3 things to watch for as Real Madrid take on Manchester United

Ladies and gentleman, 50 days after winning their 12th Champions League title, Real Madrid return to action this afternoon as they take on Manchester United from Santa Clara, California. Here are three things to watch in Real’s first ICC match.

How will Real Madrid’s youth perform?

While many fans will want to see Los Blancos open the season with a win, manager Zinedine Zidane is not so worried about the result, rather the individual performances of his young players.

Real have several young players coming into the team that Zidane will want to acclimate into the squad ahead of the team’s first competitive match against this same United team on August 8th in Macedonia. Players like Jesus Vallejo, Marcos Llorente, Borja Mayoral, and the new signings Theo Hernandez and Dani Ceballos.

These youngers players will certainly play a large role in this match, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of the players get playing time, namely Mayoral who is vying for a backup position behind Karim Benzema after the departure of Alvaro Morata.

I’m very excited to see how both of the new signings, Ceballos and Theo, perform. Will Zidane start either of these guys? Probably not, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Theo come on as a sub as he has been training with the team since the beginning of the preseason workouts.

Dani, on the other hand, arrived in the US on Friday after being introduced at the Santiago Bernabeu on Thursday and is probably still getting acclimated to his new teammates and coaches.

Manchester United’s fitness level

Man U have the advantage in terms of fitness level as the Red Devils have already played three matches in the United States since July 15th, and today’s match will mark their fourth in eight days.

United have looked dominant, defeating two MLS sides, the LA Galaxy 5-2, and Real Salt Lake 2-1, while also shutting out their cross town rivals, Manchester City, 2-0 in Houston on Thursday night.

This means that UNited’s newest, and biggest signing from the summer, Romelu Lukaku, has already played in three matches with his new club and is already playing well, having scored a pair of goals in the three matches thus far.

Los Blancos on the other hand, while doing lots of fitness exercises and intensive training over the last week and a half, haven’t had any match experience since that Champions League Final triumph over Juventus back in early June.

It will be interesting to see how Jose Mourinho plays his squad in this match with this being the fourth match in eight days, and still with three matches remaining before the first competitive match against Real.

What will the Real Madrid attack look like?

With Morata gone and Ronaldo not with the squad, it will be very interesting to see who Zidane chooses to start up front on the attack. It should be Benzema at striker, but the wingers are a different story.

Will Gareth Bale start on the right wing or will Lucas Vasquez? Will Marco Asensio feature in the starting XI after just arriving in the United States (he’s rumored not to be available for today)? Or will Isco play as a left winger or in his natural midfield position? So many points to ponder and I know the answer to none of them.

Only time will tell what Zizou decides to do.

This is a time of experimenting and it should b e very exciting to see some of Real’s youth out on display in this match. If you’ll recall, Mariano Diaz and Marco Asensio burst onto the scene last preseason and earned themselves a spot in the first team squad. Will that be the case with Mayoral, Llorente, or Vallejo this season?

We will learn the answer to all these questions come game time today at 5 P.M. eastern, 2 P.M. local time on ESPN.

Next: OFFICIAL: Danilo leaves Real Madrid to join Manchester City

Hala Madrid!