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Fletcher >> Gibson >> Rio >> Nani

training

The Champions had landed on our soil since Friday morning. From there, ManU had selected Rio Ferdinard, Darren Fletcher, Nani and Gibson to attend a press conference and play futsal with the Nike 5 challenge winners at KLCC.

In the afternoon, the red devils had an hour training and getting use to the pitch at the National Stadium, where they will face a friendly match against Malaysia XI the next day. The fans were allowed to witness their training and probably steal some skills as long as they bought tickets.

Beckham

The last time Manchester United came to Malaysia was in 2001 where they thrashed the Malaysian team 6-0!! David Beckham was the first to score. Yesterday, with the new and younger generation of devils, they only managed to beat Malaysia XI 3-2. I thought it will be another embarrassing score, haha. Manchester United was leading 2-0 in the first half with the goals from Wayne Rooney and Nani. When it was about the end of the first half, Amri

Yahyah ran pass Foster.

Yahyah scored a stunning goal from 30 meters. It will only happen once in a life time. He lobbed the ball above Van Der Sar and poop! The ball went in beautifully. There was nothing Edwin Van Der Sar could do. According to the NST today, Amri said he saw Edwin was always moving way further from the goal, so he tried his luck by flicking the ball over him.

On the second half, Edwin was substituted by Ben Foster. Manchester United was trying all sorts of way to get into Malaysia’s goal. Rooney missed a couple of shots or maybe I should say Malaysia goal keeper was in good shape, lol. The Malaysian players were very confident; they were not intimidated by the English giants. They steal, they tackled, they slide and grabbed every opportunity to score whenever they got the ball. Finally, their effort paid off with another hilarious mistake from Manchester United goal keeper. Ben Foster was about to pick up the ball passed by his team mate but he might took his eyes off when he catch it. Thus, the ball slipped from his hand and the savior, Amri Yahyah saw the opportunity, rushed forward and drew level at 2-2. I was watching at home with my dad, we and our neighbours were laughing loudly because such an experience goal keeper actually did such silly mistake, haha. Probably creating entertainment for the fans… =.-

After that, there were many substitutions from both teams. The loudest applause by the crowd was when Michael Owen and Ryan Giggs came into play. In about five minutes before the match ended, the Devils showed the Harimau why they were the giants and champions of English football. Thanks to Michael Owen where he glided the ball when Giggs clashed with Malaysia XI goal keeper. Manchester United managed to avoid embarrassment by winning a goal in hand – 3-2.

I think the Malaysian team had put up a great fight in terms of defending and tackling against Manchester United although those two goals came from luck and mistake by Foster. The Malaysian XI team could add more pressure against United if they tried to move forward into their opponent’s box and not solely scored from long range. They were also fitter and more athletic compared to 2001 Malaysian team where most of them were fat-ass, lol. I hope their luck is still with them when they face the champions in tomorrow’s rematch! It was a last minute announcement because the Devils could not travel to Indonesia due to terrorist attack in Jakarta. They were supposed to stay at the Ritz-Charlton hotel. The Champions must be counting their lucky star for stopping in Malaysia first before heading to Indonesia, lol. If not, you won’t be seeing Manchester United competing the next season and I will cry like hell, haha.

Some of my friends were at the National Stadium last night and took lots of photos. There was one random photo he took with a man showing his card board – “Alex Ferguson, what do you think about the nasi lemak?” hahaha. The match was scheduled at 5.30pm but when I was on my way home on the train before 12pm, many Manchester United die-hard-fans were heading down to Masjid Jamek station. Most of them wore Manchester United jerseys or red shirts. Not to mention, most of them were Malay and Indian men. It was full house with about 85,000 people in the stadium that night. I can’t imagine how the traffic and the crowd at the train station were, must be chaos. I texted a friend after the match and he was taking the lrt. He said the situation was crazy and someone might get hurt. Anyway, he was safe and enjoying his Thai guo food at Puchong, lol.

For those who didn’t manage to watch the Devils in action on Saturday, buy your tickets now! Same to those who can’t get enough of Manchester United even though you watched them on Saturday, haha. The tickets were priced from around RM 58 to RM 300.

Glory Glory Manchester United. ***Liverpool will be playing in Singapore soon but who cares, the Devils rule! Gagagagaga*