Manchester United on tour: Two down, two to go

Manchester United has been on tour in the US for over a week now. Just like last season’s summer tour of the US, the Reds are in winning form for the friendlies.

Head coach Louis van Gaal is known as a tough man to please, so perhaps it is no surprise that his first comments after Manchester United’s second victory in two matches during Tour 2015, presented by Aon, were a bit on the critical side.

“The first half I was satisfied,” said van Gaal after ManU’s 3-1 win over the San Jose Earthquakes in the International Champions Cup. In the second half – after van Gaal literally put a new team on the field and made ten substitutions – he said “we played very badly, with a lot of ball losses.”

Van Gaal’s highlight: "I liked the goal of Pereira. It was a beautiful goal.”

However, that’s what a summer tour is for: so a team can find its form. That includes new signing Bastian Schweinsteiger, who made his second appearance for the Reds after transferring from FC Bayern Munich. Van Gaal didn’t mince words: “He was also bad… but players can play badly, certainly when you only have three days or six days of training in your legs.”

In other words, van Gaal sees good things – like Memphis Depay’s first ever goal in a Manchester jersey – and room for improvement, especially at midfield.

Taken as a whole, however, the tour has been a success: last week in Seattle, the Reds beat Mexican side Club America 1-0, and their win over the Earthquakes means they enter the halfway point of the summer tour with a perfect record.

The team stays in California for a match against last year’s treble winners FC Barcelona on July 25 before heading to Chicago to face Paris Saint-Germain on July 29. Stay tuned to InMotion for more on Manchester United’s Tour 2015 presented by Aon!