Manchester United decided to part ways with manager David Moyes, less than one year and one season since he was brought on to replace retiring manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He has been replaced with Louis van Gaal, who has managed some of the biggest clubs in the world and led the Netherlands to a third place finish in the 2014 World Cup.
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Add in a solid preseason tour in the United States that resulted in a Guinness International Championship Cup title, and optimism was high that they could turn things around.
The game at Old Trafford didn’t get off to a great start. Aside from not really attacking on the offensive end, they were a bit on their heals defensively. Ki Sung-Yeung got an open look just outside the box and drilled it on target and just inside the right post, giving Swansea a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.
That goal had “MoyesIn” and “VanGaalOut” trending as Swansea City took a 1-0 lead into half time. It didn’t take long in the second half for Manchester United to turn things around.
On a corner kick from Juan Mata, Phil Jones tried to head it in. The ball hovered their briefly before falling to an awaiting Wayne Rooney, who boxed out, squared up and then delivered a bicycle kick to drill it in on goal and tie the game up.
In the 72nd minute though, Swansea City were able to regain the lead thanks to a Gylfi Sigurdsson goal. A cross came across the box and found Wayne Routledge who seemed to whiff on it. The ball though found itself at the feet of Sigurdsson just roughly seven yards out and Sigurdsson was able to put it in the back of the net.
That had United’s hopes of pulling out a winner dwindling and they were again looking to just salvage a point. They got some chances during the final minutes of the game in stoppage time, but couldn’t pull out the winner. Louis van Gaal became the first Manchester United manager to lose at home on the opening day of a Premier League season.