I watched a fantastic game of football last night on Sky.  There were no prima donnas, no outrageous platoon-like dives, and no telling the ref to show yellow or red cards to opposition players.  What I did witness was a game full of spirit, great commitment, tremendous skill and two teams full of young talent from around the world, between the ages of 16 - 18 who will no doubt become household names of tomorrow.

Manchester City beat Chelsea 3-1 in the second leg of the FA Youth Cup Final yesterday at Eastlands in front of a crowd of over 19, 000.  Manchester City won 4-2 on aggregate.  Both teams were full of individual skill and talent picked from the UK, Europe and Africa.

Ryan McGivern had given Chelsea an early lead with a deflected own goal before Manchester City’s influential captain, Ben Mee equalised with a far post header.  Vladimir Weiss put City 2-1 before half-time with a stunning free-kick.  And though Chelsea dominated the last 20 minutes as they pushed for an equaliser, David Ball scored a third goal from the penalty spot against the run of play, after Vladimir Weiss had been brought down after a surging run from his own half.

For me, the better team won on the night due to a real team spirit; unlike the Chelsea youth team who appeared a little disjointed at times where individual ability over shadowed team play; very similar to the Chelsea first team.

Apparently six of the Manchester City youth players have been playing together since they were nine years old, and it showed.  They played as a solid unit under the captaincy of the excellent Ben Mee; and the brilliant Vladimir Weiss, whose superbly taken free kick was a real gem as he bent the path of the ball around the outretched Chelsea keeper into the top corner of the net.

Daniel Sturridge, the youth team’s top scorer, was missing from the Manchester City team as he had picked up an injury last Saturday while playing for the first team against Sunderland.  On this performance and FA Youth Cup victory I am sure there are going to be more youth team players promoted to Manchester City’s first team squad next season.

Could Manchester City build future success around a group of young players in the same way as their bitter rivals Manchester United did in the 1990’s with the likes of David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Gary & Phil Neville?