Michael Owen Scores on Debut for Manchester United

There is no better way for a striker to answer his doubters than to hit the back of the net. And that is exactly what Michael Owen did today, when he struck an 85th minute winner for his new club Manchester United, to secure a 3-2 victory in Malaysia.

After taking a 2-0 first half lead through goals by Wayne Rooney and Nani, United found themselves pulled back to 2-2 when Mohammed Amri Yahyah struck either side of half-time for their Malaysian XI opponents. The match, the first on the English club's pre-season tour of the Far East, was watched by close to 100,000 people in Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Jalil Stadium, many of them no doubt torn between their support for a team virtually representing their country and their equally passionate support for a team who are adored throughout the soccer world. By all accounts the performance from the Old Trafford team was not a great one. But with the start of the English Premiership season still a few weeks away they will not be overly concerned that they could not overcome more decisively a team which only contained two players who had competed at international level. Everybody, it seems, is able to raise their game against one of the giants of world football. A fact acknowledged by the Red Devils' manager Sir Alex Ferguson:

It was as we expected, they were full of enthusiasm, energy and speed and caught us on the counter-attack a couple of times. It was a very open match. The energy was always going to drop off in second half because it was our first game. It became a very difficult game after that

Nevertheless Sir Alex certainly had reason to be pleased with the showing of the man who many thought was an unusual signing for the Scot to make. The Daily Mail reports that he gave this assessment of Michael Owen's performance and the qualities he expects the England striker to bring to his squad:

He's different from our other players, he's always searching for space, he's always in and around the box. He reacted well for his goal

Owen too was pleased with the way that his Manchester United debut went, heaping praise on his team mates and observing that it was "nice to play a game in the red shirt". The match was of course overshadowed by the events in the Indonesian capital Jakarta where terrorist bombings at two hotels, including the one in which the United party were due to stay during their visit to the country, had claimed several lives. Manchester United canceled their four night stay in Indonesia, they were playing one game in the country on Monday, once news of the bombings came through. But CNN are reporting that Indonesian authorities, including apparently the President's office, had pleaded with them to reconsider their decision not to travel. That decision will however stand and their stay in Malaysia is being extended. The Manchester team and officials then move on to South Korea and China to complete their tour of the Far East. According to the BBC the Australian soccer authorities had invited United to travel to Sydney for a game on Monday, to replace the one originally scheduled for Jakarta, but that idea was rejected because of the extra travel that would be involved.