Sunday, 27 July 2014

MAN UNITED BEAT ROMA, A REVIEW OF WEEKEND GAMES

Wayne Rooney was on target for Manchester United

A review of Saturday's major pre-season friendly action as Manchester United defeat Roma 3-2 in Denver.


Roma's Miralem Pjanic scored a stunning 60-yard strike but it was not enough to stop Louis van Gaal maintaining his 100 per cent record asManchester United manager.
Pjanic embarrassed substitute goalkeeper Ben Amos with a looping shot from inside his own half, but the Italians were beaten 3-2 in Denver.
After a drab opening half hour, Wayne Rooney put United ahead with a fine curling shot at the Sports Authority Field.
Rooney then set up Juan Mata with a fine pass, before he slotted home a penalty after Danny Welbeck was brought down in the box.
A much-changed United team were not quite as deadly after the break, and they conceded the first goal of their pre-season tour when Pjanic spotted Amos off his line and lobbed him from inside his own half.
Francesco Totti added a second in the final minute from the penalty spot.
Although it was not as convincing as Wednesday night's thrashing of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Van Gaal will still be pleased to rack up another win on tour.
Again, the 3-5-2 system proved effective and his team showed energy even though they were playing in 30 degree heat, 5280 feet above sea level.
Welbeck, Rooney and Mata combined well up front while there were impressive performances from youngsters Tyler Blackett, Reece James and Will Keane.
United now head to Washington DC for the second game in the International Champions Cup against Inter Milan.
West Ham suffered a second defeat on their tour of New Zealand as they were beaten 3-1 by Sydney FC.
The Australian side were a goal up in four minutes after Ali Abbas ran clear of Mark Noble and passed to Corey Gameiro, who fired under Adrian.
A low shot from Alex Brosque doubled the lead on 26 minutes, and the 2-0 scoreline stood at the break as Aaron Cresswell missed the target following a one-two with Carlton Cole.
West Ham began the second half more promisingly and halved the arrears when a Matt Jarvis cross deflected in off defender Nikola Petkovic.
But the A-League side scored a third on 64 minutes through Gameiro, and the goal stood despite West Ham players appealing for handball by Terry Antonis in the build-up.
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce admitted his side had been poor, just three weeks before the start of the Premier League.
"We've played two games and we've played poorly in them," said Allardyce.
"The football was not good enough to get results but we're experimenting and working on more open attacking play and it hasn't worked well from a defensive point of view."
West Ham are so far without a win in pre-season after a last-minute 2-2 draw at Stevenage, a 0-0 draw at Ipswich Town and losses against Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC.
Their 2014/15 season kicks off on August 16 against Tottenham.
Bojan played his first 45 minutes for Stoke City in a 2-0 defeat to 1860 Munichin Germany on Saturday afternoon.
Bojan, signed from Barcelona earlier this week, started in a central role behind Mame Biram Diouf and almost opened his account for his new club within six minuetes when he was slipped through by Marko Arnautovic only to fire just wide.
Arnautovic also went close to scoring the opening goal with a low 30-yard free kick that 1860 Munich goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly, formerly of Crystal Palace, tipped around the post.
It was the German side that went ahead in the 25th minute, however, when Daniel Adlung fired home from distance, leaving Thomas Sorensen little chance.
Andy Wilkinson hobbled off before half-time to be replaced by Phil Bardsley, and Mark Hughes made 10 further changes at the interval as Bojan made way.
The alterations made little difference, however, as 1860 Munich added a second six minutes into the second half through Grzegorz Wojtkowiak.
Newcastle ended their pre-season tour of New Zealand with a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Wellington Phoenix.
Yoan Gouffran's first-half goal proved to be enough to give Newcastle their second win on the tour after overcoming Sydney FC earlier in the week.
Wellington, who beat West Ham on Wednesday, matched Newcastle for long periods of the game with chances few and far between for both sides.
Newcastle grabbed the only goal of the game four minutes before the break when Gouffran got on the end of Vurnon Anita's cross to head home.
Rob Elliott ensured Newcastle held on for the victory in the second half as he made two fine stops to keep out efforts from Wellington's Jeremy Brockie.
The only negative for Alan Pardew were the injuries to Fabricio Coloccini and Siem De Jong as both players were forced to limp off at the Westpac Stadium with knocks.
Gouffran told Sky Sports News: "We are very happy to win the game and we are very happy to get this (Football United) trophy. This is good for the confidence. 
"It's good for the fans from New Zealand, it's good for us to win new fans in the world; we are happy to come here. We have to be ready for the start of the season and we will work very hard on the training ground and we will be ready."
Hull City rounded off their preparations for a first European campaign with a 1-1 draw against Barnsley at Oakwell in a game where goalkeeping errors led to both goals.
Shane Long put the Premier League side in front three minutes into the second half, charging down Adam Davies' clearance, but their hosts equalised on the hour when goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic rushed out to try to head clear a long ball from Dale Jennings only for the ball to bounce over his head for Barnsley's new signing Connor Hourihane to slot into an empty net.
Hull's next match is their Europa League third qualifying round first leg against Trencin in Slovakia on Thursday.
Burnley needed a 71st-minute goal from Jason Gilchrist to earn them a 1-0 win over League Two neighbours Accrington.
QPR ended their tour of Germany with a 2-0 defeat by Red Bull Leipzig at Stadion Der Freundschaft.
Rio Ferdinand and Steven Caulker made their debuts for Harry Redknapp's men and trialist Jack Collison was also given a run-out but two second-half goals from Yussuf Poulsen proved to be the difference.
Bahrudin Atajic missed a late penalty as a second-string Celtic side went down to a 1-0 friendly defeat against St Pauli in Hamburg.
Amido Balde missed a decent chance before Christopher Nothe slotted the ball past Craig Gordon five minutes before the break.
Tony Watt twice came close as Celtic fought back and the lively Paul McMullan won a penalty with three minutes left, but Atajic shot over the bar.
Israeli midfielder Nir Biton captained Celtic while Gordon and Lukasz Zaluska shared goalkeeping duties.

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