United two up in Malaysia

HT: Malaysia XI 1 Manchester United 2

Wayne Rooney took just eight minutes to signal his intent for the new season when blasted Manchester United in front as they started their Far East tour against a Malaysia XI.

With Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez now consigned to the pages of United’s history books, Rooney is now the major figure at Old Trafford.

Alex Ferguson immediately handed him a favoured striking berth behind Dimitar Berbatov in front of almost 100,000 enthusiastic fans and the response was a fine close range finish, the England striker expertly lifting the ball into the roof of the home net after Rooney’s strike partner had been denied by keeper Mohammed Farizal Marlias.

Rooney was denied a second shortly afterwards. Marlias reacted quickly when the former Everton man drilled a volley into the ground and leapt to push the bouncing ball over his bar.

Paul Scholes also came close with a long-range effort.

Apparently United are in the process of arranging a game against the other half of the Malaysian squad in today’s venue – the Bukit Jalil Stadium – on Monday after the abandonment of tonight’s planned flight to Jakarta following the terrorist attacks.

Ferguson might have had second thoughts as he watched Mazlizam Mohammed charge into Jonny Evans with just seconds on the clock.

The Northern Ireland star took some time getting to his feet but was eventually able to continue.

Ferguson elected to leave his most high-profile summer signing, Michael Owen, on an eight-man substitutes’ bench.

And he must have been drooling at the sight of Wayne Rooney threading a superb pass through the Malaysian defence midway through the opening period which Nani gleefully tucked home.

At such an early stage of the pre-season campaign, Ferguson would not have been too concerned at the number of times the hosts managed to get a sight of Edwin van der Sar’s goal.

But Malaysia deserved the brilliant strike Mohammed Amri Yahyah belted into the net in injury-time as Van der Sar was left floundering.