Sir Alex Ferguson presented with No. 25 Seattle Sounders jersey on 25 years with Manchester United
Sir Alex Ferguson was presented with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Seattle-Sounders-FC-c40474 jersey sporting his name, Sir Alex, and the number 25. The souvenir was given in honour of the legendary gaffer entering his 25th year with Manchester United.
Giving taken over in 1985, Sir Alex would be celebrating the silver jubilee of supervising the Red Devils later this year.
The Scottish manager comes to Emerald City after eight years. The last time the former Aberdeen manager came to Washington was in 2003.
His United side played Scottish club Celtic at then-Qwest Field in presence of more than 66,000 spectators. This time, however, the opposition would be the city’s very own Sounders FC. Ferguson expects the same crowd at the site this around as well.
The manager was pleased to see average attendance at the site when presented with the statistics. The stats would place Sounders FC at ninth place in the EPL on the basis of average spectator presence.
“The figures you’ve given me are a surprise to me,” Ferguson said. “That’s a very encouraging sign that soccer is working here. When we came here and played Celtic, you could understand it from the stadium there was a great incentive to go forward from there
and now you’re seeing the fruits of that. An average crowd of 37,000 is very, very healthy.”
Like everybody else in the footballing world, Ferguson also noticed the change of ‘soccer’ wave in the US. More and more people are taking interest in the game and the best examples are Sounders, Portland Timbers and Real Salt Lake.
The players, on the other hand, experienced the best of the city. Seattle residents offered a perfect vacation to the United players at the Nike Town. The team was offered the best training facilities at NFL Seahawks’ Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
Both teams enter CenturyLink Field on July 20th coming on the back of respective wins. Manchester United ran through http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/New-England-Revolution-c40026 with a 4-1 drubbing at Gillette Stadium on July 13.
The Rave Green, on the other hand, defeated the reigning MLS Cup champions, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Colorado-Rapids-c38849, by a close 4-3 score line. However, the match was another step towards achieving peak fitness.
Where the United lifted the record-setting 19th EPL title in the season ended, the Sounders are boosted up with the second consecutive Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, just into the fourth year of their inception.
Tags: