A MINUTE’S SILENCE will precede Manchester United’s friendly with San Jose Earthquakes in California tonight as a mark of respect to the six Irish students who lost their lives in the city last month.
Louis van Gaal’s side are in America for their pre-season tour and face the Major League Soccer side at the Avaya Stadium in the International Champions Cup.
The tribute has been organised by friends of the victims of the tragic accident in Berkeley and will take place shortly before kick-off at 8pm local time (4am Irish time).
The game was originally scheduled to take place at the University of California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley but was moved to accommodate United’s travel arrangements.
Eimear Walsh, Lorcan Miller, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster, Olivia Burke and Irish-American citizen Ashley Donohoe lost their lives in the balcony collapse on 16 June.
One of Man United’s newest recruits, German international Bastian Schweinsteiger, paid tribute to Mr Schuster on Facebook after a picture of the young Irish student with his hero was posted on social media.
Friends of the 21-year-old wore Bayern Munich shirts during his funeral.
Many of the J-1 students currently in the city are expected to be among the 18,000 capacity crowd.
United beat Club America in Seattle on Saturday with new signing Morgan Schneiderlin scoring the winner.