challenge in the box to break up a threatening run.

53rd. Wiki tells us I misheard Mandela’s age. It is his birthday, but he’s a youthful 91.

56th minute. A 2nd goal for Orlando! Taylor got chipped from about 30 yards at an acute angle. Might have been a cross, from the left, but it went in.

57th minute. That was Pagala (sp?) with that fabulous goal. Right now City don’t look much like getting anything out of the game. Replay of the goal suggests it was on purpose. Looped brilliantly over Taylor in off the post.

59th minute. Another free kick for City as Weiss got fouled 30 yards from goal.

60th minute. Petrov finds the target but straight into the keeper’s arms. On the counter Taylor has to come out to make a save at feet on a very dangerous through ball into the box.

62nd minute. So much of the game is going through Petrov now but nothing dangerous is resulting. Ireland is still looking spry out there. Weiss has had no real influence so far. There’s Petrov again with another run, this time he finds Benjani but his shot is comfortably blocked by the defender.

63rd. There’s Weiss with a nice run down the right side! Wins a corner, but poorly taken and easily cleared.

65th minute. Tevez and Santa Cruz look on not too excitedly from the stands; another substitution by the Pirates.

67th minute. Weiss wins a free kick almost from the corner flag. He takes the kick, not bad but it’s headed clear. Meanwhile Ben Haim almost flubs a back pass to Taylor but Taylor deals with it.

68th minute. Caicedo getting ready to come on shortly. He’s on now for Bojinov, who had (at least) two good chances in the first half, nothing after half time. Ireland also coming off, replaced by Nigel de Jong. That won’t help City’s chances of getting a goal, but a sensible move in this context.

73rd. Nice move there as Benjani beat a defender down the right and found Caicedo. Caicedo shot easily saved–he missed Petrov who was unmarked 12 yards from goal.

74th minute. Excellent Orlando shot from distance, well-saved going to his right by Taylor. That had some pace behind it.

76th minute. Correction–Mongala had the 2nd goal. (flubbed his name above.)

77th. Weiss is working down the left flank now having apparently traded places with Petrov. Caicedo powerfully starts a move by winning the ball in midfield, but Benjani can’t make anything of it.

83rd minute. Not much happening, Zabaleta had a little burst and set up Weiss, but his trick from the edge of the box can’t beat the defender. Petrov wins a foul, starting another move which ends with Weiss’s weak cross being cleared.

85th. Fans holding happy birthday signs for Mandela–great stuff.

86th minute. Orlando so nearly add a third! a cutting move ends with a shot from close range hitting the bar. Should have scored. Petrov counter attack doesn’t amount to anything.

88th. Replay shows Taylor actually made a nice kick save on that shot, set up by an exquisite back heel one-two pass. That was the move of the match.

90th minute. High floating cross from Petrov (now back on the left) safely taken by the keeper with Weiss nearby. Defeat now inevitable for City.

91st minute. Two extra minutes to be played, Petrov fouled again. Weiss can’t control the ball and it goes over the line for a goal kick.

92nd minute. Referee blows for full time!

Congratulations to Orlando Pirates on a deserved and convincing victory. City fielded a mix of young talent and experienced players, but failed to generate much attacking punch. Best chance of the match for City was Bojinov’s missed header. Thwala and Mongala had the goals for Orlando, the second a bit of a wonder goal.

Positives for City? Some time on the pitch for Mee, Vidal, Weiss and a full 90 minutes out of Petrov, plus a debut for Taylor. The big-name signings weren’t involved today.

City may get another crack at Orlando in a week’s time if Pirates can overcome their rivals Chiefs during the week. Next match for City is against the Chiefs on Tuesday.

Some statistics on the match: Orlando outshot City 10-9 and had 52% of possession.

Mark Hughes interview: Today was about conditioning. New signings not fit enough to play yet. Congratulates Orlando Pirates. Pleased with Johnson’s comeback. Pleased with the day but not the result.

Hughes doesn’t seemed too put out by the result either, to be honest!

That’s all, congratulations Orlando and in the spirit of the day happy birthday, Nelson Mandela!

Category: Team News