Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC in its Club World Cup opener is unlikely to live long in the memory.
Enzo Maresca’s side earned a relatively comfortable three points thanks to goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernández – LAFC had chances to score, though lacked that final piece of quality – but the action on the pitch was far from the most eye-catching aspect of what was a drab affair.
The game was played against the backdrop of swathes of empty seats, with only 22,137 fans turning up to watch inside Atlanta’s vast 71,000-capacity Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The 3 p.m. local kickoff on a workday certainly didn’t help, plus the decision to stage an LAFC game almost 1,900 miles away from Los Angeles. Even the news that ticket prices were dropping on the day of the game made little difference.
“I think the environment was a bit strange, the stadium was almost empty, not full,” Maresca said at the post-match press conference.
“We are professional and we have to adapt to the situation, to the environment. You have to adapt when you play with a full stadium. You have to adapt when the stadium is not full, but it doesn’t matter.”
Chelsea next faces Brazilian club Flamengo in Philadelphia on Friday and Maresca says he expects a “nice” atmosphere for that game as Brazilian teams “always bring many, many fans.”
However, LAFC manager Steve Cherundolo believes it is too early to read too much into attendances at the tournament.
“It’s kind of different each game you look at and I don’t think we should be talking about this right now,” he said. “I think we should wait until the end of the tournament to make a more complete summary of what was going on.”
Benfica salvages late draw against Boca
There was certainly a far more raucous environment for the second match of the day, with Boca Juniors fans traveling in numbers and providing something akin to a home atmosphere for their team in a 2-2 draw against Benfica inside Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium.
Boca fans – known for being among the most boisterous in world soccer – made up the majority of the 55,574 attendance, but everyone was treated to quite the spectacle on the pitch.
The Argentine side took an early 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Miguel Merentiel and Rodrigo Battaglia inside the opening half an hour, but the Benfica comeback began on the stroke of half-time as Ángel Di María converted a penalty after VAR ruled Nicolas Otamendi had been fouled by Carlos Palacios.
Ander Herrera, who was off the pitch at the time, was shown a red card for his involvement in the protests, the first of three reds in a feisty encounter.
Benfica forward Andrea Belotti was later shown a straight red for a high boot on 72 minutes, but even with a man disadvantage, the Portuguese giant equalized through Otamendi just six minutes from time.
Then, just minutes after the equalizer, Boca’s Nicolás Figal was sent off for a horror challenge on Florentino Luís.
In the third game of the day, Brazilian club Flamengo beat Tunisia’s ES Tunis 2-0 in front of 25,797 fans in Philadelphia’s 67,594-capacity Lincoln Financial Stadium.
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