Louis van Gaal criticized new signing Bastian Schweinsteiger and his Manchester United teammates after the English Premier League giants eased to a 3-1 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes.
United recorded a second straight victory on their US tour and never really looked troubled against their Major League Soccer opponents.
Juan Mata and man-of-the-match Memphis Depay scored first-half goals for United before Brazilian youngster Andreas Pereira added a third in the second half.
Photo: EPA
However, United boss Van Gaal was furious at his team’s performance after the break when he made 10 changes, including the introduction of Schweinsteiger.
“The first half I was satisfied — the players have performed what we wanted in the defensive organization, and they have created a lot of chances, 10, and they scored two goals,” Van Gaal said.
“In the second half I thought we played very bad — a lot of ball losses, very unnecessary. The only highlight was the goal from Pereira,” he added.
“He was also bad,” he said of new signing Schweinsteiger, adding that it would take time for the World Cup winner to settle in. “Everybody can think it is easy to step in, but it is not easy. I thought the first match [Schweinsteiger] played very well and now he played bad, but that is also a process.”
However, Van Gaal is likely to have drawn encouragement from the display of Depay, who completed a US$38.9 million move to Old Trafford last month.
Former United coach Alex Ferguson was part of an 18,000-capacity sell-out at San Jose’s Avaya Stadium, who watched United ease into their attacking stride quickly. They created a promising opening after only four minutes when Depay broke forward menacingly before whipping in a low shot, which was parried clear by San Jose goalkeeper David Bingham.
Four minutes later, United threatened again when Luke Shaw powered down the left flank and crossed for Wayne Rooney, who was just unable to make contact.
United finally broke through on 32 minutes. Ashley Young fed Mata, who cut into the penalty area and chipped across goal to beat Bingham off the far post. Five minutes later, United were 2-0 up when Depay, by far the sharpest of United’s attackers on display, pounced on a poor back-pass by Jean Baptist Pierazzi to coolly tuck away his finish.
However, a largely trouble-free opening 45 minutes was blotted shortly before the end of the first half as San Jose pulled a goal back through Fatai Alashe. Shea Salinas embarrassed Morgan Schneiderlin down the right flank, feinting past the midfielder far too easily before picking out Alashe with a low cross to finish past United goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.
The mass of substitutions at the break disrupted United’s rhythm, but they were soon back in the goalscoring groove with Pereira making it 3-1 in the 61st minute.
Jesse Lingard chipped in a pinpoint cross from the right flank for Brazilian youngster Pereira, who lost his marker and steered home past Bingham.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
Taiwanese badminton superstar Lee Yang broke down in tears after publicly retiring from the sport on Sunday. The two-time Olympic gold medalist held a retirement ceremony at the Taipei Arena after the final matches of the Taipei Open. Accompanied by friends, family and former badminton partners, Lee burst into tears while watching a video celebrating key moments in his professional sporting career that also featured messages from international players such as Malaysia’s Teo Ee Yi, Hong Kong’s Tang Chun-man, and Indonesia’s Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan. “I hope that in the future when the world thinks about me, they will
Former Formosa Dreamers player Ilkan Karaman was killed in a traffic accident in Datca, Turkey, Turkish media reported yesterday. He was 34. The former Turkish national team player was reportedly hit by a car, the driver of which was allegedly drunk, while he was standing on a sidewalk, Turkish newspaper Sozcu reported. Karaman and his friends were on their way to the beach town of Dalaman to go scuba diving when they stopped at a gas station to buy gasoline, it reported. Karaman was hit by the car while waiting on a sidewalk as his friends were buying gasoline, it
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later
RSS