Mercifully for Manchester United, tonight’s clash in Miami against Real Madrid is their final friendly in the United States. After this is over, the team will fly home and manager Jose Mourinho can find new things to complain about and other reasons to throw his own players under the bus.
Mourinho loves taking his team to train in Los Angeles, California every preseason, so it’s surprising that the overall tour didn’t work out too well this time. Mourinho knew it was a World Cup year too, so it’s quite shocking that he’s handling the absence of so many key players this poorly.
That said, United were somewhat impressive in the first half of this one, taking a 2-1 lead into the break. Let’s run through some of the news and notes items from the first half.
Take a look at the starting XI that Mourinho went with tonight- it’s nowhere near as weak as you would expect, given how much Mourinho has griped about being without his team. You’ve got four nearly certain first team players in there: obviously David de Gea and Alexis Sanchez, most likely Fred (they certainly paid starter money for him) and Bailly too.
Additionally, you have the team’s 2016-17 player of the year (Ander Herrera, complementing last season’s MUFC POY De Gea) in the line-up, along with a few more players who have actually seen decently long stints as starting XI regulars during their time at Old Trafford. In other words, it’s not a weak side at all, and they played a strong first half tonight.
It was EXTREMELY important for De Gea to get in some work before the season starts. The faster he can put that nightmarish World Cup showing with Spain behind him the better.
Have a look at Alexis Sanchez opening the scoring:
https://twitter.com/TheManUtdWay/status/1024452442040217600
In the first 45 minutes, United looked like a team playing their fifth preseason match facing an opponent in their first (which is exactly what this was).
United put three shots on goal to Real’s one, while they outshot the European champions 6-4. United were able to overcome a 2-1 disadvantage in possession for the half. Ander Herrera scored United’s second goal, with Karim Benzema finding the back of the net for Madrid to complete the scoring.
Here’s Herrera’s scoring strike:
https://twitter.com/TheManUtdWay/status/1024453840328962048
We’ll be back with the second half news and notes shortly.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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