Manchester United Asia Tour 2009: Owen Scores Again in Malaysia Rematch

New signing, Michael Owen scores again on his second preseason match for the Red Devils! Could this really be a Fergie masterstroke?!

Having said that, in hindsight, Owen has always been a great scoring machine. Has been for Liverpool, did so at Real Madrid and also continued that trend in the first season at Newcastle. My post on "Top 10 values Owen Brings to Man Utd" still seem to be holding up, which I am happy about obviously.

Seriously though, as long as Owen stays healthy, he does bring a lot of experience and predatory movement to this Manchester United team. It looks like Mikey is fitting in well with the United lads and that will not be good news to the rest of the EPL.

This is a snippet of the report posted in Times Online,

"Michael Owen was on target for the second consecutive match as Manchester United defeated a Malaysia XI 2-0 in Kuala Lumpur.

Given the opportunity to atone for a less-than-convincing 3-2 win against the same opposition at the Bukit Jalil Stadium on Saturday, United this time exerted total control over their opponents.

Federico Macheda, now installed as United's fourth-choice striker following the summer exits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, was first to make his mark after 11 minutes. The Italian calmly stroked the ball into the corner after Ryan Giggs had supplied a low cross.

And on United's next attack, Owen carried on where he left off at the weekend when he scored the late winner, profiting from some shambolic defending from the hosts, who failed to clear a Zoran Tosic cross, allowing the England striker to take aim and fire home the second goal...."

Though this is just preseason but a good preseason will put Owen in great nick for the coming season for sure. Well, enough of that already, enjoy this superb match commentary.

Malaysia 0-2 Manchester United Match Commentary

Man United failed to add to their early goal tally even with their many substitutions.

Full time - Malaysia XI 0-2 Man United

The Tigers are throwing the sink at Kuszczak and have gone narrowly wide on two occasions.

80 min - Anderson takes a shot, but goes wide.

76 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Sabre for Thiru

74 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Muslim for Zamani

Despite the many substitutions, Ferguson's men are still stuck in second-gear. Well, this is a pre-season friendly after all.

69 min - Substitution for United: Anderson for Carrick

69 min - Substitution for United: Gibson for Fletcher

69 min - Substitution for United: Scholes for Giggs

67 min - Substitution for United: Rooney for Macheda

64 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Amar for Umar

63 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Badrul for Yahyah

62 min - Substitution for United: Ferdinand for Evans

62 min - Substitution for United: O'Shea for Neville

62 min - Substitution for United: Berbatov for Owen

62 min - Substitution for United: Nani for Tosic

Malaysia are trying their best to score against the Red Devils but they just cannot seem to find the back of the net.

58 min - Substitution for United: Evra for Fabio

56 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Gurusamy for Safiq

46 min - Substitution for United: Kuszczak for Foster

45 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Norshahrul for Zaquan

Half-time

34 min - Substitution for Malaysia: Asrarudin for Azmi

32 min - Owen is looking sharper and sharper by the minute. His tries a cheeky side-footed shot which hits the post!

27 min - Fletcher has been deployed as a right midfielder. He is hardworking and can put in a decent cross. But he is nowhere near as devastating as Ronaldo.

14 min - Substitution for Malaysia: V. Thirumurugam for Mozlizam

12 min - GOAL!!!! The Malaysia defence are chasing shadows at the moment. Owen storms in unnoticed to score his second goal in United colours. Now who said Owen is over-the-hill?

10 min - GOAL!!!! Macheda the wonderkid! A defence-splitting pass from Fabio down the left picks an unmarked Fletcher at the far post who lays it off for the Italian youngster to drill it in past Marlias.

Kick-off

The usual pre-match pleasantries with a coin toss going the way of the Malaysians who kick off proceedings.

A wonderful way to start the night. Players and officials mark a minute of silence out of respect for the victims of the Jakarta bombings last week.

For those who are not in the loop, two bombs went off in Jakarta last week, just days before United were due to arrive and stay at the Ritz Carlton hotel which was one of the affected buildings. The Red Devils called off their Jakarta visit and this match had to be put in place within 36 hours to replace the Indonesia match.

This brilliant match commentary came from ESPNStar.com - the premier Asia sports site.

Full report of "Michael Owen on target again for Manchester United in Malaysia" can be found in Times Online.

You can also read my post on "The Top 10 values Michael Owen will bring to Manchester United" here.