United Wins Friendly (Manchester United 4 - Europe XI 3)

This was a game of 2 halves....literally. Since it was a friendly, neither side really defended nor tackled. In the spirit of the game, there were goals aplenty.

United went into half time leading 4-1. To be fair to the European select, they were pieced together barely 24 hrs ago and looked disjointed, and at times even uninterested. United were sharp, particularly Rooney and Ronaldo. The European side, made of players from Seria A, the French league and the Premera Liga practically allowed United to rape them.

In the opening 10 minutes, United were already 2 goals up thanks to Rooney and Brown. Malouda halved our lead with a superb strike in the 23rd minute, and Ronaldo replied with an equally superb freekick on 35 minutes. Then at the end of the half Rooney finished a brilliant team move to put us up 4-1.

At half time, Beckham came on to address the crowd, thanking the support he had received during his time here, especially in 98. He also heaped praises on Ferguson, and wished us all the best. Class act. You could tell Manchester United was his first love, and possibly his only love.

As expected in such friendlies, wholesale changes were made for both sides. The Europe select side brought in a largely Premiership contingent, with 4 players from Liverpool and 3 from Bolton. The change brought on more steel to the European side.

United, on the other hand, replaced Rooney and Ronaldo, taking away our sharpness in attack. Perhaps what was most heartening was that we invited Andy Cole back for this game. Phil Neville and Ronnie Johnson would have also turned out unfortunately, Phil got injured in training for Everton earlier in the morning and Ronnie missed the flight to Manchester.

Dong FangZhuo was also featured in the second half, and judging from what I've seen, he may not be the token Chinese player I initially thought he would be. There were glimpses of a good striker. That being said, he has a superb goal scoring record for Royal Antwerp.

Anyway highlights from the second half was that the Liverpool players were roundly booed and Diouf scored a couple to bring the score to a respectable level. We would be meeting Bolton this weekend in a competitive game, and I'm sure Diouf wouldn't be shown this much room.