KANSAS CITY, MO – The Arrowhead Stadium, better known for hosting NFL team Kansas City Chiefs, today plays host to Manchester United’s pre-season friendly game against the local ’soccer’ team, the Kansas City Wizards. The Wizards failed to make the playoffs of the MLS last season, but they will still be hoping to attract a crowd of over 50,000 to the game having shelled out a seven-figure sum for the honour of playing against Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
Manchester United finished runners-up to Chelsea in last season’s English Premier League, but will be without many of their stars for the Arrowhead Stadium clash. The Red Devils could only beat Philadelphia 1-0 without the services of Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Owen, Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick and Park Ji-Sung, but the match against the Wizards is another opportunity for the fringe players to shine.
The British bookmakers have seen solid support for a United win, which has been trimmed into 2/7 (bet $7 to win $2 profit) by Sky Bet and Stan James. The draw is currently at 9/2 with bookie William Hill and a shock win for Kansas is trading at 19/2 on leading betting exchange Betfair.
With major question marks over Fergie’s starting XI, it is no surprise to learn that the first goalscorer market is unavailable for this pre-season friendly. If it was, Live Odds and Scores would make Bulgarian striker Dimitar Berbatov a heavy favourite, ahead of other attacking players such as France’s Gabriel Obertan. The leading goalscorer for the Wizards last season was Sierra Leone’s Kei Kamara with six. If bettors do fancy goals in this match they can back over 2.5 goals at 13/20 with Bet 365.
United are 1/9 with Coral ‘draw no bet’ and 8/11 with the same bookmaker to be leading at both half-time and full-time in the match. With temperatures expected to be around 90°F (30+°C), Draw/United could be appealing at 7/2 with Stan James. Draw/Draw is generally at 7/1, and Wizards/Wizards is at a giant 18/1 with Victor Chandler.
In the correct score betting, 1-0 and 2-0 wins to United can both be backed at 7/1. Other scorelines in United’s favour are 3-0 and 2-1 which are 13/2 and 8/1 respectively with Paddy Power. 0-0 is a big price at 23/1 with Bet Internet, and the 1-1 stalemate is 9/1 with Ladbrokes. Finally a memorable 1-0 victory for Kansas is 27/1 on Betfair.
The match begins at 5.00pm CDT, which is 11.00pm tonight English time (BST).
Kansas City Wizards v Manchester United Match Odds
Kansas City Wizards v Manchester United Correct Score Odds
Kansas City Wizards v Manchester United Half-time/Full-time Odds
Kansas City Wizards v Manchester United Over/Under 2.5 goals Odds
Kansas City Wizards v Manchester United Asian Handicap
tags: betting odds, dimitar berbatov, kansas city, kei kamara, manchester united, michael carrick, nemanja vidic, park ji-sung, patrice evra, pre-season, wayne rooney
