Against a backdrop of a blue sky with a few clouds, the new Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City opens with a football game. Albeit not the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Kansas City Wizards taking on arguably the largest professional soccer franchise in the world, Manchester United. A crowd of more than 52 thousand would see the Wizards make history as they beat the Red Devils, 2-1.

History would be the theme of the day, not only in the number of people that saw the game, but what happened on the field. With the Wizard win, they become the first American team to ever beat Manchester United, either inthe United States or in England.   The total attendace for the game was 52,424. This would include fans from 43 states and four different countries. This is a new record for a soccer game in Kansas City. The old record, 37,319, was set in April of 2001 when the US National Team played at Arrowhead.

The game started off with a bang as Kansas City would get on the board early as Captain Davy Arnaud would score the first goal at the 11 minute mark. He would be assisted by Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury. 

 

 

This would remain the score until the 41st minute. A red card would be handed out after a hard foul by the Wizards’ Jimmy Conrad. This would give the Red Devils a penalty shot.

Dimitar Bebratov did not miss and the score was knotted at one. Still, the damage was done as the Wizards would have to play a man down for the rest of the game.

But just a minute later, Kansas City’s Kei Kamara would score the winning goal on something of a controversial shot. Kamara’s ball would go off the top of the cross bar and appear to land on the white goal line, but not go behind. Since there was no way to replay the goal, the referee immediately signaled goal.

There would be a lot of scoring chances for Manchester United, but no goals for them or for the Wizards. Both teams would also sub in many players as the time ticked off to a win for Kansas City.

Manchester United moves in their Tour 2010 to Houston where they will take on the MLS All Stars on Wednesday night.