UK Edition
It has been a long and tiring tour of the US for Manchester United's players and that much was evident in the mixed zone at FedEx Field on Wednesday night before they flew home.
An area had been ring-fenced for VIPs to wait to greet their heroes, and as United's weary stars trudged out of the dressing room, they walked slowly along the fenced line posing for pictures and signing autographs. The next fenced off area housed a large band of reporters, though, and a bleary-eyed Michael Carrick, unsure where one line ended and another started and perhaps ready for a rest, was about to sign the forehead of a journalist before realising it was not another shirt or cap to autograph. Cue laughs all round.
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An impressive crowd of 80,162 watched United's final tour match of the US against Barcelona, despite the high ticket prices and, as it turned out, ludicrously steep parking charges, too. One car park was demanding a staggering $50 for fans to park their cars, trucks and SUVs.
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If Neymar is not enjoying being in the limelight amid Paris St-Germain's attempts to sign him for a world record £196 million, he is doing a good job of hiding it.
The Brazil forward made no attempt to keep a low profile in training on Tuesday, taking penalties in front of fans while his Barcelona team-mates prepared to head down the tunnel, and it was much the same at FedEx Field against United.
Having scored the game's only goal in the first half before being taken off at the interval, Neymar did not reappear until 15 minutes into the second period, at which point he strode up the tunnel and began highfiving his legion of fans on the way to the Barcelona bench.
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James Wilson has not been on United's tour in the US but he did travel to Austria with the club's Under-23s as the striker works his way back to fitness after suffering an anterior cruciate knee ligament injury while playing on loan at Derby. And the reports that have been coming in to staff on tour in the US suggest Wilson has lost none of the pace that made him such a highly rated prospect at Old Trafford.
Whether Wilson can get to a level where he is able to realistically challenge for a first team place again in the future remains to be seen but United are just pleased the 21-year-old is recovering as well as he is.
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United have played Real Madrid and Barcelona in their past two tour matches and Jose Mourinho admits those two teams are a level above, despite his side equipping themselves well in both games. "I think in this moment the best players are in these two clubs and you have to accept that as a reality," the United manager said.
"There is only one Messi and one Neymar, and Suarez, Iniesta, Pique, Ronaldo, Bale, Modric, Toni Kroos, so they can only be playing for one club not two clubs. We can't have them, they belong to those clubs. You can be working very hard tactically to improve your players but there are players that are special players and there is nothing you can do. You try to compensate the difference in quality with a certain tactical organisation and with that you can win in football.
"It's possible a team is in a certain day better than the sum of the part but their parts are amazing, their relation with the ball is amazing, you can argue about occupation of spaces and speak about all of that but the relation with the ball is still the most important thing and as an opponent on the bench like I am it is beautiful to see their relation with the ball. But one of my players today, Paul Pogba, showed the level and he belongs to that level."
Manchester United in USA diary, part 13: Tired Michael Carrick almost signs journalist's forehead