Manchester United had finished their 2009 Asia Tour winning all four games. The team's performance was good enough, especially for preseason matches. The players seemed quite fit and that's the important thing. And no injuries suffered during the whole tour, which is always a plus.
Right after the Asia Tour, United went straight to the Audi Cup in Munich. Boca Juniors, Bayern Munich and AC Milan are the other participants of the preseason competition.
First match, Manchester United played Boca Juniors. United played with their younger players. Tomasz Kuszczak tends the goal while Craig Cathcart gets to play next to Wes Brown in the center of defense. Last season's rising star Federico Macheda and Wayne Rooney lead United's attack.
Anderson finally scored his first United goal. Fans have waited patiently for the past two seasons, and he had hit the post quite a few times. Just couldn't get the back of the net yet. And what a goal that was! Amazing free kick from the right flank: hit straight the the top far corner of the goal! Antonio Valencia wouldn't ask for a better debut than what he had. He was anonymous in the first 20 minutes but since then, he contributed in every United attack. Valencia also struck a nice goal bringing the English champions 2-0 up until half time. United didn't have the best second half and Boca Juniors managed to get a goal back. The score stayed 2-1 until the end of the match; United is in the final.
The final is between Manchester United and host Bayern Munich (who beat AC Milan 4-1 in the previous match). Sir Alex Ferguson decided to play more first team players in this match, with veterans Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes manning the midfield. Michael Owen partners Dimitar Berbatov up front. Darren Fletcher is forced to play right back since all our available right backs are not fit to play. Manchester United also introduced their new away kit for the 2009/2010 season. Loving the new sets of kits!
[new away kit]
The first half didn't show the real United quality. Fletcher seemed confused at what to do and he stayed too far up than where he should have been. Bayern had a few chances exploiting Fletcher's lack of experience as a right back and United was lucky to not have conceded. The first 45 minutes ended in 0-0; Sir Alex should be glad about that. The start of the second half saw the visitors improving. United had more control of the possession and created a couple chances. However, neither team were able to find the goal and the match went to penalty shoot outs. United goes first: Giggs in, Anderson in, Nani in, Evra blocked, Rooney in, going into sudden death, Fletcher in, Scholes BARELY in, Evans blocked, and Edwin failed to save the last penalty. Host Bayern Munich wins the cup (honestly though, they might have the best penalty taking team!)
Next up, last preseason game, Valencia at Old Trafford!
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