ANGEL DI MARIA made his Manchester United debut at Turf Moor this lunchtime and we went minute-by-minute. Email adrian@thescore.ie, tweet us @thescore_ie, find us on Facebook or leave a comment below.
Gather around friends, and look at the new guy.
Angel Di Maria makes his first start for Manchester United this afternoon with a very tricky looking trip to Lancashire rivals Burnley.
Louis van Gaal will know he’ll do well to not sign autographs after the final whistle if the Premier League heavyweights fail to atone for their defeat at MK Dons in midweek.
How do you see this one going?
Here’s the team that LVG can get his season back on track.
He’s sticking with the ol’ 3-5-2 then.
The players have emerged from the tunnel to a mixture of Arcade Fire’s Wake Up and the Turf Moor crowd’s loud roar. This is gonna be a real welcome for new signing Angel di Maria from Real Madrid.
This is not the Bernabeu.
Oh my days! Burnley are inches from going ahead!
David Jones — a former United youth star — lashes a free-kick off the crossbar after Phil Jones typically gives away a stupid free kick with a barge.
Moments later a shaky-looking Jonny Evans puts De Gea under massive pressure with an under-hit back pass while under zero pressure.
One United fan’s HD stream offer on Twitter made us chuckle:
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Di Maria’s been bright enough so far, showing some nice touches from deep. And he just showed exactly what he’ll bring to the party, playing in Robin van Persie with a lovely direct ball from the centre circle.
The Dutch striker took it on his chest and got a crisp shot away but the Burnley keeper Heaton got a strong hand to it.
Don’t take my word for it; here’s that Di Maria pass to RVP:
He’s been great so far.
‘You win nothing with kids.’ Michael Carrick’s in the stands with United’s fresh-faced new signing.
Interesting comment from one reader Sean Flanagan:
“I have a wee theory about to United’s poor start to the season so far, which I have yet to see written anywhere (I’m open to correction).
Players who have been at United for years appear to be lacking in confidence, particularly central midfielders and defenders. I reckon that boasting about having so much to spend on new players was bad enough, but the worst idea was identifying areas we need to strengthen and then not having them strengthened by the start of the season!
Everybody knows we need a proper central defensive midfielder like Keane was. Hence all the hype about Vidal. Everybody also knows the likes of Evans and Jones are prone to being rubbish so we need to strengthen there too, hence the hype about Blind, Rojo, and Shaw. Our wingers have been singled out as blunt instruments, hence the long running saga over DiMaria.
Such speculation must have an impact on the egos of the existing players. Imagine playing in any of these positions over these past few weeks, knowing that the club are actively trying to find a better player in your position! Your confidence would be shot, especially when you’re (by association) being partly blamed for the worst season United have had in ages!! Most of us agree that there is a lot of dead wood still at United, but I’m sure they know who they are too.
I reckon these kinds of big transfers should ideally be completed before the season starts and leave the time between gameweek 1 and Deadline Day to strengthen the squad!”
What do you reckon?
Manchester United have had 63% of the possession but Burnley have looked like the side most likely to score in the past few moments.
First, Valencia plays a loose pass down the right which is intercepted; Jutkiewicz dinks a clever ball into the box and Arfield — between two centre halves — heads just over.
Moments later, De Gea has his palms stung by a long range shot that looked dangerous. Half an hour now elapsed.
The newly-appointed England skipper looks a right mug here:
Ashley Young went down in the penalty box but the referee waves play on. The dive-prone United winger didn’t make a meal of the slight coming together and quickly picked himself up.
So what’s Dutch for hairdryer treatment?
We’ve had our half-time cuppa, the players are back out on the pitch and we’re under way.
That coat was a brave choice, Sir Bobby:
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As we approach the hour mark, Di Maria’s recorded his first shot on goal as a United player.
The Argentine arrives on the end of a Rooney pass to the edge of the D but his effort is deflected behind for a corner that comes to nothing. More importantly, Lovejoy is here:
“I’m not too sure what position he is going to play in. I don’t think he is strong enough for a left-back in England. And the only place we can seem to get him into the team in central midfield. He’s a very good footballer but is he the answer? We will wait and see.”
- Paul Scholes wasn’t impressed on BT earlier when talking about new signing Daley Blind.
Meanwhile, Danny Welbeck is on in place of Van Persie. Almost 75 minutes elapsed now.
What a chance for Wayne Rooney to at last break the deadlock. A corner arrives at the back post and the England captain completely mistimes his jump and nods tamely wide.
This isn’t great.
This is your five-minute warning. With 85 minutes elapsed, United are in possession and are going sideline to sideline in front of the Burnley back four without ever really threatening.
Juan Mata is off and Adnan Januzaj is on for United. Stephen Reid looks to be getting ready to come on too for the hosts.
Massive penalty shout. Ashley Young’s shot on goal travels a long way before striking Ashley Barnes’ stretched-out arm. That should probably have been a spotter right?
Former Ireland international Reid is now in fact on the pitch for his Burnley debut.
How’ya gettin’ on there, Fergie?
Since they did away with the mindless violence the game has lost its appeal
It’s not really a great spectacle as a sport. Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal. Time to call a halt in my eyes especially when the Aussies could not be bothered to send over a proper team however gallant their intentions were .
“Sticking it in TG4 is hardly likely to broaden its appeal.” Has anyone encouraged you to broaden your horizons?
Some (most) of us don’t speak Irish Louise. Should be commentary in English.
Have more faith in your ability to learn. It’s not all that difficult to listen to and understand the language.
Well considering you don’t have a grasp on the English language, I’m not surprised you cannot speak Gaeilge!! I can see why your glass is half empty, I think you mean “commentary should be through/ in English”… Ah the predictability of….;-)
Deborah,
1. “Well” should be followed by a comma.
2. “…grasp ‘of’ the English language”, not ‘on’.
Smarty pants
Load of crap it looked like Australia hadn’t a clue for the first quarter
Bring back the killings, that’s what made this pointless game for me!!! Zero atmosphere at the game too!!
Will ye relax. Its an opportunity our amateur players get to represent their Country. Reward for all the work and commitment they have given all year.
Well done Ireland and the 3 laois lads! Finish them off the next day.
Honestly it was a poor game. Expect a rough game next week.
Sh!te game.nothing at stake just looked like like a training match.
Pointless game
Patently false. 92 points were scored
If you don’t like this sport then don’t pay any heed to it. Simple.
There was a decent crowd there tonight and clearly sponsors and players embrace the concept so that’s why it’s still going. Nobody is being forced to watch it, if it doesn’t take your fancy that’s fine but there’s no need for everyone to bang on about how they think it’s pointless, just change the channel if it bothers you that much.
If you think the players “embrace the concept” you clearly did not watch the match. The Aussies didn’t even know the rules, and I can’t blame them. I was there and it was clear the lads were only over for a 2 week holiday and I’d do the same myself. Just glad it was only 15eur.
It’s a great game. Fast, exciting and has a well defined tackle, the bane of Football in my opinion. I think if it was marketed well, and played every year, it would be very popular.
The problem is it’s marketed badly.
Having the game on TG4 makes it difficult for non-Irish speakers to follow the rules.
You only hear about it a couple of weeks before it starts.
Having the first game in a regional venue is good in theory but seeing an empty terrance looks bad.
And the break it takes every 3 years is pointless and confusing.
The fact it’s on a Saturday night, is an international sport and is a physical game means it’s very marketable, especially to younger people. Some blood thumping adverts run during the all Ireland finals would generate huge interest and wouldn’t take a huge amount of effort.
I think with a bit more marketing and an attempt to improve the atmosphere, a la Leinster Rugby or American football, would really add to the occasion.
It’s almost as if the organisers, the GAA and AFL, aren’t sure if they want it to succeed or not.
TL;TR It’s a great game that would benefit from better marketing and showmanship.
Whatever about the merits of the game, I think it’s on its last legs, as there is literally zero interest in it in Australia. Even here in AFL-obsessed Melbourne, you wouldn’t know this game was on.
The main quality paper here – The Age – has a 20 page sport supplement every Sat and Sun. During the AFL season about 75% of that space is devoted to AFL. Yesterday (in the AFL off season), there were 2.5 pages devoted to AFL, of which about 1/8 of a page related to the international rules game. Today, there are 2 pages on AFL, with no mention of the international rules other than a single line informing readers that a match report is available online. It really says something when the international rules series is not even the main AFL-related story, at a time of year when there is no actual AFL taking place.
The writing is on the wall when you have a sport that is only relevant to two countries and one of those countries has completely lost interest.
Surely this is more to do with the timing of the game than lack of interest? It would have been impossible to get a match report onto the paper, due to the lateness of the kickoff.
It’s not that I expected a match report in the Sunday Age (obviously – the game took place on Sunday here!). But usually if an event is of interest the papers would have previews and other general coverage.
Anyway, it’s now Monday and the intl rules has been given about the same amount of space as Australian basketball and baseball (neither of which are very popular here). The game wasn’t even mentioned on any of the tv news shows I saw yesterday either.
Better than xfactor but that would not be difficult!!
That match wasn’t even mentioned in the media over here,as for cry factor its on EVERY single ad break,is every 10 minutes.
Bastardised rules. No thanks.
A mongrel game for a …
Every code of football has bastardised rules
Its a pity that genuine amatuer wholehearted GAA players were forced to pick between club and country for a series that the professional AFL pay lip service to
Rubbish sport, Mickey Harte was right
What is the point? It was on in the pub and that’s all I could think about it.
It’s an excuse to go to the pub
Well said. Any excuse is a good one.
We’ll done lad,s
Up Cavan
Welcome to World Trophy Football or wtf for short ,
Feck I missed the semi finals again…
‘Hilarious’
I’d probably watch it if they played the oval ball, atleast give the Aussies a chance since there not allowed to apply mindless thuggery anymore.
I heard there was 275,000 at the match and they were all speaking Irish, even the aboriginals, who probably discovered Australia, having set off from west cork in 6000bc with a cargo of stone hurleys and Gaelic poetry. Long before the British I might add. It’s a matter of great pride to the 42,000,000 members of the GAA. As joe brolly once said “god I’m great ammant I, hi”
Gold
It’s horrendously bad.
Why is this game always played with a round ball? Not very fair on the Aussies is it?
Worst game of football I’ve ever been too!!!
Absolutely dead match…….,
Ah shut up god we are a nation of f##king begrudgers well done lads from all of us in Oz anythime we beat the “worlds most sporting nation” is a good day for me..
Suppose this is the gaa world cup final?