Manchester United vs Portsmouth Preview and Live Score: FA Community Shield 2008

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Portsmouth vs Manchester United EPL 08-09: Live Score and Updates

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With just a week left before the new season of English premier league gets underway, Manchester United and Portsmouth will take on each other for the first silverware of the season- FA Community Shield 2008 title. However, ahead of the season’s traditional curtain-raiser, both Manchester United and Portsmouth are facing severe injury problems and both sides will be missing some of their key players in tomorrow’s Community Shield meeting. The match will take place at the Wembley Stadium in London on 10 August 2008.

Match: Manchester United vs Portsmouth, FA Community Shield 2008

Date: 10 August 2008, Sunday

Venue: Wembley Stadium, London

Kick off: 15:00 BST

Live on Television: Setanta Sports

FA Community Shield has a long tradition in English football. In fact, this year’s Community Shield match is going to be the 100^th edition of the tournament. Though it has both pride and prestige, the participating teams hardly take it seriously in order to avoid any fresh injury ahead of the new season. However, the interesting fact is that the winning teams never let the chance of feeling proud of the title, while the losing sides find condolence terming it as a mere friendly match.

Manchester United got the ticket of the Community Shield 2008 as the reigning champion of premier league, while Portsmouth has become the first team out of “Big Four”- Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, to reach the Community Shield since 1996. Portsmouth clinched the FA Cup title of last season, defeating Cardiff City in the final last May. En route to win the title, Portsmouth eliminated Manchester United in the sixth round. Portsmouth clinched another victory over Manchester United last season when they defeated the touring Manchester United at home 2-1, though Portsmouth suffered a 0-3 away defeat to Manchester United.

Recent Form: Manchester United and Portsmouth

Well, it would be unfair to seek any indication of the current form of both sides in their recent pre-season friendly matches. Manchester United and Portsmouth even faced each other recently in Nigeria in a pre-season friendly where United clinched a 2-1 victory. However, I do not think that the friendly match could reasonably indicate anything about the upcoming Community Shield match at the Wembley Stadium, London.

Considering the recent matches, both sides are currently in good form. Manchester United has not lost any of their six pre-season friendly matches, with four victories and two draws. Manchester United defense showed excellent resilience conceding only two goals in these six matches. Portsmouth, on the other hand, has been in good scoring form, netting 22 goals in eight pre-season matches. Out of the eight matches, Portsmouth lost the only match to Manchester United, with five victories and a draw.

Manchester United vs Portsmouth: Injury Appears as a Big Factor

I already stated that both sides are missing some of their key players for the traditional Community Shield match. Manchester United seems to be affected more due to injury. Their star winger Cristiano Ronaldo is yet to recover from his ankle injury and has already been left out of the Shield match. Some other key players including Owen Hargreaves, Ben Foster, Louis Saha and Park Ji-sung are all struggling with knee injuries. Wayne Rooney has become a big doubt as they striker has just got over the virus he was suffering. He just joined training recently. However, the good news is that Captain Gary Neville is fit for the match, while Michael Carrick will also be in contention for the match after recovering from the virus that Rooney also suffered from.

Goal.com reported:

"Carrick trained yesterday for the first time and I'm taking him to Wembley," said Ferguson. "Hopefully I'll give him some minutes on the pitch. If he is feeling good then we have to get some minutes on the clock for him ahead of next week against Newcastle."

"We have a big job to get him ready for Newcastle," said Fergie, "but with seven or eight days training, we may just make it now. He's much better and the medical reports are good.

"Gary Neville and Nani are fit and they will travel,” he continued. “Nani will probably start on Sunday because he is suspended for the first two league games of the season.

"Owen Hargreaves is not ready. He should be OK for Portsmouth away (on Monday 25 August), that's the time frame we've put on it.

Portsmouth is also facing some injury problems ahead of tomorrow’s Community Shield match. French midfielders Lassana Diarra is suffering from ankle injury and Sean Davis is trying to recover from his hip injury. Their loan player Ben Sahar might replace David Nugent who has been left out of the match with groin injury. Glen Little is expected to be back after recovering from thigh injury. However, their big worry might be the injury of Kanu, the man who led Portsmouth to win the FA Cup final against Cardiff City last season. Kanu suffered a deal leg during his international duty with Nigeria. The good news is that Sol Campbell is most likely to play against Manchester United after recovering from virus.

Manchester United vs Portsmouth: Online Live Score and Updates

Manchester United vs Portsmouth FA Community Shield match is the first match of the season and it is the mirror to see the final preparation of the both sides. Though neither side might take any risk ahead of the full-fledged premier league season, fans on both sides will look to see the latest condition of their favorite sides. So, I think, fans will be interested to enjoy the match as a lot of prestige and pride is now at stake around the match.

However, if you can not stick to your television screen due to personal or professional works, you can visit the following websites from where you can at least know the updates of the match:

Live Score

Goalzz

Live Football Scores

Goal.com

Footie Scorez

Pricking up a favorite team for this match may not be that many difficult, considering the strength and past records of the two sides. Thus, Manchester United should be the favorite side on pen and paper. However, as I earlier mentioned that the Red Devils are currently running short of resources thanks to a number of injury woes. In addition, as I already stated, Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp always holds good record against Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. Though Portsmouth is also facing some injury problems, Manchester seems to be more affected by injury problems. So, I think, both sides have enough chance in the match. I just wish that excessive carefulness would not mar the excitement of the match.