New England Revolution 1-4 Manchester United: Macheda, Owen & Park give Ashley Young a victory to savour on his debut
Winger's first game for the Red Devils ended on a positive note as they managed to put four past their opponents and register a victory in their first game of the pre-season
By Adithya Ananth
Wayne Rooney of Manchester United and Franco Coria of New England Revolution (Getty Images)
The game was the first of the 2011 World Football Challenge, which also features Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus and Manchester City among other teams.
The match at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, saw Ashley Young make his first appearance for his new club, since making a move to Old Trafford after a fee believed to be in the region of £17 million had been agreed with Aston Villa.
The Red Devils managed to begin the game by dominating possession, with the hosts seeing very little of the ball during the first 10 minutes. But as time passed, the American side managed to slowly settle down and keep Sir Alex Ferguson's men from taking the lead.
With a little over 20 minutes having been played, Pat Phelan's effort from outside the box was saved at the bottom left corner. And at the other end of the pitch, United forward Dimitar Berbatov's shot went off target.
The visitors were putting in a strong performance and creating enough chances, but were having trouble in the attacking third of the pitch as they were unable to put the ball in the back of the net. Berbatov, Fabio, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick all saw their shots go wide of the mark within a span of seven minutes.
The two teams went into the break with the game remaining in equilibrium, and United manager Sir Alex Ferguson brought on Owen and Federico Macheda as Rooney and Berbatov were taken off during the second period.
Owen managed to give his side the lead within a matter of minutes, as he converted an assist from Carrick to sent the ball into the right bottom corner of the net.
Less than five minutes had passed when Macheda decided to join in on the action, as he capitalised on another good pass from Carrick to put the ball past the goalkeeper.
It was beginning to rain goals at the Gillette Stadium as a free-kick from Benny Feilhaber took a wild deflection from Mansally to give Steve Nicol's charges something to cheer about.
A little past the hour mark, Rafael sent in a cross that took a deflection and fell into the path of Macheda, and the Italian hitman had no trouble letting loose a left-footed shot that saw the ball end up at the back of the net.
The 19-year-old had a chance to net a hat-trick as Young sent in a cross, but the final effort was found wanting as the shot was off target.
As if to showcase their experience, Ryan Giggs and Park combined superbly as the latter added another goal to make the inevitable victory all the more emphatic.
As the referee brought the game to a halt, United had entertained over 50,000 fans and managed to get a good start to their pre-season.
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