International Friendlies

This gave those teams heading for the World Cup Finals in South Africa later this year the chance to do a little experimentation with formations and tactics before the big event. It also gave the players a chance to stake their claims for positions on the plane to South Africa.

England vs Egypt

England faced a tough test against the Egyptians ranked once place below them as the 10th best team in the world. Having been beaten to World Cup qualification by Algeria, the Egyptians recently won their third African Nations Cup and took shoed their class from the outset dominating England early on before taking a deserved lead through Zidan in the twenty-third minute. Fabio Capello made a few changes at the break, most notably bringing Peter Crouch on for the lackluster Jermaine Defoe. It proved an inspired substitution as Crouch scored twice, one either side of a goal by Shaun Wright-Phillips to ease England to what was eventually a comfortable victory.

France vs Spain

Spain underlined their tag as World Cup favorites with a comfortable 2-0 victory of France in Paris. This was their 22nd win in 23 games since they won the European Championships and their first victory over the French in France since? Goals from Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos and Valencia's David Villa sealed the win. The tough French team turned against their own side with Thierry Henry booed and whistled at throughout following his controversial deliberate handball against the Republic of Ireland to seal qualification for the World Cup Finals. Coach Raymond Domenech wasn't spared either as once again he failed to spark a disjointed French team who were outplayed by the classy Spaniards throughout.
Germany vs Argentina

Argentina put their shaky World Cup qualifying campaign behind them with a strong performance against Germany in Munich, taking victory through a classy goal from Real Madrid's Gonzalo Higuain on the stroke of half-time. Argentina legend and coach Diego Maradona was in a confident mood after the match.

"This game had the character of a World Cup quarter-final and this is the level we were looking for," he said. "Maybe the press in Argentina won't like it, but we are going to play a very good World Cup in South Africa. What we showed is that we have a team who can become world champions for the first time after 24 years," Maradona said.

"But now I have got to reduce my squad from 30 players to 23. That is not going to be easy.

"We showed a lot of courage and the whole of Argentina was looking forward to this game. Germany has great potential and Argentina showed that they are on a par with them."

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How to Find Affordable Manchester United Tickets

The 2009/2010 Premier League season just got underway and the chase to find affordable Manchester United Tickets is back on. Having won its third title in a row, Manchester United is more popular then ever despite the departures of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez will not change that. The team is one of the favorites again together with Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and potentially Manchester City.

The best chance of finding reasonably priced Man Utd tickets is by becoming a member of the One United fan club. Membership prices for the 2009/2010 season are between 30 and 36 GBP (Great Britain Pounds) for adults and 20 to 26 GBP for juniors. Memberships can easily be purchased on the team's website and every member has the opportunity to apply for tickets for all home matches of the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Curling Cup, and the Champions League. The success of an application is determined by a random lottery.

Applications usually need to be made 4-6 weeks before the game and the easiest way to be aware of upcoming application deadlines is to subscribe to the One United email newsletter. Lottery results are usually announced 2-3 weeks later and winning applicants pay for their tickets by credit card and the tickets will be shipped out to the member. Members who are unlucky in the lottery still have another chance of securing affordable Man Utd tickets by monitoring the teams' ticket exchange.

This exchange allows season ticket holders to sell their tickets to games that they are unable to attend to One United members. These tickets are available on a first-come first-serve basis so members should purchase these tickets right away as they become available. The probability of securing tickets this way depends on the popularity of a particular game.

The best chances of securing tickets in the lottery are for games that are during the middle of the week such as some of the Premier League games and all of the Champions League matches. Another option is to keep an eye on Manchester United Tickets prices offered by a reputable ticketing agency. Usually these tickets are sold significantly above face value but as the game approaches, sometimes it is possible to buy tickets in the secondary market at reasonable prices.

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