Chelsea/USA Tour

Chelsea FC Tours America in July 2012

Chelsea is having a USA Tour with 4 cities, Seattle, New York, Philadelphia, and Miami. This is going to be an extreme tour and should be amazing!
In Seattle, this will be Chelsea's 5th visit on July 18! Last visit, back in 2009, Sturridge and Lampard finished off the game with a solid 2-0 win for Chelsea in the full capacity crowd of 69,000. When Chelsea first toured Seattle in 1967, they defeated an amateur team 5-0 at the Memorial Stadium.The squad is very excited to tour through this wonderful city. Next stop leads us to the Big Apple, New York City! It has been almost 60 years since Chelsea has last played New York. Now they will play here again on July 22! All the players say they are looking forward to seeing the home of the UN, to the Statue of liberty, to the Empire State Building. The city of dreams. Next up, Chelsea visits Philadelphia for a fight against the MLS All-stars on July 25. The PPL Stadium, where the game will be held, is usually home to the MLS team Philadelphia Union, who currently have plans on expanding their club. The MLS All-star squad has not yet been confirmed, however, last years game against Manchester United had appearances from both David Beckham and Thierry Henry. The MLS All-stars ended up losing 4-0 to United, but now look to find vengeance against Chelsea FC this year. The final stop will take us to Miami on July 28, where Chelsea will have its first game in Florida ever recorded. We will be meeting AC Milan, who have been a regular pre-season for Chelsea recently, as in 2009 we beat them 2-1. Due to Miami's Spanish-speaking community, soccer has become such a great part in the state. Miami is the 5th biggest city in America, populated at 5 million people, who enjoy the hot and humid temperatures on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. On average, the temperature in July is around 30 degrees Celsius! These Englishmen are going to be dead tired playing in this heat!
I am of course extremely excited to see the Blues go to each city and watch them destroy as the usually do. I myself may even get an opportunity to go watch them live down in Seattle! What a fantastic football club!

Euro Cup

Congratulations to the very own John Terry, Ashley Cole, Gary Cahill, and Frank Lampard of Chelsea who are now playing in the Euro 2012 on England. The coach, Roy Hodgson, called upon these players to add onto the English team. Peter Cech will lead the Czech team in Group A, after he was named player of the year for the whole Czech team. He will be in the same group with Poland, Russia, and Greece. Meireles, a Chelsea midfielder, will be part of Portugal in Group B, while Malouda will be playing with France in Group D. Torres and Juan Mata have been announced as part of the Spanish lineup as they take place in Group C with Italy, Croatia and Ireland.
A side note includes players such as David Luiz, Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou. Luiz is going to play with Brazil in a couple friendlies that are coming up soon against Denmark and USA. Both Drogba and Kalou will be a part of Ivory Coast that will host a game against Tanzania and then later plays Morocco.
This Euro Cup will be a very interesting one, all teams fired up and ready to go! In group A, a big match up will be Poland verse Greece! Both teams have strong competitors. Group B will include a HUGE upset, as this pool includes Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, and Denmark. Unfortunately 2 teams will have to leave the tournament shorter than they had hoped for. In group C, Spain verse Italy will be probably one of the most intense games during this tournament, even though it will be each of their first games. Lastly, in Group D, you will have to look out for England verse France, as they will be fighting for that 1st place seed in their pool. For more information, look at the link below to see other match ups and to stay connected with this years UEFA Euro Cup 2012!


http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/index.html

This website is the official website for the Euro Cup.

Champions League Final

Wow! What a tremendous way to finish off the Champions League Final. They worked so hard to get to the finals and now that they got there, they worked their butts off in the finals. This was an incredible battle between the Bayern Munich FC and Chelsea FC at the Allianz Arena in Munich. 70,000 people watching this game in the stadium and it was said that approximately 150 millions football fans were watching this grand finale.
Bayern scored the first goal at the 82nd minute, not an amazing goal. In my opinion, I don't think that the goal scorer really knew exactly what he was doing with the ball. All he did was header the ball downwards and got a lucky bounce that hit it up and off the crossbar in. Peter Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, couldn't do anything about it. Bayern just got really lucky with this header into the back of the net. But Chelsea, especially their striker Drogba, knows how to make a response! In the 88th minute, Chelsea receives a corner kick, taken by Mata. He finds the head of Drogba and Drogba, with a beautiful header, turns his forehead at the right second and finds the back of the net. It's all tied up at 1-1 at 90 minutes, so they go to extra time! 3 minutes into extra time, Drogba goes from hero, to zero. Drogba makes a silly foul in their own 18-yard box, giving Bayern a free penalty. Robben from Bayern goes up to take the kick, but Chelsea's keeper, Peter Cech, makes a brilliant save, as he guesses the right side. I found this quite funny because Robben used to play for Chelsea, so Cech has some experience practicing with Robben's shots. Cech made the save to keep Chelsea in the game! As we got to 120 minutes, we found ourselves still in a 1-1 draw, so the only solution became present. Shootout. Many mixed emotions were flying through the air at Allianz Arena. Munich scored their first shot, but as Mata comes up from half to take the penalties, Neuer, Bayern Munich's goalkeeper, saves it! Bayern is up 1-0 in shootout. Next round, both teams put it in the back of the net. 2-1 Munich. A quite spectacular
decision from Bayern, they decide to let their keeper take a penalty, and scores a clutch goal. But Lampard steps up and responds with a beauty goal. 3-2 Munich. Next round was an important goal for Munich to score, but Cech was ready for it, as he dives the right way and stops it! Cole goes to the spot for Chelsea and puts it in easily. 3-3 tie. Final round players step up, and Schweinsteiger hits the post! Drogba goes and takes his shot. This is Drogba's last shot as a Chelsea player, as next year he will be signed as a free agent. And what a beautiful final shot it was. Drogba finishes the game 4-3 in the shoot out and Chelsea has won it!!! What a finish to an amazing season! Beating what is sai to be the best team in the world in semo-finals (Barcelona) and beating a world-wide phenomenon goalkeeper on Bayern Munich in shootout! Di Matteo, coach of Chelsea, must be a very proud man!

New Coach?

Roberto Di Matteo at a press conference

This subject has been haunting Chelsea for over 10 years now. We can't seem to find a good coach to lead Chelsea. Ever since Vialli and then Mourinho were done at Chelsea, we have been at a loss to find a coach to stick with Chelsea FC. Down in Manchester United, they have had coach since 1986! That's been 26 years with one manager! Chelsea can't keep the same manager for 3 years! A nice fun fact is that every single manager that has been with Chelsea from 1952 has won at least one trophy! Not many clubs can say something like that! It seems like our present coach Di Matteo is doing a fine job right now, winning himself an FA Cup Finals and on to the Champions League Finals. This task to make it to the UCL Finals is a very hard task, and players may only get to see it once in their life, if they're even lucky enough for that one chance. I think that Chelsea will keep Di Matteo for another year and see how he does. Remember, he was only an assistant coach at the beginning. Once our last coach left, Di Matteo stepped up and took control, showing us some good leadership skills.
"A final is a game where anything can happen. We just have to go into it with the belief and confidence that we can win it, and try our best and see what the outcome is. We are facing a very strong European club with a lot of experience in the Champions League and it will be difficult, but to reach the final was a difficult road as well." - Di Matteo
This is going to be a hard final, but he knows that his team is ready for it. Not only his older, more experienced players, but also the new Chelsea players. A good coach will not just make his players do it til it's right, he'll make sure that they can't do it wrong. And Di Matteo is there for that.

FA Cup Final

Wow what a scorching final! The FA Cup Final match happened on May 5th at Wembley Stadium, London, UK. A very high paced, full game of football for both teams. This game of Chelsea verse Liverpool is underway. Chelsea opened up the scoring with a through ball to Ramires who finished with a nice ball to the bottom corner. Mata with the assist. In the second half, Lampard, with a wonderful pass to Drogba, then Drogba controls and hits it to the bottom right corner through a defense-men's leg. Beautiful strike, Chelsea up 2-0. A few minutes later, Bosingwa gives up the ball and Liverpool's striker, Carrol, is wide open, deeks out 2 defenders, and takes the shot. Cech had no chance, and now Liverpool is back in the game. Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool. In the 70th minute, Liverpool with great ball movement finds Carrol's head in the 6-yard box by himself. He heads it strongly, but Cech makes one of the best saves I've seen from him. Keeps the ball out and saves Chelsea the game. What a final! 89,102 people in attendance in the wonderful Wembley Stadium. Liverpool got 18 shots off, 10 of which were on target, 7 corners, and 4 off-sides. Chelsea got 14 shots, and only 6 of which were on target, 1 corner and 3 off-sides. Ball percentage was Chelsea 45%-55% Liverpool, but none of the stats matter if you can't get the results. We saw this during the Champions League semi-finals with Barcelona. I found something very interesting with this win actually. This is John Terry's 4th victory in the FA Cup Finals as captain of a team. Also, this is Didier Drogba's 4th FA Cup Final where he has scored a goal in each game. Breaking records is what Chelsea is here for! Great job boys, lets get ready for Champions League Final!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSSbgU_KKbQ&feature=relmfu

Video Credits to thefacup. Published May 6, 2012.

Chelsea vs. Barcelona Champions League 2nd Leg

Hey to everyone checking out my blog. Today I am going to be talking about everything that happened in the 2nd leg of the Champions league semi-finals of Chelsea vs. Barcelona. Ten-man Chelsea FC pulled off a remarkable rearguard action to reach the 2012 UEFA Champions League final. Trailing 2-0 to FC Barcelona, they were heading through after Ramires pulled one back with a delicious chip over the Barca keeper. After nearly 10 minutes of the start of the game, Cahill, one of Chelsea's newest players, received a groin injury. This was a problem for Chelsea, needing to bring on Bosingwa for a replacement. They settled down and everything seemed to be going well. Remember, Chelsea won 1-0 at home, so they can get away with a tie and still win. At possession 71% Barca, 29% Chelsea, you would think that it is already difficult at this point. But probably the worst thing that could've happened took place. Captain John Terry, leader of the defense, unnecessarily takes out a Barcelona striker. He then receives a red card for his actions. Now, having both center backs out of the game, Chelsea is seriously in deep trouble! Down to 10 men instead of 11, Barcelona took complete advantage of the situation. Ivanovic and Bosingwa had to step up and play center back, and step up they did! Messi, being his regular brilliant self, set up some quality goals. At the end of regular time in the first half, Barcelona was up 2-0. But Chelsea didn't give up! During extra-time in the 45th minute, Lampard played Ramires a beautiful ball into the 18-yard box, where he chips the keeper, making the score 2-1! Now this means that Chelsea is actually ahead in aggregate, since Chelsea scored last game. The aggregate was 2-2, and Chelsea has advantage because of a rule where away goals are worth more than home goals. Chelsea, having the only away goal is up, even though it is 2-2. But this didn't dent Barcelona's confidence. For the next 45 minutes, Barcelona was all over Chelsea, taking every opportunity they had as another chance to score. Drogba even gave Barca a penalty shot!!! But fortunately Messi, who has never scored against Chelsea, ever, hit the crossbar on his shot! Getting close to the final whistle, Chelsea cleared the ball, and it goes right to Torres who has a straight breakaway with the keeper. He dribbles past him and finishes on the empty net. Final score, Chelsea 2-2 Barcelona. Chelsea moves on to the Champions League Finals on aggregate 3-2! As you may or may not know, Bayern Munich defeated Real Madrid in penalties, so Chelsea now plays Bayern in the finals. Stay tuned for a review on the finals!

Chelsea FC vs. Barcelona Champions League 1st Leg

What a game this was. Fantastic football being played! This was a huge game for Chelsea to prove everyone wrong about Barcelona trampling over Chelsea. Most of the world views Barcelona as being the best team in the world, so Chelsea really needed to step up and prove everyone wrong. Early in the game, Messi chips a ball to Iniesta and Cole makes a rookie mistake, keeping him onside. Iniesta chips the ball over Chelsea's keeper, Peter Cech, and fortunetly it hits the crossbar. Meireles then clears the ball. Ivanovic's long throw in may be Chelsea's savior where they almost get a chance, but Cahill can't shove the ball in. After, Messi takes the ball and runs through the Chelsea defence and even made it look easy. Messi dishes off the ball and Iniesta takes a shot, which Cech saves. The ball flies out to Fabregas who has the empty net, but he fluffs it. On a counter, Messi flies on the attack, passes to Fabregas, and he chips Cech. Ashley Cole sprints back and clears the ball, saving the game for Chelsea. In the 45th minute, Lampard steals the ball at half, makes the through ball to Ramires, and he then passes through the 18-yard box to Drogba who puts it away. Chelsea is up 1-0, despite the odds! I'll bring you to the last play of the game where Messi plays the ball, goes for the pass back, but Terry tips it to Pedro who places it right to the bottom corner, but it hits off the post. Sergio goes for the rebound, but he skies it! And the final whistle blows! Chelsea has won the first leg of the Champions league semi-final. The player that kept them in it is none other than Peter Cech, so I will give him man of the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfkcfpWXbY0&feature=related

Video credits to FCBHighDef4. Published April 19, 2012.