Well, this was a bit more like it. Fergie went with a slightly more experienced line-up with Van Der Sar in goal, a back four of Fabio, Evans, Brown and Rafael, a midfield of Giggs, O’Shea Fletcher, Nani and Obertan with Macheda leading the line.

Macheda has been a little disappointing so far during this pre-season but he looked really up for this one tonight and the MLS All Stars were absolutely stunned when Macheda put us 1-0 up after just 22 seconds with a cool finish when through one-on-one with the keeper.

Just a few minutes later, he was at it again with a great headed goal from a good Nani corner after just 12 minutes.

The All Stars were really rocking now and it looked like this was going to be a really long half for them but surprisingly no further goals were scored in the first half and so we went into half time 2-0 ahead.

There was a bit of first half bad news for us Obertan fans though when he limped off after just around 20 minutes having taken a bit of a knock to be replaced by Tom Cleverley.

As the second half got underway, there had been no further changes to the side although Giggs was replaced by Gibson after 52 minutes.

The moment we’ve all been waiting for came just after the hour mark though when Hernandez and Welbeck came on for Nani and Macheda.

It was to turn a bit flat for Hernandez though because no sooner had he come onto the pitch, the All Stars scored to make the score 2-1. It had been coming to be fair as the All Stars had been enjoying a good spell of possession just prior to this.

It didn’t take long for Hernandez to give us a glimpse of what he’s all about as he ran through a few minutes later only to be brought down 25 yards from goal for a United free-kick.

Gibson stepped forward to take the kick and the keeper seemed to be showing him a lot of space to his right side which Gibson duly exploited with a beautifully shot which curled all the way into the side of the goal giving the keeper absolutely no chance.

3-1 to United and twenty minutes to go and things were only going to get better two minutes later when Cleverley pulled off a great bit of skill to juggle his way through the All Stars’ defence before giving the keeper the eye and volleying it past him. It was a delightfully taken goal and gave us a glimpse of just what he can do. If Fergie was undecided about what to do with regards a loan move or keep him for the season then this kind of thing will only make his decision more difficult.

We had to wait a full 12 minutes more for Chicharito time though but it was definitely worth it. The All Stars were just pushing forward trying to get something more from the game which left an enormous space at the back which is clearly the kind of thing a player with the pace of Hernandez thrives on.

A great bit of movement from Hernandez kept him onside by the slimmest of margins as the ball came over the top. Clean through with only the advancing keeper to beat, he lobbed the ball over him with calm aplomb and watched it drop into the net. A star was born.

The scoring wasn’t all over though as the All Stars grabbed a late second after a bit of a mistake from Brown who completely missed a tackle to leave MLS striker De Rosario with time and space to competently slot past Van Der Sar.

All in all, this was a bit more like the Manchester United we all know and love. Five goals, four scorers. A great mixture of youth and experience and a new hero plucked from nowhere.

Happy days. Happy days, indeed.

Javier Hernandez

United play their fourth game of their USA Tour tonight against the MLS All-Stars and as Javier Hernandez has now joined up with the squad, the hope is that tonight will see him make his long-awaited debut.

It promises to be a tough encounter tonight so this will be a real test for whoever Fergie selects to play.

Personally, I want to see Obertan and Nani given starts with Berbatov playing just behind Hernandez. The defence Fergie goes with is going to be interesting and I suspect he’ll go with a bit more experience to start with (I’m assuming O’Shea and Brown are both fit to play) with Smalling perhaps given a run out towards the end of the game.

Scholes and Giggs have played a lot more of these pre-season games than I had anticipated and the injury situation with Fletcher is unclear but if fit then I would expect a midfield of Fletcher and Gibson for this one.

Should be a good game and I’ll be reporting on how it went tomorrow.

Fergie again rang the changes for this one in his attempt to give everyone some game time and the big news was that Nani started this one. The entire starting line-up was as follows:-

——Amos——

Rafael—Smalling—-Evans—-De Laet

Nani—-Scholes—Gibson—-Giggs

Berbatov—-Diouf

The back five was clearly very inexperienced and on several occasions that was exposed quite mercilessly by a Kansas City side who were clearly fired up for this one.

Straight from the off, Kansas City got at United and didn’t give us a second on the ball and, to be quite honest, we were second best in the first half and this was highlighted when the Wizards took the lead when the offside trap was completely sprung (due to Rafael not getting out quickly enough) and Wizards’ Midfielder Davy Arnaud found himself clean through to slot past Amos.

A few minutes later, the scores were level when Berbatov was brought down in the box and a penalty was awarded. Bizarrely, considering this was a friendly game, the referee also sent the Wizards’ player off because he was the last defender. A correct decision by the rules of the game but as this was just a friendly, it was probably not what either manager really wanted.

Anyway, Berby stepped up to take the penalty and, such is the confidence oozing through him during this pre-season tour, nonchalantly rolled the ball into the side netting, sending the keeper the wrong way in the process.

After our initial scare, it looked like we might have finally got to grips with the game and that we would go on to win this but there was a massive shock just seconds later when the Wizards took a 2-1 lead through a header which came down off the bar and must have crossed the line by about an inch.

At half-time, United were down but with a man advantage for the second half, surely not out?

Well, the Wizards pretty much packed out the defence in the second half and we just couldn’t make the breakthrough despite having almost all of the possession and a fair few decent chances.

The player I felt most sorry for was Diouf who probably squandered a couple of our best chances when he completely miskicked a couple of shots when in great positions.

Obertan came on around the middle of the second half and looked lively and dangerous – he is one of the few youngsters who is coming through this pre-season tour with reputation enhanced.

Tom Cleverley also came on and produced a couple of decent crosses but he also wasted a few opportunities.

Macheda came on and looked more dangerous in this type of game because it wasn’t the kind of game where pace was necessary (due to the Wizards defending deep and in numbers). He had a couple of half-chances but couldn’t make them count.

All in all, this was a disappointing result with very few positives to take from it from a United perspective.

The return of Nani was good to see and although his performance didn’t reach the heights he showed towards the end of last season, this was to be expected given that this was his first match since the end of the season.

Speculation has been rife that Vidic could be leaving Manchester United last summer, the summer before, this summer for sunnier climes but David Gill has just put a lot of that to bed with the announcement that a deal has virtually been agreed with Vidic and it is now just waiting for him to sign it when he arrives back from his holiday.

The funniest part is that this was all agreed three or four weeks ago and even just a couple of days ago, Fergie was saying that he “couldn’t clarify” the situation with regards to Vidic. Crafty little bugger.

I will obviously feel a bit better when the contract is actually signed but it is as clear an indication that the player has no intention of quitting United than there possibly could be.

Given that Philadelphia Union have only been in existence for six months, most people were expecting something of a massacre in this game but it was nothing of the sort as Philly gave us a very serious test and were unfortunate to run out losers in the end.

Fergie’s starting line-up was interesting in a “we’ll probably never see this line-up ever again” kind of way as he went with:-

Kuszczak, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Fabio, Obertan, Scholes, Cleverley, Giggs, Macheda and Welbeck.

That this team has never actually played together really did show and the first half was largely a frustrating affair as the play was scrappy and disjointed with no United player particularly catching the eye.

Philly, on the other hand, were giving a fairly decent account of themselves and whilst rarely giving Kuszczak much to do, they did give the defence a few things to worry about.

Fergie, sat in the dugout, was not looking very impressed by his players’ performance.

I expected a lot of changes for the second half but they didn’t materialise until around the 60th minute when Fergie brought on Berbatov, Fletcher, Smalling, Rafael and Corry Evans for Macheda, Scholes, Brown, Fabio and Cleverley.

The difference Fletcher made in the centre of midfield was quite noticable and Berbatov was again pulling the string up front.

Obertan remained lively and should have had a penalty around the 66th minute mark but ten minutes later, he received his reward when he got on the end on of a neat Welbeck pass to slot under the keeper.

A little while later, Berbatov hit the bar and Philly should have equalised right at the death but the ball went high.

And so 1-0 was how it ended.

All in all, this wasn’t the best game you’ll ever see and some of the United performances left a bit to be desired although Welbeck and Obertan came out of this with reputations enhanced.

Obertan is similar to the “old Nani” in that you can see that it is there but he is not always able to produce it but he keeps plugging away without letting his head drop and it was good to see him get a reward in this game.

Welbeck looks ready to make the step up now but I’m afraid Macheda looks as far away as ever to me. He’s a lot younger than the others though so time is still on his side.

You do have to keep reminding yourself though that this is still pre-season, everyone is going to be a bit rusty and the whole point of these games is to build up match time and fitness.

United kick-off the second game of their USA Tour tonight when they take on Philadelphia Union.

I think most of us want to see Nani take some part in this one now that he has apparently recovered from the collarbone injury which kept him out of the World Cup.

I also hope to see Berbatov given a good 45 minutes at least to see if he can kick on from his superb performance against Celtic.

I’ll do a report on the match tomorrow.

Well, I watched the match against Celtic last night and whilst I am fully aware that it was just a meaningless friendly with the sole objective being to get players match-fit, I must say that it left me very excited for the coming season.

Fergie went with almost exactly the line-up I wished for:-

VDS

Rafael – Evans – Smalling – Fabio

Obertan – Scholes – Fletcher – Giggs

Berbatov – Diouf

If I could have swapped one of those players then I would have had Nani on the right (I believe he is still recovering from injury, however) and switched Obertan over to the left in place of Giggs but the overall fact that Fergie was willing to give these exciting young prospects a chance was great to see.

Even better was that none of them disappointed.

Smalling got caught out and gave away a penalty which led to Celtic’s goal and he will surely learn from that but overall, he didn’t look out of place at all. I really didn’t expect much from him this season but I think we could be seeing a lot more of him in first-team action this season than we initially thought.

Obertan remains a bit raw but he is a threat with pace to burn and the confidence to take a player on. He was one of the better players on the night.

Diouf didn’t get a goal but showed that he can be a handful for defences and did his case no harm. I expect to see more of him this coming season.

Scholes only played the first half but was fantastic and the difference he makes was apparent in the second half when the play seemed a bit disjointed. This, of course, is a good and a bad thing. Good because we have his services for the next 12 months at least. Bad because there was no one else coming on who could come anywhere near matching what he does for the team.

Man of the match by a country mile, however, was Dimitar Berbatov. He was simply head and shoulders above everyone else on the pitch and I really do think that he has finally had a word with himself and he is now determined to go into this season with a “to hell with it” kind of attitude.

He played with a confidence and a “who dares wins” attitude that is perhaps easy in a meaningless friendly but by doing that, he showed what he is capable of and I only hope that he takes it through into the new season proper.

He scored a blinder, set up Welbeck for the second and had a hand in Cleverley’s deflected third.

That United were able to brush Celtic aside so convincingly and several of the really big players weren’t even on show just shows how much quality we have in depth at the moment.

Finally, the moment we have all been waiting for us almost upon us. Yes, tonight, Manchester United will take to the pitch once more as they take on Celtic in Toronto as part of our pre-season preparations.

It might seem like a long way to travel just to play a team from Scotland and you might think I’m getting a little bit over-excited about a meaningless pre-season friendly but I’ve been looking forward to this day for all kinds of reasons.

As the World Cup players are absent, we should be able to see some of the fringe players in action. I’m hoping to see Obertan, Cleverley and Diouf, in particular but whoever Sir Alex chooses to play (and he is bound to make plenty of changes as the match goes along) will be fine by me.

The only slight snag is that, as the game is taking place in America, the kick-off time will be midnight (UK Time) and the match is only available on MUTV. Still, I’ll be tuning in and I’ll report on it tomorrow.

See you then!

Tuck Your Shirt In Gabby!

The worst kept secret on the internet was finally made official today when United unveiled their new Nike shirt (the reserves actually wore the kit two days ago when they played Curzon Ashton).

As always with a new kit, it has received a mixed reception. Personally, I like it. If you look really closely you will also spot the AON logo on the front.

Nike are certainly very pleased with it.

“The improved Nike ‘Dri-Fit’ fabric, now 13 per cent lighter than previous kits, helps to quickly evaporate moisture by drawing through the fabric to the surface and to keep players dry.

Innovative ventilation zones are placed along each side of the jersey to enhance breathability, by up to 7 per cent compared to previous kits, and allow air to pass across the whole torso. These zones have up to 200 tiny laser-cut holes, backed by Nike’s innovative halo application which prevents ripping without reducing air flow. An additional ventilation zone is placed below the waistband on the shorts at the base of the spine.

The jersey’s new double-knit structure gives it a sleeker appearance, while offering 10 per cent more stretch, and also boasts a new dynamic fit, cut to follow the natural contours of the body while allowing for maximum airflow and movement.”

Woohoo… exciting stuff.

Nani says, “I think it looks really good and it feels nice.“

Where's David?

Speculation as to whether or not we will be making any further signings this summer has been a massive talking point for weeks now and some United fans are starting to wonder if Fergie has completed his transfer dealing already.

Several names continue to be mentioned with Balotelli the lastest big name, big money target linked with Manchester United.

There just appears to be absolutely nothing coming from the club itself apart from comments made by Fergie a few days ago where he categorically denied making a bid for Wesley Sneijder.

As the team jetted off for the USA on Monday with only Smalling representing Fergie’s transfer dealings so far, the chances of any new additions looked as remote as ever. I personally thought that Fergie would have done something before setting off on the pre-season tour.

The only reason why this might not be the case, as far as I could see, is that the player he perhaps wants has been involved in the World Cup and perhaps made it through to the latter stages of the competition. If indeed it is someone who played in the World Cup then the player wouldn’t be going on the USA Tour anyway – he would be given a month off along with the others who played in the competition such as Rooney and Evra etc.

However, as the players and staff boarded the plane for the USA the other day, there was one other noticable absentee – David Gill.

David Gill always goes on the pre-season tours and so this is highly unusual for him. Am I clutching at straws when I suggest that the reason he didn’t go out with the others on Monday is because he has business to attend to somewhere else?

I hope so. We’ll see…