Anderson collected a bronze medal in the Olympics last week with Brazil, after losing out to the eventual winners, Argentina, in the semi-finals.
He played in the bronze medal winning match on the Friday, following a period of 6 games in 18 days, then after a 13 hour flight, arrived back in Manchester at 5pm on Sunday.
By 8pm the next evening, Anderson was down in Portsmouth ready to play, much to the amazement of our fans, with Sky Sports and the BBC not even putting the young Brazilian in contention of playing.
“Anderson did well… until he got to 60 minutes and started blowing!” laughed Rio Ferdinand on MUTV after the match. “No, we have a little joke with him about that kind of thing. But he’s a fantastic footballer with great abilities and we’ve not seen the best of him yet, I’m sure.”
John O’Shea echoed Rio’s praise, saying, “he was amazing for us – a star performer. He gets the crowd going and the team – he’s just all action. The sooner we have him flying again the better and I’m sure he’ll play a vital part in the games we’ve got coming up.”
Rated 9 by Sky Sports, Anderson gave United the energy we were lacking against Newcastle. If this is how he plays when he’s not 100%, we are certainly right to expect big things from this lad!
How good was Anderson last night?
