Match Preview: A-League All Stars vs Manchester United

A-League All Stars vs Manchester United

TOUR 2013 – Saturday 20^th July, 2013 – 10:30 KO BST – ANZ Stadium, Sydney (83,500)

The Teams

United

David Moyes ahead of the game in Sydney: “We want to improve in everything we do. A lot of things we did (against Singha All Star XI) were good. We didn’t quite get the goals to go along with our play so that’s what we’ll be hoping to add to our game on Saturday.”

United XI from: Anders Lindegaard, Ben Amos, David de Gea; Rafael, Phil Jones, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra, Alex Büttner, Fabio, Michael Keane; Michael Carrick, Anderson, Tom Cleverley, Ryan Giggs, Wilfried Zaha, Jesse Lingard, Adnan Januzaj; Danny Welbeck, Robin van Persie

15 of the 17 available outfield players got much-needed minutes vs the Singha All Star XI. After a full week’s training in Sydney, expect more of the same in Saturday’s fixture. David de Gea and Robin van Persie have joined the squad and will almost certainly feature. Alex Büttner will have his fitness assessed after limping out of the defeat in Bangkok with a hamstring injury. Adnan Januzaj and Wilfried Zaha impressed in the same game and could have earned themselves staring berths.

A-League All Stars

All Stars head coach Ange Postecoglou on playing United: “They’re Manchester United. I’m sure even losing in a friendly game will give them extra motivation to do well against us… I think from our perspective, if we go out there and just try and play attractive attacking football, it will be a good spectacle for everyone.”

All Star XI from: Ante Covic, Michael Theo; Pedj Bojic, Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Michael Beauchamp, Nigel Boogaard, Connor Chapman, Joshua Rose, Joshua Risdon; Billy Celeski, Liam Miller, Thomas Broich, Rhyan Grant, Marcelo Carrusca, Michael McGlinchey, Brett Emerton (c); Mark Bridge, Paul Ifill, David Williams, Besart Berisha

Ex-Blackburn Rovers midfielder, Brett Emerton (who has scored vs United in the past), will captain the All Star side. Former United player Liam Miller will also feature. Paul Ifill, ex-Millwall, may also be recognisable to some. The squad was part-decided by public vote, with A-League fans submitting their favoured starting XI and substitutes. Alessandro Del Piero, naturally, would have featured, but has ruled himself out of the game, as has Japanese icon Shinji Ono. Emile Heskey will also miss out, ensuring the A-League’s three stellar imports (yes, even Emile) will be conspicuous by their absence.

Notes

Robin van Persie and David de Gea have joined the squad in Sydney.

Of the players available in Bangkok, only Anders Lindegaard and Michael Keane failed to get minutes on the pitch.

The A-League side was decided through a voting process. The weighted voting system gave 50% to the fan vote, 20% to the Expert Panel vote, 20% to the players via the PFA Team of the Year selection and 10% to coach Ange Postecoglou.

More than 30,000 A-league fans voted by submitting their starting XI, plus four substitutes.

Sydney’s ANZ Stadium (aka Stadium Australia) has a record capacity crowd of 114,714 – for the Sydney 2000 Olympics closing ceremony. The stadium has since been downsized.

Ex-United midfielder, Liam Miller, played 22 times for the reds, scoring 2 goals (vs Crewe and Barnet). He was sold to Sunderland in the summer of 2006.

Score prediction: A-League All Stars 1-3 United