Chicago fire 1-3 Manchester United

The first game of the US tour that i have managed to see the whole ninety minutes and the first to see De Gea, Jones, Cleverley and Welbeck. With Smalling, the De Silva's and Rooney also involved a glimpse of the future perhaps. Unfortunately i always suspected this would mean we wouldn't see some of the fireworks that we saw in the first two games.
In reality there was continuity with United taking their time getting into the game and then starting to produce a goal threat in the second half. The first half was less fluent than the first two games with a new and returning loanee's taking time to find their feet. Of the four Danny Welbeck was the pick looking our most dangerous and inventive player during his time on the pitch. He was partnered with Berbatov who once again looked a bit off the pace, maybe he knows he might be off. You do have to wonder how much Fergie values him with his actions and comments towards the end of last season and even this summer.
De Gea didn't really have too much to do, i didn't really blame him for the goal though it was a soft goal to give away. He looked decisive and his distribution was good and made one really good save in the first half. Jones had a fair game defending well and looking very comfortable with the ball at his feet. His partnership with Smalling looks very promising. I've got to say i was disappointed with Cleverley, he just never got into the game. Hopefully he just needs games, he has never seen the type of player to be short on confidence.
The home team deserved to be in front at half time and had a great chance to go two up before United eventually got back into the game. But once Rooney lobbed home a fine equaliser there only looked one winner, even if they never reached the heights of the furst two games. All the goals were well taken with Rooney again looking like the season can't come quickly enough for him. Rafael scored an opportunistic goal and it would be nice to see some of that next season. We haven't had a goalscoring full back since Denis Irwin and we know both of the twins have goals in them.

Maybe Cleverley will be even more disappointed with his performance after Fergie's post match comments that he is happy in the squad he has and will be looking to replace Scholes with combinations from within the squad. He has been given one hell of an incentive though.
As Carrick said last week it is up to the current squad for replacing Paul Scholes, though we all know we have no one in the current squad who really comes close to the great man. But if Arsenal will not let Nasri leave, Modric wants to go to Chelsea and Sneijder is too dear for Fergie to sanction a bid, Carrick is right.

Mark Ogden writes that United have hit the jackpot on and off the pitch as United are now a big name in the States and the annonymity the players once enjoyed over there has gone. I was impressed with the crowd at the Seattle game, for once when United scored most of the home crowd didn't cheer. I had read that the game has reallt taken off there with average crowds of 30 odd thousand every home game. It does seem that the game is achieving some kind of take off over there.
I think the sport deserves to succeed over there as they seem to have tried to go the right way about growing the game builing up slowly from below instead of the star driven approach of the seventies.

Ashley Young has started his United career well is enjoying being at a club of ths stature of United. I have been very impressed with him and think he will be a great addition to the squad during the coming season. I am waiting to see if Fergie is going to use him in the hole occasionally, because if Fergie is going to use him there that would be part of the reason i still wouldn't be surprised to see Berbatov unloaded.
I was a bit surprised to see that Fergie says that United are to offer Park Ji Sung a new two year contract. Whilst he had a decent season last year, we all saw, and for a second time, that he doesn't really belong on the same pitch as the team we are trying to catch, Barcelona. I don't see him finishing his career at the club, and if he wants one more big pay day or maybe even just a new experience he hasn't got long left.

Beckham interviewed in the Guardian says he has no interest in coaching and would be more interested in an ambassadorial role when he hangs up his boots. After the retirements of his pal Gary Neville he also says that he will see how he feels at the end of this season but hopes to play at least one more season. Daniel Taylor thinks he may want to play in next summer's olympic football tournament. I'm sure his club LA Galaxy will be thrilled to hear that.
I'm afraid he doesn't come near to being a United legend for me, he's miles too mercenary for my tastes. He gave United about six years of service that had it continued would have seen him tagged as a United legend. But around 2001-2002 he began to save his best performances for the national team and i actually wouldn't have minded Fergie selling him the season before he actually went. I definitely wasn't gutted when he went, let's put it like that.

Andersred looks at City's present income taking their new stadium naming rights into consideration and thinks UEFA will pass the deal as in line with their new Financial fair play rules. This has of course put more than a few British and European clubs noses seriously out of joint. Fellow football finance writer the Swiss ramble seems to agree, he thinks they have been very clever. I suppose it's a fair point to accuse the Germans of a touch of hypocrisy.
Jim White thinks that Rupert Murdoch and Sky deserve some credit for their transformation of the national sport, i'll pass on that.

Charles Moore writes that the events of the past three years have left him wondering if the left might have been right after all. Interesting article from a guy that i couldn't stand back in the day ( the eighties and early nineties ).

Martin Kettle argues that whilst Cameron may think his performance on Wednesday has put him in the clear, this saga has far from run its course, after all Watergate took two years to unravel. Deborah Orr wonders whether Ian Kershaw's "working towards the fuhrer" thesis can be applied to the inner workings of the Murdoch empire. There almost certainly is something in that, but that doesn't exonerate old Rupe one little bit for me. They knew what he wanted and knew how his organisations have always worked. They were just using the latest technology.
I think the revelation from a former Fox news executive claiming that the organisation ran a black ops department does prove that point. I hope this ends the with the destruction of the whole of news corp not just the ending of any kind of a Murdoch dynasty.

Ian Katz looks at the Andy Coulson vetting saga and asks damp squib or dynamite? A Reuters article asks is Britain more corrupt than it thinks it is, unfortunately the answer to that is yes. And maybe even more corrupt than some of us have always suspected which is even worse, not on a par with Berlusconi's Italy, yet anyway, who knows what else is to come out of all this.

Peter Oborne goes way over the top arguing the Euro crisis will give Germany the empire it's always desired. Will Hutton couldn't agree less, arguing the survival of the Euro marks a crucial moment in the rebirth of a continent. I don't take Oborne's argument seriously, but i wish i could be as optimistic as Hutton is, but i can't as he says the crisis hasn't been resolved and i don't have much faith in the continent's ploitical elite. As the Guardian argued on Saturday, i think, it hasn't taken the people with it, the democratic deficit is still there.
Fellow Keynsian economist Joseph Stiglitz argues the Eurozone's problems are political, not economic.

Vince Cable launches attack on right wing nutters in USA who arethreatning to cripple the world economy. Our right wing press don't seem to be giving this that much coverage or explaining the actions of the Republican right. Jeffrey Sachs talks of budgetary deceit and American decline, another Liberal who is know fan of Obama he argues that the US desperately needs a third party movement. Sachs argued that the democrats are the party of Wall street in that piece, Paul Krugman argues that present policy can be summed up as go easy on the bankers, Sachs does have a point doesn't he. It can't be easy to be a liberal in ths States.

The New statesman interviews Norman Finkelstein, funnily enough i had just watched the documentary about him last weekend. I couldn't argue with most of his opinions but the scene where he praises Hezbollah didn't go down well with me. I agree they have the right to defend their people, how can you argue with that? But this is a party that allies itself with Iranian theocrats, hardly the friends of democrats.

Christopher Hitchens reviews the latest biography of Mahatma Gandhi and makes a number of important points about the realism of the policies he actually advocated during his lifetime.

A telegraph article looks at the unveiling of Virgin's world's fastest cable broadband that could change lives or spark a second industrial revolution.

Stewart Lee talks about what he really thinks of Michael McIntyre and the Daily Mail, fascinating as ever, i keep meaning to buy his autobiography.
Russell Brand tells the Guardian we have lost a beautiful talented woman after the death of Amy Winehouse, a great singer, but it was always likely to end this way.