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Match Report: MLS All Stars 1 Chelsea 0

/noticias.info/ Lacking sharpness following the heavy schedule of two-sessions-a-day training, Chelsea went down to a second-half goal to the MLS All Stars before a capacity 21,210 crowd in the new Toyota Park Stadium tonight, Saturday.

Chelsea new boys Ballack and Shevchenko, followed by Mikel and Kalou, and finally by Hilario, all got their first football in Chelsea colours in Chicago tonight.

MLS got into their rhythm the quicker, and Gérémi was stretched by a floated ball over the top which he couldn’t reach but was grateful to see drift away for a free-kick before Ching could touch it. However, Ching did get on the end of Albright’s cross after he had got round the back of Chelsea’s defence, but under pressure from Cudicini headed wide. He should have scored.

Chelsea’s line-up was so fluid it started as a 4-3-3 but now quickly switched quickly to a midfield diamond, although it was almost more 4-1-3-2 with Essien holding and Wright-Phillips, Ballack and Lampard attacking in front of him, leaving the two forwards ahead.

MLS, in the middle of their season, were sharper than Chelsea, and displayed some good skills.

The first shot on target, however, was Lampard’s, a belted 20 yards free-kick in the 17th minute after Drogba had gone down frustratingly as Boswell shadowed him — Boswell was not pleased — but despite the ball going through a crowd of bodies it was held expertly low to his left by diving Perkins.

Albright, the player picked out by former Blue John Spencer as the brightest spark in the MLS team, set up another chance, this time for the chubby Jaime Moreno, and he was denied by Terry’s wonderful tackling block.

In the hot, humid conditions, the game was being played at a slow pace, but Ballack quickened things up in 27th minute with a wonderful defence-splitting pass for the charging Drogba who was flagged offside, possibly harshly, before he drove the ball into the net. Unfortunately, no-one told the two enthusiastic flag bearers — the flags said ‘GOAL’ — and they charged the length of the field before embarrassingly downing their poles. Maybe in future they will need some ‘GOAL DISALLOWED’ flags to correct mistakes.

Conrad picked up pre-season’s first yellow card for a foul on Drogba on the half hour, and now Chelsea had settled to a pace which MLS were having to work hard to counter.

But Albright turned penetrator rather creator when he raced inside Bridge on to a chip over the top, yet couldn’t find the personality to defeat Cudicini, tamely shooting wide.

Shevchenko’s first on-target shot was after 40 minutes, a left-footer on the turn through a defender which was easily held by Perkins.

At the other end Wright-Phillips immediately raced past Perkins from Drogba’s pass but was too wide to shoot. He pulled the ball back sharply and that led to a series of corners but no efforts on goal.

The normal cultural differences between US soccer and English football, adverts spoken enthusiastically over the PA during play, was added to at half-time by a rapper on stage named none other than Lupe Fiasco. Like name, like….

There were wholesale changes for the second-half.

Immediately Kalou found good positions around the area, but lacked the sharpness to make advantage. Erpen did his best to help him by intercepting and nutmegging his own goalkeeper and Robinson was superb in getting back and clearing off his own line.

Joe Cole lasted only seven minutes before tweaking his knee and signalling as the game restarted that he was unable to continue. Jimmy Smith replaced him.

Terry had to be at his intercepting best and bravest again when O’Brien charged in and tried to finish the tall Jaque’s dogged attack. Immediately O’Brien, the right wing-back, turned up on the left and forced a free-kick out of Mikel. MLS were looking bright. Chelsea switched Diarra and Essien to affect the flow of the game.

But hard working De Rosario put MLS ahead when he fired from the diagonal edge of the area and a startled Hilario, on the pitch for only six minutes, allowed the ball to rocket inside him. It was his side’s first effort on target.

Essien clattered Eskandarian and got booked with just under ten minutes remaining. The team looked frustrated, unable to find sharpness when it was most required.

Essien smacked the half’s first Blue shot on target after a Robben run had been cleared, belting the ball from 30 yards, and Cannon saved a little fearfully even though the ball went straight at him.

Terry moved up to centre-forward in the last five minutes with Essien shifting to defence, and outstripped Boswell to reach Carvalho’s pass, but his left-footed shot was blocked by Cannon. Maybe the captain should have played centre-forward all game.

The result was greeted joyously by the: “U S A” chanting crowd, and the All Stars did have some good performers. But this was a performance which simply proved what José Mourinho has said since the first day of pre-season, that the Community Shield is going to have to be used as a part of pre-season this year.

First-half

MLS (3-1-4-2) Perkins; Erpen, Boswell, Conrad; Mulrooney; Albright, De Rosario, Gomez, Gros; Ching, Moreno (c).

Chelsea (4-1-3-2) Cudicini; Gérémi, Ferreira, Terry (c), Bridge; Essien; Wright-Phillips, Ballack, Lampard; Drogba, Shevchenko.

Second-half

MLS (3-1-4-2) Cannon, Robinson, Boswell, Erpen; Clark; O’Brien, Adu, De Rosario, Gros; Jaqua, Eskandarian.

Chelsea (4-3-3) Cudicini (Hilario 63); Gérémi, Carvalho, Terry, Essien; Mikel, Diarra, Lampard; Cole (J Smith 52), Kalou, Robben. notas_de_prensa_archivo