By Sheriff Michaels
DURBAN (TheSportsNext) July 19, 2012: The
English Premier League 2011-12 season runners-up Manchester United started
their EPL2013 Pre-Season on a shaky but winning note on Wednesday night when
they edged out AmaZulu FC by one goal to nil in front of a packed 50,000 crowd
at Moses Mabhida Stadium.
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| Frederico Macheda of Manchester United in action during the MTN Football Invitational match against Amazulu FC at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa. Courtesy: Getty Images |
Manchester United are due to play six matches during the
course of their English Premier League 2013 Pre-Season World Tour in South
Africa and China.
The only goal of the match was scored by Italian Federico
Macheda who found the net midway through the first half which gave the Red Devils
the advantage they were looking for.
In the 20th minute, Paul Scholes and Dimitar
Berbatov teamed up nicely to provide a perfect ball to Federico Macheda who
didn’t waste the chance and put Manchester United in front with a close-range
shot but not before getting a touch of hand from AmaZulu FC’s goalkeeper and a
defender before finally ending up inside the goalpost.
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| Sir Alex Ferguson |
Another Italian, substitute Davide Petrucci came at a
striking distance of doubling the lead for the Manchester United just before
the final whistle but his crossbar hit the goalpost.
Despite of a huge difference between the quality and
standard of the two sides, Manchester United were stretched to the limits and
made to work extra hard for the victory.
On the other hand, Manchester United were only playing their
first match of the tour therefore one may say they were lacking match practice
but Sir Alex Ferguson made sure that he used up all of his key players in the
match to take a look at their fitness levels and form.
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| Javier Hernandez (Chicharito) against AmaZulu FC |
Dimitar Berbatov, Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand, Chicharito
(Javier Hernandez) and Robbie Brady all got their chance to have control over
the ball but Sir Alex Ferguson never fielded his best player Wayne Rooney in
the World Tour opener. The Manchester United boss also fielded young guns like Jesse
Lingard and Scott Wootton to see their potential and looked pretty relaxed
while watching them play.
The match started with players from both sides as well as
the enthusiastic crowd sang birthday song to South Africa’s first
democratically elected President Nelson Mandela on his 94th
birthday.
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| Dimitar Berbatov against Amazulu FC in Durban |
Following the match, Manchester United boss Sir Alex
Ferguson admitted that his players were tired in the second half which made the
equation pretty even for both the sides. He told reporters here, "My
players were tired during the second half which was quite even. I'm happy with
the result and it was nice to give Nelson Mandela a birthday present of a
United victory. I gave a few young players a chance tonight and we have high
hopes for two or three of them. Jesse Lingard has got a lot of potential and
Scott Wootton impressed in the heart of defence."
Sir Alex Ferguson also refrained from launching his latest
signing from Japan, Shinji Kagawa into the field but then decided to give him a
feel of Manchester United by fielding him with only a minute left in the while
whistle. The Manchester United boss did show enough trust on Frederic Veseli,
Scott Wootton, Robbie Brady, and Jess Lingard as he used the World Tour opener for
various combination experiments.
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| Chicharito and Shinji Kagawa after victory against AmaZulu FC in Durban. |
Manchester United’s next stop is Cape Town where they will face
off against Ajax Cape Town in their last match of the South African trip.
The Red Devils will then fly to China where they will meet
Shanghai Shenhua who have recently signed UEFA 2012 Champions Chelsea FC’s
striker Didier Drogba thus making it a mouth-watering encounter.
After their China trip, the Manchester United will fly to
Norway where they will play against Valerenga before facing Barcelona FC in
Sweden and Hanover in Germany, which makes their EPL2013 Pre-Season World Tour
to 22,000 miles (35,400 kilometers) long.
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