The Stretford Stand
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| Man United will be going to the United States in this summer for the pre-season friendlies. |
The Red Devils will be gearing up for the pre-season friendly tour taking place in the United States this year and clash with the defending European champions Barcelona and French champions Paris Saint Germain. Their performances and approach towards these friendly tours have been changing in the previous years.
The last 5 years have turned out to be very important for the Red Devils when it came to the friendlies. As of the 2010-11 pre-season games, United had agreed to play Guadalaraja on 30th July to open their new stadium Estadio Chivas which had a capacity of 45,000. Unfortunately the English giants lost that game 2-3. On 6th May that year, Manchester United announced that they’d be travelling to North America that summer for the 1st time since 2004.
Sir Alex Ferguson, then the manager had chosen his 22-man squad that included new signing Chris Smalling. United flew out over the Atlantic on 12th July without the players who participated the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. United started off their pre-season campaign against Scottish side Celtic. Dimitar Berbatov, Tom Cleverley and Danny Welbeck scored a goal each as the Red Devils cruised to a 3-1 win. The next fixture was against Philadelphia Union where a 76th minute winner by Gabriel Obertan saw the game ending in United’s favour. The following game was against Kansas City Wizards and a controversial goal earned the American club victory.
The United States tour culminated in a convincing 5-2 win over MLS All Stars. Young guns Federico Macheda, Darron Gibson, Tom Cleverley and new signing Javier Hernandez had shone in this game. The team returned to Europe and was set to face League of Ireland 11 in the 1st match to be played at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. World Cup stars Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick, Ji-Sung Park and Nemanja Vidic had joined the United camp after their World Cup duties. The game was a big boost for United as they went to win this one by a huge 7-1 scoreline.
A testimonial match for retiring captain Gary Neville was scheduled on May 24 at Old Trafford. This match featured some of ‘Fergie’s Fledglings’ from the Class of 92, including former stars Nicky Butt, Gary’s brother Phil, David Beckham and the current United players, but they slipped to a 2-1 defeat.
Manchester United preceded their 2011-12 campaign with a tour to The United States for the 2nd time in a row. They took on New England Revolution and started off their pre-season tour with a 4-1 win over the Americans. In their next game, United were in top form as they beat Seattle Sounders 7-0. The Red Devils played their next 2 games against American sides Chicago Fire and the MLS All Stars where they won 3-1 and 6-0 respectively.
They then played Spanish champions Barcelona in Washington DC where the Red Devils emerged victorious with the full time score at 2-1. Club legend Paul Scholes was given a testimonial in honor of his 17 years of service. The match was played at Old Trafford against New York Cosmos and won 6-0. They completed the pre-season tour against League of Ireland 11 where United rounded off with a 4-1 win.
The 2012-13 pre-season tour was global tour which included trips to South Africa, China and Norway. The 1st game of this tour was against AmaZulu where a 1st half goal by Federico Macheda saw United coming off as the winners. They then played Ajax Cape Town which was their last game in the African continent. It ended in a 1-1 stalemate. Following this, the Red Devils travelled to China and played Shanghai Shenhua at the Shanghai stadium where new signing Shinji Kagawa scored the winner. They then moved to Norway to play Valerenga in Oslo which ended in a goalless draw.
United played out a draw with Barcelona in their penultimate fixture. The last game was against Hannover 96 whom they had not faced since 1965. The Red Devils were now ready to start their league campaign as they won the last friendly game by a narrow margin; it was 4-3.
The following season, United had scheduled the global tour of Australia, Asia and Europe before returning to Old Trafford for Rio Ferdinand’s testimonial match against Sevilla. The pre-season didn’t go quite well for the Red Devils as the new manager David Moyes suffered 3 defeats in 7 games which was described as ‘poor’ and ‘miserable’. Their 1st game itself in the friendlies turned out to be a shameful 1-0 loss against Thai All Stars 11. They managed to get only 2 victories in the pre-season campaign this time which was against Kitchee and A-League All-stars. United youngsters Adnan Januzaj and Jesse Lingard were the best of the young players to have featured in these friendly games.
Following the dismissal of David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal was appointed as the new boss and he brought the Red Devils back to more enjoyable pre-season games by winning all of them. These fixtures included the Chevrolet Cup tie with LA Galaxy which the Old Trafford club won 7-0. They then started playing in the International Champions Cup where they faced some familiar European names. These names were of Italian giants Roma and Inter who were beaten 3-2 and 5-3(penalties) by United in the group stages. They then faced the defending European champions Real Madrid where goals from Ashley Young and Javier Hernandez saw them through to the finals of the ICC. The last game in the States was against league rivals Liverpool where the Red Devils had beaten their rivals to lift the International Champions Cup. On their return to England, Louis Van Gaal faced his fans for the 1st time as United faced Valencia at home just before the season began.
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| Captains Rooney and Fletcher with the International Champions Cup 2014-15 |
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