DC United v Chelsea
Chelsea’s second match of the “World Series of Football” tournament in the US sees them take on DC United, the champions of Major League Soccer. It’ll be the first time the winners of the Premiership have played their American counterparts.
After an emphatic 1-0 win over AC Milan in the opening fixture, Jose Mourinho has made it clear he intends to continue his policy of giving as many players as possible either forty-five or sixty minutes each.
“I will do the same with defenders and attackers, give them 45 minutes, but with midfield the work is more specific and I will give them again one hour. Last time it was Gudjohnsen, Makelele, Lampard, now it will be Tiago, Jarosik and Diarra,” he said in the pre-match press conference.
I know very little about DC United or their much-hyped wonderkid, 16-year-old Freddy Adu. Apparently Adu’s a bit special, so much so that he’s already been linked with a multi-million pound move to Stamford Bridge. At an exhibition game in Philadelphia during the US tour last year, Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck is reported to have said: “He’s on our radar.” I’m looking forward to seeing him play.
Score prediction: These pre-season exhibition/training matches are notoriously difficult to call, especially when playing an unknown quantity. Major League Soccer is not in the same league as the Premiership, as it were, and DC United will have to be very good to break down The Blues’ defence. Despite DC United’s good record against English sides — they remain unbeaten — I’ll go for a 2-0 Chelsea victory.
The match kicks off at 1am BST and is live on Chelsea TV and online for a one-off fee of £2.99.
The DCenters blog has upped the ante somewhat by laying down this challenge. Let’s hope The Blues don’t let me down!
Related links:
DC United 1 - 2 Chelsea · Update
Goals from Duff and Crespo won a testing match for The Blues.
DC United started well, passing the ball quickly and accurately before taking an unexpected lead in the 31st minute. Sloppy defending at a corner allowed United’s captain, Bobby Boswell, a free header from close range after he lost his marker in the area.
Chelsea reacted and took more control of the first half; four minutes later Duff equalised. A superb Wright-Phillips cross from the right found the Irishman on the left, who volleyed a fantastic left-footed shot past the DC United ‘keeper from an acute angle, six yards out. The half finished 1-1.
Jose Mourinho made ten changes after the break; only Tiago remained from the original starting eleven.
It wasn’t long before the combination of Robben and Crespo put The Blues 2-1 up. In the 56th minute, a classic Chelsea counter-attack saw the flying Dutchman latch onto a ball from midfield before passing to Crespo, who narrowly avoided being flagged offside. The Argentinian slotted past an advancing ‘keeper from 18 yards with ease to score his first goal for The Blues in over a year.
Frank Lampard should have made it 3-1 in the 82nd minute, but shot wide of the goal to the ‘keeper’s right from 15 yards out. It was an opportunity of the type Lampard doesn’t normally miss.
United tried hard and applied a lot of pressure towards the end but didn’t create any clear cut chances.
Diarra played the whole of the second half. He probably tried too hard and found himself booked for his efforts — but he was a whole lot more effective than Jiri Jarosik, who played the Makelele role during the first half.
All in all a good pre-season workout. Time for some sleep.
Proper reports: BBC Sport, Sky Sports, San Francisco Chronicle (AP), Official Chelsea FC Website, Blue and White Army, Goal, Official DC United Website, Soccer365, CFCNet.
Related links:
- Chelsea the perfect move in Adu’s view
- Crespo holds no fears for Drogba
- Adu antics offer light relief from Essien row
- Chelsea ready to invest in youth policy
- Mourinho uses trip to guard against flights of fancy
- Posted at 07:18 PM · Permalink · Print · 3429 views · Last indexed by Google on the 10th May 2008
- Tags: Matches, Pre-season
Certainly won’t be the end of the world if Freddy Adu inspires a ’shock’ DC United win - but just cannot see it, although stranger things have happened e.g. Liverpool winning the Champions League!
3-1 to the Blues.
This was a preseason game and it showed. The fluency in Chelsea’s game was lacking just as was the case when we ground out results at the beggining of last season. Super Frank Lampards shot at 81mins should have gone in & Drogba is in danger of loosing his starting spot in the team. He defended very poorly at the corner which lead to DC’s goal and Crespo looks much more composed when finishing moves.
Freddy Adu was actually quite good technically and has quick feet. He got Diarra in loads of trouble (yellow card).
Not the best of games to watch, but another tactical masterclass from Mourinho.
Chelsea need to sign Michael Owen, not Michael Essien. We need a world class striker. We do not have one at present.
Robben is very close to the best player in the world and will be if he stays uninjured. But our team is too dependent on him playing for the attack to open up and be aggressive. He changes a game entirely. The Blues need a striker with that type of impact. And that player currently isn’t on the roster.
Is it only me or has anyone else not got the hump with the that stupid arrogant pompous nose in the air idiot jean Aulas.The french chairmen with his demands and statements. I for one wish as good a player Essien is that we would tell him to go and take a running jump. He’s holding us to ransom and continually insulting us the small fry.Let us show him and future transfer targets that we’ll only go so far in meeting there demands then we will look else where.
We certainly didn’t play that well but won. As John says above, even when we play poorly we still have the ability to grind out wins.
DC United are a good passing side but really didn’t create many clear cut goal scoring opportunities.
I was impressed with Diarra. He was a little too eager but put in a good display.
Gary - I concur with your sentiments. Aulas is an arrogant prat. But it seems we’re determined to land Essien. I just hope we don’t lose Tiago in the deal. Give them Jarosik or Geremi I say! ;-)
Damn Right Essien is a great player but we cannot let Lyon act as though they hold all the cards.
We want the player but dont really need him , the player is not happy at Lyon; to me that says that we are in control. I would like to see us pull out now Lyon will get nothing except a player who is desperate to leave their club which will disrupt there squad we can then come back and take Essien in January.
Congrats on the win. I will go ahead and place the links up later today, and good luck on the rest of the season. For a game where you didn’t feel like you played well, CFC none-the-less played professionally and crisply. Well done.
I personally feel chelsea show leave Essien alone.Aulas is trying to take advantage of chelsea and the way he has gone around it with what he says is too disrespectfull and commanding considering the fact that chelsea is 3 times the team Lyon will ever be.Imagine this comment from him…
“Michael is worth between 45 and 50 million euros (£31-35million) and because time has been wasted if we are to recruit if Essien leaves us now, I estimate that our player will leave for 45 million euros, while bringing in one Chelsea player.
“Rather than unceasingly calling the player to make it all the more sad, Mourinho would do better to call me directly. Chelsea will learn to know me.”
Chelseafc they say in all its arrogancy will not talk like that to a club.I think Peter Kenyon should stop all negotiation will Lyon and let them ‘eat’ thier player.And Webmaster,don’t say i’ve coem again.
A fun match to see up close. I was proud of my DC side, but also excited about seeing some of the best players in the world. Robben in particular.
But Crespo was offsides!
Regardless. I hope we showed there are clubs over here that know how to play, and fans who know how to sing.
Okay, I’ve paid off my side of the challenge. Links are up in blue and white with a gold trim, and will remain up until August 29. Again, good luck, and good show, it was great to see Chelsea on this side of the Atlantic.
Gary & Mark,
I agree with both of your comments. I cant see why Parker was let go when other (in my view) midfielders are inferior.
I just hope we dont pay over the odds for Essien. He is unproven at Premiership level and although Lyon have been great at home and in Europe, I think the blues have been better overall.
Looking forward to Arsenal in the Community Shield for a true test and a glimpse of the ‘first eleven’ Heres to a great season!
yeah i say give them jarosik or gerimi, and then if not i wud say tiago because i think hes an average player, all he has done 4 our club i can remember was the lush goial against manure, bout all that springs to my mind.i liked the looked of diarra, hes a bit of a livewire, but looks and plays like makele!!a few years he will be a good replacement.as for the essien thing, its crazy, i can see why and where he would fit into our team, if jose only wats to play joe cole & wright phillips or roben & duff, then the 3 across the middle lamps,maka and tiago are there. tell me who is the weak link there??tiago!u replace him with essien, then i think we will have a truly unstoppable side. im not sayin tiago is bad, he is ust average and in chelsea we need more than average. as for our strike force, i think its the only place we are lacking, apart from the goal what did crespo do?what did drogs do in the first half?i think we will rely on our wing forwards(duff,robben,cole,wright-phillips) to score again this year, i wish we would just sign a goal machine…owen or adriano.if we did that with essien then im sure our team would be the greatest in the world.
Thanks, D. I was a touch concerned for about four minutes! ;-) I look forward to future challenges.
As for Drogba in the game, I must have watched a different games than many of you. He was winning all the air balls and allowing others to make things happen. It was Jarosik, Cole, etc who were not able to create chances with the ball Drogba won. He didn’t play great, but he did A LOT more than Crespo did (minus the goal).
We’re sure about the wingers in the team, so let’s look at the midfield. There are only three spots for the midfield roles. So if Makelele and Lamp are first choice, there’s only one spot for grap. So why do we need Essien? Lamp will play more games than others as he did last year (played every single PL game and 60 games totally), so does Makelele. If Essien comes, will he be given the last midfield role? How about Tiago or Jarosik? They will agree to play nominal role in the midfield, so how about Diarria? We need him to play some senior games as he costs the club 3.5 million. He didn’t come to play in the reserve team. And also we need to give some senior games to reserve players. All of them would be able to get us to the whole season. Also, where would Gud play in our team? If Drog, Crespo, and Chalton compete for the only center forward role, we need Gud to play in his most effective midfield. Personally I don’t think we need Essien. If we really do, not with upsurb price asked by Lyon. If one of the midfield player is needed, one of the other two wingers can play. They all need to play as the are the best player and all play in their national team.