مدير عام كرة القدم
Finished.
The Club كأس العالم has, officially, come to an end. And it’s been a bit of a whirlwind month. The football was pretty good, the teams were pretty interested (and interesting). The storylines were compelling. And while we probably didn’t learn much about each individual side, it served as a fine barometer in which to position the clubs across the global soccer hierarchy which is kind of the point at the end of the day.
The final itself made for good viewing. Everyone thought Chelsea were going to get destroyed. And then they simply decided to, well, not get destroyed. Instead, they ran out deserved winners outthinking and outplaying the best team in world football. It was, in truth, the final slice of jeopardy the tournament needed to go from an interesting idea to something that will last.
BALLGM US presents the Club World Cup XI, with key observations from the final and tournament overall.
Finished.
The Club World Cup has, officially, come to an end. And it’s been a bit of a whirlwind month. The football was pretty good, the teams were pretty interested (and interesting). The storylines were compelling. And while we probably didn’t learn much about each individual side, it served as a fine barometer in which to position the clubs across the global soccer hierarchy, which is kind of the point at the end of the day.
The final itself made for good viewing. Everyone thought Chelsea were going to get destroyed. And then they simply decided to, well, not get destroyed. Instead, they ran out deserved winners, outthinking and outplaying the best team in world football. It was, in truth, the final slice of jeopardy the tournament needed to go from an interesting idea to something that will last.
BALLGM USu0026nbsp;presents theu0026nbsp;Club World Cup XI, with key observations from the final and tournament overall.
Well, that was a good watch in the end. There were expectations, leading up to the final, that it could be an absolute Parisian battering. Chelsea were distinctly alright in the الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز. PSG had spent the whole season smashing everyone. Only one way this could go, right? Wrong. The Blues were brilliant, played some lovely football, and dug in when they needed to. It made for a deserved 3-0 win and wonderful spectacle, all said.
We mean this in a good way. Chelsea fans will tell you that Palmer has been among the best in the world for a while now. That’s probably fair. But he simply took over against the Parisians and had a hand in all three goals. Every star player needs a big showing to make the world take notice. This was his.
What do you do when the same formula that has won you a whole load of games stops working? It’s an existential crisis of the highest order – even for top managers. And PSG’s Luis Enrique didn’t quite know what to do. Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca came up with a clear plan, targeting PSG’s left side and letting Palmer cook. It worked a charm, and the great Spainard’s lasting takeaway was the fact that he decided to hit a Chelsea player at full time. Not great.
Uhhhh maybe? This was kinda everyone’s question heading into the tournament. Could Chelsea do any damage, or are they just a pretty average Champions League team? Answer: damage was done. Does this mean they’re good? Well, you can’t be mediocre and beat PSG. Maybe that’s all you need to know.
Chelsea’s Reece James said after the game that he was less than pleased by the quality of the playing surfaces throughout the tournament. Take it from him: he finds a way to get injured on pretty much every genre of them. But he does have a point. There is a real issue here. It turns out that you cannot just put grass over turf and call it a day. Who’d have thought?
It should also be noted that there was a serious injury on one of them. Was there a direct correlation between Jamal Musiala’s awful broken leg and the pitch the Bayern Munich attacker played on? Tough to say. But a better field might alleviate concerns.
U.S. President Donald Trump was at MetLife for the final. He somehow made Chelsea’s trophy lift about him. We don’t need to intellectualize this. His presence alone says it all.
So, the goal was, presumably, to Super Bowl-ify the CWC final. In a way, FIFA had to. How do you get Americans to care about soccer? Give them a touch point. Look guys, it’s just like the other thing that everybody loves to watch. Part of that, in theory, is a banging half-time show. Well, this was less Springsteen and more Adam Levine shirtless. The performance itself wasn’t world beating, and football fans are just confused. Nice try, let’s not dabble too much more, please.
One odd thing about the final: there were still loads of Fluminense fans around. That would make sense. Some Brazilian fans, presumably, bought tickets to both the semi final and final, hoping that their side would beat Chelsea and then end up playing on Sunday. That didn’t prove to be the case, but a word for their wonderful support, fans who donned their jerseys and filled the trains to MetLife with plenty of noise in an otherwise tepid pre-match atmosphere. South American infused this tournament with life.
As for the broader learnings here… ريال مدريد are interesting for the first time in a while. They have an interesting coach, who wants to instill, ya know, tactical ideas. They have new players, big egos, and are coming off a pretty awful season. This tournament was their chance to reassert themselves. Instead, they fell flat. Now, it seems, it will take some serious work to move to the top of the global pecking order. Conclusion: still mediocre, for now.
Ok, it was never really going to be fair to have the likes of Ulsan, Urawa Reds, Mamelodi Sundowns and Auckland City play the biggest clubs in the world. They are good football teams, but not on the same level in terms of finances or quality. But they all gave an excellent accounts of themselves, and gave a dry tournament a real sense of color. While it seemed this contest didn’t mean anything until the final for the European clubs, fans from those sides embraced it from day one. Well done.
That’s a fair overall grade for the tournament, right? It was hard to get jazzed up about the whole thing, such was the confusion and skepticism leading up to the competition. And FIFA did little to ease all of the concerns. Still, there was plenty of good stuff to be found, not least the fact that the football actually ended up being pretty good. Imperfect? Sure. But there’s lots to work with here.
