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Tickets for Manchester United's preseason friendly against Real Madrid, to be played on August 2 at the 'Big House', Ann Arbor, Michigan, have sold out thirty-three minutes after going on sale. The game is expected to break the attendance record for a football game in the United States, which is currently the 101,799 people who gathered in the Pasadena Rose Bowl to watch France defeat Brazil 2-0 in the 1984 Olympic gold medal match.
Still, and as ever, there's a problem. Or at least, there might be. The team finishing sixth in the Premier League — glory glory! — will go into the third qualifying round of the Europa League, and it is being reported in various placesthat the second leg is scheduled for precisely the same date. Uefa's website, however, indicates that the two legs are to be played on July 31 and August 7, which would be inconvenient but not impossible. Perhaps the website is out of date; perhaps the papers have got something wrong. Either way, the team is currently in seventh, so it's all hypothetical.
This news will doubtless warm Edward Woodward's heart, it appears that even where the team is rickety and weak, the brand is still strong. Did any transatlantic TBB-ers manage to get tickets? And if so, was it just on the off-chance that you might get to see Ronaldo? You can tell us. We're all friends here.