Manchester United and Liverpool old boys underwhelm in Hong Kong as fans stay away
Thousands of empty seats for Red on Red match at Kai Tak Stadium game between sides captained by Rio Ferdinand and Steven Gerrard
Tomasz Kuszczak and Nemanja Vidic both suffered embarrassing moments in Saturday’s exhibition match between teams of Manchester United and Liverpool old boys.
The good news for the ex-United pair was that not many people were inside Kai Tak Stadium to witness their howlers. Without doubt, the official 27,081 attendance figure seemed wildly generous.
Kuszczak got especially lucky in that he committed his error very early. The game kicked off around six minutes before the stated 5pm start time, meaning that the folk still filing into the arena missed the goalkeeper falling awkwardly and spilling the ball at the feet of John Arne Riise, who sheepishly finished into an empty net.
The match organisers have been asked for comment on the premature start.
Maybe the players just wanted to get the whole thing finished as quickly as possible. Certainly, centre-back Vidic, responsible for the second howler, could probably have named a thousand places he would have preferred to be after he steered a Riise cross into his own net.
Kuszczak had hurt his knee in the act of inadvertently setting up Riise and, with injury added to insult, the Pole hobbled off after 33 minutes. The deathly hush that accompanied extended periods of the game gave way to a lusty cheer when the 49-year-old ex-Hong Kong No 1 Fan Chun-yip galloped on as Kuszczak’s replacement.