“Playing 90 minutes with Roy Keane is worth 20 games with some others and Roy’s composure will have got through.”

John 0’Shea also gave Ferguson a boost by having a 20-minute run-out.

The Republic of Ireland defender had initially ruled himself out of the match as he had a knee operation earlier this month. On the downside, he missed a penalty.

Ferguson said: “He has come on very well. The surgery is straightforward for this type of injury and the players recover quickly. He had the operation at the beginning of the month, so his recovery has been very good.”

23-year-old striker Smith, a £7m (€10.6m) summer buy from Leeds, saw his penalty effort saved by Bayern Munich goalkeeper Oliver Khan in the shoot-out after a 0-0 draw in normal time.

The German side went to record a 4-2 victory on penalties in this ChampionsWorld series match at Soldier Field.

Smith, however, won over the large United following in the 58,000 crowd – and Ferguson – with his industry and enthusiasm.

“It was hard for Alan, he had a tough job up front on his own but he did exceptionally well,” said the Old Trafford boss.

There were other positives for Ferguson, who fielded a side full of fringe players in the absence of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Louis Saha, Paul Scholes, Mikael Silvestre and Diego Forlan. They have all missed the tour as they are resting up.

Captain Roy Keane, playing as a sweeper, was the only one in the starting line-up who had started more than 35 games for United.

Chicago-born Spector wasn’t fazed by appearing in front of his home crowd. In fact he rose to the challenge.

United’s competent performance was witnessed by Joel and Bryan Glazer, son of major shareholder Malcolm Glazer.

The owner of Tampa Bay Buccaneers was with not with them, however, although he was widely expected to be there.

He holds a 19.2% stake in the club and could still launch a takeover bid.

What the family and the crowd failed to see was a goal in normal time but United will take some heart from this display.

Bayern, playing only the one game in America, started with eight internationals in their ranks.

But they found it had to dictate the pace against their inexperienced rivals and United played out to finish the game all square – a good result in the circumstances in their opening match in America – but they then missed out on penalties.

It meant the 58,000 crowd saw six goals in a few minutes after witnessing a blank scoresheet that was greeted with a few jeers.

“Settling it by penalty kicks was okay by me, “ said Ferguson.

“For these type of matches, the penalty kicks had a little bit in it for the fans in particular. You saw the experience of Oliver Khan. I think that decided it actually.”

United move back to Philadelphia today to prepare for the match against Celtic on Wednesday at Lincoln Financial Field.