Rooney and Scholes sent off in United win
Manchester United 3 FC Porto 1
Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes were sensationally sent off as Manchester United ended their friendly against FC Porto with only nine men.
The incredible double red card, virtually unprecedented in pre-season combat, threatens to leave Sir Alex Ferguson’s plans for the new season in total chaos.
For, after unloading his ire on referee Ruud Bossen, Ferguson now needs a big favour from the Dutchman. If Bossen opts not to report the dismissals, Rooney and Scholes will escape.
However, if Bossen notes the incidents in his report to the Dutch FA, who then pass it on to their English counterparts, the duo will almost certainly be forced to sit out the first Premiership game of the season against Fulham.
Rooney would be ruled out for the following fixtures against Charlton and Watford as well after his latest miserable encounter with Portuguese opposition.
Thirty four days since he was dismissed in England’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to Portugal in Gelsenkirchen, Rooney, to his total disbelief, suffered exactly the same fate.
The young striker clearly believed he had done nothing much wrong when he jumped across Pepe three minutes before the break.
But TV replays proved Rooney caught the Porto defender with a leading arm and referee Bossen quickly brandished the red card in the United man’s face.
Rooney was staggered and waited in vain for the incident to be shown again on the giant TV screens at either end of the stadium.
Manager Ferguson needed no such confirmation his man had been wronged and raced from his dugout to express his disgust.
Under the watchful gaze of new England coach Steve McClaren, this fresh controversy is the last thing Rooney needs after spending the last month lamenting his clash with Ricardo Carvalho in that fateful quarter-final when the 20-year-old again thought he had been harshly dealt with.
For Ferguson, who spoke only yesterday about the need to have all his players fit for the start of the new campaign, it represented the second stage of an unfolding nightmare.
The first setback arrived before the first whistle was even blown as Rio Ferdinand pulled out.
Ferdinand was listed on the United team sheet, and appeared for the warm-up, but appeared to injure his right ankle and was not seen again until he took his place next to the dug-out, fully changed.
If Ferguson thought his evening could not get any worse, it did just that midway through the second half when Scholes chopped down Quaresma.
The ill-timed tackle occurred only moments after the former England star picked up his first booking, so when Boosen reached into his pocket, he knew exactly what was coming.
Combined with Ferdinand’s injury, the double departure threatens to leave Ferguson with a massive headache ahead of the Fulham encounter at Old Trafford on August 20, particularly in the striking department.
With Ruud van Nistelrooy now at Real Madrid, if Rooney is banned, Ferguson will head into the Fulham game with only three orthodox strikers at his disposal; Louis Saha, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and 19-year-old Giuseppe Rossi.
It all cast a big, dark cloud over what should have been a very satisfactory evening for the Red Devils, featuring an impressive display from debut-boy Michael Carrick.
Wearing Roy Keane’s number 16 shirt, the £16.8m (€24.9m) midfielder took just 12 minutes to make a major impact, finding Scholes with a pinpoint corner which the former England star took down on the edge of the area and rifled into the bottom corner.
Rooney doubled the Red Devils’ lead with an audacious finish which totally bamboozled Porto keeper Helton.
At that stage, it seemed Rooney was going to have a night to remember. Instead, it quickly turned sour.
Solskjaer amazingly bagged a third for the nine-man Red Devils and even though Pepe lashed home late on, United still held on for a win, although, on such a disastrous night, for Ferguson, the result was of very little consequence.
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