The scenes in Philadelphia on Friday were exactly what FIFA wanted when they came up with this super-sized version of the Club World Cup.
A clash of soccer cultures was on full display as Brazilian club CR Flamengo took on English giants Chelsea at Lincoln Financial Field. Under a beautiful early summer afternoon sun, the Linc – a venue no stranger to noise as the home of the Philadelphia Eagles – was positively bouncing as 54,000 fans screamed their lungs out.
The Flamengo fans, fresh off one of their club’s best seasons in recent memory, having captured the Brazilian Supercopa and the Campeonato Carioca, were making unbelievable noise from the moment they filled in the stadium’s northern end. The few fans in Chelsea blue who purchased tickets among them must have realized fairly quickly they were in for a long day.
The bizarre mix of world football and American football was once again clashing early in the game. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has likened this tournament and next year’s World Cup as the equivalent of three or four Super Bowls every day for a month, and his organization has undoubtedly tried to bring a little of that American flair to the world’s game.
The starting lineups for each team were introduced individually to pounding music – a far cry from the understated team walkouts that generally mark the start of soccer matches around the world. When music shook the concrete of the stands, it seemed like most of the fans – both those in black and red and blue and white – were simply waiting for things to quiet down so they could start singing once again.
And sing they did – particularly the Flamengo fans, who seemed to hardly take a breath. Each forward attack was met by screams, urging their players. Whistles and boos met Chelsea possessions and when Pedro Neto scored the opening goal for the Blues in the 13th minute, the cheers from the blue end of the field were overtaken by the screams of rebuttal from the Flamengo fans scattered around this massive stadium.
Neto’s goal was also followed by an ear-splitting playing of Blur’s “Song 2.” The soccer purists in the London club’s end were surely aghast at the playing of music to celebrate a goal – another very American trend that has increasingly been used by clubs around the world, much to the chagrin of hardcore supporters.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said the atmosphere at the team’s first match in Atlanta on Monday was “a bit strange” as they played in front of a mostly empty Mercedes-Benz Stadium. While this tournament, as the Confederations Cup once did in a previous era, serves as a chance for the World Cup host nation to iron out the details before the world arrives for the quadrennial tournament, the match was seen as a possible sign that FIFA’s new competition was falling flat in the USA.
The crowd in Philly will have eased those fears. Despite being a 3 p.m. ET start on a work day, much of the stadium was filled – though large portions of the eastern stands, fully in the sun on this warm June day, were empty – and the noise was something to behold.
For a tournament that critics have said means nothing, the Flamengo fans at times sounded like a hair dryer directly into the ears. Their players played with the same effort and fire that their supporters were showing in the seats.
And for a team that just endured a long Premier League season in which they fought for qualification to the UEFA Champions League, Chelsea didn’t exactly seem to be treating this as a stateside summer vacation. Neto celebrated his goal by pointing to the name on the back of his shirt in front of the Flamengo fans and the referee’s denial of a penalty after Enzo Fernandez was knocked over in the box brought impassioned complaints to the referee.
Any other thoughts about whether this competition mattered to the players on the field vanished in the 54th minute when Flamengo’s Gerson shot from the left side of the box. The attempt took a deflection and trickled toward goal. Chelsea keeper Robert Sanchez threw himself at the ball, colliding with the goal post as Gonzalo Plata tried to tap in Flamengo’s first goal. The shot went wide and Sanchez and Plata both ended up lying in pain on the turf.
It was full-commitment – the kind of stuff one expects to see next year when this stadium hosts five World Cup group games and a Round of 16 knockout match.
A massive save from Sanchez in the 61st minute sent supporters from both teams upward from their seats as the Flamengo supporters sensed a goal was coming. And it was Bruno Henrique, who had entered the game only minutes earlier as a second-half substitute, who showed a true goal poacher’s instincts by tapping in Plata’s header to send the black-and-red kitted fans into hysterics in the 62nd minute.
The stadium shook with their jumping and black and red smoke soon filled the air above the northern end of Lincoln Financial Field as the noise went to 11. A second goal just minutes later – another close-range goal from Danilo off a headed flick from Henrique – resulted in shirts being ripped off and waved in the air as the Flamengo support ascended into something akin to soccer heaven.
The atmosphere seemed to be getting deep inside Chelsea’s psyche. A rash 68th-minute tackle by Nicholas Jackson, who just entered the game four minutes earlier, on Ayrton Lucas resulted in a straight red card. Chelsea was forced to play the final 22 minutes with 10 men, much to the delight of the bouncing Flamengo fans.
A third goal in the 83rd minute iced the game for Flamengo and turned the Linc into Carnival. The strike, powered past Sanchez by Wallace Yan, was the result of the kind of shambolic defending that has plagued Chelsea since its golden generation of players left the squad. The forward took advantage of the Blues’ sloppy attempt to clear the ball to bury his shot, setting off a 3-1 victory party in the sunshine that any Brazilian would be proud to attend.
It was a sumptuous preview of what this stadium will look – and feel – like next year when 48 countries send their national teams to the US, Mexico, and Canada for the World Cup. The US is not nearly the soccer-crazed nation that Brazil or England are, but Friday’s scenes in Philadelphia showed the kind of festival of football heading for North America in a year’s time.