Manchester United just too much for the Sounders

By Money Mike

In front of a crowd of 67,052, Manchester United score 6 second half goals and spank the Seattle Sounders by a score of 7-0. This is the only friendly match the Sounders have this season. There was quite a bit of Red in support of Manchester United. There are still match day scarfs from last nights match available to purchase online at soundersfc.com. As a matter of fact, you can still purchase scarves from previous friendly matches against Chivas de Guadalajara, Boca Juniors and of course they're still selling the scarves from 09' against Chelsea and Barcelona. The only matchday scarf I have is from July 28th of last year when the Colorado Rapids came to town. That was the match I went to. I didn't get one from the April 9th game against Chicago which was the fifth game of the 2011 season. The only time you'll expect me to purchase another one is if I'm attending an international friendly match or maybe a Champions League match (if they sell them during that time).

As you can see on the picture, they brought the Premier League trophy out on to the field as both teams entered the XBOX Pitch at CenturyLink Field. Now this was weird. I know they're a big club and all, but I didn't see Barcelona do that in 09' following their La Liga title. But captain Nemanja Vidic carried the trophy out onto the pitch with his walking buddy.

United opened up the scoring in the 15th minute. Patrice Evra made a run from his left back spot and was found by Ashley Young. Evra sent in a drivin cross and somehow the ball fell to Michael Owen for the opening goal.

Now this is one thing you Sounder fans don't understand, and that is player development. Why the hell would Sigi Schmid leave his first team out there in the 2nd half of a friendly match just because they were down 1-0? Comeon that's just stupid. Of course he would put in Michael Tetteh, David Estrada, Mike Seamon, Miguel Montano, etc.

In the 49th minute, a beautiful ball by Nani found Mame Biram Diouf who made one touch to get around backup goalkeeper Terry Boss, then settled, then tapped the ball into an empty net to make it 2-0.

In the 51st, again it was Nani who was the provider. This time he set up Wayne Rooney who ripped the ball into the top corner. Rooney wasn't done there, he added another goal in the 69th minute, rolling the ball into the top corner. Rooney wasn't done there, he was found off a driven cross by Gabriel Oberton in the 72nd minute for his 3rd goal of the game, also known as a hat trick. Oberton would get on the scoresheet in the 88th minute and that's how the friendly would end.

The Sounders resume competitive play on July 26th when they head to Panama for the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round against San Francisco F.C.

Scoring summary:

Manchester United - Michael Owen (Patrice Evra, Ashley Young) 15'

Manchester United - Mame Biram Diouf (unassisted) 49'

Manchester United - Wayne Rooney (Nani) 51'

Manchester United - Wayne Rooney (unassisted) 69'

Manchester United - Park Ji-Sung (Wayne Rooney) 71'

Manchester United - Wayne Rooney (Gabriel Oberton) 72'

Manchester United - Gabriel Oberton (unassisted) 88'

Lineups:

Manchester United - Anders Lindegarrd (Ben Amos 46'); Rafael da Silva, Nemanja Vidic (Jonny Evans 56'), Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra (Fabio da Silva 56'); Nani (Gabriel Oberton 56'), Anderson, Ryan Giggs (Park Ji-Sung 46'), Ashley Young (Michael Carrick 66'); Michael Owen (Mame Biram Diouf 46'), Federico Mecheda (Wayne Rooney 46')

Seattle Sounders FC - Kasey Keller (Terry Boss 46'); James Riley (David Estrada 73'), Jeff Parke (Michael Tetteh 64'), Patrick Ianni (Taylor Graham 64'), Leonardo Gonzalez (Zach Scott 46'); Mauro Rosales (Servando Carrasco 46'), Osvaldo Alonso (Brad Evans 46') (Mike Seamon 64'), Erik Friberg (Pat Noonan 46') (Mrisho Ngassa 76'), Alvaro Fernandez (Lamar Neagle 46') (O'Brian White 76'); Roger Levesque (Nate Jaqua 46') (Miguel Montano 76'), Fredy Montero (Mike Fucito 46')

Manchester United continues their preseason U.S. tour in Seattle

By Money Mike



All of Seattle should be excited to see one of the greatest teams ever assembled. Manchester United get ready for their 2nd game of their U.S. tour against the Seattle Sounders. Over 68,000 tickets have been sold for this match and I'm pretty sure this will be much better than their friendly matches in 2009 against Chelsea and Barcelona. Even if this match ends up being a blow out with like 20 minutes to go, don't turn the match off or don't leave the stadium. Just watch for 90 minutes.


Who are Manchester United?

Manchester Untied are an English soccer.... I mean football club that has been around since the late 1800's. This team was formed in 1878 as Newton Heath LYR F.C. by the Carriage and Wagon department of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway depot at Newton Heath. They started playing a bunch of exhibition matches at that time against other departments and rail companies, but on November 20, 1880, they played their first recorded match against Bolton Wanderers, wearing their green and gold. They lost that match by a final score of 6-0. Money wasn't that big a deal back then like it is now, regarding signing and selling players.

Ever since the Premier League was formed in 1992, Manchester United pretty much became the New York Yankees of English football. In 19 Premier League seasons, Manchester United has won 12 League titles. That inclues last year.


What to look for in this match:

Well we had a handful of trialists in practice today but only one will play in the friendly. His name is Mrisho Ngassa. He was brought to the Sounders in an effort to strenghten the team's relationship with clubs in East Africa, but seriously, if he does well, sign him.

Now here's a video of the coin toss atop the Space Needle. Kasey Keller was up there representing the Sounders along with Manchester United players Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, who kicks off first tomorrow? Check it out right here........

Barcelona claim their 4th Champions League title.

By Money Mike

In front of over 86,000 fans at Wembley Stadium and over 300,000,000 viewers around the world watching the match live on TV, Barcelona came out on top with goals by Pedro Rodriguez, Lionel Messi and David Villa as they defeat Manchester United 3-1. You look at the final stats and you'll be like, "what the f***!!". Shot attempts; Barcelona - 22, Manchester United - 4. Fouls; Manchester United - 16, Barcelona - 5. Time of Possession; Barcelona - 70%, Manchester United - 30%. You look at the stats and you can definitely say that Manchester United deserved to lose this one.

In the early stages of the match, despite Barcelona having more possession of the ball, Manchester United we're putting a lot of pressure on goalkeeper Victor Valdes and they nearly broke through when Gerard Pique's backpass was nearly taken away by Chicharito Hernandez, but Valdes scrambled to clear the ball out of danger.

In the 15th minute, United got caught and were lucky to get away with it. Xavi with a chip into the danger area which found Pedro, who nipped in at the near post, but his touch just went wide of goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar who was playing in his final game of his career. About five minutes later, David Villa tested van der Sar with a right footed effort from the edge of the area, but van der Sar kept it in front of him, it wasn't easy though.

In the 27th minute, Barcelona drew first blood as Xavi and Pedro hooked up again and this time a settle pass by Xavi did the trick. Xavi got behind Michael Carrick and slotted the ball trough to Pedro, who had plenty of time to set up and strike it low into the near post as van der Sar had no clue where he was going and Barcelona took a 1-0 lead.

In the 33rd minute, Manchester United came right back to level it up. Fabio won the ball after a good challenge on, I believe it was Sergio Busquets and fed it to Wayne Rooney who had room to run at the Barcelona defense. Rooney slotted it to Ryan Giggs who looked to have been in an offside position on the pass, but the linesman kept his flag down and Ryan Giggs fed it back to Rooney at the top of the area for a first time hit into the left corner to level it up at one. Rooney has picked up his game lately and started scoring a lot of goals again after all the criticism early in the season.

In the second half, the equalizer didn't seem to hurt Barcelona as they started to pour a lot of pressure on the Red Devil defense early and often and in the 54th minute, they got rewarded for it.

Andres Iniesta fed the ball to Lionel Messi who took a couple of touches before ripping a low left foot drive through the back line and past Edwin van der Sar to put Barcelona ahead to good. It was Messi's 53rd goal in all compititions this season and his 1st on English soil. 15 minutes later, Barcelona put the match out of reach......

In the 69th minute, David Villa curled a right footed effort over van der Sar and into the back of the net to claim the Champions League title for Barcelona and end all arguements that the Barcelona squad from 2010-2011 are one of the great teams that have ever played the game.

My thoughts on this match:

Now, this isn't the first UEFA Champions League that I've watched, but this is the first UEFA Champions League final that I've watched on live TV. There were a lot of things about this final that were way different than the group stage matches and the knockout round matches. This match was played on a Saturday just a week after the conclusion of the Premier League season, and normally, the Champions League matches are played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays which they still are, but starting last season, the final itself was played on a Saturday, but I didn't keep any track of that. I mean I wasn't really paying attention to the schedule, so I ended up missing that match. Before then, the final was played on a Wednesday, so unless I was sick, there would be no way I would catch it live, and watching replays on ESPN Classic were boring because I already knew who won those matches. So, I think it's good that they started scheduling finals on a Saturday. And also, I think this match was worth watching.

Scoring summary:

Barcelona - Pedro Rodriguez (Xavi) 27'

Manchester United - Wayne Rooney (Ryan Giggs) 33'

Barcelona - Lionel Messi (Andres Iniesta) 54'

Barcelona - David Villa (Sergio Busquets) 59'

Misconduct summary:

Barcelona - Dani Alves (caution; Reckless tackle) 60'

Manchester United - Michael Carrick (caution; Reckless tackle) 61'

Manchester United - Antonio Valencia (caution; Barging over an opponent) 79'

Barcelona - Victor Valdes (caution; Delaying a restart) 85'

Lineups:

Barcelona - Victor Valdes; Dani Alves (Carles Puyol 88'), Javier Mascherano, Gerard Pique, Eric Abidal; Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Andres Iniesta; Pedro Rodriguez (Ibrahim Afellay 90'), David Villa (Seydou Keita 86'), Lionel Messi

Manchester United - Edwin van der Sar; Fabio (Nani 69'), Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra; Antonio Valencia, Michael Carrick (Paul Scholes 77'), Ryan Giggs, Park Ji-Sung; Javier Hernandez, Wayne Rooney