The FIFA Club World Cup is just six days old, but it has already provided a mixed bag of memorable experiences for Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, whose trip to Southern California with Paris Saint-Germain marked his first visit to the U.S.
“I was in shock,” the veteran winger said. “It’s very beautiful here. I like it very much. One day we [went] bowling. And played mini golf. I was thinking when I finish football, to come to live.”
Then there’s the soccer, where not all the memories have been good ones.
After contributing two assists to a win in PSG’s tournament opener, Kvaratskhelia was unable to get any of his game-high five shots past goalkeeper John Victor in Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Brazilian club Botafogo before an announced crowd of 53,699 at the Rose Bowl.
The upset, the tournament’s most shocking result so far, snapped PSG’s win streak at six games in all competition, marked the first time it has been held scoreless since March 5 and leaves in doubt the team’s spot in the second round. Botafogo (2-0) leads the four-team group with PSG and Atlético Madrid (both 1-1) tied for second with a game remaining. With just two teams moving on, PSG will need a victory over the Sounders on Monday in Seattle to advance.
A draw would also send it through if Atlético Madrid loses its final group-stage match with Botafogo.
It wasn’t supposed to be this hard for PSG, the reigning French and European champion and a heavy pre-tournament favorite. Botafogo, which won last year’s Copa Libertadores, is the reigning South American champion, but it is just eighth in Brazil’s 20-team Serie A 11 matches into the current season.
Whether Thursday’s upset helps the struggling Club World Cup find an audience, it’s far too early to tell. But it can’t hurt, especially since Inter Miami also made history Thursday with a second-half goal from Lionel Messi in a 2-1 win over FC Porto, marking the first victory by a MLS club over a European rival in a competitive match.
The Club World Cup is the largest and most lucrative global club competition in soccer history but attendance has lagged in the early going, averaging just 36,433 through 20 matches. Nearly half the seats have been empty.
Six games have drawn more than 50,000 fans, including both of Paris Saint-Germain’s matches at the Rose Bowl. But two got fewer than 5,300, with just 3,412 showing up in Orlando for a game between South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns and South Korea’s Ulsan HD and 5,282 for Pachuca-RB Salzburg at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati.
And that’s despite the fact FIFA, alarmed at the slow pace of ticket sales, slashed prices on the eve of the tournament.
“The atmosphere was a bit strange,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said after his team beat LAFC in its tournament opener before nearly 50,000 empty seats at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “This is a world tournament. It deserves more.”
That the competition hasn’t produced more interest is largely FIFA’s fault. World soccer’s governing body has been unable to convince fans or players that the tournament — a 32-team, month-long competition wedged between the end of one European season and the start of the next — was necessary, or even desired.
And until Thursday the tournament had produced little real excitement, with three of the first nine matches — including the opener featuring Messi and Inter Miami — ending in scoreless draws while Bayern Munich, ranked sixth in the world in the Opta Power Rankings, beat Auckland City, ranked 5,068 places lower, 10-0.
With many games kicking off at midday or in the early afternoon, the hot and sticky summer weather has also been a factor on both the play and the attendance. Powerful Real Madrid, playing with Kylian Mbappe in 89-degree temperatures and 71% humidity in suburban Miami, struggled to a draw against Saudi club Al-Hilal while Atlético Madrid wilted under bright summer skies at the Rose Bowl in its first game.
“Playing in this heat is impossible,” Atlético’s Marcos Llorente told reporters. “The heat is terrible. My toes hurt, even my toenails.
“No one in Europe is used to it. I couldn’t stop or start running. It’s unbelievable, but since it’s the same for everyone there’s no point complaining.”
It will be no cooler next year when the real World Cup returns to North America for the first time in 32 years. And in that sense, this summer’s tournament is making good on one of its aims by exposing national team players to the kind of weather, travel and atmosphere they can expect then.
“We’re going to come prepared next year,” said Inter Milan’s Marcus Thuram, who played in the 2022 World Cup final for France. “It’s good preparation to manage the jet lag. America is very big. You get can a taste of what you will get next year. It’s a great preparation.”
As for Thursday’s game Kvaratskhelia, PSG’s most dangerous attacker, was frustrated twice in the first 10 minutes, with Victor batting down his first shot and the second curling wide of the far post. That allowed Igor Jesus to put Botafogo in front to stay shortly before the intermission, splitting a pair of PSG defenders to run on to Jefferson Savarino’s perfectly weighted through ball, then beating keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from the top of the box.
It was the first goal PSG has allowed in 366 minutes in all competition and it was all Botafogo would need, although Savarino nearly doubled the lead eight minutes into the second half, putting a strong header on goal that Donnarumma batted down.
Bradley Barcola appeared to tie the score in the 79th minute, but two PSG players were well offside on the play. Then on the first touch of stoppage time, Kvaratskhelia sent a free kick just over the crossbar.
PSG dominated statistically, controlling the ball for three-quarters of the game, making more than three times as many passes, taking 10 corners to one for the Brazilians and outshooting Botafogo 16-4. But all four of Botafogo’s shots were on target while Victor was called on to make just two saves.
Staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this story.
The post Attendance woes and hot weather creating problems for FIFA Club World Cup appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
