Pre-Season Friendlies: Kansas City Wizards 2-1 Manchester United
Manchester United suffered a shock defeat in their second pre-season game, after losing to the Kansas City Wizards by two goals to one. Sir Alex Ferguson will be very disappointed with what was a weak performance by an inexperienced Manchester United side in this game.
It was the MLS side who took the lead in the first half when Davy Arnaud opened the scoring in the 11th minute. It was a very well taken goal by the Kansas City player, who was impressive throughout the match. After being put through to the goal, Arnaud made no mistake at all with the finish, beating the goalkeeper, Ben Amos, to put the Kansas City Wizards ahead.
Manchester United’s inexperience at the back looked to be putting them in trouble as the Kansas City Wizards looked to increase their lead before the half time whistle. Chris Smalling was partnering Evans at the back in a partnership that we’re likely to see during the course of the Premier League season but on evidence of the performance in this game, Sir Alex will be very hesitant to put these two together.
Portuguese International, Nani, was the brightest spark in a rather ordinary looking Manchester United side, testing the goalkeeper Nielsen and forcing him to make a very good save with the tips of his fingers.
The game had a moment of controversy as the referee Terry Vaughn sent off Kansas City defender Conrad after a tackle on Manchester United forward Dimitar Berbatov inside the box. Although usually in friendly games referees show leniency when dealing with such fouls since both teams treat the game as practice and that purpose is defeated if one team has fewer players.
Berbatov went on to score from the resulting penalty to make the score 1-1 but the lead was short lived as Kansas scored once more, this time through Kamara. After the MLS team were awarded a corner, Kamara was left unmarked and he scored with a powerful header past the Manchester Untied goalkeeper.
After Conrad’s dismissal, Manchester United had the greater share of possession throughout the rest of the game but found it difficult to break past a resilient Kansas City Wizards side. The goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg, was rarely, if at all, tested and the score remained 2-1 to the MLS team until the very end.
Watching from the sidelines, Sir Alex looked annoyed at the inability of his team to equalize despite forward Danny Wellbeck looking particularly impressive down the right side. Although the team is going to improve substantially with the return of the club’s top scorer from last season, Wayne Rooney, fragility at the back is likely to raise concern for the Manchester United manager.
The home fans, on the other hand, were delighted to see their team beat one of Europe’s biggest sides in a victory that will be remembered for a long time. Had it not been for some outstanding goalkeeping and a little bit of bad luck, Jack Jewsbury and Stephane Auvra could have made the score-line even more embarrassing for United.
With the game against Chelsea for the Community Shield only three weeks away, Manchester United will have a long way to go if they want to defeat the Champions of England.
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