HII NDO MAN UTD YA SASA YAWAPA KICHAPO 3 - 1 REAL MADRID
Louis van
Gaal has given himself the chance to claim his first trophy at
Manchester United just three weeks into the job. And to add to the
intrigue, it will be United’s most-detested rivals Liverpool trying to
stand in his way.
Winning
the International Champions Cup, a glorified pre-season tournament in
America, may not be the main reason United turned to Van Gaal after 12
months of David Moyes, but it’ll still be a nice start to the Dutchman’s
time at Old Trafford is his side win the final in Miami on Monday.
United
qualified for the showpiece game by defeating Real Madrid in front of a
record crowd in Ann Arbor on Saturday night and will now face their
north-west neighbours who topped the other group in the eight-team
competition.
Ashley
Young was United's unlikely hero with two goals against Real where the
other main source of interest was the size of the attendance inside the
University of Michigan’s American football stadium, 109,318.
It
was the biggest crowd ever seen for a “soccer” game in America and
represented the largest attendance for any United match since 1957 when
they travelled to Real’s Madrid’s Santiago Bernabueu in the fledgling
European Cup.
On
this occasion, Real were without their talisman Cristiano Ronaldo until
the closing stages and looked a pale shadow of the side that lifted the
Champions League in May.
Gareth Bale was clearly their best player, winning and scoring a penalty to briefly make the game 1-1.
But
their manager Carlo Ancelotti never got to grips with the 3-4-3
formation Van Gaal is using to try and get the best out of his array of
attacking players.
Celebrate: Young's team-mates rush over to congratulate him after he put United ahead in the first half
The setting was worthy of arguably the two most glamorous teams in world football, and star names like Bale and Wayne Rooney.
The
giant cavernous arena, an hour outside Detroit, is known locally with
good reason as The Big House and United’s skipper Darren Fletcher
admitted before kick-off: ‘You think you’ve done it all with Manchester
United and all over the world, but this is going to be a unique
occasion.’
There was some disappointment that Ronaldo wasn’t fit enough to start because of his knee injury picked up at the World Cup.
But
it didn’t stop thousands of fans drinking beer and enjoying barbecues
around the stadium in the hours leading up to kick-off.
Despite
the numbers attending, what followed still felt like a pre-season
friendly, but United would have been heartened to see red shirts greatly
outnumber white on all four sides.
United
had already beaten Roma and Inter Milan in the competition and knew a
draw would be good enough to see them through to Florida.
The
goal that gave them the lead after 21 minutes was good enough to grace
any competition, a superb team effort involving six different players.
Phil
Jones and Antonio Valencia began the move inside their own half and
Fletcher then carried the ball towards the danger-zone, playing a
one-two with Rooney and advancing to the edge of the Madrid penalty area
via a clever back-heel from the England man.
Fletcher
thought momentarily about a shot but instead slid a pass across to
Welbeck. It proved the right call, Welbeck played in Ashley Young on the
overlap and while his low finish wasn’t particularly well-placed, it
was struck firmly enough to beat Iker Casillas.
Without Ronaldo watching from the sidelines, it was up to Bale to provide the spur. And he did just that after 27 minutes.
The
super-charged Welshman, the world’s most expensive player at £86million
was far too quick for Michael Keane, not for the first or last time.
And as the United defender put out his arm to try and hold Bale back,
the Madrid No11 didn’t need much encouragement to hit the floor.
After
a couple of moments of deliberation, referee Hilario Grajeda pointed to
the spot. Bale trotted up as if he was in the local park rather than in
front of a six-figure audience, and calmly sent David de Gea the wrong
way from the spot.
Suddenly the game was easing through the gears, and United restored their lead after 37 minutes.
Young,
one of those deemed under threat in the new Van Gaal regime, scored
again. Wayne Rooney tried to head his left-wing centre and even though
he didn’t make contact, the striker did enough to distract Casillas and
allow the cross to trickle inside the far post.
Rooney
held up his hand in celebration, confusing the stadium announcer who
thought he might have scored, but the player indicated to Young it was
the winger’s goal.
As
often happens on these occasions, the second half was affected by a
mass of substitutions. Van Gaal took off his two most potent forwards
Young and Rooney, and Madrid fought hard to level.
Bale
set up Isco with a scorching run but the Spaniard couldn’t convert.
Bale was then denied by a fine save. The crowd came to life when
Ronaldo, who hadn’t played since the World Cup because of a knee injury,
came on for the last 16 minutes, looking every inch the Hollywood star.
But
he didn’t have much of an impact. Instead, his former United team-mates
scored a third goal after 80 minutes when Shinji Kagawa floated in a
delightful cross which Javier Hernandez bravely headed in from close
range.
Eyebrows were raised when United appointed Moyes because he had never won a trophy.
For
Van Gaal to start work on July 23 and pick up silverware on August 4
would be impressive, even if Liverpool will have something to say about
that.
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