Mata Blogs On Sunday's Events

Each and every Monday, Manchester United forward Juan Mata reflects on his experiences on and off the pitch in his personally-written blog. His latest effort leads on Sunday's match against Bournemouth being abandoned following the discovery of a suspect package...

Hi everyone,

This is one of the weirdest blog entries I've written, and it's been almost four years since I started this blog. What happened in Old Trafford this Sunday left all of us who were there absolutely shocked. You know, the game being postponed (we will finally play on Tuesday) after a suspect package - that we were told could be an explosive - was found in the stadium. Everybody in the security team did an effective job, resulting in a quick evacuation of the stadium. It helped not to spread panic around, although all of us had a very odd feeling; something like strain mixed with a lack of understanding. The fans left the stadium before we did; I think we left Old Trafford at around five, with the feeling that everything was already under control.

I feel sorry for all those people who had to go back home without watching the game, because that's what they had come for. Obviously, safety is always the top priority. But what I'm really sorry about is that this kind of issues affect football, sports and society in general. Many of us think that sport has the capability to unite people, and we must keep believing that.

We will have to close the Premier League season on Tuesday. It's going to be a bittersweet farewell to Old Trafford, now that we know we won't be playing the Champions League next season. It leaves us with a bad taste because, even if we enjoyed good moments together throughout the season, we weren't consistent enough to qualify for the top European competition. It's true that we found many difficulties along the way, especially if we talk about injuries (up to 15 players in several weeks, as far as I remember), but Manchester United must be ambitious and always fight for everything. Personally, I feel privileged to have played every single game of the Premier League - actually I don't know if I have done something like this before. Nevertheless, football is a team sport and that's what really matters. Today, I feel sad because our supporters couldn't even have a normal last day of the Premier League, but we hope to grab a victory for them before the season expires.

Luckily, we have won the chance to get a trophy for you and that's what we will try to do this coming Saturday. Winning the FA Cup would be wonderful, a great prize. I've been lucky to win a final at Wembley and I know what this competition means here and in the world. With more than 140 years of history, such an amount of teams participating every season (I've read there are over 700) and the final being played at Wembley, the FA Cup is something unique. We will need our best performance to beat Crystal Palace; they got here after eliminating four Premier League teams, and they are always a very competitive team with an elaborate style of play.

Have a nice week. Hugs,

Juan

Read Juan's blog in full at kicca.com/juanmata8.

Credit: Manutd.com