How The Red Devils Performed On International Duty

The talk that has for many years been heard in England is that Sir Alex Ferguson is a serial international football hater. England fans will be the first ones to point out that the shadow of the boss looms large behind the Rio Ferdinand saga, which left Roy Hodgson red faced after missing out on the player for a detailed pre planned medical routine. Others will go further back in highlighting him as the reason Paul Scholes turned back on his country and convinced Ryan Giggs to choose a defunct Wales national team, while he could have turned out for England who have a notorious lack of natural left footed wide men especially in attack.

With that out of the way, facts differ so greatly to the heresy that Fergie loathes National teams (in any case there is no actual reason for him to love them anyway). History shows that Manchester United has been played a huge part in the development of several national teams England being the biggest beneficiary of the industry that is Old Trafford. Early during the 90's the famous Fergie fledglings who Alan Hansen branded as players who no team can win anything with became the very core of the national team that is England. David Beckham, Gary and Phil Neville who have even gone on to become coaches with the senior and under 21 teams respectively, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt all had hundreds of caps between them and played vital roles in the little success that the three lions have had in the international stage. Before them, Paul Ince, Paul Parker, Steve Bruce, Gary Pallister and Bryan Robson were England regulars in big tournaments and at the moment England benefits from no less than 6 Man United players.

The international weekend had Man United players allover the globe in the national duties trying to qualify for the Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup albeit with varying degrees of success. Starting from Goalie David De Gea, who had a first taste of the senior national team on the bench in the two games that Spain played Finland and France. The skinny Madrid born custodian is long touted as the natural heir to the "La Furia Roja" goalkeeping gloves, worn for so long by Iker Casillas, and there is no doubt that he will get a fair share of national team game time in years to come.

United defenders Patrice Evra, Jonathan Evans and Chris Smalling were involved in vital qualifiers for France, Northern Ireland and England on Friday and Tuesday, with Only Smalling coming with positive result in the hard fought draw against Montenegro. Further forward on the midfield, Tom Cleverly formed part of a 4-man England midfield against Montenegro while Ashley Young came on for him later on while wing man Antonio Valencia turned out for Ecuador in the 4-1 success over Paraguay. Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa scored his team's only goal in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Jordan.

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The strikers enjoyed a good international break with 3 out of 4 scoring in their respective matches. United fans must have enjoyed seeing RVP scoring 3 goals in two games for Holland having seen him fail to do the same in the past 8 EPL matches. Van Persie seems to have rediscovered his scoring touch as he also had 2 strikes ruled out in both Friday and Tuesday's matches. He wasn't the only one who was on a scoring spree, attacking partner  Wayne Rooney scored 2 in two games and set up another goal in the game against San Marino. The goal he scored in the same match was a breathtaking free kick effort that had every United and  England fan smiling in joy just as was his combination with Danny Welbeck in the Montenegro fixture. Javier Hernández Chicharito was on the score sheet twice for Mexico in the match against Honduras on Friday but couldn't do the same on Wednesday in the crucial fixture against arch rivals USA.

Sir Alex Ferguson will be keen to make sure his boys return to league business with a fresh mindset, leaving the internationals behind with a crucial 48 hours that see United play Sunderland and Chelsea back to back, and the performances by most of his players for their respective countries will have left him satisfied with what he saw, as there were no injuries and everyone will be fit come saturday when United visit the stadium of light.

Writer: Geoffrey Lea @geoffiejeff