Amad scored a brilliant late winner in the Manchester derby shortly after earning the penalty that had put Ruben Amorim’s team level as Manchester City crumbled in the closing stages at the Etihad Stadium.

The main story before the game was Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho being left out of the United squad, with United head coach Amorim saying he made the decision after evaluating “everything”.

In their absence, United fell behind when Josko Gvardiol headed in from a short corner in the 36th minute, worsening United’s awful record for set-piece goals conceded this season.

Bruno Fernandes had a good chance to equalise in the second half when he clipped a shot wide, but it was Amad who intercepted a poor Matheus Nunes backpass and drew a foul from the same player, with Fernandes scoring the penalty.

And 54 seconds after the restart, Amad collected a through ball, lobbed it over Ederson and then steered it into the goal from a tight angle to win it. According to Opta, it was the latest into a game that the reigning Premier League champions had led and lost. City have now won just one of their last 11 games.

88 – Manchester City were leading until the 88th minute against Manchester United, but ended up losing 2-1 – the latest into a game that a reigning champion has led in the Premier League and lost. Astonishing. pic.twitter.com/9vwTcocgLw

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 15, 2024

Here Carl Anka, Mark Critchley and Mark Carey analyse the key talking points.

How did Amad do that?

“I just want to improve the team so I cannot treat it like a normal derby,” said Amorim on Thursday evening. It was a pre-match press conference that saw the head coach try to downplay the traditional emotional narratives that go into a game. Neither City or United are on an upward ascent at the moment, so bragging rights fell behind “earning three points” in the hierarchy of needs.

Still, Sunday’s trip to the Eithad will have made clear many things that Amorim has already made good assessments on. His team will likely have to “suffer” in the immediacy, with some players better suited to the “idea” he is trying to communicate to this squad, compared to others. Amad once again looked to be United’s most dangerous attacker but ran offside three times in the first half.

His eagerness to fashion chances in a team lacking creators saw him set off a fraction too early in crucial moments. Yet the 22-year-old’s bravery where many others were timid eventually paid off. His driving runs are illustrated in his player dashboard below.

It was Amad who sensed Kyle Walker’s backpass to Ederson was slack and wouldn’t make its intended target. It was Amad who rounded the City goalkeeper to open up a goalscoring opportunity. It was Amad who opted to pause, and wait for Matheus Nunes to foul him. And Amad who won the penalty.

Fernandes converted and it looked to end 1-1.

But there was Amad again. Latching onto a hopeful pass from Lisandro Martinez in the 90th minute before tipping it over Ederson and into the far post.

Amad lobs the ball over Ederson

Amorim’s first derby will have taught him — again — that his team’s physicality needs to be worked on. He will have understood — again — that there is much to improve on with set pieces.

And finishes from a tight angle

But he will have also learned that, in a derby, some of these players can find another level. Amad’s genius yes, but also Harry Maguire battling as the middle centre-back. Manuel Ugarte breaking up play, and more.

The road is long, but many United players are willing to walk and run it.

Carl Anka

Where did Nunes go wrong?

With a long line outside the treatment room and those fit enough to play fatigued, City find themselves in a position where they have to do things differently. See: Matheus Nunes at left-back.

Pep Guardiola did not have much other option — unless he fancied a switch of system or dropping youngster Jahmai Simpson-Pusey into a Manchester derby.

And in fairness, Nunes initially acquitted himself adequately enough, as he has when playing further up the left flank in recent weeks.

But lapses have pockmarked the 26-year-old’s Etihad career to date and that career may well be defined by the two errors that led to United’s equaliser from the penalty spot.

The backpass to play Amad through on goal could be considered an unfortunate error — but to charge back and slice through the United winger and concede a spot kick was simply reckless in the extreme.

Nunes and the foul that changed the game (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Nunes collapsed to the turf, barely being able to lift his head from the ground, and City subsequently collapsed to defeat.

Mark Critchley

What’s Man United’s set-piece problem?

Two goals conceded against Arsenal. One against Nottingham Forest, and another conceded to Manchester City. Manchester United have picked up a concerning weakness on corners this season.

United have the second-worst defensive record on set pieces in this season’s Premier League. Eight of United’s 19 goals conceded have been from set-piece situations — at 42 per cent, that is the highest in the league. Conceding 6.8 goals per 100 corners is the second-highest rate behind Wolves, who are 19th and sacked head coach Gary O’Neil today.

Amorim’s side appear to have tweaked their coaching approach to dead balls, with new assistant Carlos Fernandes taking over set-piece duties from Andreas Georgson but the frailties remain. The team appear to be defending in a hybrid style, where the majority of players mark zonally, and a handful are tasked with man-marking duties.

So long as a United player gets first contact on the initial cross, they can defend the set piece well enough. But if they are faced with a team that opts for a layered approach to their attacking play, things can get complicated.

City’s opening goal came from a short corner-kick routine where Ilkay Gundogan ventured over from the edge of the box to take a touch and tee it up for Kevin De Bruyne.

The Belgian’s cross might have taken a touch from oncoming United defenders, but it still managed to loop towards the back post where it was headed in by Josko Gvardiol.

It was a straightforward goal to concede. United were too slow to close down City when the corner was taken short, and not aggressive enough to stop Gvardiol in the air. It was a goal that spoke to something Amorim brought up earlier in the week, before facing FC Viktoria Plzen.

“We have to be very good in second phases,” said the United head coach on Wednesday. “Such as after crosses, the next cross we have to improve on. We have to improve on these details. We have to be so much better in set pieces and we have to win it.”

The saying says the devil is in the details. United haven’t quite mastered their new routines yet.

Carl Anka and Mark Carey

How important are Gvardiol’s goals?

In the season before Erling Haaland’s arrival, seven City players hit double figures in all competitions. Since then, only two have scored 10 or more goals in a campaign: Phil Foden twice, Julian Alvarez once.

Repurposing a team of false nines to serve the best centre-forward of his generation has had its benefits and its side-effects, making Guardiola’s side look blunt in those occasional spells when Haaland struggles for goals.

Step forward Josko Gvardiol. This derby’s breakthrough was his fourth of the season, moving him clear behind Haaland as City’s top-scorer. No defender has scored more Premier League goals (eight) in 2024.

Gvardiol has become a semi-reliable goal source, not only aerially like today or at Bournemouth, but also with deft finishes and screamers like at Newcastle and Wolves respectively.

OK, so four goals is hardly a glut and City need others to start chipping in too, but at times when City look bereft of ideas to break down opponents, Gvardiol is increasingly becoming the plan B.

Mark Critchley

It is a sight that no football fan likes to see, no matter your allegiance.

Manchester United’s Mason Mount fell to Etihad turf after just 12 minutes in what was only his ninth league start since the beginning of last season.

It was clear that he was unable to carry on minutes before his substitution, after signalling to Amorim that he needed to come off. It is yet another blow for the 25-year-old after calf and hamstring injuries have plagued him since his move from Chelsea.

Mount was consoled by team-mates Fernandes, Martinez and Amad — even engaging in a short exchange with international team-mate Phil Foden — before rallying those around him as he trudged off.

It is a cruel outcome for Mount, especially given his return to fitness under new manager Amorim and an impressive 30-minute display in the Europa League against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday night.

Prior to Sunday’s game, Mount had not managed to play more than 20 per cent of the available domestic minutes in a Manchester United shirt. You have to go back to the 2020-21 season when he last played more than 75 per cent of the possible games in the Premier League.

A fully fit Mount offers so much to his team in and out of possession. His intelligent positioning and relentless running are infectious to team-mates, with Mount often viewed as a manager’s dream in his ability to execute the tactical instructions laid out to him.

Starting as the left-sided No 10 on Sunday afternoon, Mount would have hoped to have punished Manchester City with neat interplay alongside left wing-back Diogo Dalot, making underlapping runs that appeared to be a key part of Amorim’s early training session as Mount was nearing full fitness.

It is too early for a prognosis, but Mount could do with a dollop of luck in hoping that his injury is not too serious.

Mark Carey

How ‘embarrassing’ was Hojlund vs Walker?

Shortly after Manchester City took the lead, Kyle Walker was lying on the ground and there was a scrum of players around him. Walker was holding his face and as the officials waited on a VAR check, there was a sense Rasmus Hojlund could be in trouble after squaring up to the City defender.

A melee ensues after Walker falls to the ground (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

What the replays showed though was that both players put their foreheads together, and while Hojlund leaned forward slightly it did not constitute violent conduct and certainly did not appear to have generated enough force to send Walker to the floor.

“Walker must be embarrassed,” former United captain Roy Keane said on Sky Sports.

Hojlund and Walker butt heads (Dave Howarth – CameraSport via Getty Images)

Referee Taylor’s decision was to book both players.

In the second half, it was Hojlund who went down, this time under a challenge from Ruben Dias, with Taylor not awarding a penalty and the VAR deciding it was “normal contact”.

The United striker was determined to have the last laugh, posting a photo of his clash with Walker on Instagram (second image below) after the game.

What did Pep Guardiola say?

“I’m the boss, I’m the manager and I’m not good enough. it’s as simple as that. I need to talk to them about the way we have to play and press and build up and I’m not good enough. It’s always the same problem you can fix, but it’s not. Matheus made an incredible effort playing left back really good with and without the ball but it’s happened, it’s football and we move forward.”

What did Ruben Amorim say?

“I think we deserved it. It was a very tough match but we believe until the end. We managed to score, we needed that win, it was important for us and for our fans. We were in the game for 90 minutes and that is very good. We talk about the Arsenal game, we played well in the first half, but they were not believing that we could win.

“Today was so much more different. I also believe. Then we have Fergie time and we put the things together and something magic happened. It was a good day for us.”

On leaving Rashford and Garnacho out of the squad: “For me it’s important; the performance in training, the performance in games, the way you dress, the way you eat, the way you engage with your team-mates, the way you push your team-mates.

“Everything is important. In our context, in the beginning of something, when we want to change a lot of things, when people in our clubs are losing their jobs, we have to make the standards really high.

“Today the team proved we can leave anyone out of the squad and manage to win if you play together.”

What next for City?

Saturday, December 21: Aston Villa (A), Premier League, 12.30pm GMT, 7.30am ET

What next for United?

Thursday, December 19: Tottenham (A), Carabao Cup quarter-final, 8pm GMT, 3pm ET

Recommended reading

(Top image: by Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY — Diego, an Uber driver, picked up his client at 10:37 on a Saturday night, behind a crowded basketball arena where an NBA game had just ended.

He traversed dark, tiny alleys on the outskirts of one of the largest, most congested cities in the world. He drove over curbs, slowed to a crawl to avoid damage from crater-sized potholes and, at one point, stopped his car, threw it in reverse and turned a corner backward.

The zigging and zagging ended on a main thoroughfare two miles ahead of the massive traffic jam in front of Arena Ciudad de México. The six-mile ride to the hotel — in the posh Mexico City neighborhood of Polanco, where both the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards were staying for their game — took 46 minutes.

Nick Lagios wasn’t so lucky. Lagios, an American who once worked for the Los Angeles Lakers, is the general manager for one of the two major professional basketball teams based in Mexico City. He hopped in a taxi in the stalled parade of cars after the game. He was also headed to Polanco, where he lives, but it took him three hours to get home.

“Coming and going at this arena, especially if it’s crowded, is an absolute traffic disaster,” Lagios said.

If the NBA eventually puts a team in Mexico City, which commissioner Adam Silver has said is possible, it would be because of the massive potential of the market — including the ability to draw a crowd. And while postgame traffic is far from unusual after an NBA game, 41 home dates of gridlock like this are only one reason to question whether a league expansion to Mexico is viable.

There are plenty of other factors for the league to consider as it weighs potentially expanding to Mexico City. Traffic is definitely a factor, but overcrowding, a complicated geography that could make building a new arena difficult and the socioeconomics of the world’s fifth largest city are other challenges the league will have to consider.

On the same night the Heat and Wizards played in Mexico City, one of the first people Silver bumped into at the arena was Ted Leonsis, owner of the Wizards.

“The first thing he said to me was, we should have a team in Mexico City,” Silver said.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Athletic in Mexico City, some of which was published previously, Silver acknowledged that American cities like Las Vegas and Seattle would likely get a team before Mexico City, and potential expansion south of the U.S. border was probably “many years off.” But he also said expanding to Mexico City would be “more additive because we would be flipping a switch” in a massive, receptive market.

The NBA held its first exhibition game in Mexico City in 1992, and since, there have been 32 more regular-season or exhibition games in the city. In 2022, the Mexico City Capitanes began playing G League home games in Mexico (the team was started in 2021 and played the first season in the U.S.).

The arena where the Heat and Wizards played, and where the Capitanes have home games, was built for $300 million and opened in 2012. Around that time, the Maloof family was looking to move the Sacramento Kings, and Robert Hernreich, who held a minority stake in the Kings, pushed the family and then-NBA commissioner David Stern to consider Mexico City. Herneich says he even accompanied league officials on a tour of the arena.

“I didn’t fight for it strong enough, and I should have,” Hernreich said. “It has been a great opportunity for 15 years, and for some reason, the NBA (has) not (been) willing to exploit that. I pursued it independently, and Stern would say, ‘Bobby, look elsewhere. We’re not gonna do Mexico City.’”

Under Silver, clearly, that tune has changed.

Vendors sell merchandise ahead of the 2023 NBA Mexico City Game between the Hawks and Magic. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

Mexico City is the largest city in North America, with a population of 22 million. Mexico has a population of 130 million and, according to the league’s own research, 32 million NBA fans, including 13 million fans ages 14 to 30.

The NBA has major offices in Mexico City and San Paolo, Brazil. It counts more than 121 million fans across Latin America and the Caribbean and considers Mexico one of its top-five markets in the world for League Pass subscriptions.

Arena Ciudad de México is, by any accounting, an NBA-caliber arena. The concourses are spacious, the scoreboards jumbo, the sound system excellent, and the locker rooms large enough. It’s also a major concert venue for the city.

“I think culturally, just watching the changes that we’ve seen, even over the 30 years that we’ve been playing games here … we went from sort of a novelty to a mainstream sport here,” Silver said. “If we were to bring an NBA franchise here, there’s no question it would ignite and accelerate the growth of the game.”

Jahlil Okafor played in the NBA for six seasons, where he earned more than $22 million in salary, and spent one season with the Capitanes in the G League in 2022-23.

“They told us it was the Beverly Hills of Mexico, and living there, it was,” Okafor said.

Okafor said he and his teammates were put up in a nice apartment complex in Polanco, with glass doors and marble floors, not far from the row of swanky hotels, boutiques and open-air restaurants where the NBA congregates each year during its Global Games series in Mexico City. He was enamored with the food and the culture.

But would Mexico City be a good place for the NBA to put a team? “I’m not sure,” Okafor said. “It was difficult for us to commute around Mexico City just because the traffic is really bad.”

Yes, Mexico City has a traffic problem. According to anthropologist Lachlan Summers, who has studied the city’s traffic, residents of the city lose on average about 6.5 days per year stuck on the clogged highways and main streets. A separate study of Los Angeles traffic said commuters there lose about 3.5 days per year in traffic jams.

But the traffic issue, as it relates to the NBA setting up permanent residence in Mexico City, is more complex than too many cars on the road. It starts with the security of the multi-millionaire players who would live in Mexico City for at least six months of the year.

According to Numbeo, a website that tracks crime rates internationally, Mexico City’s crime rate in mid-2024 of 67.7 crimes per 100,000 residents is the 32nd highest in the world. There were two NBA cities — Detroit and Memphis — with higher crime rates, and Milwaukee and New Orleans are 33rd and 34th on this list.

Mexico City is also, by and large, poorer than major American cities. According to a 2022 study by the Mexican government, the average salary for a Mexico City resident fluctuates between $660 and $720 a month.

“When a lot of people think of Mexico, the first thing they think about is safety and things along the border,” said Lagios, who was general manager of the Capitanes for three years before taking a similar job with Diablos Rojos of Mexico’s top pro basketball league. “But I think, as time goes on, I’d hear other teams were scared about coming here, and then they get here and they love it.”

That’s in part because those visiting teams from the G League stay in Polanco, or as Okafor described, the “Beverly Hills of Mexico City.” It’s also where NBA teams always stay when they play in Mexico, and, if an NBA team were to play in Arena Ciudad de México full time, Polanco would be the most likely option for players to live.

Polanco is geographically close to the arena (again, just six miles), but on game nights, it can feel like you’re driving from Dallas to Houston. The arena is surrounded on three sides by a wall, and there aren’t many parking options other than the attached garage, which has, at most, two exits that both empty onto the same street.

Also, the neighborhood in which the arena is located is dilapidated, likely uncomfortable for wealthy basketball players who would be unlikely to solve the logistics problem of travel time by moving closer to the arena — an issue that could extend to the paying customers.

“The people who can (afford to) pay the cost of NBA tickets, they live far from the arena,” said Othon Diaz, chief executive officer for all of Diablos Rojos’ sports teams. “The area (around the arena) is not the best place — like security, the streets are not so nice.

“You can go to a concert every three or four months, but four to six games a month? That’s a problem.”

If proximity and traffic were barriers for the more affluent residents of Mexico City to attend more than a handful of 41 home games, then NBA pricing could serve as a barrier to those who live closer to the arena, Diaz said.

The average price of an NBA ticket is $94, excluding the price of parking, food and merchandise. A two-hour Uber ride in Mexico City could cost a day’s wage for the average Mexico City resident.

“In the United States, they charge, what, $13 a beer? If I charged $13 for beer, they’d shoot me,” Diaz said.

It’s a risky exercise to compare Diablos Rojos or the Capitanes to a potential NBA team in Mexico City, because both of the existing clubs are playing minor-league basketball. Both teams have enjoyed success but, for what it’s worth, neither is profitable yet.

A look at Arena Ciudad de México, home of the NBA G League’s Capitanes. (Kirby Lee / USA Today)

Diablos Rojos, for example, just completed their first season and won the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional championship, capping off an outrageously fortuitous 2024 for the Harp family’s sports company.

Earlier this year, the Diablos Rojos baseball club not only hosted the New York Yankees for exhibition games in March but went on to win the Mexican League championship.

Diablos Rojos plays their basketball games in a 5,000-seat venue where the 1968 Olympic tournament was held in Mexico City, Gimnasio Olímpico Juan de la Barrera. Alfredo Harp Helú, who owns Diablos Rojos and is also part owner of the San Diego Padres, and his son, Santiago, who is 24 and vice president of the Diablos Rojos board of directors, want to build a new arena. Not only for Diablos Rojos, but perhaps for an NBA or WNBA team they ultimately lure to Mexico City.

The Capitanes practice at the Mexican Olympic Committee’s old facility, which is well below NBA standards — the rims may not be quite 10 feet in the air, and until recently, there were no locker rooms, former members of the organization said. An NBA or WNBA team would need a new practice facility too.

“Mexico City needs a new arena,” Santiago Harp said. “Even with (Arena Ciudad de México), we need another one. I’m really excited to just have a nice arena. We’re trying to look (at) how big it should be. We might be in some other leagues — now we’re in (LNBP), but we will see the future.”

Mexico City is not only crowded, it is also 7,300 feet above sea level. The population size and geography pose serious challenges when trying to build a massive structure like a new arena. When the Harps built their baseball stadium, which opened in 2019 near Mexico City’s international airport, for $167 million, they had to build it on a concrete slab supported by 155-feet tall pillars, because the land is on top of an ancient lake.

“Other parts of the city are built on top of old volcanic ash,” Diaz said. “The money isn’t the big problem — the place is so hard (to build an arena) because in Mexico City, there isn’t enough space. … But you can’t be sure what it would cost because you won’t know (right away) what the ground is like.”

Nuño Pérez Pla is in his first season as team president for the Capitanes, the third man in four years to hold that job. Pérez has fulfilled more roles for the Capitanes than he can remember, having done everything from serving as chief revenue officer to taking pictures during games along the baseline.

Pérez said the franchise is probably two years away from profitability, as corporate sponsorships continue to rise. The Capitanes received two different business awards from the G League last season, in which the club saw attendance rise by 93 percent from its first year in Mexico City.

“It is, 100 percent, everyone’s job at the Capitanes to showcase the potential of Mexico City, to show the Capitanes deserve to have a permanent place in the G League, and that we have the potential to have an NBA team in this country,” Pérez said.

Capitanes games are on ESPN Deportes, as part of the NBA’s contract with Disney. The Capitanes do not have to pay player salaries — the league does that, as it does for all G League players. Nor does the team make money off concessions; that all goes to the Monterrey-based company that owns Arena Ciudad de México. The Capitanes get the revenues from ticket and merchandise sales inside the arena during their games; undiscounted tickets cost between $15 and $50. The Capitanes average 4,300 fans per game this season.

Pérez said the viability of American cities Seattle and Las Vegas as NBA markets is well known but argued the Capitanes have “demonstrated the potential that Mexico City has.” Silver, the NBA commissioner, said the league would also have to engage the National Basketball Players Association on expansion to Mexico City, to ensure players would accept moving there for half the year.

“The NBA is testing Mexico right now, logistics testing, security testing and business testing to see what is the real potential of Mexico,” Pérez said.

The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov contributed.

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; top photos: Pedro Pardo, Emmanuel Dunand / AFP via Getty Images; Adam Hagy, David Dow, Issac Baldizon, Pablo Lomelin / NBAE via Getty Images)

LANDOVER, Md. — Bryson Daily lives West Point and Army football. The west Texan — who plays quarterback more like a defensive end hunting quarterbacks — has found time amid the unrelenting routine of a cadet to absorb history of the Army-Navy rivalry as well.

He does have help with that, counting Rollie Stichweh as a friend and adviser. Stichweh has stressed that leading a team is “about keeping everyone level through all the highs and lows more than anything,” Daily said, and Stichweh knows as much about this game as anyone. If you don’t know that name, here’s essential Army-Navy lore: Roger Staubach and Navy beat Army in 1963 in one of the most memorable editions of game, one that was pushed back a week because of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., one that came down to the final possession. Navy’s 21-15 triumph was its fifth in a row in the series, capping a season that saw the Midshipmen finish No. 2 in the rankings and Staubach win the Heisman Trophy.

The other quarterback was Stichweh. A lot more people knew it a year later when both were seniors and Stichweh beat Staubach to end the streak, before heading off to serve in Vietnam and win the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal. On Saturday at Northwest Stadium, in the 125th edition of this game, Army’s Daily was the senior star who had to endure the bitterness of “singing first” in his last opportunity.

Blake Horvath was much more than just the other quarterback.

The Navy junior entered his name in the annals of this game and in a few more households at large with 196 yards and two touchdowns rushing, 107 yards and two touchdowns passing, a 31-13 stunner of a win and significant contributions toward the celebration to match.

“You’re talking about a guy who didn’t even get honorable mention all-conference, you know?” said Navy coach Brian Newberry, which of course contrasts with Daily winning AAC offensive player of the year and finishing sixth in Heisman Trophy voting. “And he outplayed the guy on the other side today, truth be told.”

And he felt it, as they all did, as they always do. This capped the season of the most combined national relevance for these programs in decades, and that’s something to watch as both continue to develop players and chemistry over years while the rest of the sport plays annual roster Etch A Sketch. Horvath and Navy (9-3) served notice that college football in 2025 should watch out for Horvath and Navy.

But who cares? These are the moments they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives. It’s that important to all who play and all who serve, the rest of college football be darned. The reason an Army-Navy game is on more bucket lists than parasailing in Hawaii is because each one serves up an intersection of intensity, pageantry, history and humanity that you can’t find elsewhere.

The cadets from West Point and the midshipmen from Annapolis march onto the field before the game in breathtaking displays of precision and order, from young people who have signed up to protect our country. This felt like a typical football afternoon coming in, walking past an Army Rangers tailgate with George Thorogood’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” blaring from speakers and folks singing and drinking along. Inside the stadium, nothing is typical. College football does pageantry at a high level, but not this.

Then you’re reminded that these are 18- to 22-year-olds when they take their seats and belt out “Sweet Caroline,” or chant at someone to take off a shirt, or groan collectively when something goes wrong on the field. That happened often for the cadets Saturday, their 11-1, AAC champion, No. 22 Black Knights outfoxed early, fooled late and pushed around often in a game that lived up to its reputation as the most physical you’ll find in the sport.

“It, frankly, makes the season a bit of a disappointment, that’s just the truth of this game,” Army coach Jeff Monken said after his team was outgained 378-178, a week after beating Tulane to win the AAC for the first conference championship in school history.

The sad, or wonderful, reality of Army-Navy is that Army would trade all those wins right now for Saturday’s. When Horvath took the final snap for the final knee in victory formation, the order, precision and intensity turned to kids losing their minds. Horvath hopped around and asked for more noise from the midshipmen. Junior fullback Alex Tecza of Mt. Lebanon, Pa., who had the first big play of the game, 32 yards on a throwback screen off a play that looked like a speed option going the other way, did a backflip.

He found his backfield partner and high school buddy, Eli Heidenreich, who had an even bigger play: 52 yards and a touchdown on a catch and run, putting Navy up 21-10 and giving Horvath a share of the school single-season record for passing touchdowns (13) and himself a share of the record for touchdown catches (six). Heidenreich spiked the ball after that touchdown — “kind of an out-of-body experience,” he would say later of that — but now he was just looking for people to hug.

HEIDENREICH HOUSE CALL!
Navy increases the lead! pic.twitter.com/23muqMib0l

— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 14, 2024

He couldn’t get to Brandon Chatman yet, because Chatman was up in the stands along with several other Navy players, making the most of the moment. Chatman is a junior too, “Snipe Z” in the Navy offense to Heidenreich’s “Snipe A,” and he caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Horvath in the game. Chatman grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in tough circumstances, agreeing to live in the garage so his mother could rent out his room, sleeping with a fan inches from his face to keep from waking up in pools of sweat.

He was going to play slot receiver for Warner University, an NAIA program in Lake Wales, Fla., when Navy found him and saw a place for him in this kind of offense. His resolve was tested when a close friend was shot back home and he couldn’t attend the funeral while in “plebe summer” — basic training for incoming freshmen — but he stayed in Annapolis.

“This place basically saved me,” Chatman said.

“The thing about Chat is, whatever’s going on in his life, there’s always a smile on his face,” Tecza said of Chatman. “The happiest kid I’ve ever met, a kid who never complains.”

A kid who has his first win over Army, after Army had won two straight and six of eight. The same was true of another junior, Horvath’s co-MVP in this game, nose guard Landon Robinson. All he did was pile up 13 tackles on defense and make the play on special teams that broke the game open — getting the look he wanted from Army on a Navy punt, calling for a direct snap and rumbling for 29 yards. Senior linebacker Colin Ramos made the play stand by pouncing on Robinson’s fumble at the end of it.

Robinson, whose father was a Kent State gymnast, made Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List for benching 450 pounds and squatting 650. He was the only nose guard in the nation in 2023 who played on the kickoff team. Maybe this Navy offense, which took big advances in versatility in 2024, can find more work for him.

“We’ll work on that ball security,” Horvath joked.

The initial Navy celebration had to pause for a few moments so the Midshipmen could line up behind the Black Knights in a show of respect while Army and the cadets sang their alma mater. Their faces were grim and stayed that way through the long walk from the field into the tunnel and their locker room.

Navy celebrated its third win against Army in the last nine meetings. (Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

Daily, who was held to 52 yards rushing and 65 yards and a touchdown passing — with three interceptions when forced to get out of character and wing it around as Army faced a deficit — led the team in that endeavor as well. Meanwhile, Navy was singing second for the first time in three years, and reigniting the party afterward.

“There’s a pain that comes with singing first in this game,” Horvath said. “We didn’t want to do it again.”

Midshipmen players were still making all kinds of noise as they finally got to the tunnel and their locker room. One yelled, “Do they have a football team?!” in an apparent reference to a joke Monken made at Navy’s expense earlier this season in an interview with Pat McAfee on ESPN. Newberry entered his postgame news conference with two loud words: “Hell yeah!”

But it was mostly respect, on and off the field, and that’s not fabricated because it can’t be. Newberry got on the topic of these programs and their record 20 combined wins this season moving forward with success in college football, saying: “It’s hard these days with the changes in college football to really build a culture that’s built on love and trust.”

Pure jubilation.
Navy earns the right to sing second. pic.twitter.com/NfIE3gmeiI

— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) December 14, 2024

Daily agrees. He has a strong sense of the history in this rivalry and strong feelings on the future, telling The Athletic recently: “This 100 percent works to our advantage. We know who we’re going to battle with every day for years. And the biggest key with that is being able to hold each other accountable. Guys don’t get up in arms or in their feelings if they get called out. That can only happen if you’ve got relationships that last for years.”

Now Daily is a graduate of this rivalry, 2-2 overall and 1-1 as a starting quarterback. They’ll be playing for him in 2025, just as he has played for those who preceded him. He left the place Saturday night as an advising alum like Stichweh, with some words for the Black Knights who get to have more of this wonderful game.

“Feeling this loss, feeling this pain,” he said to them, “and just never letting it happen again.”

(Top photo of Blake Horvath: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)