Van Gaal: U S Fans 'Unbelievable'

Louis van Gaal praised the Manchester United fans throughout his first year in charge at the club and the manager admits he was astonished by his first taste of their adulation - during last year's pre-season tour of the United States.

Hundreds of thousands of supporters followed the Reds' progress during Tour 2014, presented by Aon, as van Gaal led the side to International Champions Cup success with victories over AS Roma, Internazionale, Real Madrid and Liverpool preceded by a comprehensive friendly win against LA Galaxy.

The match against Real Madrid in Michigan was particularly memorable given it was attended by over 109,000 people - a record crowd for a soccer match in the US - with many of them wearing United colours, much to van Gaal's astonishment.

"The support was unbelievable," the Dutchman declared in part three of our exclusive interview with ManUtd.com and MUTV. "That was also during the first days of my time as manager here and the enthusiasm of our fans and the size of the crowds there was incredible.

"We played five games and there were 300,000 fans there in two weeks - and that’s for friendly games! Of course there were white shirts of Real Madrid [at the match in Michigan] but most of the fans were in red shirts. It was amazing. It’s unbelievable how popular Manchester United is."

Fans attending this year's tour matches will no doubt be hoping to see a repeat of the 2014 results and performances and van Gaal insists all the players will get their chance to impress, including some of the club's budding youngsters.

"You always get chances, especially in pre-season, and if you grab that chance then maybe you the possibility to join our first-team squad next season," added the manager.

"I shall take a lot of youngsters with us to the USA and they have the chance to show themselves and then we shall wait and observe how they can develop."

Credit: Manutd.com