New boys in their debuts

After a long and enduring wait, football has finally come back to entertain us. Yesterday marked the start of the new football season, for English Premier League and German Bundesliga at least (among the top four European football leagues). There was one interesting pattern on the first day of the new footballing season. The pattern which is valid for both leagues was that the new boys (debutants in their respective clubs) flourished.

In the German Bundesliga, Luca Toni scored in his first ever appearance for FC Bayern Munich. In that match, FC Bayern won comfortably by the scoreline 3-0.

In the English Premier League, it was more interesting. First one would be Michael Chopra, who scored the winning goal for the newly-promoted Sunderland at the very last minute against Tottenham. By scoring that goal, he became an instant hero or perhaps he is a fan favorite already, for the moment at least. At Blackburn Rovers, Roque Santa Cruz also managed to score in his first ever appearance for Blackburn. In that match, Blackburn won 2-1 against Middlesbrough. Also, not forgetting Portsmouth’s new boy John Utaka who managed to score in their thrilling 2-2 draw against the Premiership new boys Derby County.

Probably the most interesting is Manchester City. Most of the players in the squad, including the team manager was appearing on their first ever appearance for Manchester City as well as in English Premier League. However, everyone in Manchester City excelled. In the goalkeeping department, Kasper Schmeichel kept a clean sheet. He was mostly covered by the solid defensive backline led by Vedran Corluka and Javier Garrido, also debutants. In the midfield department, Stilian Petrov and Elano exceeded all expectations by zipping through West Ham defences. Finally, in the striking department. Both debutants Rolando Bianchi and Geovanni scored to condemn West Ham to a 2-0 defeat.

Even though most of the new boys excelled last night. It was not the case for some. Just look at West Ham. They do have new boys in Craig Bellamy and Fredrik Ljungberg. However, they did not meet the expectations on their shoulders. Perhaps, it is safe to say that Lady Luck was smiling at the new boys who are new in the English football, not new boys who transferred from another English club. For Michael Chopra, it was an exception, but at least he is new to the English Premier Division.