Manchester United’s pre-season tour of America got off to a great start with a 4-1 win over New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium early this morning.
United started the game well controlling the ball for long periods of play. Ashley Young who played 67 minutes on his United debut impressed particularly in the first half as both Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov both of which were missed.
New England battled well and made it hard for United to take the lead in the first half which no doubt would have pleased their manager and ex-Liverpool player Steve Nicol.
Going forward New England barley tested United’s defence who dealt with any pressure quickly. The host’s only clear cut chance of the half fell to Sharlie Jospeh but the Grenadian international’s diving header failed to reach the target.
Changes were made after half time with Rio Ferdinand coming on for skipper Nemanja Vidic whilst Rooney and Berbatov made way for Michael Owen and Federico Macheda. It only took five minutes for Owen to make an impression as he slotted home inside the area following a great team move to put United into the lead.
Owen’s fellow sub Macheda scored three minutes later to double United’s lead. A nice ball by Nani down the wing picked out Carrick who played the ball perfectly into our young Italian’s path to fire home.
New England reduced the lead in the 55th minute to make it 3 goals in 5 second half minutes when Sainey Nyassi’s weak free-kick struck his own team mate Benny Feilhaber before going in.
It was a strike that Anders Lindegaard in goal was unlucky to concede as Nyassi’s strike would have gone straight into his path had it not struck Feilhaber. Nyassi’s freekick struck his own team mate Benny Feilhaber and wrong-footed Anders Lindegaard in goal.
Six minutes later though it was 3-1 to United with Macheda getting his second. Nani decided to pass a corner short to Rafael whose cross into the area wasn’t cleared properly allowing Macheda to control the ball well before firing home across the goalie into the bottom corner.
As ever changes were made in the second half. Three of those substitutes combined for Untied’s fourth goal 10 minutes from time. Gabriel Obertan out wide skilfully skipped pat his marker finding Park Ji-Sung inside the box who neatly exchanged passes with Ryan Giggs before dinking the ball over Shuttleworth to complete the scoring.
Star Man: Whilst both Michael Carrick and Young impressed for United in midfield, Macheda stole the show in the second half and stole the show. These goals might not count for anything come the end of the season, but there’s no doubt scoring goals early on in pre-season will be the confidence boost that our number 27 needed after returning from his loan spell with Sampdoria.
Next up on the club’s American tour is a game against the Seattle Sounders next Wednesday, whose goalkeeper – Kasey Keller – United fans will remember well from his time in the Premiership with Leicester City and Spurs.
By @ADennehey87
