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Health & Fitness

Revolution Play An Inspired First Half In Loss To Manchester United

The Revs were in action Wednesday Night to face Manchester United. Read how the home team played against the English Premier League Champions.

The New England Revolution faced the English Premier League Champions Manchester United, Wednesday Night at Gillette Stadium in a friendly match. The over 51,000 in attendance got to watch the Revs go toe to toe with one of the best clubs in the world. To their credit, New England stepped up to the challenge, and there was no score at the end of the first half. However, after several substitutions in the second half, Manchester United would show their dominance. The Revs would lose this match 4-1.

In the first half, Manchester United would put serious pressure on the Revs defenders. However, the home team really stood up to this challenge, and continually cleared the ball out of trouble often in the first half.

The Revs did try to push forward when they had the opportunity. But, overall they played very organized in their own half when they were under attack. Manchester United's best chance came in the 41st minute. Dimitar Berbatov had a great shot on net, that Matt Reis had to lunge at to make an impressive save.

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The Revs would weather the storm in the final few minutes of the half. Impressively they would hold Manchester United without a goal. This is quite an achievement when you are playing against Wayne Rooney, Nani, and Berbatov. The first half ended 0-0.

The second half would open with both sides making substitutions. It also wouldn't take long for Manchester United to strike. In the 51st minute, Michael Carrick set up Michael Owen on his shot that got by Revs goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth. Manchester United were then up 1-0.

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The visitors would come right back in the 54th minute to double their lead. Federico Macheda would strike a shot past the Revs goalkeeper to make the score 2-0.

To their credit, the Revs would come right back in the 56th minute. Benny Feilhaber would take a free kick from just outside of the box. His shot was deflected into the net by Kenny Mansally. The Revs cut the lead to 2-1.

However, Manchester United wouldn't take long to increase their lead once again. In the 61st minute, Macheda who is a young Italian striker got his second goal of the game to put Manchester United up 3-1.

Manchester United were not done with scoring goals. In the 80th minute,  Ji-Sung Park would receive a wonderful pass from Ryan Giggs, which would lead to a beautiful chip that went into the net. This was really a tremendous goal by Park. Manchester United would then have a commanding 4-1 lead. The game would end several minutes later with the same score.

It is easy to look at the score, and think the Revs got manhandled in this match. However, anyone that watched this game saw a New England team that held their own with the English Premier League Champions.

The Revs will try to take the experience they learned from this game, and apply it to their next match. They will be back in action at home on Sunday July 17th to face the Philadelphia Union. The game takes place at Gillette Stadium at 7PM EST.

New England Revolution: Matt Reis (Bobby Shuttleworth 46), Chris Tierney (Darrius Barnes 46), A.J. Soares (Otto Loewy 46), Franco Coria (Ryan Cochrane 46), Kevin Alston (Kenny Mansally 46), Zak Boggs, Benny Feilhaber (Ousmane Dabo 65), Shalrie Joseph, Pat Phelan (Stephen McCarthy 46), Sainey Nyassi (Ryan Guy 65), Rajko Lekic (Zack Schilawski 64)

Manchester United: Anders Lindegaard, Fabio, Jonathan Evans, Nemanja Vidic (Rio Ferdinand 46), Rafael, Ashley Young (Gabriel Obertan 67), Anderson (Mame Diouf 75), Michael Carrick (Ji-Sung Park 75) Nani (Ryan Giggs 67), Dimitar Berbatov (Federico Macheda 46), Wayne Rooney (Michael Owen 46)

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