Will Manchester United Tour the U.S. This Summer?

It’s the million dollar question for Man United and soccer fans in America. Will United pass up the opportunity of playing in America this summer during the pre-season friendlies like they did last year when they concentrated on South Africa instead?

The decision hasn’t been made, but what we do know is that United are scheduled to play several friendlies in the Far East between July 17 and July 27:

July 17: vs Urawa Red Diamonds (Japan)
July 20: vs FC Seoul (South Korea)
July 23: vs Shenzhen (China)
July 27: vs Malayasian XI (Malaysia)

The 2007-2008 Premiership season will begin on August 11, which means that the Community Shield match (the symbolic start of the new season) will be on August 4th or 5th. That means that after Sir Alex Ferguson’s side plays its last match of the Far East tour, it only has seven days before the match at Wembley.

The Community Shield pits the winner of the FA Cup against the winner of the Premier League. If the same side wins both, then the second place Premier League side will play the winner of the FA Cup. No matter what happens in the coming weeks, we already know that the Community Shield will feature Chelsea against Man United.

So could Man United play some matches in the United States before they head out to the Far East? It’s possible, but I doubt it. Many of the Man United players will be featured in the June 1st friendly against Brazil at the new Wembley Stadium. This means that the United players will only have approximately four weeks until they report back to training in early July.

When Man United toured America in 2003, they played their matches between July 22 and August 3. During the 2004 tour, the club played matches in this country from July 25 to July 31. So given the timing of the Far East tour that was announced today and the earlier start to the season compared to last year (when it kicked off on August 19th), it looks highly unlikely that Man United will visit the US this summer.