Result: Chelsea 1 Suwon Bluewings 0
An unmarked Didier Drogba scored in the 80th minute to break the scoreless deadlock in the nightcap, knocking in a ball at the far post Shawn Wright-Phillips had intelligently scooped over the Bluewings defense.
The game, which started at a fairly pedestrian clip, livened up as it wore on.
Chelsea never looked particularly challenged and moved to 2-0 on its preseason tour of the U.S., after beating Mexico's Club America in the Bay Area over the weekend.
Based on tonight's Chelsea performance, Yallop has every right to be worried - and not just about his job.
Updated 11:59 p.m.
Chelsea Manager Jose Mourinho said after the game that after seeing his squad in 10 training sessions and two 45-minute games (he played virtually a separate line-up in each half of each game) he will for the first time this season against the Galaxy Saturday play the same 11 for an hour in a 4-4-2 formation.
Thankfully he only caught 10 minutes of the Galaxy game.
Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.
Comments
Is there any way to see the Suwon/Chelsea match? I don't have FSC.
Nick: The Chelsea-Suwon game was last night. The Galaxy-Chelsea game is on ESPN Saturday with blanket coverage for much of the day, although the kick off is around 5:30 p.m.
Posted by: Andy | July 18, 2007 2:08 PM