Having bought the match tickets (that’s 2 matches for 1 ticket y'know) for a healthy 45 euros, we set off for Amsterdam on the Saturday in early August. The fact that we left The Hague guessing whether Rooney and Scholes would be eligible to play in the evening provided a lot of excitement throughout the day. How Rooney could get sent off (a straight red at that) for a yellow card offence at the most, during United's opener in the tournament the evening before v Porto is beyond me. Luckily United won that match 3-1 and with Inter playing stalemate with Ajax on the Friday, United needed only a draw to ensure victory in this meaningless pre-season gig.
We arrived in Amsterdam just in-time for the annual gay pride march in the city. The canals were clogged and the streets noisy. After a short trip to The Noon and filled up our blueberry supplies, we set off for the ArenA shortly after 5pm. Having bought a crap match programme before finding our seats, I was quite surprised on the number of people filling up the joint. LG's constant commercial bombardment prior to the match has paid dividence. With the Dutch crowed in buoyant mood, we were entertained to Inter v Porto.
The first match was certainly a curtain raiser. I was truly impressed by Inter who fielded Adriano and Martins together the majority of their star players albeit without the high profile signing of Vieira. The Italians raced to a 2-0 lead within 30 mins with the Chilean David Pizarro opening the scoring and Martins doubling the score line after the half hour mark. The fact that the Portuguese knocked the Dutch out of the World Cup in an unfashionable manner, encouraged most of the neutrals to route for Inter. With Martins adding another goal to make the score 3-0 shortly before the break, it was a relief to see Porto clench 2 goals back before the end of the match. The eve catching acrobatics of Porto's second goal (haven’t got a clue who scored that one) was one of the highlights of the first match together with Porto's new Brazilian sensation, Anderson.
After 90 minutes of footy and 15 minutes of finding a place to light a spliff, United took to the field without Rooney nor Scholes. Fergie was feeling lucky and youthful by giving starts for Simpson, Evans, Martin, Miller, Rossi and Richardson with Wes Brown leading the defence and Giggsy taking the team out against Ajax. The home crowd have been cheering on Klaas Huntelaar everytime he appeared on the screen before the match and have been rewarded with Huntelaar's inclusion in the starting lineup. Alas, there was no reunion bewteen Jip Jaap Stam with Ferguson as the former was left out from the squad due to an injury.
It was only a few minutes into the match when Carrick, United's overpriced summer signing, broke down after a challenge sometime around the 20 minute mark. From that point on, Lord Ferg seemed to lose interest in the tournament altogether and started to slow the tempo of the match down before introducing more reserves after the scores being 0-0 at half time. The most influential player on the pitch must have been Giggs as he struck the post a couple of times before the break from well taken set-pieces. It was the Welshman who provided the only goal of the game in the second half with a free kick taken just to the left hand side on the edge of the penalty box. His free kick ricoched against the woodwork and behind the goal line. Playing back in his home town, van der Sar also produced some fine form by saving Huntelaar's penalty early in the second half. The match ended with a victory for United in the Amsterdam Tournament yet with Scholes and Rooney banned for 3 matches whilst Carrick and Ferdinand were ruled out for at least a couple of weeks (Rio injured his ankle in a training session prior to kick off) it seemed like a heavy price to pay. With Carrick coming out on crutches to receive the medals, it was a sad sad sight to endure. After the players have paid tribute to the traveling fans and after hearing Huntelaar being named 'man of the match' (to ironic cheers from the Dutch crowd) we set off back to Amsterdam Centraal in an over packed metro.
The journey back provided us with the icing on the cake to what has become an eventful football day. Quite typically we ended up in a carriage chock-a-block full of loud, drunk, stoned and irate United fans. For some reason or another a fight broke out between a couple of Ajax hot heads which spread into a lot of pushing, banging, shouting and strangling which finally involved the drunken English. Being almost squelched to death between all the agro, I was relieved when the Ajax fans decided to sod it and exit at the closest metro station. For the return journey, the Red Army were singing their hearts out to what is hopefully the first of at least one more trophy before the end of the season.
