Peter Bolton’s pre-season dairy: Fantastic trip, even though the football wasn’t good | OneFootball

Peter Bolton writes his diary from Manchester United’s pre-season tour of the United States.

I took an overnight flight on Friday night from West (LA) to East (Columbia) and slept the entire way. That brought me straight into Saturday, which meant match day.

After arriving at the airport, I got the bus into the city centre, before missing my connection. I wasn’t waiting an hour for the next bus – so we took an Uber to the hotel!

Once checked in it was time to shower and change. Then it was time to get out to another massive ‘college American football’ stadium.

Outside in the ‘fan zone’ there was a fairly even mix of United red shirts and Liverpool red shirts (I even saw Arsenal / Chelsea / Palace / Bournemouth / Barca / Real Madrid & some ‘National’ shirts  – or is it ‘Jerseys’?)

Just before the gates opened,  the heavens opened and did it rain (I thought I was back in Manchester for a minute). Everyone ran for cover but it only lasted 10 minutes before it eased off, so everyone made their way to the stadium turnstiles for the massive queues that awaited them…

Once inside – nearly everyone stayed in the concourses as it was a completely open stadium!

Eventually, the rain eased off and fans started to take their rightful seats. Again – a big mixture all over the ground – United red next to Liverpool red!

For the third time out of three in the USA, the game didn’t start anywhere near the scheduled kick-off time.

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I’ll gloss over the game… too many individual mistakes by United players and the Liverpool keeper just wouldn’t let anything past.

Over 77,000 (near capacity) and a record ‘Soccer’ crowd in South Carolina.

Food and drinks were, yet again, vastly overpriced but it didn’t stop the Americans queuing up to purchase them!

That’s about £10 a can!

It was absolute chaos getting away after the game. The carparks were completely full and difficult to exit. I couldn’t find any bus stops or taxis / Ubers!

I got back to hotel before midnight with enough time to pack my bags for my journey home.

End to a fantastic trip

It was a fantastic trip and I met some great people, but the football wasn’t good.

All in all, I’ve had a great 12 days!

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