ManUtd 2-1 Portsmouth (Pre-season Friendly): In the Summertime
July 27, 2008
Why not get fit by flying to tropical Africa in the summertime, playing ninety minutes of football at sea level in overbearing humidity and flying out again before you get to bed?
Another day, another country. The United party flew in to Abuja from South Africa overnight and within twenty seven hours of exhausting themselves lifting the Vodacom trophy an eleven was lining up to play the English Cup holders Portsmouth, who also played the previous day, beating the Nigerian Champions in Abuja by five goals to nil.
As United moved from a country with 40 million supporters (source; MUTV) to one with 14 million (Alex Ferguson), or maybe 20 million (MUTV again), back in Blighty the MUTV team said goodbye to Mickey Thomas, thank goodness, and brought in Lou Macari. To prevent me getting too happy about this, the camera work for the match was utterly appalling; thank goodness for Sky Plus and Do-it-Yourself replays.
Two fat ladies featured in the warm up for this friendly in what I believe is a part of the Tenaka Soccer Festival. I got a shock when I saw what I thought was the Portsmouth substitutes because they seemed to be fielding a woman. She was a pretty beefy girl, too, fully capable of enthusiastic tackling, but she turned out to be the fourth official. They gave her the job of holding up the numbers and she got it right nearly every time.
Then a much fatter lady took the ceremonial kick-off. She made worse contact with the ball than Denis Wise and her shoe came flying off. Jermain Defoe’s face was a picture. They decided to put the ball down and start again, with blokes.
This should have been a match trickier than those in South Africa and equally violent (Portsmouth are hardly well known for their soft shoe shuffle) but turned out to be open, entertaining and further indication that United have a good team at the moment and that our fitness preparation seems to be yielding the results.
Portsmouth had a full first team out and were parading their new strike partnership of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch. For United, Kuszczak started in goal, behind Neville, Vidic, Evans and Silvestre. Gibson, Carrick and Scholes were in the middle of the field, with Eagles, Tevez and Campbell up front.
Of these only Neville and Silvestre had not featured the previous day, though Tevez had come on pretty late. Apparently in South Africa he scored a goal in training so good that his fellow professionals stood and applauded.
Silvestre looked good, Vidic and Evans were solid. Tevez played well but very deep, while Eagles and Campbell both did good things and showed their speed, though they were spendthrift with chances. Carrick broke up play well and Gibson played an effective part.
Both Alex Ferguson and Joe Jordan beforehand said it was all about fitness and though they would like to win, the only game which really mattered was the league game in a few weeks’ time. United were by far the stronger and better side in Abuja, but this might have been down to an edge on fitness.
Early exchanges had hardly started when Campbell used his pace to break through on goal. David James came out but Campbell went around him only to get bundled over by Glen Johnson. Tevez slipped a perfectly good penalty low and wide to James’ left while the goalkeeper went right. Four minutes gone and United ahead already!
Hold your horses. The referee ordered a retake. Few people had any idea why; the commentary team said it was because the ball was not on the spot, but Tevez put it in exactly the same place for the retake. In fact there was significant encroachment. Chris Eagles was the main offender, though not the only one. Tevez, of course, smashed his retake against the face of the bar.
Evans and Vidic had to defend decisively once or twice in the first half, and the Defoe-Crouch partnership fashioned a good shot for Defoe which Kuszczak saved before it was flagged offside. The main flow of action was towards the Porstmouth goal and United continued to make and squander chances.
After twenty five minutes Chris Eagles cashed in on slow defending and got himself completely clear with only James to beat; he chipped tamely wide of the goal. Six minutes later United conjured a wonderful end-to end move which ended with an extravagant cutback from Silvestre on the left and a drive by Eagles too close to James and photogenically saved.
A couple of minutes after that Jonny Evans performed a vital and timely clearance which Tevez flicked on to Campbell. He took it half the length of the field, his speed taking him clear, and then gave James the chance to save it. You don’t even have to consider the free kick which Scholes belted over the bar on the stroke of half time and United should have been at least three goals to the good by the interval.
For a while after the break the game looked more even, but once Kuszczak had saved Defoe’s sharp drive Paul Scholes took mastery of the middle of the park again and United looked comfortable. Scholes’ demonstration was a master class; the ball was attracted to him, he seemed to be filling every hole and then accurately and quickly distributing it this way and that.
The breakthrough came when he found Gibson on the right. Gibson put in a low cross which got through to Campbell and Primus in the middle of the goals. Neither the United striker nor the Portsmouth defender was able to get the pesky thing under control and it broke to Eagles who made up for negating the penalty and missing the sitter by cracking it into the net with no ceremony; 50 minutes 1-0.
That set everybody free. With a constant stream of perfect ball available from the Ginger Prince, Tevez had moved his operation forward. Five minutes after the goal he took a ball from Scholes and shot sufficiently hard for James to fumble it seriously but from sufficient distance that nobody could follow up.
Five minutes later Scholes gave him the ball well outside the area, posing no apparent threat, but he ran at the back four, veering right, dropped his shoulder to dummy and then smashed it low and very hard inside James’ near post; 62 minutes 2-0.
Immediately the United substitutions started; Giggs came on for Tevez, O’Shea for Carrick and Cathcart for Evans. Cathcart’s first touch was an important tackle and then Vidic was booked for a mysterious foul as Portsmouth took advantage of the changes. Johnson proved as adept at smashing the free kick miles over the bar as had Defoe just after half time.
Substitutions came now at regular intervals; Possebon for Gibson, then Amos for Kuszczak. James saved Scholes’ low 25 yard drive and then Cleverley came on for Eagles. Despite the changes, United were tiring now and Portsmouth had more of the ball, but Vidic seemed to have complete control of Crouch and the main danger was through Defoe.
As normal time wound down Giggs provided a peach of a pass for Campbell, who was hustled out of the chance and then Defoe cut inside Cathcart, left him for dead, and drove home hard and accurately before Vidic could get across to cover; Amos got a hand to it but it was 89 minutes 2-1 and the fat lady was not singing, but holding up the board with four minutes of added time and there was just a chance that Portsmouth could fluke an unlikely draw.
Giggs did his best to seal it with a brilliant run and an astonishing cut back, but Scholes’ volley was inches wide. With three minutes of added time gone Vidic got away with a handball just outside the area.
This time there was no oversize trophy, just time for hand shakes, see you in a fortnight, where’s the airport?
Copyright © Paul James
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