Tag: football

Trip to Manchester 2025

Vikram and I left on Wednesday, March 12th, to spend a few days in England. We landed in Manchester on Thursday, March 13th at about 9 am and noticed something. Manchester is much colder than Houston, even in March! We took the train from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly station. From Piccadilly, we walked about 20 minutes to get to our hotel in the City Centre. (yeah, they spell things differently in England. Don’t even get me started on colours!)

Avinash really helped us at the hotel. He got us checked in and gave us some great pointers on sightseeing options. The Holiday Inn Express in Manchester City Centre has a great employee! After 11:30 a.m., we left the hotel to grab some food at Wetherspoon. If you have never been, you should try it. It is a chain of pubs and restaurants in the UK and Ireland—good food and better drinks. We tried Carling there.

After lunch, we decided to visit the National Football Museum. If you want to spend 90 minutes soaking in the history of the great game of football, this is the place to be. We really enjoyed our time there.

Walking back from the Museum, we decided to grab coffee at Starbucks. While waiting for our order, I looked out the window and started screaming. Those of you who know me know that I have a thing for the Hard Rock Cafe. I collect trinkets from there – shirts, mugs, shot glasses – you know the deal. I don’t have anything that says “Manchester” on it, so off we went. I hope Vinita likes what her brother got for her.

When we got back to the hotel around 3 p.m., we decided to get some rest. I don’t know if the trip over the Atlantic had us jet-lagged, but we took a quick nap nonetheless. In the evening, we were hungry, so we decided to try Nando’s Peri-Peri. There is one in Katy, but this one had a different look and feel to it. The food was great—I highly recommend it.

We had a whole plan for Friday, March 14th, and were able to hit every single spot! First, it was off to the Shudehill Interchange to take a tram to Old Trafford. Vikram and I are cricket fans, and you can’t visit Manchester without going to the Emirates Old Trafford. Home of the Lancashire County Cricket Club (LCCC), the stadium is right outside the Old Trafford tram station. We took a ton of pictures and Vikram bought an England training jersey at the Gift Shop 🙂

So, now many of you are probably wondering, would Sagar go to the home of the “Team in Red?” If you said no, you don’t know me that well. I respect football, and I appreciate greatness. Yes, we walked the half-mile to the Manchester United stadium in Old Trafford. It’s a fantastic building, but that makes me wonder. Why is Manchester United building a new stadium? That was announced last week for those who don’t know. Hopefully, we’ll learn more soon! We bought gifts for Vikram’s friend and my nephew, who is a fan of the “team in red.” There are just some things you can’t control. 😉

From there, we decided to take the tram to the University of Manchester and walk around campus. My niece was accepted at the University, and we both wanted to see how it looked. Honestly, I was impressed. We had a quick coffee break at Federal Cafe. We then made a quick stop at Tesco Express, before heading back to the hotel.

In the evening, we went to The Bay Horse Tavern for pub food. Yes, we had a Guinness.

Saturday was the big day. We took the tram from the hotel to Etihad Campus for the afternoon match—City played Brighton and Hove Albion. We had Fried Okra (!!) and Asahi Super-Dry at the stadium. Of course, we shopped and got some nice gear. My favorite moment was singing “Blue Moon” in a packed stadium. That was fun! The game ended in a 2-2 draw, but City played well, and being there was brilliant!

Saturday evening, we headed to Manchester Chinatown and had some dinner at the Dragon Oriental restaurant. A great end to an amazing weekend. Vikram had crispy noodles for the first time. I went with my staple – Chicken with Udon Noodles – yum!

We didn’t see everything but got a taste of Manchester to keep us going. This was our first stop to visit the Premier League Stadiums. We have a specific goal—to see all stadiums for a game with teams in the PL for 10 or more years. So, here is our list:

London Teams

Arsenal
Chelsea
Crystal Palace
Tottenham
West Ham United

Merseyside Teams

Liverpool
Everton

Manchester Teams

Manchester City – March 15, 2025
Manchester United

Here are some teams getting close to our criteria:

Aston Villa – 6 years
Wolverhampton – 7 years
Brighton – 8 years
Newcastle – 8 years

Vikram and I have seen Emirates Stadium (2018) and Manchester United (2025), but never for a game. This will be our plan over the next 10 years.

Sunday, February 23

I woke up in the United States at 3:00 AM central time to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match live on Willow TV. This was India’s second match in the Champions Trophy 2025 tournament, played in Pakistan and Dubai. Why Dubai? Indians don’t travel to Pakistan anymore, at least not after November 26, 2008. If you don’t know the significance of that date, type 26/11 in Google to get your answer.

Unfortunately, I went back to sleep! I did wake up at my usual time—5:10 AM central time! After brushing my teeth, I went downstairs to watch the match. When the TV turned on, Pakistan was 124-2 after 28.2 overs. I later learned that Pakistan won the toss and elected to bat first. The following 95 minutes turned out to be very fruitful for India. Pakistan were all out for 241, setting India a target of 242 to win in 50 overs. India started batting after 7 am central time. Long story short, India won the match when Virat Kohli hit an unbeaten 100. For those who don’t know what that means, remember it’s terrific!

In the past, everyday Indians would consider this a victory and forget the rest of the tournament. You see, beating Pakistan at ANYTHING matters to most Indians. But we are in 2025. Beating Pakistan is excellent, but we still need to finish the tournament! India has enough talent to win the whole tournament! Chak De India!

The match ended a little after 10 AM central time, but the day was just getting started. At 10:30 AM central time, I streamed Peacock to catch the Manchester City – Liverpool match. A few minutes before 10:30 AM, I found out that Erling Haaland was not in the lineup for the match. I saw the Real Madrid match where he injured his knee. I really hope he gets better soon. As for the match, well, let’s just say that Liverpool beat Manchester City 2-0. After the match, my wife and I headed out to Triveni Supermarket in Katy for lunch. I started reading some of the post-match comments from fans. Most people are calling for Pep Guardiola to be fired. That would be a big mistake. Pep has already owned up to the mistakes made by the team in 2024 by not rebuilding the team during the summer transfer window in 2024. He, of all people, knows we need to rebuild. He started the process in January 2025 and will continue it in the Summer transfer window 2025. Losing 2-0 to Liverpool is not a bad thing. The team must learn from their mistakes. From comments earlier in the week, per ESPN, Man City will allow Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, Jack Grealish, Mateo Kovacic, John Stones, and Ederson to leave the club this summer if they choose to do so. Kyle Walker is already on loan to AC Milan and will not be brought back to the club. Am I surprised? Not really, because every one of those guys is 29 or older. World football, or soccer, is a young person’s sport. As for this season? Man City has something to play for – a top 4 or 5 finish in the Premier League will ensure a spot in the Champions League next season. Man City can still win the FA Cup in the spring and the Club World Cup later this summer. Keep fighting team! I am here to support you!

All in all, a pretty interesting day. It looks like the last week of February is going to be fun!