Manchester United put on a show against an A-League All-Stars squad which proved more than willing participants, the 5-1 drubbing just the entertainment the big crowd at ANZ Stadium had come to see.
The David Moyes era finally got off and running for the Premier League giants, doubles for Jesse Lingard and Danny Welbeck and a late goal from star striker Robin van Persie handing Moyes his first win since succeeding the legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
It was a grand performance with van Persie’s late cameo coming after Welsh maestro Ryan Giggs had provided the final pass in the opening three goals.
More than 83,000 fans – most dressed in the red of United – gathered for the pre-season friendly, though at times there were another 11 spectators on the pitch wearing blue and gold such was masterclass being performed.
Moyes expressed joy at his first United win, while All-Stars coach Ange Postecoglu bristled at suggestions the scoreboard was an indication of the gulf in standard between the A-League and the Premier League.
“I’m sure Manchester will beat a couple of teams by that scoreline in the Premier League this year – what does that mean?” Postecoglu said.
“Full credit to Manchester United, they showed why they’re a world class outfit.
“There was a gulf there as much physically as anything else.”
The All-Stars’ only joy came just after halftime when Brisbane Roar’s Besart Berisha tucked the ball past the near post of keeper Anders Lindegaard, but in truth the scoreboard failed to tell the whole story of a match United dominated form start to finish.
“It was a good performance and we could have maybe got three more goals, we hit the post as well and one or two other incidents,” Moyes said.
“To get Robin back on and get him started was good but I think it was impressive that Danny got a couple of goals.
“I said to him on another night he might have scored four or five goals.”
There were three shots on target inside the opening ten minutes, Lingard breaking through for his first United goal in the 11th minute before Welbeck doubled the lead in the 34th.
Lingard’s second, just three minutes after Berisha’s, ended any hope of a home side revival before the moment all had waited for arrived with the introduction of van Persie just after the hour mark.
The moment of magic almost failed to materialise when the Dutch striker had a one-on-one with keeper Michael Theo saved, only to hammer the ball into the net moments later.
“I was a bit rusty,” van Persie said.
“I had a bit of a slow start, lost a couple of balls so I wasn’t really happy with that but it was ok.
“I had a good corner and a goal but like I said it doesn’t really matter now, we need to get fit and get proper practice and team play as well and get ready for the competition.”
AZ_RBB
Guest
also known as the Mariners haha
Robbie
Roar Pro
Plus all the players who have moved overseas/retired in the off season, such as Ryan, Rojas, Ibini, McBreen, Zwaanwijk and more
gumpy
Guest
"Even better, it’d be great if we could get the EPL to move one of a big club’s regular season matches to Australia" Overseas-held season fixtures have been touted, and the support is there but the league isn't yet willing to bite the bullet on that one. I suspect they will within the next few years however.
Kaiser
Guest
Actually, given Man U and Liverpool are playing in Australia within a week of each other, it would've been good to have found a way to stage a game between both teams.. It would've been great to have rival fans from each club in the stands.However, given the deals were done separately and both were on tight schedules, it may well have been extremely difficult to organise. I agree with the comments above that I'd rather have seen a club side take on Man U so that there was some other form of active fan support at the ground other than Man U. For example, the highest ranked A League team in NSW or Sydney could have been the Australian representative for that game. I wouldn't have minded seeing either the Mariners or Wanderers take that position as a reward for their performances for the season. Now we have the taste for it, it would also be great to get the NSW and Victorian events organisations to work in tandem to say stage an annual pre season tournament with some Premier League or European club. In Hong Kong, they're hosting a 4 team Premier League Asia Trophy with Man City, Tottenham, Sunderland and HK club side South China competing on 2 days with 2 double headers in the one stadium. Perhaps if we could attract 2 big clubs from Europe and had the highest ranking Vic and highest ranking NSW team in the A-League season play as well in Sydney and Melbourne, we'd surely pack out the big stadiums in those states. I appreciate that this is a very "East Coast" focused solution but filling out the mega stadiums in these states Even better, it'd be great if we could get the EPL to move one of a big club's regular season matches to Australia say a few weeks before the season starts (similar to what the MLB did securing the Dodgers/Diamondbacks in Sydney). For example, the big clubs like Man U, Chelsea who have a congested schedules during the middle parts of the season with EPL, UEFA Champions League, FA Cups, League Cup commitments, are often criticised for fielding weakened sides in some of these competitions. Perhaps, they could move one of these games to a time say 2 weeks before the Premier League's first weekend to Australia so that teams have enough time to recover. Even if it was against a lowly team, Aussie fans would love to see one of these clubs play with something at stake. This is probably a long way off and perhaps a pipe dream, but wouldn't it be awesome?!
Kaiser
Guest
had to laugh when I was at the game when Berisha scored. Everyone cheered and clapped that the All Stars had scored. Then when the ground announcer said it was Berisha who scored a goal, they started booing..!
Nathan of Perth
Guest
There wasn't much more that could have been done really, with the A-League way out of season, doing the heavy lifting of fielding a Socceroos squad for the East Asia Cup and resting a lot of the older star imports still. On a commercial front, of course, big success.
The Bear
Guest
This A League all stars team resembled any A League team...with out the combinations in play. Yes, better off with PErth Glory (even) fronting up to Man U IMHO.
The Bear
Guest
Bojic gave a handicap that ManU exploited. With Franjic at RB it would have been a more even contest.
AZ_RBB
Guest
can't speak for what it looked like on tv. but i was one of maybe 10 or 15 people in my section who stood up and applauded. the rest acted like Man City had just scored.
1860melbourne
Guest
Somebody can confirm as I have only seen highlights and wasnt at the game. When Berisha scored there seemed to be plenty of cheering and clapping from the stands. It seemed the all stars did have support.
mahonjt
Guest
The whole ASIA thing absolutelt saved the professional game in this country - and is also begining to pay big diviedends in representative and development terms..... Just brilliant.
Jillie Boel
Guest
yes, why not play a club. Remember a few years back (2010 maybe) Everton played three club games Mel, SYD and BNE. Also watched the LFC v Indonesia match from Jakarta. Must say that Liverpool looked pretty ordinary compared to ManU in Sydney, but I know that's meaningless comment. Indonesia put up a national team (included Sergio Van Dyck) but the 70K plus crowd all wore LFC jumpers, and they even sang 'never walk alone' - so how would those guys representing their country have felt. That aside, it was great a great showcase for the EPL in Indonesia - continuous flares and all. With crowds like that though, it's hard not to imagine that Asian football is the future. We made a very smart move.
mahonjt
Guest
That is good to hear. It was a great team goal and well taken by that mad man. Billy comming on really helped, but only for about 20 minutes before we lost the midfield again. It was a cracking pieve of football theirtre - nothing more. Pleased the league got a big boost, some cash and the 'off season from hell' was a little less gloomy. Now to see what a real A-League team (even the kids) can do against Liverpool.
Ralph Nadeer
Roar Rookie
Fuss the whole thing has been an outstanding success and the FFA have agreed to split the profits with all A-League clubs whether they had players in the All-Stars or not and each club can expect between 500K and 1M payout. The NSW govt also made a handy profit from the influx of visitors and other fees, charges and taxes, so Events NSW and the FFA are already starting to negotiate with other big European clubs like Barcelona, Arsenal, AC Milan etc. for next year.
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
"if you discount FFA’s cash in fusion" What a strange thing to say about a match that is purely designed to infuse cash! Heck, if you take away the "cash infusion" ... the match has no meaning. It's being reported the FFA will gain $10m from this 1 practice match, which could mean the 10 A-league teams could gain an extra $500k+.
Chris
Guest
Well I went to the match and really enjoyed it. The crowd went spastic when Barisha scored (and that's saying something). I so hoped for it to happen again to have that feeling again, but it wasn't to be. But I still felt like part of history being there, and am happy to bet that we get 3 or 4 visiting teams next year.
Graham
Guest
+1 I thought we did really well. MU will get scorelines like that against epl teams this year. We were mostly dominated over the first 5 metres, they were better at sheilding the ball and had better finishing, positional awareness and strength in defensive 1v1 situations. Technically with the ball I thought our passing and dribbling matched them and we scored a fine goal. That's no mean feet for a 3rd string a league side. Hopefully withing 5 years an a league all stars squad can be competitive against MU
BobbyM
Guest
If we were to play B arca or Bayern their season kicks off later so a match pre season could be held early to mid august with a much better prep for us- also it's now part of the A league contract that if u r selected for the all stars - you have to play
realfootball
Guest
I think we do need to care if we want the grow the A-League following.
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
Get what you mean real, but do we really care about what non football ppl in oz think? I don't. Completely agree with you regarding the all stars stuff, it's outdated and, dare I say, demeaning for Australian football. I think to accept to put an 'all stars' team in front of a club like Man U is to acknowledge we don't play the same sport etc. We have clubs and they should be the ones playing against the likes of Man U, not some kind of hybrid team only aimed at attracting the non football supporters of the country.