Paris St Germain - Preview

[Strike 7,183]

The permanent di Matteo era got off to a good start on Wednesday as goals from new boys Hazard and Marin along with a brace from a striker looking to make a mark – Lukaku – took Chelsea past Seattle Sounders in a raucous atmosphere at Century Field. Now, a stiffer test awaits as Chelsea fly to New York’s Yankee Stadium to face Carlo Ancelotti’s Paris St Germain.

The Venue

While we played AC Milan in New Jersey in 2005, it has been nearly 60 years since Chelsea last played in New York. It was the summer of 1954, a year prior to our first league championship, when Roy Bentley led the Blues in a grueling post-season tour of North America playing eight games in four weeks, against German opposition, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Borussia Dortmund, and Scottish side Rangers.

History will be made this Sunday as Chelsea face Paris St Germain in the first ever Football match to be played at Yankee Stadium. The new stadium, home to baseball’s most iconic franchise opened in 2009 at the cost of $1.5 billion and has a changeable capacity of up to 54,000. Similar to the old Yankee Stadium that was located across the street, it has hosted concerts by Eminem and Jay-Z but never a football match.

The Opposition

Paris St Germain lost out in the race for the French Ligue 1 title to Montpeiller but will be encouraged by their elevation to championship contenders. Coached by Ancelotti and another familiar face – Claude Makelele, Paris St Germain is a football club rising in stature. The recent signatures of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marco Verrati (yes, the Football Manager wonderkid) underline the club’s ambition to turn into a European powerhouse. Totally, the club spent $250 million in a little over 12 months on transfer fees alone as 15 new players joined the club. While it may not be ideal for a club in transition to face the current European Champions, PSG have enough talent to supplement its marquee players and effectively dampen Chelsea spirits. Jeremy Menez and Javier Pastore are talented attacking midfielders while winger Nene, with 21 goals last season, was the top-scorer in Ligue 1. Also, watch out for Chelsea fan favorite Alex and his thumping free kicks.

Chelsea

Chelsea vs Seattle – Analysis

Chelsea head to New York on the back of a see-saw 4-2 win over Seattle Sounders. A vibrant attacking display by a youthful Chelsea team was undone partially by a lethargic defensive performance but the introduction of experienced names at half-time added stability to the team. Josh McEachran bagged 3 assists in the game (although one of them was for the Seattle goal) while new signings Eden Hazard and Marko Marin scored in their first game for the club. Romelu Lukaku(scorer of 2 goals) staked his claim for the back-up striker role with a powerful performance up front.

The shift in Chelsea’s style of play was evident especially in the first half. The infusion of quick, silky technical players saw most attacks were being initiated at ground level using the pace of the attackers (Marin especially) with very few aerial balls. Even full-backs Chalobah and Fereira, in their rare forays forward, seemed to slide the ball in behind the Seattle defence rather than lift it into the area.

The defensive vulnerabilities is hardly cause for concern and I fully expect the defence to stay compact as fitness levels improve and Ashley Cole returns to dislodge Fereira from left-back. The transition from defence to attack is something the players need to work on as John Obi Mikel had a poor game at CDM but overall, it was a good start to the pre-season rounded off by a great atmosphere at Seattle.

Team News

Di Matteo is expected to put out a stronger eleven meaning Ramires, Lampard and Cahill are all in line for a spot in the starting eleven. The defence will be bolstered by the returns of John Terry and Ashley Cole with Cole set to replace Paulo Fereira at Left-back.

Cahill on the atmosphere in USA

The new boys are settling in well. These trips are fantastic to bed in new players, where you spend every day with each other and everyone gets to know the new lads, and vice versa. It's great to see them in a game situation, it's where you do the business and are judged, and a couple of them scored which will be good for their confidence now. A lot of the time people are sluggish or out of practice but I thought we looked good. Training has been enjoyable and now we move on to three good games and there will be some big tests to come for us

Players to Watch

Paris St Germain – Ezequiel Lavezzi – Lavezzi moved to PSG in the off-season in a surprise 21 million deal and is eager to make a good impression on Ancelotti in the pre-season. Branislav Ivanovic may vaguely remember Lavezzi dancing around him and his defensive counterparts in a dreadful night in Naples. 2 well taken goals punctuated a devastating performance by the pacy Argentine as Napoli took a 3-1 first leg lead in the Round of 16 tie and a repeat performance is not out of question unless the Chelsea defence keeps him on a tight leash

Chelsea – Romelu Lukaku – With Fernando Torres yet to join up with the squad and Daniel Sturridge away at the Olympics, Lukaku has a golden chance to continue his good form in the Centre Forward position. He was a handful for the Seattle defence as he constantly bullied them in his 2-goal performance.

Footnotes

Chelsea's record in and around New York

5/9/54 Chelsea 3 - Fortuna 2 (at Randalls Island, NY)

5/23/54 Chelsea 1 -Borussia 6 (at Randalls Island, NY)

5/30/54 Chelsea 2 -All-Stars 0 (at Harrison, NJ)

6/6/54 Chelsea 0 -Rangers 0 (at Randalls Island, NY)

31/7/05 Chelsea 1-1 AC Milan (New Jersey)

- Part way through the tour of 1954, Chelsea lost its goalkeeper with a serious injury. Argyle, going home before Chelsea, allowed them to borrow club legend Bill Shortt who flew in from Chicago where Plymouth Argyle were having their post-season tour.

- Although this is the first football game at the new Yankee Stadium, New York is no stranger to “soccer” as Pele faced Eusebio (Santos vs Benfica) at the old Yankee Stadium to a 3-3 draw in front of over 40,000 fans while it also hosted England’s first ever night game in the 50’s in a 6-3 win over USA.

- Back to 2012, the venue has to temporarily lose its home plate and pitcher’s mound to lay a surface suitable for football

sources: chelseafc.com(interview with cahill) and 1954 in american soccer by Dave Litterer (historical references)

Click here to view the article