O ba!...O ba! O...ba!
Last night I committed an act of footballing heresy. On my TV I had England vs Norway in HD, and on a laptop out of the corner of my eye I was watching Germany vs Argentina. No matter which way you dress it up, the decision to not reverse the situation and get the latter match on the big TV was criminal , and borne of laziness. There was even a Swansea City player on display for Pete's sake!
Predictably, England played out a boring 1-0 win, with a solitary Wayne Rooney goal from the penalty spot the sum total of their faltering efforts. Meanwhile, in my peripheral vision, Angel Di Maria was busy giving what must surely have been one of the great all time performances. Every time I looked up Argentina seemed to be celebrating a goal, and without exception the goal was created by Di Maria. £50million plus? Bargain. Bearing in mind this was the first match the reigning world champions had played after beating the same opposition in the World Cup final, that really was some performance.
The thing for me though, is that a current Swansea City player (Federico Fernandez) - nay, one who hasn't even managed to force his way into the first-team yet, played, and scored in that victory. This is a whole different kettle of fish to Giovanni Savarese & Walter Boyd (though no disrespect to either of them), and simply having the name "Swansea" next to Fernandez's name on the squad list is massive. That game will have been watched around the world, and there were probably quite a few people Googling "Swansea City" in far flung corners of the globe.
I feel privileged that during my time supporting the club I've seen the current owners steer it from adversity to triumph, and with players like Federico Fernandez and Jefferson Montero still trying to force their way into the first-team it's hard to see our upward trajectory stopping just yet.