With their 2-0 victory yesterday, Paris Saint-Germain claimed the 2015 International Champions Cup (a preseason tournament). PSG, who were playing in the ICC for the first time, claimed the “championship” (as you can’t really have a championship in a collection of friendlies) by finishing the tournament with 10 points and handed Manchester United its first lost ever in eight ICC matches.
Manchester United entered the game with nine points. PSG was in third place with seven points, making the match a de facto championship game, as both teams would have claimed the title with a win. The last match on U.S. soil for the 2015 edition was held at a sold-out Soldier Field in Chicago with an announced attendance of 61,351. Actual attendance was pretty close to that; the stadium filled in nicely.
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The crowd was all red, as Manchester United support dominated those for PSG. The second goal was scored by striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his third of the tournament, tying him for the tournament lead. That was pretty much the highlight, as the second half was dreadful to watch. The last 45 minutes saw a much slower pace and overall, no Manchester United supporter enjoyed watching this effort.
-Manager Louis van Gaal often subjects his players to a boot camp of double training sessions during his pre-season regimen. He (correctly) believes that the training sessions matter much more than these friendlies. Van Gaal has been critically outspoken of these preseason exhibition tours, but eventually came around upon realizing how much these international friendlies matter for club sponsors.
These tours are total cash cows for giant European clubs. And according to The Telegraph, Louis van Gaal could be forced to undertake a grueling pre-season trip to China next summer with Manchester United’s major sponsors increasingly keen to exploit the club’s commercial power in the Far East.
And it’s not just next summer which will see a change to the preseason routine. We could still see a tweak this summer before the Red Devils take on Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on August 8th.
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The Daily Mirror is making a claim today that Van Gaal has abandoned the traditional pre-season friendly at Old Trafford to ensure his players are ready for the new campaign, which begins at home against Tottenham on August 8. But the Dutchman has organized a behind-closed-doors, 11-a-side game for his players next week, to make sure they are match-sharp.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is part of the FOX Sports Engage Network. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous talk radio stations all across the country.
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