Cape Town 1 Man United 1

Bebe

Ajax Cape To­wn 1 Man­chester Uni­ted 1, Green Point Sta­dium, Friendly Mat­ch, Ju­ly 21, 2012. Man­chester Uni­ted se­cured a one-all draw ag­ainst Ajax Cape To­wn in their fi­nal pre-sea­son fix­ture in So­uth Africa. Al­cardo van Graan han­ded The Urb­an War­ri­ors the lead four min­utes be­fore the end, on­ly for Bebe to hit the equal­iser for Uni­ted in in­jury time.

Shinji Kawaga, who had ar­rived from Ger­man Bundes­liga si­de Bor­us­sia Dort­mund for a trans­fer fee of £12 mil­lion the month be­fore, should have sco­red for Man­chester Uni­ted on the hour ma­rk, but the midfielder’s head­er hit the out­side of the left-hand up­right. Then, in the 75th min­ute, fel­low new boy Nick Pow­ell made his Uni­ted de­but as a sub­sti­tute for vet­er­an mid­fielder Paul Scho­les and the for­mer Crewe Al­ex­an­dra star­let qui­ckly put Ajax Cape To­wn goal­keeper Sander West­erveld to the test wi­th a power­ful shot. Maarten Stekelenburg´s men ev­entually went in­to the lead in front of a 50,000 crowd at Green Point Sta­dium when Al­cardo van Graan, who had re­placed So­uth Africa in­ter­na­tion­al Them­binkosi “Ter­ror Fanteni” in the 85th min­ute, net­ted wi­th an amaz­ing back-heel flick wi­th four min­utes left of the con­test, but Man­chester Uni­ted hit back al­most in­stantly as sec­ond-ha­lf sub­sti­tute Bebe fired a right-footed vol­ley from six yards out pa­st West­erveld and in­to the back of the net in stop­page time. Someone once said that when a te­am want to play a low tempo ga­me, the op­pon­ent is far more likely to ob­lige in your barn than in front of their own sup­port­ers. Very well put, in­deed. Ajax Cape To­wn Te­am: Sander West­erveld, Naz­eer Al­lie, Thu­lani Hlat­sh­wayo, Matt Booth, Aidan Jen­nik­er, Ta­fadzwa Rusike, Toriq Losper, Grand­wald Scott, Khama Bil­li­at, Keagan Dolly, Them­binkosi Fanteni. Sub­stitutes: Clint Ju­li­us, Ge­orge Ak­pa­bio, Keamo­getse Wolff, Nh­lanhla Shabalala, Brent Carelse, Cole Al­ex­an­der, An­tonio Cor­reia, Nh­lanhla Vil­akazi, Brett Evans, Al­cardo van Graan, Nat­han Gertse, Thato Mokeke, Le­bogang Man­yama, Nusa Le­busa, Trav­is Gra­ham, Ge­orge Maluleka, Ja­mes Ok­wu­osa, Brandon Lee Adams, Sean Ro­berts. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ben Amos, Tyler Black­ett, Mar­nick Vermijl, Scott Woot­ton, Rio Fer­dinand, An­tonio Va­lencia, Paul Scho­les, Mi­chael Car­rick, Javi­er Her­nandez, Shinji Ka­gawa, Oli­veira An­der­son. Sub­stitutes: Fre­der­ic Veseli, Nich­olas Pow­ell, Ti­ago Di­as Cor­reia, Rob­bie Bra­dy, Ry­an Tunnicliffe, Dav­ide Petrucci, Fe­d­erico Ma­cheda, Jesse Lin­gard, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, An­ders Linde­gaard, Sam Johnstone.

 

Bebe Quickfacts

A de­term­ined and ag­gress­ive at­tack­er who could op­er­ate on either flank, Agualva-Cacem born Bebe was on the books of Por­tuguese clubs Es­trela da Amadora and Vit­or­ia de Guimaraes be­fore he was bought by Man­chester Uni­ted for a trans­fer fee of ar­ound £7.4 mil­lion in the sum­mer of 2010. 

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