Jose Mourinho can’t wait for Man United to complete their preseason tour of China, and proverbially get out of Dodge. You certainly can’t blame him, given the all the disasters unfolding around him. Due to catastrophic flooding, tomorrow’s friendly between Man United and rivals Man City was a serious doubt to even occur.
Some still believed the match should go on as planned, despite serious issues with the playing field. Well a pitch in very poor shape has now led to the cancellation of the game.
Due to recent weather events, tournament organisers & participating clubs have decided to cancel tonight's International Champions Cup game.
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 25, 2016
City said in a statement on Monday morning:
“Due to recent weather events, tournament organizers and participating clubs have made the decision to cancel tonight’s International Champions Cup fixture to be played in Beijing tonight, 25 July.”
“Further details and statements will follow.”
This is the pitch at the Bird's Nest. Can see why MUFC v MCFC was cancelled now. It's in a very poor state. pic.twitter.com/jywTSmnn8L
— Paul Hirst (@hirstclass) July 25, 2016
The preseason exhibition “Manchester Derby” was to be a match-up of the two Premier League title favorites, as it currently stands.
City are considered the favorites right now, with United receiving the second best odds regarding the upcoming season.
Ticket sales were very poor for this one, due to obvious reasons. Conditions are/were so bad that even the pre-match press conference had to be moved outdoors.
Jose Mourinho spoke of why he can’t wait wait to leave China, and he spoke about why (transcript via Manchester Evening News):
“It’s in the end, last day, last match and then we can go home and train in good conditions, conditions where the players feel good and safe and bring their concentration and intensity to higher levels again.”
“Just hopefully we do nothing and to wish that no problems in the match and everyone goes home without injuries. If we manage to do that, then that’s fine.”
Jose Mourinho also described how poor the playing field truly is right now.
“The pitch is very bad. The pitch and the conditions of my players are more important than results in pre-season.”
“It’s not a problem for me to lose matches in pre-season. It’s a problem for me, bad conditions for my players to train and bad conditions for my players to play.”
Thus Man United decisively lost their first match in China 4-1, and their second match wasn’t even played. That’s rather disastrous.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication.
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