How much difference does a day make? Yesterday we were mired in the third day of one of those oppressive New York City heat waves. Hazy. Hot. Humid. There was no escape, even in the dark still of night. You looked forward to work, unless you worked outside, because the air conditioner there is better than what you have in your apartment.
You search for the cool, sniffing out air conditioning like a truffle dog as you make your way across town. You’re grumpy. Nothing matters except finding coolness. And then, well, then Andrea Pirlo flies into town and the heat wave breaks. Is it possible that this man is so cool that he now affects the weather? Today, the humidity is gone, the temperature is down, and Pirlo began training with the team in Purchase, NY. And just look at the pics. The man does not have a care in the world.
“To come here to the U.S. was one of my objectives, and I feel I’m very, very lucky to have made it not only to the U.S., but to New York City,’’ Pirlo said in a NY Post article this evening.
Reports from training said that he looked collected and at ease, even with the jet lag induced by flying from Italy yesterday. And some in the Italian press are reporting that he will be playing this weekend. If that’s so, and if Frank Lampard is still nursing his strained calf, it will see Pirlo hit the pitch before Lampard, who the fans have been waiting for since the beginning of the season.
If Lampard doesn’t play this weekend and makes his MLS start at the MLS All-Star Game against the Spurs, he will be playing in that match without ever playing in a regular season fixture. That would be a PR nightmare for NYCFC and the Lampard brand and would turn an already poor choice by the MLS into a travesty.
All The Man in Seat 9 can say today, as this writer basks in the coolness that now pervades New York, is ahhhhhh. Yes Pirlo. Yes Party.