Manchester United Sets U.S. Return
Manchester United confirmed Tuesday that it will return to the United States next summer for a second ChampionsWorld tour, but Los Angeles this time will not be on the English Premier League champion’s itinerary.
The club said Monday it has agreed to play three matches -- one at Soldier Field in Chicago, possibly against Bayern Munich; another at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., possibly against Real Madrid (with former United idol David Beckham); and a third at Foxboro, Mass., Philadelphia or Washington, against an opponent to be announced.
The matches, which could be part of a larger Champ- ionsWorld series involving other top clubs, will be played in late July or early August, after the European Championship in Portugal but before the Athens 2004 Olympics.
United Coach Alex Ferguson said at a news conference in New York that this year’s tour, in which Manchester attracted 271,488 fans to four games, had helped the team prepare for the English season.
“We’ve just had our best start in the Premier League, and a lot of that is down to the preparation we had in the U.S. over the summer,” he said. “I knew immediately we had to arrange to come back next year.”
Manchester United defeated Club America of Mexico in front of 57,365 at the Coliseum in July, but unlike matches at other venues, that match was not sold out and produced the smallest of the English team’s U.S. crowds.
The possibility remains, that ChampionsWorld officials could put a different game in Los Angeles. A Real Madrid versus Guadalajara’s Chivas encounter potentially could be an even better draw locally than Manchester United.
Howard Praised
While in New York, Ferguson took the opportunity to praise former New York/New Jersey MetroStar goalkeeper Tim Howard, who has been United’s starter since joining the team in July.
“It’s been revealing that a player given the opportunity to come to Manchester from the States can progress so quickly,” he said. “What the boy has shown is, one, he’s a winner, he’s got that American thing. The second thing [is], he’s improved almost every game.
“I originally thought maybe a few games, bring him out ... bring him back again and then we can monitor his progress. But his progress was a self-generated thing.”
Yeagley Successor
During his 31 seasons as coach at Indiana University, Jerry Yeagley has won five NCAA championships, taken the Hoosiers to the NCAA tournament 27 times and compiled a 538-101-44 record.
Yeagley retires at the end of this season, however, and Tuesday, Indiana named his assistant, Mike Freitag, 45, as his successor.
Freitag has been at Indiana for 11 seasons, during which time the Hoosiers have won 10 regular-season Big Ten championships, seven conference tournament titles and two national championships.
Quick Passes
A crowd of more than 24,000 turned out at the Stade Gerland in Lyon, France, on Tuesday to see Cameroon defeat an all-star “Friendship Selection,” 3-1. More than $200,000 was raised for the family of former Cameroon midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who collapsed and died on the same field during the FIFA Confederations Cup in June.... Players from the national teams of Italy and Poland had an audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican as a prelude to today’s friendly match in Warsaw, Poland.... Former Dutch international defender Arthur Numan, 33, announced his retirement after a 17-year career with Haarlem, Twente Enschede, PSV Eindhoven and Glasgow Rangers.... Ecuador’s soccer federation said Southampton of the English Premier League has refused to release striker Augustin Delgado for World Cup 2006 qualifying matches against Paraguay and Peru, claiming that the player is injured.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
