Barcelona took a 1-0 lead on Manchester United into the dressing room at half time of their International Champions Cup meeting. Neymar provided the scoring. Overall, it was statistically pretty dominating for Barca, who out-shot United 12-6 in the first half, putting seven on goal in comparison to United’s three.
The Red Devils also lost the possession battle, 67%-33%. Go here for the link to the takeaways from the first half of this game.
Like we said in the intro to the first piece, the Neymar narrative and transfer rumors overshadow every other aspect of this game.
https://twitter.com/MarcoNunez11/status/890361915251273728
Tonight marked the debut of United’s third kit, if you tuned in and wondered what they were wearing. When United published the promo photos last weekend, the reaction on Twitter was not very positive. Here’s a link to a collection of some of the more entertaining Tweets. The third kit is quite similar in color to a United shirt from the mid 1990s that has an unfortunate history.
Also, this tweet about the shirt…LOLOLOLOLOLOL
United let the fans design the new third kit. pic.twitter.com/0rt0k1Feyq
— Darren Richman (@darrenrichman) July 21, 2017
-80,162 was the announced attendance for this one, won by Barca 1-0, as there was no scoring in the second half. That turnout is mighty impressive for an international friendly. In the midst of the second half, the action slowed to the point that the announcers actually started discussing whether or not the wealthiest individual players in the world actually collect frequent flyer miles while on these international trips, which cover a vast amount of miles.
-They’re expecting over 93,000 for Real Madrid-Manchester City at the Los Angeles Coliseum later tonight. The El Clasico in Miami on Saturday will be huge too.
-United head back to Europe for two more international friendlies, one in Oslo, Norway against Valerenga on Sunday, the other in Dublin against Sampdoria on Wednesday. Then they’ll commence the season in the UEFA Super Cup against Real on Aug 8.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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