Based in my city - Durban, Manchester City's visit wasn't just about the Football Invitational in support of Mandela Day, they did more than just play SuperSport United and Amazulu FC.
Members of City's coaching staff involved in the School of Football arrived in Johannesburg to launch a three-year coaching partnership with Mpumalanga Black Aces Football Club. This means City coaching staff will visit South Africa three times a year to conduct coaching clinics.
Matija Nastasic, James Milner, Joleon Lescott and Micah Richards arrived at the Nike Football Training Centre in Soweto for a bit of a question and answer session and did some football drills with the young footballers at the Training Centre.
In Clermont, North West of Durban, City's coaching staff had a soccer clinic for young soccer stars at the Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium.
At SunCoast Casino in Durban, City held a signing session before their third and final session of the day. In the evening, five of the footballers alongside Pellegrini were invited for a gala dinner at the Durban Convention Centre.
MATCHES
SuperSport United 2-0 Manchester City
I doubt I was the only one who thought City would beat United. Not just beat them, but beat them with a large score. This was not the case.
Instead, United got 2 past City with goals from Niang and Erasmus. You could say United is a standard club, pretty average, and City is a top club who finished second last season in the English Premier League. What an upset for Manuel Pellegrini on his first match. If Pellegrini had not changed the entire starting XI in the second half, the match could've been a stalemate, especially since the goals were scored in the second half.
United pressed hard at City and got a good result. The likes of Yaya Toure, Nasri, Zabaleta and Kompany couldn't keep United at bay.
Amazulu 1-1 Manchester City
Coming from a 2-0 defeat, City were prepared. They had about 8 defenders at the back to keep Amazulu from scoring. That didn't last long since Amazulu opened the scoring after Hart alongside his defense let Ndulula through to score the opening goal. However, minutes later Milner made no mistake and equalised for the Citizens.
In the dying minutes of the game, a controversial decision gave Amazulu a penalty which was converted by Nyadombo and gave Amazulu victory against City.
The king of the Zulu's, King Goodwill Zwelithini, former Bafana Bafana player Mark Fish, and former Springbok rugby captain John Smit, Olympic Gold Medalist Chad le Clos also attended the match.
Pellegrini was not at the stadium, let alone in the country, he had to fly back home for personal reasons.
For a full report on what City got up to in South Africa go to: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/News/Tour-2013
What's upsetting is that the stadiums were not filled to the brim. This is understandable depending on which way you look at it. On the one hand, people cannot afford R150, R250 or R350 seats. On the other hand, people are very selective. If you can recall, 90% if not 100% of the seats were filled when Manchester United came to South Africa. The point is, it depends on the teams that are playing.
However, South African clubs are used to empty seats, Europeans aren't. South Africa is working on the issue though. We're trying to fill all stadiums.
It doesn't matter who won or who lost, even though City lost both their matches, it was about Nelson Mandela. Anyway, it was lovely to have City in my country for charitable reasons. However, I'm a Red Devil and the noisy neighbours were just getting too loud and comfortable. Cheerio!
