David Gill estimates there are nine million Manchester United fans in the United States, a small percentage of the supposed 333 million worldwide. No-one knows for sure how United calculate these figures but one suspects the dictionary definition of fanatic is not applied.
The U.S is the new world when it comes to football and naturally United are at the forefront of exploring it. The game will never take hold of the country as fiercely as it does in Europe, but it has emerged from the wilderness to impact ever so slightly on the vast U.S sports landscape.
United love it there. The training facilities are first-class, the players are much more comfortable than they are in the Far East and as Gill so eloquently put it “Such trips offer the club the opportunity to work with our commercial partners in raising our profile in this part of the world”
They did try. Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand were dispatched to the top of the Sears Tower in Seattle for a coin toss while the Empire state building glowed red after Michael Owen flicked a switch. United scored a glut of goals and generally entertained as they dispatched the cream of the MLS. Barcelona in Washington was the end of the tour and its grandest point.
The re-run of that raw night at Wembley when 777 Catalan passes destroyed United registered with even the most disinterested in the U.S capital. Your intrepid Red News reporter touched down in D.C the day United were blitzing the MLS all-stars. One particularly chatty cab driver enquired “I hear that people are actually going to a soccer game in D.C Saturday night?” I explained that it was between the two biggest teams in the world. He smiled and didn’t agree.
The following day I ambled down to the Ritz Carlton just a block away from my more modest hotel, to attend Barca’s press conference. The English press pack were in attendance to gobble any morsel on the Fabregas to Barca story but were left disappointed by the diplomacy of Gerard Pique.
The one that got away was as ever, very complementary about United.
For the rest of this article, including pitchside at FedEx as United and Barca trained, encounters with Gary Neville and Michael Owen, and a ringside seat as Fergie blasts the Daily Mail follow the link below and support Red News. By Reds, for Reds,
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