Chelsea Carries Premier League Hopes In Club World Cup

Chelsea is the last Premier League side to remain in this summer’s Club World Cup. The London squad advanced to the quarterfinals when the Blues defeated Benfica last Saturday in a match which took almost five hours to complete. Chelsea, courtesy of a Reese James goal, was leading 1-0 in the 86th minute when warnings of a lightning storm caused the pitch to be cleared. Two hours later, the match resumed. It then seemed Chelsea would put this one to bed with ease after the Portuguese side went down to 10 men two minutes into stoppage time. Unfortunately for the Blues, however, more work was required after a Malo Gusto handball. Angel di Maria equalized the score with his penalty kick just three minutes after teammate Gianluca Prestianni was dismissed with his second booking. The 37-year-old Di Maria, who counts Manchester United as one of his seven career stops and won a Champions League with Real Madrid, is returning to his boyhood club Rosario following this tournament to end his career where it all began. Di Maria’s final goal for Benfica necessitated extra time to end a long day for Chelsea in Charlotte, North Carolina. Benfica would have hoped to hang on for penalties, but Chelsea overwhelmed the undermanned and tiring Portuguese side with a trifecta of goals in the second interval of extra time to win 4-1. Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Kieran Dewsbury-Hall provided the goals in a nine-minute blitzkrieg for the Blues.

Chelsea now faces Brazilian side Palmeiras in the quarterfinals on Friday. Another weapon could be available for that match in the form of former Brighton star Joao Pedro. The Brazilian forward was signed this week by Chelsea, has already been added to the tournament roster, and is physically present in the United States. Should Chelsea win on Friday, their semifinal matchup will be the winner of the Al-Hilal versus Fluminense match. Al-Hilal knocked a heavyweight from Chelsea’s path when the Saudi Arabians defeated Premier League power Manchester City in a battle of oil financed clubs in the Round of 16. Al-Hilal is principally owned by the Sudi Arabian Public Investment Fund while Manchester City is majority owned by Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Twenty-two-year-old Marcus Leonardo scored two goals, including an extra time winner, to give the Saudi club an exciting 4-3 victory over star studded Manchester City on Monday. Bernardo Silva, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden found the net in City’s losing effort.

The Saudi side, however, is not without its own familiar Premier League names. Joao Cancelo, a former Manchester City player who had a difficult relationship with Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola, assisted on Al-Hilal’s second goal. Former Chelsea defender Kalidou Koulibaly scored to give Al Hilal a 3-2 lead before an equalizing goal by Foden. Reuben Neves, who plied his trade for six seasons at Wolverhampton, then assisted on Leonardo’s winner. The Saudi Arabia club, which also raised eyebrows earlier in the tournament with a draw against Real Madrid, is also helmed by a manager who is well familiar with a big stage. Italian manager Simone Inzaghi joined Al-Hilal just days before the Club World Cup began, shortly after leading Inter Milan to the Champions League final for the second time in three years. Inzaghi and Al-Hilal will face Fluminense in Friday’s other  quarterfinal.

Saturday, meanwhile, features a marquee matchup between PSG and Bayern Munich followed by a battle between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. FIFA officials will be hoping weather cooperates for the quarterfinal contests. Six different matches have been suspended to date due to adverse weather, led by Chelsea’s delay which Manager Enzo Maresca termed a “joke.” The tournament has also been plagued by intense heat which has many questioning the wisdom of playing next summer’s World Cup in North America.

Best of Times, Worst of Times for Crystal Palace

All but Manchester City supporters will have greatly applauded the Crystal Palace victory over the Citizens in the FA Cup final, technically securing a spot in Europe next year with a David like performance over Goliath Manchester City in front of a supportive crowd at Wembley just over a month ago. Rather than hoisting silverware, the South London side has usually been more recognizable for its loyal and exceedingly loud fan base, its catchy “Glad All Over” anthem, the only cheerleaders in the Premier League, and the iconic Eagle which both circles Selhurst Park before matches and adorns the club’s badge.

The FA title  was the first major trophy in Crystal Palace’s long and largely mediocre existence. The club’s history dates to as early as 1861 though its formal professional beginning started in the shadows of the Crystal Palace exhibition building in 1905. Since then, there has been little notable success even though the Eagles have managed to tread water in the middle of the Premier League table for the past 12 seasons. There was concern just three years ago that relegation might come calling after the departure of iconic star Wilfred Zaha. Instead, the club’s excellent scouting and development has developed a crop of young stars which, under the guidance of Manager Oliver Glasner, delivered that first trophy.

With success and attention comes a new challenge as other clubs target Crystal Palace difference makers. Michael Olise already left for Bayern Munich last season, even before his former teammates climbed the steps for their medals at Wembley. His former running mate, Eberechi Eze, is now being targeted by Tottenham Hotspur and other suitors. Liverpool is reportedly close to signing Eagle defender Marc Guehi. Real Madrid supposedly has an interest in midfielder Adam Wharton. Even Manager Glasner was rumored to be leaving for perceived greener pastures, most notably for the Tottenham Hotspur job ultimately filled by Brentford’s Thomas Frank. Such foraging expeditions by bigger clubs are expected when a club like Crystal Palace pokes its head above its normal obscurity down the table.

The unexpected success this season, however, resulted in another, more unexpected problem. The ticket to European competition, earned on the pitch at Wembley, is in jeopardy. The reason is multi-club ownership rules which impose restrictions on clubs with common ownership competing in the same tournaments. One of the Crystal Palace ownership groups, John Textor and his Eagle Football Holdings group, has concurrent ownership in another club which qualified for the Europa League. Because of a higher table finish in their domestic League, French side Lyon technically gets the Europa League ticket. Crystal Palace cannot even trade down for the Conference League as another Eagle part owner, David Blitzer, owns the Danish club Brondby which has already qualified there and similarly has a glossier table finish than the Eagles.

Crystal Palace, of course, is not the first club to be faced with such restrictions. Manchester City, for example, is part of a multi-country, multi-club model. The difference is clubs like Manchester City expect to earn a European berth and proactively plan to circumvent such restrictions. Among the options are a reduction in individual club ownership percentages or the placement of an ownership interest into a blind trust. Such actions, however, technically need to happen before March 1st.

No one expected Crystal Palace to face such first world problems on that date, and nothing was thus done to address Textor’s 43% ownership share. The dilemma quickly began to overshadow the extended Cup celebrations. The irony was that Textor had already been talking about divestment because of his inability to exert influence in a club whose day-to-day operations are tightly managed by Chairman Steve Parrish. The chairman and other Palace stakeholders were unable to reach agreement on buying out their partner and Textor reinvigorated attempts to sell to an outsider. That attempt reached fruition this week with the news that an agreement has been reached for fellow American Woody Johnson to buy Textor’s shares for $254 million. Johnson is the principal owner of another football club. Fortunately, that club competes (if one can call it that) in American football as the New York Jets of the NFL. Johnson is not involved with another “soccer team.” Should the sale go through, however, Crystal Palace still faces two problems. Firstly, will UEFA excuse the ownership change falling outside the necessary time window to address. Longer term, will Johnson gain the voice in Crystal Palace operations that eluded Textor? If so, that could prove problematic. The New York Jets last qualified for the NFL playoffs in 2010, the longest drought of any NFL team.

Club World Cup Beckons for Manchester City and Chelsea

The United States will be the scene for a revamped Club World Cup which will begin this weekend and culminate with a title match on July 13th. The group play format resembles past international World Cups (before planned 2026 changes) and that of the Champions League before this latter competition changed to an abominable “table” format this past year.

Thirty-two clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea from the Premier League, will be competing in this summer’s tournament. Unlike more typical summer friendlies played in the US, the stakes here are high in financial terms. The winner of the Club World Cup could rake in as much as $125 million. The stakes are such that contenders are fielding their best lineups despite the competition coming on the heels of grueling domestic league and cup campaigns.

There will be some powerful clubs battling in this summer’s heat. Champions League winner PSG heads a field which will compete first in eight groups of four, the top two advancing to the knockout rounds. Real Madrid is also one of the favorites and will have recently departed Liverpool man Trent Alexander-Arnold available for duty. German giant Bayern Munich will be there along with Borussia Dortmund from the Bundesliga.

While the Premier League will be represented by two of its top four finishers from this past season, one might rightly ask, “ What happened to Liverpool?” The Premier League champion, despite the loss of Alexander-Arnold, has strengthened in recent weeks with the addition of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Jeremie Frimpong and more recently coming to terms for his teammate Florian Wirtz, though only Frimpong would have been eligible for the Club World Cup. Liverpool, however, is not invited to this summer’s get together. A largely opaque selection process supposedly considers performance over the past four years but has resulted in several head scratching omissions. In addition to Premier League champion Liverpool, the cockamamie selection process has also excluded Barcelona and Napoli, the champions of La Liga and Serie A, respectively. Meanwhile, Barcelona legend Lionel Messi will be competing for Inter Miami, a team dubiously selected most likely for its star player’s appeal to the ticket purchasing public.

The tournament has not generated the ticket sales initially expected, which is worrying to soccer authorities as the World Cup will be played in the US next summer. Premier League sides Manchester City and Chelsea will do nothing but help those attendance figures. Both sides, particularly Manchester City, have large fan bases in the United States and, unlike summer friendlies, the stars should be out and playing significant minutes in these matches. The Citizens are third favorite, behind PSG and Real Madrid, in the betting odds to take the title this summer.

In the run up to this tournament, a special transfer window was opened for clubs to secure some new weapons for the competition and Manchester City wasted no time in stocking up. Defender Ryan Ait-Nouri was signed away from Wolverhampton. Rayan Cherki (Lyon) and Tijjani Reijnders (AC Milan) were added to a Manchester City midfield which has said goodbye to Kevin De Bruyne. Jack Grealish, meanwhile, is a notable omission from the Club World Cup roster and may be on his way out of the club. Chelsea supporters, meanwhile, will get their first look at new striker Liam Delap in a blue shirt. The 22-year-old was acquired after scoring 12 goals for Ipswich Town in the Premier league last season. The brazen young striker has elected to wear the Number 9 shirt for the Blues. Midfielder Dario Essugo, meanwhile, has joined from Portuguese side Sporting. That has resulted in some unfortunate news for another Portuguese midfielder on the Chelsea payroll. Essugo will strip the number 14 jersey from Joao Felix who was on loan at AC Milan for the latter half of last season and is now in limbo. Chelsea’s defense, meanwhile, will be bolstered by the addition of Mamadou Sarr from French side Strasbourg. Manchester City and Chelsea should both advance easily enough as one of the two top teams in their individual groups. Manchester City will be wary of Juventus, the historic Italian side which defeated the Citizens in Champions League play in December. There is a steep fall in quality then, however, to the other group members, Wydad AC (Morocco) and Al Ain (United Arab Emirates). Chelsea will have traditional Brazilian power Flamengo in its group but should feel little threat from Tunisian side Esperance de Tunis and MLS’s LAFC. The Los Angeles team has former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud and Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Hugo Loris performing their swan songs in the US league.

While tournament matches begin on Saturday, the Premier League sides first take to the pitch when Chelsea faces LAFC in Atlanta on Monday followed by Manchester City’s opener on Wednesday in Philadelphia versus Wydad AC.