Sunday's Capital One Cup final — Manchester City vs. Liverpool — won the day because, not only was it a great game soccer-wise, it gave us a phenomenal array of subplots. Let's run them down real quick:
The Yolo Derby
Manchester United don't need Jose Mourinho, judging by their performances over the past week.
You can't help but laugh at the constant back and forth of soccer fans. Just two weeks ago, Manchester United fans were calling for Louis Van Gaal's head. Jose Mourinho scarves were being sold outside Old Trafford, and there was talk that the Dutchman was done after pitiful losses to FC Midtjylland and Sunderland.
Memphis Depay is a murderer. In Manchester United's game against FC Midtjylland, The Dutch international repeatedly destroyed poor right back Andre Romer, who was left almost in tears after the display. The Red Devils crushed the Danish club 5-1, and at times it seemed more like Memphis Depay vs Midtjylland as the Dutchman ran rampant.
Manchester City took on Dynamo Kiev and won 3 - 1. Sergio Aguero opened the scoring early in the 15th minute. David Silva added the second in the 40th and Yaya Toure scored a third in the 90th minute. For Kiev, Vitaliy Buyalsky scored in the 58th minute. In the Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven and Atletico Madrid played to a 0 - 0 draw.
Leg 2 for these four teams is on March 15th as PSV fly to Madrid and Kiev visit Manchester.
Manchester City vs. Dynamo Kiev
Louis van Gaal wants his players to be horny for the Europa League. Seriously. Here's the man himself.
Listen to Louis van Gaal say "horny" (via @SportDictator)pic.twitter.com/rkOFx54TXh
— HuffPost Sports (@HuffPostSports) February 24, 2016
Everybody, listen up! We have Manchester United boardroom power struggle gossip to pass along!
In a series of Tweets, Manchester United fan organization Red Issue (which we have no idea as to its credibility) laid out what they believe is going down behind the scenes at Old Trafford.
If this stuff is true, hoo boy. If not, it's still an entertaining fantasy.
RI's MUFC boardroom's political skulduggery guide coming up soon...
Manchester United loanee and soon-to-be-reject Nick Powell admitted that he forgot to watch his parent club's utterly pathetic 2-1 defeat to Midtjylland. According to Powell, he was too immersed in playing FIFA, and completely missed the match.
A stir was caused today by the pricing of Manchester United's away tickets for their Europa League game against Danish side FC Midtjylland, and the location of the tickets. One fan tweeted a picture of his seats. The picture seemed to show that he (and, presumably, his fellow United fans) was seated in some kind of giant cage.
So, you know how everyone was saying Manchester United needed a striker, and Van Gaal responded by selling Chicharito and Robin van Persie, loaning out Adnan Januzaj and James Wilson and refusing to replace any of them? Yeah, that was stupid. Anyways, it looks as if he may have done one thing right by recalling Will Keane from loan.
Wayne Rooney has forged many great partnerships on the field over the years: Ronaldo; Tevez; Berbatov; Van Persie; Van Nistelrooy. But those pale in comparison to his latest partnership: Wayne Rooney and Deadpool.
Photo: @TheSunFootball | Twitter