Archrivals Manchester United and Liverpool face each other in the final of the International Champions Cup at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami, Florida on Monday, in a tie which promises to be the ultimate showdown of preseason.
Overview
United seem to have washed off all the bad memories of the David Moyes days as they have been in terrific form under new boss Louis van Gaal, winning all of their preseason games so far.
Victories over Roma (3-2), Inter Milan (5-3 on penalties following a 0-0 draw) and Real Madrid (3-1) saw them easily book a place in the final of the preseason competition. And now, the Red Devils will look to continue their excellent form when they take on Liverpool.
United players (especially the fringe ones) will be raring to go as van Gaal has told them that he will be closely analyzing their performance against Liverpool.
The 62-year-old Dutchman, who led the Netherlands to a third place finish in the 2014 World Cup, has revealed that he will be making several changes during the match.
"It's always the same philosophy. A lot of players will play 90 minutes because it's the last time we can do that. We have to build up and I cannot do that in training sessions, so we have to do it in the matches," the manager said.
Meanwhile, Liverpool will also be hoping to do well in their final preseason fixture in the United States, even though their record is not as perfect as United.
Despite opening their preseason with losses against Brøndby (2-1) and Roma (1-0), Liverpool made an excellent comeback in the International Champions Cup, registering successive wins against Olympiakos (1-0), Manchester City (3-1 on penalties following a 2-2 draw) and AC Milan (2-0).
The Reds will be happy with the fact that they are still doing well, despite the departure of their talisman Luis Suarez, who scored a record equalling 31 goals in 32 Premier League games last season.
Brendan Rodgers' new signings Adam Lallana (currently sidelined with a knee injury), Rickie Lambert, Dejan Lovren (all from Southampton), Emre Can (Bayer Leverkusen) and Lazar Markovic (Benfica) also seem to be settling in well ahead of the new season.
Despite admitting that this final preseason game will be far from a friendly, Rodgers feels that the outcome of this match cannot be used to predict the two sides performance in the Premier League next season.
"It's a big rivalry and won't have any bearing on how the season pans out, but we have come all this way and I'm sure we all want to finish it off with a really good game. All the games out here have been competitive and this will be no different," Rodgers told the Daily Mail.
Where to Watch Live:
The match between Manchester United and Liverpool is set to kick-off on 2 August at 8:00 PM EDT (1:00 am BST and 5:30 am IST), with live coverage on Sony Six in India. While the match will be telecasted by Fox Sports 1 in USA, UK viewers can catch the live action on Sky Sports 1. The preseason game can be watched via live streaming online by international viewers HERE, HERE or HERE. You can also listen to the live commentary of the game HERE.
