United Opens Preseason With A Win

Manchester United 3 - Celtics 1

Good to have some real football action at last. This was our first game in pre-season and I was expecting alot of broken plays and players getting back to fitness. But what transpired was pleasantly surprising. I'll not go into detail since it's the friendlies, instead I'll go into little snips on what I observed.

Scholes - Outstanding. England missed him terribly. He was spraying passes all over the pitch and when he left at half time, the quality of United's play dropped significantly.

Berbatov - Scored the opener and created the other 2. He started like the way he played last season, but as the game wore one, he just got better and better. Maybe, just maybe, this could be his breakout season with us. I'm not holding my hopes too high....

Fabio - Outstanding on the left. Great energy going forward and, unlike his brother on the other side of the pitch, showed great patience in defense, not committing into rash challengers.

Smalling - Had a credible first half. Nothing could get past him. He was comfortable on the ball, and would be compared to Rio with his reading of the game. Unfortunately, just like Rio, he was caught in no-man's land and gave away a penalty that allowed Celtic to equalize. Withered like a flower after that.

Obertan - Looks great going down the right flank. Plenty of speed and trickery. Contributed to the opener. However, very similar to what he showed last season. Not enough footballing brains to pick out teammates. I suppose that will eventually come with more experience and maturity. Actually the same can be said for all the youngsters on display today....Cleverly, Diouf, Macheda. At times it's just painful to see them squander good chances when they go for personal glory.

Without the players who played in the World Cup, this was a really good display for the first game after a long layoff. Hopefully I'm able to catch the rest of the friendlies played in North America. The timing's just awful over here in Singapore.