Manchester United scored four goals to begin their campaign for the next season’s English Premier League on a positive note as they beat New England Revolution on Wednesday. Federico Macheda scored a couple of goals, while Michael Owen and Park Ji-Sung slammed in one apiece. The game was played at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
New England Revolution is one of the Major League Soccer (MLS) clubs and had finished 13th in the previous season. They had not qualified for the playoffs of the MLS.
The other teams involved in the 2011 World Football Challenge are Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City apart from some of the others.
Ashley Young, who has joined Manchester United from Aston Villa made his debut for the new club.
After some early domination by the Red Devils, the New England Revolution got going after the first 10 minutes and restrained the EPL champions from taking the lead. There were a few early shots at the goal but Pat Phelan’s shot was saved by the goal-keeper while Dimitar Berbatov’s hit the ball wide.
This was followed by Fabio, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick missing the chance to score in a span of the next 10 minutes, the ball not even threatening the goal-keeper. The score was 0-0 when they went into the break.
It was in the second half that things began to happen for the tourists. Owen was helped by Carrick in sending the ball into right bottom corner of the net for United to go 1-0 up while five minutes later, Macheda had Carrick’s assistance again in slamming the second one.
A couple of minutes, the American side pulled one back with a Benny Feilhaber free-kick went inside the net through a deflection. However, the joy was very short-lived as the match saw its fourth goal in ten minutes when a Rafael’s cross went through to Macheda, who smashed his second and the team’s third of the game.
The game was sealed in the 80th minute when Ryan Giggs and Park combined well to add a fourth goal for Manchester United.
In some of the other friendlies around the world, Arsenal managed to crush a Malaysian XI side by a 4-0 margin while Liverpool had to struggle to beat Guangdong Sunray Cave F.C. 4-3. Liverpool will next play the Malaysian XI side while Arsenal take on Hangzhou Greentown. Manchester United’s next opponent is Seattle Sounders F.C.