Rooney Leads Man U Over MLS All-Stars
HARRISON, N.J. (AP)—Wayne Rooney set up two goals with magnificent passes and Ji-Sung Park danced around a defender for another and Manchester United put on another show during its tour of the United States with a 4-0 victory over the MLS All Stars on Wednesday night.
Anderson, Dimitar Berbatov and Danny Welbeck also scored for the reigning English Premier League champions, who have outscored their opponents 18-2 in winning the opening four games on their U.S. tour.
Sir Alex Ferguson's powerhouse will wrap up its preseason tour in Washington on Saturday against FC Barcelona in a rematch of the Champions League final which the Spanish team won 3-1. Then it's back to England for the Community Shield game and then start of another season the following week.
The final score might have been a little misleading because David Beckham and his MLS buddies had a couple of good shots at goal, but make no mistake— Manchester United was far superior in the game at Red Bull Arena that drew a sellout crowd of 26,760.
Like most midseason classics, this one started with a show.
Parachutists floated into the double-decked arena that is in its second year of operation, fireworks lit the sky and a helicopter flyover all preceded the start of the game.
The MLS even looked good for about 18 minutes with Beckham, who starred for the Reds in his prime, having a great chance in the seventh minute, only to see his 25-yard drive slide wide of the goal.
Rooney though gave the Manchester United faithful in the mixed crowd—half for Man, half for the MLS squad—something to cheer about in the 20th minute on a great tic-tac-toe play.
Rooney made a pass to Berbatov at the top of the box, took a return pass and then found Anderson breaking into the area alone for a wide-open shot that easily beat goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon.
Beckham had a chance to tie the game two minutes later, but United keeper Ander Lindegaard parried his 20-yard blast over the crossbar.
Park broke the game open in the 45th minute with a highlight reel play. The South Korean took a pass from Patrice Evra at the top of the box, made defender Sean Franklin look silly by getting around him and then launched a left-footed shot into the top right corner of the net.
Rooney helped stretch the lead to 3-0 in the 52nd minute, looping a pass over the defense to Berbatov. The Bulgarian chipped the ball over rushing backup goalkeeper Tally Hall only to see it hit off the crossbar. Berbatov chested down the rebound and ripped a shot into the net.
Welbeck closed out the scoring in the 68th minute on a shot from the top of the box that deflected off defender Geoff Cameron past Hall.
While there was no more scoring, the crowd got a final thrill.
Beckham bended a free kick around the wall in the 89th minute that just missed getting inside the goalpost.
