Review will follow, goals for now

Penalties

Community Shield Wembley, London

Preview:

The premiership champions get ready to kick off another exciting season with a warmup against the FA cup winners for the shield, which Keano famously lifted without a grin on his face. Although United have done a host of good to their shirts selling due to a far east tour, I really doubt if they have had quality preseason except for the Inter Milan game, which was a wake up call.

Ferguson is treating the new signings with kid gloves, understandable as he doesn’t want to miss any of them during the actual season due to haste now. The United XI is going to be mostly the same team which has featured against Inter Milan, except for probably Darren Fletcher replacing Eagles or “the goal scoring machine” O’Shea. United might revert back to the latest darling “4-2-3-1″ with the new number 10 jersey bearer the front man in a fluid interchanging front four.

The kid who played the game like a man, now a man is playing the game with the same enthusiasm as a kid. Ryan Giggs, who has been running up and down the left wing at Old Trafford might be given a free role, which when fit, he has been performing brilliantly. His positioning and awareness of the people around him will be invaluable this season.  Unlike the FA cup final, the players are not tired and I expect United to play a attacking formation.

On the other side, “Glorified Bolton Wanderers” have been playing the special trademark boring game under their special one Borhino, just winning the matches last season. Injuries to Robben and Joe Cole might have been his excuse but it remains to see the addition of a world cup finalist and stand out player in Ligue 1 last season Flourent Malouda, if he plans to use the width to make the match any interesting. Unlike United, Chelsea might be tempted to hand a debut to their new signings. They are all quality and it remains to see how they can warm the bench and be happy.

Kick off time: Sunday 5th August 2007, 15:00 BST

Venue: Wembley, London

Prediction: 2-1 to United.

Players to watch out: Both Pizzaro and Malouda are proven and experienced players, and if given a run are the players to watch along with Drogba.

United squad from: Van der Sar, Kuszcak, Evra, Ferdinand, Brown, Vidic, Silvestre, O’Shea, J.Evans, Bardsley, Simpson, Carrick, Giggs (c), Ronaldo, Fletcher, Eagles, Gibson, Martin, Rooney, Dong

Injury news: Hargreaves, Nani and Anderson are not fully fit and will not play. Saha, Ole, Gary Neville and Scholes are all out with long term injuries.

Doncaster Rovers 0-2 Manchester United

Gibson 0-1

Sean Evans (no way related to Jonny Evans, who plays as a midfielder) 0-2

United 2 – 3 Inter
Wayne Rooney 1-0

Suazo 1-1

Zlatan 1-2

Suazo 1-3

Adriano finally gets his scoring touch 2-3

Manchester United completely demolished China Super league side Shenzhen 6-0 in the third game of their East Asia tour.
Six different scorers including a debut goal from Nani secured the victory, which could have easily been double figures. The first half was a stroll for United, they dominated possession and were given far too much time on the ball, with Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney often producing moments of show-boating.

United made their early superiority count when Darren Fletcher slotted Rooney in, who found himself one-on-one with the keeper but the powerful striker unselfishly rolled across for Ryan Giggs to tap-in. The Red Devils doubled their lead on 20 minutes when a superb half-volleyed reverse ball by Giggs found Rooney, who audaciously lobbed the keeper from just inside the area.

The impressive Giggs was involved in United’s third as he set up up Nani for a debut goal. The Welshman flicked the ball into the path of the debutant and he coolly hit a first-time shot into the bottom left-hand corner. Shenzhen displayed some neat passing at times but failed to create, only managing a few long-rang efforts which Edwin van der Sar easily gathered.

Alex Ferguson’s men also had two goals bizarrely disallowed, the first a Ronaldo header and the second a stabbed Wes Brown shot. Just before the first half came to a close United almost made it four when Ronaldo smashed a dipping 25-yard free-kick against the bar. Minutes into the second half Shenzhen carved out an opportunity, a pacey cross was swiped at by Patrice Evra and it fell to the left-winger but his shot rippled against the side-netting.

After a slow start to the half United slowly began to get their tempo back, a sweeping ball from Brown found Ronaldo who drove in and laid the ball into the path of John O’Shea who finished expertly. Minutes later Nani started a counter-attack with a direct run, he pushed the ball right to Rooney who then rolled the balled across to Ronaldo, who easily finished to make it five. On 64 minutes substitute Chris Eagles made it two goals in two games with a wonderful 30-yard strike which swerved and dipped into the top corner.

Despite the humidity United’s pressure was relentless as Michael Carrick’s shot came down off the bar and Alan Smith spurned a golden opportunity when he dallied on the ball. Shenzhen continued to chase every ball but it was to no avail as United eased to victory. The Premier League champions finish their tour of East Asia when they face Guangzhou Pharmaceutical on 27th July. Scroll down for the goals

Giggsy [1-0]

Another Rooney chip [0-2]

Debut goal for Nani [0-3]

O’Shea slots in [0-4]

Ronaldo scores [0-5]

Eagles scores a beauty [0-6]

Just days after Fergie has done a fantastic piece of business, it looks like the old man has lost some sense. We love Fergie , absolutely love him, but statements like these drive us insane.

“We have had offers for Giuseppe, which puts us in a bit of a situation, while the quandary with Alan surrounds his long-term future and getting regular games.

There is no doubt Alan did fantastically well for us when he came back last season.

He gave the team a spiritual lift and because he is such a fighter, he was an inspiration to us. But he is 26 now and he wants regular football.

I have to look at Manchester United in terms of how do we improve to get better. And when someone like Tevez comes along, it makes it difficult for people like Alan and Giuseppe in particular.

The most important thing is that they are our players and we can make decisions when we like.”

It is great if Tevez arrives. The squad would have Rooney, Tevez, Saha, Ole, Smith, Rossi and Dong as the strikers. We should recognise that Saha won’t be around for half of the year considering his fragile frame, nor does Ole’s weary legs allow him to complete a full game or play more than one game a week. Dong is inexperienced which makes me count all these three as one good fit striker. So United would be left with five strikers. It makes sense to sell one striker if he generates a good value and it has to be Smith and not Rossi. Smith for all his combative instincts isn’t a player who can change a game on his own. Rossi is being touted as the next big thing and it would be a crime to sell him without giving him a fair chance.

If United sell both, we might be in big trouble if one of Rooney or Tevez gets injured. All the big teams have four good strikers. So Fergie, please don’t sell my Joe Red.  What do you guys think? Should both be sold if they generate around 12 million combined?

URAWA REDS

2-2

United has started their pre season friendly with a draw against Urawa Reds. The result doesn’t concern me much as it is the fitness the players have to improve and be ready to fire on all cylinders starting from the Community Shield. United should have won the match for the number of chances they have created, but got away with a draw. Both the goals conceded were sloppy by United standards, and we expect them to sharpen up before the season started (Well that is what preseason is for right!!).

Uchidate has opened the scoring for the home side with a wickedly swirwing kick, and Van der Sar should have done better. It is not secret that the giant Dutch man is getting old and goal keeping is one area of concern for the Red Devils in the coming season as Ben Foster is injured till March. He has to be given proper rest during the course of the season and hopefully the Polish depty puts in some polished performances.

Before the break Rooney had a breathtaking run, and wearing the number 10 jersey seems to have provided that extra bit of motivation for him.

After the break United has scored two goals in a space of five minutes. The first one involved a lot of team work and credit to Fletcher for staying at the correct place at the correct time. Thankfully this guy unlike Kieran Richardson has stepped up his quality during last season and hopefully improves even more.

United took the lead after 5 minutes with CR7 cutting in from the left and scoring a goal similar to the one he scored against Fulham. Nani will be taking this position in the future and hopefully he can emulate the guy he is being touted as.

As expected the guy to watch out for Ono has created a lot of problems to the defence, and has equalized for the Japanese Reds after turning it round Evans. It would have been very tough to imagine someone taking the ball round Rio or Vidic in a similar fashion, and Evans has to step up his quality and tackling if he has to become a regular member of the squad.

Overall a good match for the Red Devils, although the scoreline doesn’t suggest that. Hopefully they make the scorelines in the matches to come reflect that.

Final Score: 2-2 (0/1 right predictions by your Ed).

Team Line-ups:

United: Van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand (Evans, 45), Vidic (Simpson, 45), Evra (Silvestre, 45), Ronaldo, Fletcher, Carrick (O’Shea, 69), Giggs (Smith, 69), Scholes, Rooney
Subs: Kuszczak, Heaton, Bardsley

Urawa Red Diamonds: Tsukuki (Yamagishi, 45), Hosogai, Horinouchi, Nene, Yamada, Uchidate (Hiriwaka, 45), Hasebe, Soma (Okano, 91), Ono, Ponte (Koike, 83), Tanaka (Nagai, 75)
Subs: Tsutsumi, Sakai, Nishizawa

Scroll down for videos of the goals

Uchidate (1-0)

Fletcher (1-1)

Ronaldo (1-2)

Ono (2-2)