The Yankee Stadium came to see a Norwegian superstar on Saturday. They got their wish, but maybe not the one they expected.
Erling Haaland scored and earned the biggest cheers of the night – but it was compatriot Oscar Bobb who is outshining his teammate on tour. Another dazzling assist took his tally to three in two games, plus his goal scored vs Celtic. Haaland is on two strikes in two, normal for him even in pre-season and ominous for the season to come.
But Bobb is leading the way out in the US, just like he did last year in Asia. He is the reason Pep Guardiola says Manchester City don’t need any more signings and is mounting a strong case to be considered a genuine first team starter this season.
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Bobb gained a reputation last season for his ability to wriggle out of tight situations, and now he’s reminding everyone of his ability to get past his opponent one-on-one that he developed in the academy. Timely, given Guardiola has talked up Savinho and Jeremy Doku’s prowess in that area. Just like against Celtic, Bobb delighted the crowd by dropping a shoulder, finding an extra yard of pace and playing the ball into Haaland’s path to slot home.
It was an identical move and finish to Maximo Perrone’s strike vs Celtic, but while Haaland got the cheers, Bobb was the architect again. When he glided through the midfield, collected a one-two, and aimed for the bottom corner it looked like a certain goal, but his compass was just off for the first time this summer.
The Haaland-Bobb relationship has generated four of City’s five goals in pre-season over just 113 minutes, the pair seeming to know exactly what the other is thinking. That kind of link-up is priceless, especially when most of Guardiola’s senior attackers are still on holiday.
However, Guardiola was gesturing wildly on the pitch soon after at his young full-backs. He was unhappy when Celtic scored three identical goals in North Carolina and dropped Kalvin Phillips as a result. Here, twice Samuel Chukwueze squeezed a cross through Rico Lewis and Callum Doyle, twice Lorenzo Colombo got a shot away at the back post, and twice Ederson somehow let the ball through his body. Friendly or not, the manager wasn’t happy.
Ederson – recalled after Guardiola insisted he is desperate for his goalkeeper to stay – has been unhappy on tour with some reporting of his mindset at the end of the season. He said he ‘stays focused on the preparation of the season’, but didn’t look particularly focussed in the Bronx. Captain for the night, he had made two big stops early on before his errors.
Colombo’s shots were tricky to deal with in his defence, but he will be annoyed with himself nonetheless. Staying on for the second half to underline his position as No.1, Ederson did improve after the break but still trudged off after letting in a third, Scott Carson gleefully taking his place.
Micah Hamilton, on at the break, set up the leveller for McAtee to get off the mark. He is another, like Bobb, who will do his chances no harm by getting among the goals this month – and is also justifying Guardiola’s transfer stance.
The New York crowd was a 46,000 sell-out, with the majority supporting City – even despite the city’s huge Italian population. With a quarter of the pitch taken up by covered baseball mounds, this was an iconic setting but very obviously not for football. Pep Guardiola had a lengthy conversation with Milan boss Paolo Fonseca before kick-off, before a less-lengthy reunion with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He met Andre Agassi in New York on Friday – maybe Zlatan was next up in his diary.
There was a time when Ibrahimovic would be the star of a show in an arena like the Yankee Stadium. Haaland is the main man these days commercially, and he looks in good nick so far, rested at the halfway mark in New York.
But it’s Bobb who is hitting the ball out of the park whenever he steps up to the plate so far in the US.
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