Luis Nani returned to the starting line-up after recovering from a broken collarbone. Youngster Ben Amos started in goal with a young back line of Rafael Da Silva, Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans and Ritchie De Laet. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes provided some experience in midfield with Darron Gibson and Nani also starting. Up front and 22-year old Mame Biram Diouf lined up alongside Dimitar Berbatov.
The first goal of the game only came 11 minutes in, after some poor defending from Rafael, who had been caught napping, Davy Arnaud was clear through on goal and gave the Wizards the lead.
Man United’s defending was awful throughout the game. Rafael was slow, he was being given the run around by Arsenal reject Ryan Smith and his positioning was poor, especially for the first goal. It wasn’t just him, Smalling and De Laet also didn’t have the best of times, the inexperience showed and what they needed was an experienced such as Nemanja Vidic or Rio Ferdinand to take charge.
With four minutes remaining of the first half the wizards were reduced to 10 men and United had an opportunity to grab an equaliser just before halftime. Jimmy Conrad brought Berbatov down in the area, clear penalty but due to the game only being a friendly, the red card for Conrad was very harsh. Berbatov scored the resulting penalty.
Just over a minute later, Kansas City retook the lead, after some more dire defending by United. Kei Kamara’s header hit the crossbar, bounced down and according to the referee it went over the line. Replays didn’t clear up whether or not it was over the line leading for more calls over goal line technology.
Second half and United did have opportunities to equalise for the second time in the game, Gabriel Obertan, Federico Macheda, Tom Cleverley, Danny Welbeck and Fabio Da Silva were all brought on during the second half.
Welbeck and Macheda both had chances for United but the scoreline stayed at 2-1. Man United were poor, it’s only pre-season so the result doesn’t matter too much because it’s all about gaining match fitness and sharpness. Credit to the Wizards, they worked well as a unit and deserved to win.
We have to give credit to Kansas city, they passed the ball around and kept better possession. Well, their goalkeeper was impressive. I would give credit to their keeper for keeping them in the match.United had clearcut shots on goals to be fair and he pulled some great saves.