BANGKOK, 11 August 2003 — Fernando Morientes handed Real Madrid a deserved 2-1 victory over a feisty Thai national side here yesterday as the Spanish giants wrapped up their four-nation tour of Asia.
The result was the narrowest losing margin of the tour, which included a 4-2 victory against a Hong Kong XI on Friday, a 3-0 romp against J-League first division club FC Tokyo and a 4-0 trouncing of a Chinese XI in Beijing.
Thailand came out fighting, the same strategy it employed in its friendly against English Premiership side Liverpool here last month, and created several scoring chances before Real turned up the tempo.
The visitors won the first of several free kicks in the 19th minute however new signing David Beckham’s effort sailed wide.
It took until the 32nd minute for Javier Portillo to put Real on the scoresheet and Real almost doubled their lead eight minutes from the break before Thai keeper Kittisak Rawangpa saved well from France playmaker Zinedine Zidane just eight yards from goal.
In the second half Real introduced Spanish striker Raul and Brazil’s Roberto Carlos, who was unlucky not to see his free kick from 40 yards out fly home.
Thailand equalized through Sarayut Chaikamdee in the 61st minute, the striker in the process earning himself a 100,000 baht ($2,400) prize offered by the sponsors for every Thai goal. Three minutes later the hosts were brought back down to earth when Morientes put Real ahead.
However the visitors were lucky to walk away with the honors after Thailand hit the cross bar twice in the closing stages.
Howard’s Shootout Saves, Give Shield to Man. United
In Cardiff, United States goalkeeper Tim Howard was the hero as Manchester United won the Community Shield by beating Arsenal 4-3 in a penalty shootout at the Millennium Stadium on yesterday.
Close-season signing Howard saved twice in the shootout, including the decisive kick from Arsenal’s Robert Pires, to give United the trophy after the two teams had been level at 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Mikael Silvestre headed premier league champions United in front after 15 minutes following a corner but FA Cup winners Arsenal leveled when French striker Thierry Henry curled a 30-metre free kick into the bottom corner five minutes later.
Arsenal had substitute Francis Jeffers red-carded for kicking out at United’s Phil Neville after 74 minutes of the English season’s traditional curtain-raiser.
In sweltering conditions both teams looked a little below their best in a closely-fought encounter. But two fouls inside the opening 90 seconds on the same touchline gave notice of the commitment of both sides. Less than half a minute was on the clock when United defender Phil Neville went in late on Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira and was booked.
Barely a minute later, Arsenal’s Ashley Cole returned the compliment on Nicky Butt and was also shown the yellow card.
Cole was lucky midway through the half not to see the red, being only warned by the referee after kicking Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in retaliation.
France defender Silvestre put United in front from the champions’ first corner. Captain Roy Keane, on his 33rd birthday, nodded on Ryan Giggs’s corner and Silvestre rose to head past Arsenal’s new German keeper Jens Lehmann at the far post.
Howard may feel he should have saved Henry’s free kick equaliser five minutes later. Vieira, still not fully fit after a knee injury, was brought down by Nicky Butt some 25 meters from goal. Henry then surprised United’s new keeper by curling the ball round an inadequate United wall and away from his full-stretch dive into the bottom left corner.
Just after the half hour, Arsenal were lucky not to fall behind again when Giggs headed a cross from the right on to Lehmann’s right-hand post and striker Ruud van Nistelrooy’s header from the rebound skimmed the bar on its way over. Jeffers had been on the pitch only 14 minutes when he and Neville got tangled on the ground after a strong tackle by the United defender. As they tried to extricate themselves Jeffers, back on his feet, kicked his still grounded rival.
