10 Things We Learned From the Red Devils’ Asian Tour

By: Taylor Rockwell | July 27th, 2009

With their win over Hangzhou on Sunday, United wrapped their Asian Tour in fairly convincing style. The victory pushed the Red Devils preseason record to 4-0 with 16 goals for and 6 against. So just what should the average fan take away from these matches? That may be a bit difficult to determine, but here are the points that hit home for me.

1 – Michael Owen can still score… provided that the opposition consists entirely of players from Korea, Malaysia, and China. The new United signing impressed on and off the field, netting four goals in four games and (for an unknown reason) appeared to be the fan favorite in nearly every match. Which reminds me…

2 – Losing Slave certainly hasn’t hurt our global popularity. I’m sure some fans were a bit disappointed to not get to see a large amount of hair gel flash by them, but every single crowd was big, loud, and friendly.

3 – Anderson will never score from open play. Ever. I don’t know if this is a reverse jinx or if I’m at my wits end from predicting it in nearly every match, but the youngster just doesn’t seem to catch any breaks when firing in the approximate vicinity of the goal.

4 – Zoran Tosic is very skilled, very fast, and very small. I know I’ve already pointed this out, but it bears repeating. The United PR people really need to get him into some photos with Messi or a toddler or something like that, because every time I see him next to Berba or Carrick I worry about him being able to endure an entire season of tackles from the Pogatetz’s of the world.

5 – Nani looks good in games where we win by six goals. The Portuguese winger didn’t exactly shine in his first three outings (save for a back-flip celebration after his first goal against the Malaysia XI). However, he was a consistent threat yesterday against Greentown. Whether that’s a positive or negative remains to be seen.

6 – The new United home kit isn’t quite as terrible as I initially thought. It grew on me throughout the tour, and I will admit that I may have even perused the team shop in hopes of finding a discount unit with “Owen” written on the back. Again, this Kool-Aid is delicious.

7 – United have either decided that they’ve done enough in North America or have given up hope of cornering the market. For the second straight year, I was forced to watch Chelsea travel around Europe with John Terry sulking, Frank Lampard posing, and Yuri Zhirkov looking like a good buy. Meanwhile, United were far, far away, forcing me to watch games at far too early an hour. Clearly, United need to satisfy their fan base with a world tour. I don’t see why it would be a problem to play games in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America, and North America in a 72 hour period. Who else is ready to get behind this plan?

8 – I will never get tired of seeing a player get excited to score for United. While Slave was always happy to self-promote and Berba isn’t exactly the emotional type, I love seeing players like Macheda and Tosic score. I am fully aware that they’re not playing top-flight opponents, but I really don’t care.

9 – Paul Scholes won’t be playing a significant role this season. While Giggs still looked mercurial despite being 104 years old, the Ginger Prince seemed off the pace and (at times) out of shape. Scholes didn’t end the 2008/09 season on a high note, and this tour hasn’t done a lot to shut up his critics. That said…

10 – Preseason friendlies probably aren’t the best indicators of what to expect from the coming season. It’s very easy to watch Nani do stepovers and Berba have lovely little flicks ad passes, and think that United will be a juggernaut this term. However, I’m pretty sure Burnley could knock three or four past Greentown, so reading too much into these four matches will probably only get me into trouble.

I’m sure there are a many other items that I missed and merit inclusion, so feel free to continue the list in the comments section.